Take your chances (Justin Hayward) (LP 2710 - 2712)

Justin Hayward - John Lodge  Blue Jays (Vinyl and CD, Threshold Records, 1975) ***  

Justin Hayward   Songwriter  (Vinyl and CD, Deram Records, 1977) ***  

Justin Hayward  Moving Mountains  (Vinyl, Towerbell Records, 1985) ***

Genre: Prog rock

Places I remember: Chaldon Books and Records; Fopp; Amoeba Music

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Remember Me (My Friend) (Blue Jays)

Gear costume: Blue Guitar  (Blue Jays)

Active compensatory factors: Justin has made one appearance on Goo Goo so far with his 1980 solo album, Night Flight, featured here, so this post looks at the rest of his solo albums with and without John Lodge.

The solo stuff started with Blue Jays, a collaborative effort with his fellow Moody Blue - John Lodge. The vinyl version doesn't include the hit single Blue Guitar, recorded with 10CC, but the CD version does.

Lodge and Hayward share songwriting duties on this album, made after Seventh Sojourn, during The Moody Blues' 5 year break from each other.

For the most part, it's a lovely, groovy sound they've conjured up - Remember Me (My Friend) is an excellent Hayward song.

My only quibbles on Blue Jays and Songwriter are the lack of his distinctive guitar and the inclusion of strings on some songs. One word, Justin - mellotron. But I guess that would be too Moody Bluesy, so I get it. But I still miss it.

Songwriter isn't a favourite of mine. The songs feel like they've been worked on too much and so it has a contrived feel for me.

His fourth solo album was 1985's Moving Mountains. We are into mid eighties synth sounds by this stage and I miss the mellotron even more.

Where do they all belong? I'm not a completist of the Moodies solo albums so this will do unless I spot his post Moving Mountains albums.