THIS wonderful concert by Justin Hayward – lead singer with the hugely successful band The Moody Blues – is part of The Wind Of Heaven UK 2017 tour.

Justin Hayward retains that eerily distinctive vocal – unforgettably melancholy and wistful.

And he receives strong support by Mike Dawes on beautiful guitar, and Julie Ragins on keyboard and backing vocals.

This is not a Moody Blues concert, it’s Hayward’s quiet stripped-back version of some of his favourite numbers – the autobiographical The Western Sky, the gentle Your Blue Eyes and the thought-provoking Best Is Yet To Come.

Although disappointingly eschewing the Moodies’ first massive number one hit Go Now, Hayward’s gorgeous Forever Autumn from War Of The Worlds remains compellingly hooky, melodic and atmospheric.

And if some of the numbers miss the Moodies’ rich full backing, punchy harmonies, and spacey instrumental progressions, Justin Hayward’s laid-back concert provides intimacy, time for storytelling, and his still distinctive voice.

The furious finale, producing a rapturous standing ovation, was the Moodies’ epic Question.

And the well-deserved encore was the startlingly orchestral Nights In White Satin – one of the best pop ballads ever written by Justin Hayward – with its brilliantly perceptive and bittersweet line: “Just what you want to be, you’ll be in the end”.

Brendan McCusker