Just Isn’t Christmas Without You
I stood there, listening to the brilliance of the Moody Blues at the Albert Hall in 2000 and knew it was now or never. I’d sung as a child, sung treble solos at school and even at the RAH.
Approaching fifty, I heard the Moodies and knew I had to do something. So, I hired a local theatre, gathered some friends old and new and put on a show for family, friends and colleagues. The night went exceptionally well and several folk said how much like the Moody Blues I sounded.
With that, my friend Tim and I formed a Moody Blues tribute band, Blue Onyx, and for the next 7 years played to audiences around England.
Amazingly, I received an email from somebody called Lee Thomas asking if she and her husband Ray could come to our next concert – yes, founder member of the Moodies and a living rock legend, Ray Thomas, wanted to attend our concert!
What a night! Lee and Ray came and we performed for one of my musical heroes – Ray was brilliant – humorous, complimentary and humble – the man who’d invented rock flute in the 1960s, had a voice in a million and had written some of the Moodies’ best loved classics wrote that I had a great voice!! I was on cloud nine!
Imagine my emotions when Blue Onyx were invited to play at Ray’s house at a joint birthday party for himself and fellow founding Moody Blue Mike Pinder. We played several of Ray and Mike’s classic tunes to their guests. Like Ray, Mike was a delight to meet – as gracious and as humorous as we’d all hoped.
Playing and singing re-awakened my desire to write songs and in 2014, aged 59, I released my first solo album ‘Seven Steps Back’ and followed it with 2 more ‘This August Night’ and ‘A Different Sky’. Semi final placements in both US and UK Song Writing contests encouraged me to carry on even as “retirement” beckoned.
This year, I’ve released a Christmas song, actually written on Christmas Day, which not many singles can claim, called ‘Just Isn’t Christmas Without You’. It’s on Spotify, iTunes and Amazon, as well as my own website https://www.stevehutchsongs.com
I love the music of the 60s and 70s and luckily some of our heroes are still with us – but for me life began at 50 and I like the idea of continuing to write new music for us “ancients”.
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