| Page 1 2 3 4 A ZOMBIE'S TALE: AN INTERVIEW WITH COLIN BLUNSTONE by Adam D. Miller & Cari Crosby
The Zombies are one of the most underappreciated bands in the history of popular music. That may sound like an overstatement, but really, I mean it. Despite the fact that the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame continues to elude them, The Zombies’ songwriting skills and vocal harmonies were up there with The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Sadly, the group continues to be mislabeled as a “three-hit wonder.” Their first single, 1964’s “She’s Not There” put them on the map as an international talent, hitting No. 2 on the US charts, something few British artists apart from The Beatles had done in America. The following year they had another big hit with “Tell Her No,” but by the time they had their third hit with “Time Of The Season” in 1969, the group had already broken up. In recent decades, The Zombies have become one of the 1960s most revered groups, not because of their three major hits (which are all great, mind you), but because of their final album, 1968’s Odessey & Oracle. Despite the fact that it came and went with barely any notice upon its initial release, it has since been credited as the masterpiece it is. After the Zombies breakup, some of the group’s members quit music altogether. Keyboardist and songwriter Rod Argent went on to form Argent, and lead singer Colin Blunstone embarked on a solo career. The two recently joined forces once again and have recorded two albums together. Their latest album, As Far As I Can See and their current touring act are both remarkable. Blunstone’s voice is as strong as ever, and Rod Argent still plays the keyboard with ferocity. Being There was thrilled see the Zombies perform, and have the opportunity to interview Colin Blunstone, who was pleasant and candid with us about the Zombies past and present.  Being There: After all these years, what led to the revival of the Zombies name?Colin Blunstone: Well it’s just sort of evolved, really. To be absolutely honest, we didn’t use the name The Zombies when we first got back together again. And we got back together again by a series of coincidences, really. I’d already started playing live. I started playing with a guy called Don Airey, who’s played with Whitesnake, Rainbow, Ozzy Osbourne… many heavy metal bands. And Rod and I played a charity gig together shortly afterwards and it was really good fun, and I just came up with the idea of, you know, what do you think about playing live together? And he said “well, how many dates were you thinking of?” And I said, “well, you know, I think five or six dates in the next month.” BT: And these were already dates you had booked for yourself… CB: Yes. I hadn’t played for twenty-three years when I went back on the road again, so it was probably about the same for him. And he said “yeah, well we’ll give it a try, but it’s just for five or six dates.” But then, about twenty minutes after we’d started playing the first concert, it felt like we’d played the week before. So we just kept going. But that’s a little bit before your question, really. We actually avoided using the name The Zombies, but especially in North America, and maybe in Europe as well, people started to use the name The Zombies. BT: Almost like a way of advertising. CB: Yeah, and in all honesty, to some degree we leave it to the promoters. It’s a little bit of a delicate area really, because as I said we didn’t start off with the intention of calling ourselves The Zombies. But in some territories people are absolutely fascinated by the British Invasion and that period of time, that you spend most of your time, say in interviews, talking about that sort of thing, and when you play live, people want to hear songs; say in North America they want to hear “Time Of The Season,” “She’s Not There,” “Tell Her No,” and songs from Odessey and Oracle. And I mean, some of those songs from Odessey and Oracle we never ever played live. Because the band finished after we completed that album. So we never played them live, and we were in this sort of bizarre situation of having to re-learn our songs, you know, which was really quite strange. I don’t know if that answered your question, but it’s just evolved. Because some people say to us, why isn’t the whole band playing? Well the answer is that well firstly… BT: Are you still in touch with (original Zombies drummer and bassist) Hugh (Grundy) and Chris (White)? CB: Yes, very much – and obviously Paul Atinkson (original guitarist) sadly passed away last year. But the intention wasn’t to be part of the Zombies. And also neither of them had played professionally for a long, long time. I’m sure they could still play. But we just didn’t talk in those terms. BT: And there’s no hard feelings? CB: I don’t think so, I mean we have talked to them about it, and very often, especially in the UK, we try to bill ourselves in a way that suits everybody. See, the ironic thing is that in the UK there is interest in the 60s as well, but Rod and I, in other projects, have had far more hits than the Zombies ever had. Which is kind of strange. BT: A lot of hip magazines like Mojo have printed glowing reviews of your newest collaboration, As Far As I Can See (2004). CB: I didn’t actually see the review, but if they did that’s really good, because you know, the music press definitely has a sort of youth bias. So if we got a good review, I’m very grateful. BT: Well, I’m sure it’s encouraging. CB: Yeah, absolutely. I mean The Times gave us a fantastic review, an absolutely brilliant review. BT: Since the late 1990s, there seems to be a resurgence of interest in The Zombies music. Artists like Tom Petty and Beck have name-checked you as an influence and covered your material in concert, and Wes Anderson used “The Way I Feel Inside” in his latest film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Is this resurgence something you’ve noticed and what would you attribute it to? CB: I have noticed it, and Rod and I have talked about it a lot. And we honestly don’t understand why. I think a lot of it is down to this album, Odessey and Oracle, which really didn’t sell that well when you consider that it had a number one in Cashbox – we go by Cashbox, I know it doesn’t exist anymore, but in Cashbox it was number one and Billboard I think it was number two - when you consider it had a huge single on it, it didn’t really sell that well as an album at the time. And then suddenly, probably about ten years ago, it started selling considerable numbers, and I really can’t tell you why that should be. The only thing that might have something to do with it is that the rights of the album reverted back to us… the whole Zombies catalogue reverted back to us. We signed a very unusual deal for the time. In fact, it was a lease deal. We didn’t sign the rights in turpitude. And we have someone who manages the catalogue for us, and they’re very skilled at where they place the catalogue. And that’s the only thing I can think of. Page 1 2 3 4 |  |
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