Editing The Moody Blues (section)

===Departure of Thomas and ''December''===
[[File:MoodyBlues.jpg|left|thumb|Hayward and Lodge live in 2007]]

The new millennium saw the Moody Blues reducing their touring schedule. At the end of 2002, founding member Ray Thomas retired from the group, reducing the Moody Blues to a trio of Hayward, Lodge and Edge, the last being the only original member. Flautist and rhythm guitarist Norda Mullen was recruited early the following year for their North American tour, and worked with the band live and in the studio thereafter. Toward the end of 2003, they released a Christmas album, ''[[December (The Moody Blues album)|December]]''. The songs included originals and four covers: John Lennon's "[[Happy Xmas (War Is Over)]]", [[Mike Batt]]'s "A Winter's Tale", [[Johnny Mathis]]' "[[When A Child is Born]]" and [[Irving Berlin]]'s "[[White Christmas (song)|White Christmas]]". ''December'' would ultimately be the Moody Blues' last studio recording.

Clint Warwick, the Moody Blues' original bassist, died on 15 May 2004, at the age of 63.

November 2005 brought a new live album and DVD, ''[[Lovely to See You: Live]]'', recorded and filmed at the [[Greek Theatre (Los Angeles)|Greek Theatre]] in Los Angeles on 11 June that year.

During 2006 and 2007, the band's "Core Seven" albums (the seven albums from the arrival of Hayward and Lodge in 1966 to the band's hiatus in 1974) were re-released as hybrid CD/SACD editions, featuring rare and previously unreleased bonus tracks. The first five appeared in 2006, with ''Days of Future Passed'', ''In Search of the Lost Chord'' and ''To Our Children's Children's Children'' being double CD/SACDs, while ''On the Threshold of a Dream'' and ''A Question of Balance'' were single CD/SACDs. ''Every Good Boy Deserves Favour'' and ''Seventh Sojourn'' followed in 2007, both single CD/SACD. The project was undertaken by Justin Hayward, who stated that he listened to virgin vinyl copies of these albums and used them as reference points for the new mixes. On 21 May 2007 the Moodies released a double CD of [[BBC Radio]] sessions titled ''[[Live at the BBC: 1967–1970|Live at the BBC 1967–1970]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.moodyblues.co.uk/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814045556/http://moodyblues.co.uk/|url-status= dead|title=MoodyBluesToday.com|archive-date=14 August 2007|website=MoodyBluesToday.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://webbeta.sov.uk.vvhp.net/~universal/Central/catalogue/blues.html |title=The Moody Blues: Live at the BBC: 1967-1970 |website=Webbeta.sov.uk.vvhp.net |access-date=26 August 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303195337/http://webbeta.sov.uk.vvhp.net/~universal/Central/catalogue/blues.html |archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref>