JOHN LODGE

It’s lovely to be here,” says John Lodge. “In fact, it’s lovely to be anywhere,” he adds, adapting the old joke and explaining that just over a year ago he had a stroke. Yet with “Prayers, love and good vibes,” he continues, “here we are.”

- CHRIS ROBERTS

It’s a remarkable recovery, as the 81-year-old Moody Blue and his fine band deliver a sterling show of two halves in this congenial setting. The first consists of selected Moodies songs close to Lodge’s heart; the second offers landmark album Days Of Future Passed in full. If the latter is superior, it’s because the majesty of that pioneering 1967 album fills the hall so powerfully, invoking nostalgia while at the same time proving its ongoing beauty.

Lodge enters, dressed in black, seeming a little tentative at first, but swiftly growing in confidence and scattering recollections and anecdotes in his Brummie accent across the first set (oddly, he even plays air flute at one point)! Steppin’ In A Slide Zone and Talking Out Of Turn see the band feeling their way in, before the absorbing Legend Of A Mind takes things up a gear with its