Dec. 13, 1975 interview: Graeme Edge of the Moody Blues

 


By 1975, I was starting to get offers to do phone interviews with recording artists. As a Moody Blues fan, I jumped at this one. 

Dec. 13, 1975

Graeme Sees an Edge in Rock 

          “After all these years as a minor deity,” says Graeme Edge, burly, bearded drummer for the Moody Blues, “I want to get back to playin’ rock ‘n roll.”

          Edge’s urge to rock makes his “Kick Off Your Muddy Boots” the first independent effort from the currently disbanded Moodies that’s truly independent.

          He intends to follow it up with another album and a tour, he says from New York City, where he’s winding up a promotional swing through the U.S.

          “This was the first time I’ve done any producing,” he reflects. “I never did any with the Moodies. They were such a self-contained unit. Getting the boys together for this was a whole new experience.”

          The boys were guitarist Adrian Gurvitz and his brother Paul, old friends of Edge who have teamed of late with former Cream drummer Ginger Baker in the Baker-Gurvitz Army.

          Baker himself appears on one of the cuts. Ray Thomas of the Moody Blues offers backing harmonies. And Adrian Gurvitz carries the guitar and most of the vocals and wrote many of the songs.

* * *

EDGE, though he isn’t in the forefront, is the guiding spirit nonetheless. The man who used to write the narrative poems for the early Moody Blues albums shows his hand in the choice of lyrical, smooth-rolling rockers with strong melodies.

          “This album’s been a long time coming,” he explains. “I’m used to working with Mike (Pinder) on the mellotron and it’s quite a change to sit down with an arranger and chat about the general effects you want.

          “Especially on ‘Gew Janna Woman.’ We recorded it all at once. There were 22 violins, four violas and a harp. It was murder to try and produce. Why, I had to get another drummer.”

          The Graeme Edge Band isn’t really a band at this point, however, Since Edge doesn’t intend to tour until after he does a second album in March, he didn’t want to ask the Gurvitzes to leave Baker and wait around for him.

          “There’s some people I want to look up,” he speculates. “There’s a saxman, Chris Mercer, who’s a fine old rock ‘n roll player. I want it to be a nice funky downhome group. I love to tour. I love being up on stage, going from town to town and partying.”

* * *

HE STILL has continual contact with his former mates in the Moodies. He says he plays to call California later to congratulate John Lodge on his new single, “Blue Guitar.”

          “There were no rows, no problems, no falling out,” he says. “After 10 years, we just hit the end of the creativity line. There was no excitement, no thrills. It was just old and cold and end of the line.

          “We could’ve recorded more, but it would’ve made the seven albums we’ve done just a bunch of rubbish. I genuinely don’t know if it’ll get back together. But it would be nice in a couple of years.”

          Edge no longer lives in England – taxes are too high. Home is a 70-foot yacht which is off Gibraltar at the moment. He’s applying for American citizenship.

          “This is a marvelous place,” he remarks of the U.S. “There’s no Irish blowing people up and there’s so much public media here. There’s good music all over the radio. The kids here are so much more discerning.

          “Slade and the Bay City Rollers, that’s England’s idea of what rock ‘n roll is. It was nice from ’69 to ‘7s, then the government changed and squashed all those pirate radio stations. Now there’s nothing to tune to. Have I heard anything I liked here? Yeah, Springsteen, I dig him.”

* * * * *

IN THE PHOTO: Graeme Edge in a 1975 publicity photo.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTE: Amazingly enough in this uncertain world, a lot of things turned out pretty much the way Graeme Edge predicted. The second album came along, albeit a year later than planned. And though there was no Graeme Edge Band tour, the Moodies reunited in 1978 for an album and tour with Patrick Moraz, lately of Yes, replacing Mike Pinder on keyboards. And they kept on going. Graeme contributed songs and poems and drums to their subsequent albums and when he retired in 2018, he was the last original Moody still playing with the band. He died of cancer last November at his home in Bradenton, Fla.


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