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The Zombies are set to play at the Jazz Cafe |
Zombies’ resurrection
PREVIEW: THE ZOMBIES
Jazz Café
IN the Sixties, The Zombies swept across the US in the British invasion with The
Beatles, The Who and The Rolling Stones.
Near-hysterical teenage
audiences greeted songs like She’s Not There, an instant hit that reached No 2 in the Stateside charts.
Fast-forward 40-odd years and Colin Blunstone, whose voice gave that timeless song its edge of youthful sorrow, is recovering from a more recent tour of America.
Having swapped the interstate for M25 traffic jams, he’s just got home to Surrey after rehearsing for The Zombies’ upcoming UK dates at the house of keyboardist and
songwriter Rod Argent.
Recalling the band’s 1964 arrival in the States, he says: “It was very exciting – we were playing in the main to huge audiences and generally they were incredibly enthusiastic.
“We were just five mates who got together to play gigs locally. We were catapulted into a very exciting world that no one is really equipped to cope with. You have to learn as you go along and learn pretty quickly.”
The St Albans band went
professional after winning a newspaper battle of the bands contest, and a string of US hits followed almost immediately. But success proved easier to find than to keep.
“We started at the top and gradually slipped down the
slippery pole of success,” says Blunstone, without a trace of bitterness, explaining the band’s amicable decision to split in 1967.
They might have been lost in the footnotes of pop history had it not been for their parting shot, the album Odessey and Oracle.
Released in 1968 after the band had gone their separate ways, it received little attention, though the track Time of the Season was a surprise US hit.
The album has proved one of the most successful slow-
burners in history, spoken of by critics in the same breath as Sgt Pepper and Pet Sounds and now ranked as the 80th best ever by Rolling Stone magazine.
It’s reportedly Paul Weller’s favourite album and won Mojo magazine’s 2009 Classic Album award.
“It did get some quite good reviews when it was released but in all honesty it didn’t achieve what we were hoping for,” admits Blunstone.
“It certainly didn’t achieve any commercial success at all.
“Now it seems like every year it sells more and more. Nobody has been promoting it or organising that – it just keeps growing on its own.”
Blunstone and Argent started playing together again regularly in 2001, eventually taking on The Zombies name despite some hesitation, and now have an established five-piece.
Their new tour promises more than nostalgia – classics, but also rarities as well as new songs.
“There are certain songs that are the backdrop of the act, that people come and expect to hear, like Time Of The Season or She’s Not There,” says Blunstone.
“But at the same time I am sure the audience want to hear different songs and we want to play new songs. That is an integral part of what this band does.”
Like the monsters that inspired their name, The Zombies aren’t ready to rest just yet.
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ALAN STAFFORD |
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