The Moody Blues
The Moody Blues are an English rock band. Among their innovations was a fusion with classical music, as heard in their 1967 album Days of Future Passed. The Moody Blues are an English rock band formed in May 1964 in Birmingham, UK . Among their innovations was the fusing of rock with classical music, most notably in their 1967 album Days of Future Passed. During their career the band has sold more than 70 million albums worldwide and been awarded 14 platinum and gold discs. The Moody Blues became part of ‘The British Invasion’ and supported The Beatles on their final UK tour in December of 1965. They followed the tour with their first trip to the U.S. appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show. [2] As of 2012 they remain an active touring band, with Graeme Edge from the original 1964 lineup, and John Lodge and Justin Hayward from the 1966 lineup. Like many rock and rollers, it’s not unusual to be up late at night returning from a show, and so it was that the Moody Blues were outside of London when they notriced something following their cars. Band members Denny Laine, Mike Pinder, Ray Thomas and Clint Warwick were onboard, but it was drummer Graeme Edge who seems to have become most transformed by the sighting.
At first, I was convinced it was an aircraft, […] however, it acted most pecuiarly. What was really strange was that when this thing passed nearby, there was no traffic on the road in either direction, and there were none of the usual nocturnal animal or bird noises. [1]
From what Graeme told his friends, it felt like they were “mesmerized as if in a dream.” To Moody’s, the object looked like “a fat cigar with a low protusion on top, with seven dull red lights on it.” [1] They told Peter Willsher, who relayed the story to the British Flying Saucer Review, that “The upper half of the object appeared metalic, whereas the lower half was red and pulsed from left to right.” Eventually the group decided to leave, as they were overcome with a feeling of “dread and panic.” [1] Sometime later Graeme Edge was asked to make a sketch of what he thought the aliens on-board look like, and, lo and behold, he drew what has recently become known as the typical ET-type creature, even though very few renderings of such entities had been made at the time. This leads some to believe that the Moody’s might have been abducted on-board the craft that night. [1] This is how Mike Pinder recalled the event during an interview with The Examiner:
In 1966 … with the first band, we were coming back from Manchester around midnight and we always wanted to get back to London before dawn, otherwise we’d have trouble getting to sleep. We were coming down from Manchester on the day they opened the M6 motorway. So we’re driving home about one o’clock in the morning and I’m sitting in the back, and I’d put my head back and look out the back window and look at the stars. So we’re driving and probably doing sixty miles an hour. There was this red light and I said, I don’t remember that radio station around here. So I told the guys to pull over and we got out. We all looked over the top of the car and there was this red ball kind of thing moving across the freeway that turns into a square … like a red dice. As it approached us, it got bigger and bigger, and we were all sort of bathed in this blue light. We ended up getting home three hours late and wondering what the heck was that? …So that really solidified my nickname of “Micky the Moonboy” as a kid. I was always interested in the moon. …Read Zecharia Sitchin … he’s the guy! [2]
According to Jim Dilettoso of Phoenix, who has worked closely with the group over the years as a special effect and lightning consultant, one of the band’s hits written by John Lodge, called “Slide Zone,” is in honor of their sighting. This is what Dilettoso told journalist Tim Beckley:
Also […] Ray Thomas, the, the flute player, has had at least one close encounter with aliens who visited his recording studio and left smudge prints on the plate glass window as evidence of the incident. [1]
Interestingly enough, famed keyboard player Patrick Moraz, who toured with the band for many years, has more than a passing interest in the subject. Like journalist Timothy Green Beckley says, in his book UFOs and the Stars, Moraz “performed some great cosmic music at the National UFO and Alien Agenda Conference” [1] that he sponsored in 1991 in Phoenix Arizona. According to Tim Beckley, “Much of Patrick’s music has reflected his being caught up in other-worldly matters.” [1]
