DENNY LAINE 1944-2023

Multi-instrumetlist, singer-songwriter Denny Laine died at the end of last year after a career that saw him top the charts in both The Moody Blues and Wings

-  David Mead

Brian Frederick Hines was born in Tyseley, Birmingham, later adopting the stage name Denny Laine, the surname chosen to reflect his sister’s love of pop crooner Frankie Laine. He took up the guitar early on, inspired by Gypsy jazzer Django Reinhardt, and made considerable headway on the instrument, culminating in him giving his first public performance at the tender age of 12. Later, and with a professional music career set firmly in his sights, Denny formed his own band, the Diplomats, which soon found a following in the Midlands and featured future ELO drummer Bev Bevan.

Denny soon realised that moving to London was the next big step he had to take if his musical career stood any kind of a chance, but his fellow Diplomats didn’t want to turn professional and so Denny left the band in 1964 and went on to form the M&B 5 Blues Band, named after beer company Mitchells & Butlers, with Ray Thomas and Mike Pinder. Blues bands were beginning to become big business at the time, especially on the London music scene, but after a while the M&B 5 morphed into The Moody Blues.