The Moody Blues Rock Red Rocks

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Official Moody Blues Videos

MORRISON - Opening weekend brought a little mood, a little blues and a lot of rock n roll to Red Rocks Amphitheater. The Moody Blues took the historic Red Rocks stage on Saturday to kick off the venue's 2011 summer concert series. "It's one of those gigs that you always look forward to," band drummer Graeme Edge said. "It's one of the premiere gigs on the planet, mainly because it's so beautiful. It's always good to come back." The Moody Blues burst onto music scene as part of the British Invasion of the 1960s. Its peers include The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, but the band aimed to mean something different to rock n roll fans. "We started with our own music doing exactly who we were, not what everybody else wanted us to be," bassist and vocalist John Lodge said. "The Moodys came along with a whole different picture of what rock 'n' roll was about. A ballad like 'Nights in White Satin' takes you where you want to be and you cant get better rock 'n' roll than that." The members of The Moody Blues are no strangers to Red Rocks, first playing there in the 1980s. One of their most memorable performances featured the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. The live recording of that show reached No. 93 on the Billboard 200 chart in 1993. " set us on the road, playing with orchestras all over the world," Lodge said." We just finished something last year with the Moscow Symphony. Who knew wed ever be doing those types of things? It's just a magical place." While Edge claims the band is "feeling pretty ancient lately," The Moody Blues fan base continues to expand. Their hit, "Nights in White Satin" reached No. 2 on the UK Rock Chart in December 2010 after Matt Cardle performed his rendition of the classic on "The X Factor" - the British version of "American Idol." "We've got a lot of young people who are following us now," lead singer Justin Hayward said. "They like the records that we made when we were really young, too. We're very fortunate to have an audience that goes right across all age groups. It's really great." The Moody Blues have been together since 1965 and are showing no signs of stopping soon. "You never know . You never know. Eight or nine years ago, we kind of thought, 'Well, nothing much is going to come along.' And then bang, bang, bang, three or four very interesting new things came along. We just have no clue what's going to come along," Edge said. It is safe to assume this is not the last time the band will grace the Red Rocks stage. "I think we've always been a touring band and we always will be," Hayward said.