The very first rehearsal took place in 1961, and Blunstone had not yet become the group’s lead singer.
“We weren’t called the Zombies then,” says Blunstone. The Zombies will appear at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 21, at the Rock Hall at a special screening of the new documentary film, The Zombies — Hung Up on a Dream, and the Zombies will perform at 7:30 on Sunday, Oct. 22, at Northfield Park — Center Stage. “[Keyboardist] Rod Argent was keen for us to be a rock ‘n’ roll band. He wanted it to be three guitars. I had only just met him. I just knew one of the guys in the band. We had a break, and it was a Saturday morning, and there was a broken down old piano in the corner, and Rod went over and he played ‘Nut Rocker’ by B. Bumble and the Stingers.”
Blunstone says he was stunned by Argent’s rendition.
“His keyboard playing was appreciably better than my guitar playing,” he says. ” I told him he should play keyboards in the band, but he didn’t want that. We left it and at the end of that rehearsal, as I was putting my guitar away, I just sang a Ricky Nelson song. I think it was ‘It’s Late.’ I was singing to myself. Rod heard me and said, ‘If you’ll be the lead singer, I’ll play keyboards.’ That’s essentially how the Zombies came about.”
At the time, there were so few regional rock acts with keyboards, it made it difficult for the Zombies to get gigs in the early days.
“We were a keyboard-based band that featured three part harmonies,” says Blunstone. “There weren’t many of those at the time. Three-part harmonies became very common after the Beatles broke in 1963. We were huge fans of the Beatles, but we weren’t following them because we started our band before they came to prominence. Promoters on a very local level didn’t know whether to give us a chance. Gradually, we built up a local following that ended with us winning a local rock competition.”
The group played what Blunstone refers to as “teenage social clubs” before getting a gig as the house band for the local rugby club; that performance marked the first time it played in front of an adult audience. Winning the local rock competition led to a recording contract with Decca, and the Zombies were off and running. As the band prepped for recording session that was intended to focus on cover songs, producer Ken Jones mentioned that the guys could cut some of their own tunes if they so desired. An inspired Argent delivered “She’s Not There,” a track that would become of the band’s biggest hits. In the wake of that early success, Decca wanted more singles, and the pressure took a toll on the group.
The band struggled to produce another hit in the UK, but while it was trying to deliver the coveted hit singles, the group had started to write the material for 1968’s Odeyssey and Oracle, a psychedelic pop album it recorded at Abbey Road Studios on a very limited budget. That album would leave a lasting legacy even though the band would break-up after its release.
“We were given a thousand pounds to record Odeyssey, and that was it,” says Blunstone. “We had to record really fast. We knew what songs we were recording and managed to record really quickly. Unfortunately, in those days, he business was so singles oriented and Decca released the first single, ‘Care of Cell 44,’ and it wasn’t successful, and we had a long hard look at one another and decided it was time to move on and pursue other projects. In hindsight, maybe we could have handled things differently. That’s what we did. Subsequently, ‘Time of the Season’ was a huge hit in America, but we were committed to other projects. We never had one discussion about reforming.”
Blunstone and Argent began touring together and playing Zombies tunes in the late 1990s, and the Zombies officially reconvened in 2004 and have regularly toured and recorded ever since.
The group’s newest album, Different Game, announces the band’s continued relevance and commences with a rousing title track, which features a blast of keyboards before giving way to an orchestral string arrangement.
“Rod [Argent] is a very keen follower of Bach and went to the Bach Festival in Germany,” he says. “He used to play there. It’s like a week of just Bach music. There was this particular piece that attracted him, and that was the trigger for that song.”
The group recorded the album in Argent’s home studio and embraced modern recording technology while simultaneously producing an album whose songs sound like they were recorded live.
“I think it’s only natural that the album would have a more modern twist,” says Blunstone. “The studio has every modern piece of equipment you could possible have. But we prefer to play in a way we used to record in the 1960s. All the band is in the studio at the same time. We just find that there is a special kind of energy if we’re all there at the same time, and that includes me singing as well. It’s almost like a live album. Hopefully, you get the best of both worlds — the energy of playing live together and the subtleties of playing in a studio.”
Blunstone says at least four new songs will make their way into the set for the upcoming show at MGM Northfield Park — Center Stage.
“We will play at least four songs from the new album, and they fit well with the hits,” he says. “We have three or four tracks from Odyessey and maybe a few surprises. Sometimes, we’ll feature songs we’ve been involved in that have nothing to do with the Zombies. We are really excited. We love touring, and we love performing live. It’s really great for us.”
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This article appears in Sep 6-19, 2023.
