Life Stories - John Lodge

welcome to life stories with me Dez Tong now this week my guest I'm honored to have one of the legends of Birmingham music from the Moody Blues John Lodge ideas thank you very much fantastic intro thank you you're looking very well yeah I feel good yeah we were on the road and enjoying the to smile very first solo - really so take a long time and I'm having a great time yeah I want to go right back to the beginning okay life stories so born in Addington earnings and Birmingham yeah inland road seventeen Lindros was publisher desert day yeah inland drove went to birches green school and it was great it was a little cold a second yeah grew up there and I my neighbor I got into music because my neighbor's son who was in it was in national service and he beat in Germany and he came back from Germany apparently with this guitar he bought he never ever played acoustic guitar it had steel strings and his mum said to my mom would would your son like to buy this guitar so 2 pounds 10 shillings 2 pounds tensions and yeah but I think living in a small community in a council estate it was wonderful you know metal aura really nice people and and you know one of my best friend's is still my best friend from I tend all's away so you know we all grew up together and so what we our influences at the time my influences I saw rock around the clock and I was probably 11 years of age or something and I saw that the palace cinema which was in the High Street you know Eddington and it sort of took over either Oh rock'n'roll that's really something interesting and then but then Buddy Holly came along and Buddy Holly was for me he up till then there are all these great iconic singers here the Jean Vincennes the Elvis Presley's Eddie Eddie Cochran everybody really liked that an English person for me couldn't be those people you know that because they were larger than life and I wondered how you could do that and Buddy Holly came along and he showed you know singer-songwriter and you study and thought yes I'll try to learn every night sitting on this six string guitar and trying to learn all the chords to Buddy Holly songs and take a tie to take the guitar to school with me still playing and they call me skiff at school skiff Lodge from skiffle and yeah good times what got into bass then I was fascinated by riffs I was absolutely fascinated by the left hand of the piano and never knew what it was about but I knew it was a driving force and I wasn't used to listen to all the left-hand side of the pianos of people like Fats Domino Little Richard Jerry Lee Lewis and I went to see a band called the trenors and they were on at the I think was a governmental in Birmingham and it was on the Jerry Lee lose - which collapsed but they became top of the bill and I saw these gone in the back playing what I thought was a Buddy Holly guitar Barry White and I'm looking and I realize he's only had four strings and so that was it I thought it's at electric bass that's what I want to do and so I started playing just the bottom four strings on my guitar I learning all these riffs yeah and I suddenly realized for me that was the driving force for me for rock and roll and so it just developed from there then I bought a tuxedo solid base first and then I bought a Hoffler president I had a very thing did yeah that's when I very blue and blonde on blonde and then I there was a music shop in Birmingham no longer there called Jack Woodruff's and I used to go there every Saturday and I went in there one day and there in the window was this precision bassist it direct from America smallest up and a went in us I said how much is it he 115 pounds in 1959 you could buy a house but now I don't care so I had to wait got on the tram because it was trembling those days on the tram back to earning ttan and it was a Saturday my dad was home he normally worked on the Saturday I said dad you fella come with me and help me in it so I took that up to Jack Woodruff's and my dad signed the thing and I became the proud owner of this sunburst precision bass and he still got it and I've still got it it's played on every moody blue song it records beautifully because somehow as you know being a bass player yourself the guitars from those days they were made differently the woods were different I don't know how they did it but it must mean something special because it they were so expensive so there must be made differently and I've still got it now you know and I still do using or still record with it but you didn't actually go like when you left school he didn't go straight into music did you now I from when I was about 7 years of age or I was fascinated by cars and gone from Behrman going you know the car industry in Birmingham I just wanted to design cars and he used to spend I was really fortunate from my point of view I I passed the 11 plus you know so I suddenly ended up at a grammar school and he gave me a different vision on a lot of things and I used to draw cars all the while and I remember my French teacher coming up to me it's logical French isn't very good he said why don't you study the French motorcar and he's wonderful I used to draw facial Vega cars over one and I really wanted to be a you know a car designer but from when I was like seven years of age or what fascinated and so when I left school I took an apprenticeship but studied mechanical engineering but at the same time the mutiny car industry in Birmingham sort of started to decimate and they started getting Pina Farina Italian design cars and you know everything went wrong but at the same time I was playing my guitar every night and you know so I was playing every evening and I suddenly realized the music was going to be what and was this el riot and the rebel el riot in the rebel great now a great day yeah with Ray Thomas Ray was born in Addington as well in pipe A's right I met ray when I was 14 and