HALL OF FAME - LIVE AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL 2000

I first heard this album some years back on a PBS showing of the DVD and thought it was a good concert. Almost a decade later, I just acquired a copy of the CD and was pleasantly surprised to find that my first impression of the 2000 concert at the Royal Albert Hall was correct; this is one of the best live recordings by the Moody Blues. The song selections, from 1967's Days Of Future Passed through to 1999's Strange Times, are well chosen and well sequenced. The performance by the band is very good, and the contribution by the World Festival Orchestra is better recorded and arranged than many orchestral backings of rock bands. This album offers excellent renditions of some of my favourite Moody Blues songs, like Justin Hayward's The Story in Your Eyes and Ray Thomas' classic Legend of a Mind. This was Thomas' last tour with the band before his retirement, and he went out in good form, though he wasn't featured much. No offense to Hayward and John Lodge, but some of us miss the variety and storytelling provided by the other Moodies songwriters. (The record company, always after radio-friendly pop hits, actually pushed Thomas aside in the later 1980s. I saw the Moodies live in the mid 80s and Thomas was really messed up, then again in the early 90s and he was in good form and did a nice duet on flute with the keyboard player.) A Night At Red Rocks is a highly touted live album, but Hall Of Fame is a better performance and recording.