May the Zombies never rest in peace
For a British ‘60s pop band to be called The Zombies, there had to be something immortal about their music. Yet, when the group was formed in 1963, nobody even dared to dream that nearly 50 years later, The Zombies would still be recording albums, performing in gigs and loving every minute of it.
To be sure, naming the band The Zombies had nothing to do with immortality as the walking dead. In fact, before the group settled on The Zombies, they flirted with names like The Sundowners, The Mustangs, Fred Grease and the Axles, Chatterley and The Gamekeepers. Guitarist Paul Atkinson explained the selection process. “We thought with such a weird, bizarre name, nobody else would think of it,” he said. “That was one of the criteriait had to be a name that nobody else could possibly have thought of. This one certainly fitted that requirement so we stuck with it.”
And so The Zombies were born. The journey began when The Zombies released their first single She’s Not There on Decca in 1964. The lyrics, written by keyboard artist Rod Argent, still reverberate today“Well, no one told me about her, the way she lied, well, no one told me about her, how many people cried, but it’s too late to say you’re sorry, how would I know, why should I care, please don’t bother trying to find her, she’s not there.”
She’s Not There, a minor-key tale of heartbreak with Colin Blunstone’s near-whispered vocals, went to No. 1 in the US Cashbox honor roll and topped the charts in Japan and Australia, too. It continues to be heard in radio stations all over the world. The song has sold over two million copies and earned a BMI award for a million US airplays in 1993 and another award for two million airplays four years later.
Blunstone recalled that The Beatles’ George Harrison gave his thumbs-up on She’s Not There in the BBC radio program Jukebox Jury where a panel of musicians rated newly-released records. Harrison was on the panel when the song came up for review. “He really liked it,” said Blunstone. “It was funny because it all seems so easy when you’re young. It all seemed a bit inevitable, somehow.” She’s Not There went up to No. 12 in the UK charts and established The Zombies as the second English beat group after The Beatles to register a top hit in the US.
She’s Not There paved the way for more hits from The Zombies. Tell Her No, Going Out of My Head, The Way I Feel Inside, How We Were Before, Indication and Time of the Season became mainstays in the band’s set list for live performances. As their popularity zoomed, invitations to play on stage came from different parts of the globe.
In 1967, The Zombies invaded the Philippines and headlined 10 sellout shows at the Araneta Coliseum and four more in Manila nightspots. “The first show, I think we played to 28,000 on a Friday night,” recalled Blunstone in Claes Johansen’s book The Zombies: Hung Up On A Dream. “Then, we played a matinee to 15,000 and then Saturday night, it was about 32,000 people.” Johansen wrote: “The trip to the Philippines … has become one of the big stories of the legend of The Zombies, calling for the band to retell their experiences endlessly with much smiling and irony. The Philippines was an exotic place. All in all, it seemed like a summer holiday with everything paid for and a salary on top. The band’s assumption was that they would be playing the occasional gig in the foyer of a hotel. However, what they didn’t realize was that they had some four or five records in the Philippine top 10 and were immensely popular there. They arrived at three in the morning, yet to their complete surprise, found the airport packed with fans yelling and screaming and generally going crazy. All the way to the hotel, their car was surrounded by fans on bicycles, on motorcycles and in cars.”
A disenchantment with their manager Tito Burns led to The Zombies’ premature disbandment late that year. The Beatles’ John Lennon and the Manchester band The Hollies offered to take over The Zombies management but Blunstone and Argent decided to go their separate ways but not before finishing a second album “Odessey and Oracle.” Remarkably, a cut from the album stayed on the US charts for 13 months in a “posthumous” release in 1969 and sold over two million copies. Time of the Season was The Zombies’ anthem to celebrate their re-emergence from the grave and it is one of only 32 British singles in the record books to log at least four million US airplays. A US promoter offered a $20,000 purse for a one-night reunion show in 1969 but The Zombies stood firm. “Odessey and Oracle” went on to be cited by Mojo Magazine as one of the best 100 albums of all time and was ranked No. 80 by Rolling Stone Magazine’s 500 greatest albums.