we're ready to Scout hut and got some of the boys together have Brian bet Ridge Mike heard and Robert sure and we we put this band together called the rebels originally we thought has a great name the rebels and then we said we need something specially though and ray Thomas became el riot and we actually what used to wear Mexican outfits and we went to Dunn's in Birmingham in corporations real Athiya and we bought so proudly so used to gun then it was different because in that you know at that period of time the bands like Johnny kid and the Pirates and neurone the gladiators and everyone should add Rishta yeah yeah and so it was great to be on what the rebel so we felt part of that the whole business you love rock and roll one was what 1966 then because it was there was a gap wasn't then that you you sort of drifted away but you came back in 66 and joined the Moody Blues yeah I what I was that racism II one day and Mike Pinto played as well yeah in the in L right the rebels for sure why play keyboards and they said either the midges and butters the brew wanted wanted to have their own band for their pubs mbmb and they're going to form you know a supergroup you know erase it to me Johnny you keep what are you doing I'm a college I've got 18 months ago and I'm not I like to finish things only do and so I'm gotta finish college and he said well I'm going to join the Yemen mmm be five it was called and I sort of good luck and cuz they recorded go now actually Danny wasn't any late yeah and Clint and fabulous song busy banks microwave fabulous piano great song and then and then a year later ray rang me as it John have you finished college yet I said you have just finished he said oh can he get down to London he said I want to get the old band back together what do you mean he said well Denny's left to cleanse left and and we and we've want to get back together you know so I went down the soiree in London and we talked about I met Justin and we talked about a new Moody Blues what we'd want to do and I said I don't want to play anything from the past and don't want to do any color versions and we all wanted to just make our own music and so we set about just and we wrote a stage show we went to live in Belgium for three or four months and we started writing and working a stage your house let's take a break there yeah and we'll come back and talk more about the Moody Blues with John lunch welcome back to life stories with me dead under my guest John Lodge right so you're back you now you're in the Moody's you are in Belgium you're writing stage show Decca dear am yes about that because that was such a great concept wasn't it when it when it said well it is one of those wonderful things you know if you're prepared and you get an opportunity you're the one that's prepared you get the job you do and we're in this stage show which was basically Days of Future past we haven't we didn't know the stage if in you passed and Decca wanted Dekker made not only records but they made Graham fans and they made all the hardware and they're introducing stereo in England and they wanted a record that had full frequency stereo so they could not only saw the records would sell their radio grams and that they came to us and said they've got this idea to make this record with an orchestra to show how what they call pop music and classical groups combined and they wanted to use Dvorak New World Symphony and they said would you take the melodies of Dvorak and put some lyrics to it and make this album so we said to them with and this was Sir Edward Lewis who was the chairman of Decca we said well if we can have a lockout for a week no one else could go in the studio and we'd love to do it and so we spoke with Peter Knight who was the leader of the orchestra the London Festival orchestra conductor and we said we don't want to do divorce we've got our all our own songs what do you think and we played him the song he said yeah they said so with that deck and knowing what we're doing we recorded Days of Future past with all our own songs and then we had a playback for everyone at Decca at the end in the studio we invited all our girlfriends and everything your wives and music people and and we played the album back in the studio and nobody Decker got it they had no idea what to do with it and then there at general opinion was who are we going to sell this to but there was two people there Hugh Mendel who was head of classical a deca and a guy called Walt McGuire who was vice president of Decca Records or London records actually in New York and they understood it they understood the album they said this is so different and they became our mentors and they really got behind us and it just happened to hear that you know so were and his wonderful gasser Edward Lewis was the number one music man in England and after the album he came to see us and said listen you always called us boys all the way to roll by through I said do what you want to do and he said I will make sure that no one in DRAM company they did and he said but you'll be on DRM and that was great and so we just looked after ourselves and because in those days as you know they and our people would come up say you should record you over the rainbow yeah things like that sir so that's you know then I carried on from there and I'm indeed your awards I was reading about all the awards you've got for the songs that you've written ya know over the years yeah we've yeah it's been wonderful you know I think we've got about 15 platinum albums and you know but they all everything else always comes after it so you're not in it for that it's it's it's just sitting there with that blank piece of paper as you know blank piece of paper with a pencil and writing this song and thing you know or if people ever going to hear this I know you begin to charity yeah member of the variety Club great Britain I'm a water rat which is