>> MOODY BLUES : KEYS OF THE KINGDOM

Justin after a satisfying guitar solo.

For whatever reasons they had, this is the album where I learned that the Moodies like to shuffle the deck. I was used on six out of the twelve tracks, though I wanted to produce all twelve. I also produced a track called "Highway" which didn't make this album but appeared on the Time Traveller box set.

Strange things were happening. Ray had not appeared on Sur La Mer at all (he actually sang a few lines, but they never made the final mix). Tom Hulett, the group's manager, begged me to speak to Ray, to get him back in the studio. I went to Ray's house and spent four lovely hours with him. We got up to date, talked about our families, etc. Then he pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket and sang "Celtic Sonant" a cappella in the fading afternoon sunlight. Tears welled up in my eyes. Ray was back! On a sadder note, Patrick left midway through the album.

Even though I didn't produce them, I think "Bless The Wings" and "Say It With Love" are fabulous songs. The latter has become a standard sign-off slogan on thousands of Moodies fans' messages on the Net and in email. Alan Tarney and Christopher Neil did an excellent job on these and other tracks.

My production kicks in on track 3, "Is This Heaven?". It's a lighthearted pastiche of a song from the 30s. We could always picture Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly tap dancing along with it, so we hired a real tap dancer to complete the picture. I'm the nut who screams "I love this world" in verse 2. Although Justin and John wanted it in, they were too, er, conservative to "lose it". I love Ray's whistling in the tap dance verse.

"Say What You Mean" is just great! Why this wasn't a single I'll never know. It is very sexy, perhaps a very upbeat version of "Deep" (well, the subject matter is the same). Like "Deep", this song took about three weeks to produce. I am particularly proud of my string parts for this track.

"Celtic Sonant" and "Never Blame The Rainbows For The Rain" are Ray's songs. I'm glad my final album with the Moodies got Ray back into the mix. I really like both songs a lot. With "Celtic Sonant" we really went for the Welsh male choir sound. I was able to arrange the vocals for that track because my ex-wife Mary Hopkin had tutored me very well in things Welsh.