Justin Hayward

Justin Hayward was born on October 14, 1946 in the upstairs bedroom of the house next door to his grandfather’s in Dean Street, Swindon, Wiltshire, next to the giant Great Western Railway Works. From the age of 5 he enjoyed singing, and he inherited his paternal grandfather’s collection of 78s when he was 6, which opened up the magical world of music to him as his grandpa had collected many hits of the 30s and 40s. He had a few piano lessons at 7, learned to play the ukulele at 9, and this progressed to a strong desire to own a guitar. With help from his parents and hire purchase, Justin had achieved this ambition by the age of 10.

In early 1965 Justin answered an advertisement for a guitar player in “The Melody Maker” and soon found himself one-third of The Wilde Three with Marty Wilde and his wife Joyce, appearing on stage at the London Palladium in April of that year as well as touring all over the UK and performing on a long tour of the Middle East. He recorded two singles with The Wilde Three – “Just As Long/Since You’ve Gone” and “I Cried/Well Who’s That” – before branching out on his own and recording two self-penned solo singles in 1966 – “London Is Behind Me/Day Must Come” for Pye Records and “I Can’t Face The World Without You/I’ll Be Here Tomorrow” for Parlaphone (the Beatles original label). To this day, he credits Marty Wilde as having encouraged him to write his own material. Soon after the release of his solo singles, Justin wrote to Eric Burden of the Animals and sent him some of his compositions. Eric passed them on to Mike Pinder of The Moody Blues in the Summer of 1966, so beginning a famous and acclaimed 36-year career, which started with the recording of Justin’s “Fly Me High” at the famous Decca Studios, engineered by Gus Dudgeon. Within a few weeks Justin had written many other songs for the band including “Nights in White Satin.”

The next seven years, and seven legendary albums, are of course well documented.

1977 saw the release of Justin’s first hit solo album, Songwriter, from which were taken three singles, “One Lonely Room/Songwriter (Part 2),” “Country Girl/Doin’ Time” and “Stage Door/Lay It On Me.”

In March 1997 Justin was honored with the ultimate accolade when he was the chosen subject for “This is Your Life,” an overdue recognition for a lifetime’s work. He has received four ASCAP awards, the BMI Million Plays award for “Story in Your Eyes,” an Ivor Novello Statue, as well as numerous other songwriter awards around the world. His song “Nights in White Satin” features regularly in the all time lists of favorite songs, including being in the top ten Songs of the Millenium, voted for by the public, on BBC TV.