nice to charity and averaged my own charity in Barbados and we were building what we building now a village called the Sunshine Village and and I had a charity in Spain to build hospice in the southern Spain and but these all came really because one of my other enjoyments it's it's you know musics there and the other Germans down here but I play golf for like golf and through golf a bit found I couldn't pay back and so you have charity golf tournaments and then do a gala night and it's great cause I've had people like Don Felder come along and play and play with you know so you can have a great charity right and play music and just build things that's the both worlds that's the birth we'll do anything Daffy like Jasper and of things where you do it marathan and anybody beats em he gives no he said he would do the marathon as a better better ugur and another thing I want to ask you about is your moody blues cruise Oh moody blues cruise that's that's brilliant I love that it was it that this guy came to us two years ago and said would you do a cruise and to be honest I thought it was like end of the pier I thought I don't think I curry was there at the end of the pier and he kept asking every year and then we've said one one year okay we'll have the meeting so he took a meeting and he said know you've got the wrong idea the idea is I've got a ship and it be called Moody Blues cruise the whole thing will be Moody Blues and so we did one and we really enjoyed it and it was wonderful to see all these people come on on the cruise we put a lot of other artists on the on the ship as well and it was prune so we I think we should we've had three now and we do one 2017-18 over the new year that we drove around the around the Caribbean so we've been to Jamaica we've been to the Cayman Islands over and you'd you won the top 100 Rummy's oh yes that was wonderful I know really pleased too bad though I mean I am a Birmingham person I love burping you and yeah so someone sent me a letter one day and said you've been nominated and would you come along and it was wonderful to go were ya and we at the town hall or the counselors actually and we had a meet with all the mayor's from all the years that were still around and it was realized and people are Gil Marik from Bao yang the Guild of America no we test it all keep in it and all these peoples were Birmingham it was just wonderful and I thought oh yeah make my mom and dad proud haha now let's bring him up to date now you're just on a tour and you just done a new album yeah the album's called ten thousand light years ago and I'm on tour with it right now I put a band together called the ten thousand like you abandoned I'm in a great time is it my very first solo tour after all these really yeah very first time and I'm really enjoying it it's it's really going well we have in the great time I'm going around to all the towns you know when the Moody's began we were in you know the psychedelic clubs and universities all look what we all did you know and then suddenly realized these two hit albums and we sort of effort we went we missed out a whole strata of places to play and we ended up at which was lovely no but the album all places but we never went to Stratford and we never went to Litchfield we never you know yeah and which we did where we younger which was great you know because we used to play all these places we have Walsall Town Hall everywhere you know yeah Brooke Brothers talking to town or are you doing a burning town but only I'm telling the story about you've got about that oh yes yeah this week is body Holly's 80th birthday and I went to see but I saw buddy at Birmingham Town Hall and I still got the program and is you know is my absolute hero so when September the 30th I'm standing on stage I shall look up the onto the circle at the front seat up there on the left hand side and that's where else at what your buddy so I'm gonna have a real zipping back as yours to see me up there look at me it's going to be really strange really yeah but yeah Birmingham Town Hall standard and there's one other thing you doing which was I've been quite interested in these wine yes why that I love the the I got not that I'm into wine particularly I love the environment where vineyards are like burgundy and Bordeaux and when I first went to California in the 60s I went up to Napa and Sonoma and it's absolutely beautiful up there and they were story growing wine and I met some people and a bearing a winery called behringer Hitchcock and we talked about wine and they they said shall we make a wine together as they'd be wonderful you know so we made this red wine all natural natural fermentation everything and it's called Chris Omer and it's named after my son and daughter Christian and Emily Christmas I made a red wine and then we made another one from Bordeaux and this year we made one from South that well 2014 we made one from South Africa a Chardonnay with a wonderful winemaker called Richard kershel my daughter runs it all Emily and we just won the international wine challenge of the top Chardonnay from South Africa so with me out of the blue yeah out of the blue it was John's been absolutely brilliant talking to you also he does appreciate you coming in and all great look with a tour thank you very much every album and yeah thank you so much thank you that was amazing like to say thank you to John Lodge my guest and I'll join you again next week you

Channel: Birmingham TV

Views: 50,916

Rating: 4.9084406 out of 5

Keywords: big centre tv, big centre, local tv, local news, west midlands, birmingham, walsall, wolverhampton, sandwell, black country, solihull, sutton coldfield, dudley, west bromwich, big news, john lodge, moody blues, rock music, progressive, 10.000 Light Years Ago, life stories, brumbeat

Id: bTVEtjWwj3M

Length: 22min 0sec (1320 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 28 2016