MOODY MUSIC MELLOTONE SYNTHESIZED A WHOLE NEW SOUND FOR ROCK 'N' ROLL BAND.

Byline: Fred Shuster Music Writer

It was sitting in a dusty corner of the Dunlop Tire Co. social club in Birmingham, England - the second-hand Mellotron keyboard that would change the Moody Blues' fortunes.

Before the band bought the vintage synthesizer, able to reproduce an impression of a string orchestra and brass, the Moodys from 1963 to 1967 were an r&b band with a strong club following.

The Mellotron changed that.

``It was sitting there with dust all over it,'' recalls Moodys bassist- singer John Lodge. ``It was originally designed to be this all-encompassing karaoke-type machine able to play all this music so people could dance or do what they wanted to do. But it wasn't as simple as that. Dunlop bought one, and it just sat there falling apart. It cost a lot for us at the time (about $500). Mike Pinder (the band's first keyboardist) was a former employee of the factory that made the Mellotron so he fiddled around with it.''

So began phase two of the Moody Blues, who are credited with inventing symphonic rock. The debut came with the release of the single ``Nights in White Satin,'' followed by the 1967 album ``Days of Future Passed,'' an ambitious orchestral project utilizing the London Festival Orchestra originally designed as an experimental effort for the record company to introduce the new concept of stereo recording.

When the label heard the results, stunned silence reigned. The singles head didn't like it, and neither did the managing director, who reportedly observed, ``You can't dance to it, and you can't play it at a party.'' But money had been spent, the classical chief loved it, and an influential employee generally associated with folk and stage show discs gave it the thumbs-up.

``We knew we were different,'' said Lodge, 55, who lives in Barbados. ``It wasn't a case of us at that age looking too far into the future, but we realized our vocals were unusual because everyone in the band sang and we could produce such a wide range of harmony. And we used the Mellotron and flute.''

The Moody Blues - singer-guitarist Justin Hayward, flutist-singer Ray Thomas, drummer Graeme Edge and Lodge - appear Monday at the Universal Amphitheatre. The band recently released a live album recorded at London's Royal Albert Hall with VHS and DVD formats to follow along with an American Public Television special to be broadcast locally in December.

The Moody Blues have been visiting the States, usually twice a year, for the last four decades. The band's string of hit albums throughout the '70s alone includes ``In Search of the Lost Chord,'' ``On the Threshold of a Dream,'' ``To Our Children's Children's Children,'' ``A Question of Balance,'' ``Every Good Boy Deserves Favour'' and ``Seventh Sojourn.''

From these discs, mega-hits included ``Ride My See Saw,'' ``The Story in Your Eyes,'' ``Isn't Life Strange,'' ``Question'' and ``I'm Just a Singer (in a Rock and Roll Band).''

Today, the Moodys march on, knowing they have the ability to fill concert halls throughout the world and possess a back catalog that will sell until the days of future have passed.

``It's amazing to look out and see all these people of various ages,'' Lodge said. ``I think what happens is, young people hear something they like by us and go on a journey of discovery and start to listen to the history of the band.''

Lodge said he had no concept of what would develop from such early synths as the Mellotron.

``It's unbelievable what's come from the earliest beginnings of electronic music,'' he said. ``I remember when Yamaha built the first (affordable and portable) synth. It had all these sounds but quickly became flavor-of-the-month. To me, it all comes back to instrumentation. You can sample any instrument in the world and adjust it and create any sound on Earth but it all depends on how you use it.''

Speaking about those early days, were the Moody Blues ever actually confused for a blues band?

``In a strange way, we actually were a blues band because, like the blues guys, we were writing about our lives,'' Lodge said. ``But coming from England we couldn't write about the Mississippi Delta. We wrote about our own experiences.''

MOODY BLUES

Where: Universal Amphitheatre, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City.

When: 8:15 p.m. Monday.

Tickets: $30 to $70.

Information: [phone].

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The Moody Blues - John Lodge, left, Justin Hayward, Ray Thomas and Graeme Edge - will bring songs from their recently released live album, along with a string of earlier hits, to the Universal Amphitheatre on Monday night.