Carnival of Soul

In 1968, The Moody Blues single “Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)” spent 11 weeks on Billboard’s Hot 100. Like “Nights in White Satin” the hit would become one of the legendary band’s many signature songs penned by Justin Hayward. Both on the landmark concept album Days of Future Passed, the tunes would contribute to the album’s years of longevity on the Billboard album charts.

Beginning August 4, fans will have the opportunity to spend Tuesday afternoons at 3 pm ET with Hayward and his music via the aptly titled Tuesday Afternoon video series.

With Hayward’s 2020 Nights tour, its spring dates derailed by the pandemic, and venue closures and rescheduling part of the new normal, the new YouTube video series offers a glimpse of the playlist Hayward had planned to perform on tour. Each video will feature a song from the Nights tour along with Hayward’s behind-the-scenes stories.

Hayward’s digital-only 2 track solo EP One Summer Day/My Juliette recorded earlier this year, was released in March.

While the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee and prolific songwriter is no stranger to spending time alone writing, these isolating times have also powerfully illustrated the importance of live performances, touring, colleagues, and audiences.

“My touring life is not particularly about me. It’s about the other musicians who I’m with, and the crew, and the people that come. I feel that we can do “Nights in White Satin” in a sound check and it’ll be technically perfect, but it’s only when the audience comes and listens to it and shares it, that the magic appears. And they have to bring that,” said Hayward in a May 2020 interview from his home.

Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, the Moody Blues have generated over five decades of music, sold over 70 million albums, and are believed to have have one of rock and roll’s most loyal multigenerational fan bases. Hayward has long juggled and balanced his solo work and the Moody Blues projects and credits an early break in the ’70s to helping him and other members discover the creative possibilities as solo artists.

“I think we had those three years in the ’70s where everybody was doing their own thing. They had to do their own thing. Nobody’d known a life outside of the Moody Blues by 1973. And everybody had changed so much that everybody had to— the five of us had to discover things about ourselves, whether we thought it was the right thing or not to do.

I’m not sure that I thought it was the right thing to do, but I actually fell into a lot of projects and recordings that were just exactly what I needed, not particularly what I wanted to do. But I think those three or four years apart, from ’74 to ’78, made us all think about having a life outside of the Moody Blues and making friends and seeing what was possible outside of the Moody Blues,” said Hayward.

Watch the trailer for the Tuesday Afternoon video series.