While the other Zombies retired from performing, Blunstone and Argent kept active. Blunstone released several highly-acclaimed solo albums and made cameo appearances for Mike Batt, Alan Parsons Project and Keats. Argent fronted a band that he called Argent and strung up a series of hits including Hold Your Head Up. In 1993, they reunited to record the album “New World” if only to keep alive their legacy in the wake of several impostor bands touring as The Zombies. In 1998, Blunstone and Argent decided to reorganize The Zombies and brought the band back to life with albums “Out of the Shadows” and “As Far As I Can See.”
In 2006, The Zombies returned to Manila and performed in shows at the Hard Rock Café, Araneta Coliseum and the Ynares Center in Antipolo. They sang their well-known hits and added I Love You, Miles Away, and Can’t Nobody Love You to the repertoire.
On a personal note, I rediscovered The Zombies during a trip to London in 1997. My wife Menchu and I watched Blunstone perform in a solo show at the Café Royal on Regent Street. We were amazed at the clarity, power and smoothness of his voice. At the end of the show, we met Blunstone and Menchu said as a 13-year-old groupie, she begged her way past the Araneta Coliseum security to get autographs and take photos of The Zombies during their 1967 visit. We were back at Café Royal in 1998 to catch another performance by Blunstone who probably thought we were stalkers.
When The Zombies returned here in 2006, I was with Steve O’Neal’s organizing committee and introduced the act as the compere. At the Ynares Center, I entertained the crowd for over 45 minutes on stage talking about music and sports when someone had tampered with The Zombies’ instruments and they needed time to reconfigure the systems.
In 2008, Menchu and I were invited by The Zombies to watch their series of concerts celebrating the 40th anniversary of “Odessey and Oracle” at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London. Among the rock icons who witnessed at least one of the three shows were Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant, The Jam’s Paul Weller and Blood Sweat and Tears founder Al Kooper. At the end of the final concert, The Zombies hosted a by-invitation-only party and we were honored as guests. That was when we met Blunstone’s wife Suzie, a former British Airways flight attendant, and their daughter Rosie. We also met Argent’s daughter Elesa, a senior lecturer of sports studies and a bodybuilding champion.
Reviews of the “Odessey” shows were extremely favorable. David Sinclair of The Times said, “Blunstone sang in a voice still as high and sweetly innocent as a schoolboy’s” and “with interest in the group at a new high, this could turn out to be one of the longer goodbyes.” Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote, “Blunstone’s inimitable voice is intact and ‘Odessey and Oracle’ sounds fantastic, some of it even gaining in translationthey got a standing ovationa triumphant reception ‘Odessey and Oracle’ always deserved, 40 years after the event.” One of the songs from the album “This Will Be Our Year” was used for a Father’s Day TV ad by Nike featuring Tiger Woods and his father Earl.
Atkinson appropriately attributed The Zombies’ enduring longevity to Argent’s music and Blunstone’s voice. Their sound is timeless with no signs of ever dying, like The Zombies that they are. Last year, The Zombies released their fifth studio album “Breathe In, Breathe Out” and remained in excellent form.
The Zombies will be back for a third tour of the Philippines, performing at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino in Cebu with the special participation of Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia on Oct. 17 and at the PICC on Oct. 19. Redstone’s Rajan Gidwani and Steve O’Neal are collaborating to bring The Zombies back due to insistent public demand. Blunstone and Argent will lead the band backed up by former Kinks bassist Jim Rodford, drummer Steve Rodford and guitarist Tom Toomey. You’ll be amazed that through the years, Blunstone’s delivery is as impeccable as before and Argent’s keyboard wizardry remains equally masterful. From all indications, The Zombiesas the name implieswill live on forever.
