The band initially consisted of Graeme Edge (drums), Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Ray Thomas (multi-instrumentalist/vocals), and Clint Warwick (bass/vocals).

[19] The M&B5 played their first live show a few days after their formation, at the Carlton Ballroom (later to become rock music venue Mothers) on Erdington High Street, where they became the resident band.

1 hit, Decca had rush-released the single before the band had completed its recording (as Edge recalled in a 1978 interview regarding the track, "there's a great big bit in the middle where nothing happens, it was supposed to be Ray playing flute").

[35] After unsuccessful attempts to recruit Klaus Voormann (who took up a simultaneous offer to join Manfred Mann instead)[36] and the Who's John Entwistle,[37] the band hired Rod Clark as Warwick's replacement on bass.

In the November 1966 issue of Hit Week, Dutch interviewers Hans van Rij and Emie Havers wrote an article saying that at the time Laine and Clark departed, the Moody Blues had been in the process of recording their second album, to be titled Look Out!,[42] with Cordell still producing.

[45] Around this time "Boulevard de la Madeleine" became a hit single in Belgium and with the band's commercial success floundering in the UK, they relocated there almost immediately after Hayward and Lodge joined.

With Mendl's backing, the Moody Blues were offered a deal to make a rock version of Antonín Dvořák's New World Symphony to promote the company's new Deramic Stereo Sound audio format[12][8] in return for which the group would be forgiven their debt.

It took the idea of rock/classical fusion to new heights, using the London Festival Orchestra[50] to provide an orchestral linking framework to the group's already written and performed songs, plus overture and conclusion sections on the album, including backing up Graeme Edge's opening and closing poems.

With the exception of the overdubbed strings on the latter part of Hayward's "Nights in White Satin", the orchestral sounds on the band's own songs were actually played by Pinder on Mellotron.

Hayward began playing sitar and incorporating it into Moody Blues music ("Voices in the Sky", "Visions of Paradise", "Om"), having been inspired by George Harrison.

Hayward began an artful exploration of guitar tone through the use of numerous effects pedals and fuzzboxes and developed for himself a very melodic buzzing guitar-solo sound.

The title of the band's next album, 1971's Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, was derived from a mnemonic used to remember the musical notes that form the lines of the treble clef: EGBDF.

One of the Moodies' most experimental albums, the opening track, "Procession", depicted the "evolution" of music, leading into Hayward's "The Story in Your Eyes", which was released as a single in the US where it reached No.

Edge started writing lyrics intended to be sung, rather than verses to be spoken – his "After You Came" featured each of the other four members taking a vocal section.

In an interview following the release of Seventh Sojourn, Edge told Rolling Stone: "We've got two Christians, one Mystic, one Pedantic and one Mess, and we all get on a treat.

Thomas released two solo albums, both written in collaboration with songwriter Nicky James, From Mighty Oaks in 1975 and Hopes, Wishes and Dreams in 1976.

By now, the Mellotron had long been set aside as their primary keyboard instrument on their studio work and the band embraced a more high-tech, less symphonic approach, though still retaining a lush keyboard-led sound, with Moraz a virtuoso player who also had extensive knowledge of synthesizers.

It was the first of three albums with producer Tony Visconti, best known for his extensive work with T. Rex and David Bowie, who together with synth programmer Barry Radman delivered a modern sound the Moodies had been seeking in order to remain competitive with their pop contemporaries.

[64] By this point, Ray Thomas was playing a diminished role in the recording studio, with the emphasis now being placed on Hayward and Lodge as singers and songwriters and the band's sound having evolved towards synthpop, a genre that was unsuitable for the use of instruments such as flute and harmonica.

Despite his diminished participation in the recording process, Thomas's high value remained evident on stage, primarily from many of his songs from the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s being popular with die-hard fans and still featured in the setlist, and also in the flute and keyboard duets he composed with Moraz which were performed only during Moody Blues concerts.

In 1991, during the recording of their new studio album, Patrick Moraz gave an interview with Keyboard magazine and made some comments in the article that suggested dissatisfaction with his role in the Moodies.

He also was occupied with spending large amounts of time planning a music concert to celebrate his native Switzerland's 700th anniversary instead of rehearsing with the Moodies — and as a result, he was fired from the group before the project was completed, so Boshell and new keyboardist Paul Bliss were brought in to finish the new album's keyboard tracks.

The album also included Thomas's first writing contributions since The Present in 1983, with an ambient flute piece, "Celtic Sonant", and the closing track "Never Blame the Rainbows for the Rain", co-written with Hayward.

After the release of A Night at Red Rocks, the group took a break from recording and spent time trying to perfect the art of performing live with an orchestra.

Flautist and rhythm guitarist Norda Mullen was recruited early the following year for their North American tour, and worked with the band live and in the studio thereafter.

The songs included originals and four covers: John Lennon's "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)", Mike Batt's "A Winter's Tale", Johnny Mathis' "When A Child is Born" and Irving Berlin's "White Christmas".

The project was undertaken by Justin Hayward, who stated that he listened to virgin vinyl copies of these albums and used them as reference points for the new mixes.

[76][77] Ray Thomas died on 4 January 2018, at the age of 76, just a few months before the band was due to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Moody Blues' "rich symphonic sound" influenced groups such as Yes, Genesis, the Electric Light Orchestra and Deep Purple.

None of them were particularly virtuosic or showy as musicians and their music is refreshingly free of the noodling long[u]eurs that characterised the output of their more self-indulgent contemporaries.