MOODY BLUES SELLOUT LIKELY CONCERT TO TOP ARTS CENTER YEAR.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

LANCASTER - The Moody Blues have been added to the Lancaster Performing Arts Center's lineup for what will be the theater's highest- priced show of the 2004-05 season.

Offering the ethereal-rock band's hits from the 1960s and 1970s, including ``Nights in White Satin'' and ``Story in Your Eyes,'' the 7 p.m. Jan. 30 concert is expected to be sold out, with tickets at $81 and $86 a seat, city officials said.

``We sought them out for so many years, and this time they made the phone call to us,'' said Mary Tanner, the city's performing arts manager.

Tickets went on sale first to theater donors, who purchased 200. An additional 570 or so remain.

City officials said they began getting calls last week, before the tickets went on sale to the public, from Moody Blues fans who had heard about the concert from as far away as Virginia and Ohio.

``They wanted the tickets so they could make their plane reservations,'' Tanner said.

Performing in Lancaster will be three original Moody Blues members: drummer Graeme Edge, bassist John Lodge and guitarist Justin Hayward - the same lineup that the city parks, recreation and arts director, Lyle Norton, saw in the early 1970s at the Oakland Coliseum.

``We wouldn't have been interested if it had been somebody who purchased the Moody Blues name,'' Norton said.

City officials said they had been trying for about four years to sign the band to perform in Lancaster.

``Sometimes it's hard to talk artists like this into playing such a small venue,'' Tanner said.

``We built an expectation in the public we have to live up to of attracting high-level talent,'' Norton said.

IF YOU GO

To order tickets, call the theater box office at [phone] or go online at www.lpac.org. The theater is at 750 W. Lancaster Blvd.

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IF YOU GO (see text)