On this edition on SNAPSHOTS, our guest today will be coming to the DC Metro area on September 12 at the Warner Theater with The Fixx and Peter Asher. He is a busybody. In fact, he just wrapped up a 16-date headline tour of the United Kingdom just last month, where his ageless, timeless voice and career spanning six decades have still earned rave reviews.
In fact, he spent the summer in the studio finishing up a solo album, which is coming up in early 2027, while continuing to celebrate the amazing legacy of The Zombies, a band he joined when he was a teenager over 60 years ago, and if you listen to radio all these years, just like I have, you have heard his voice on the iconic hits “She’s Not There, “Tell Her No, and “Time of the Season”, which all three are my favorite songs of the band.
Let’s welcome Colin Blunstone.
Colin, welcome to SNAPSHOTS.
Thank you very much. Thank you. What a wonderful introduction.
Well, thank you. For a man who has a wonderful career all these years, you are worthy of that introduction.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
The first thing that caught my eye is where you were born, because you were born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, and I’ve actually visited a town called Stevenage, Hertfordshire, over 20 years ago. So that’s amazing that we have this connection here.
Yeah, it’s just up the road. I think it’s about 15 miles away from where I was born, and I lived there until my early 20s with my parents, and then, like a lot of people who live in Hatfield, especially young boys, I was drawn to London, and I lived in central London for the next 10 or 15 years. But now I’ve not moved to Hatfield, but I’ve moved back out into the country again. As I’ve mellowed with the years. I’ve found the attraction of a quieter life out in the sticks of Surrey, which is instead of Hatfield’s north of London, but Surrey is south and southwest of London. I’ve moved to the other side of London.
Oh, that’s amazing! In fact, every time I think about my first learning trip to Hertfordshire. I think about the young kids that I got to visit their mother, and now they’re oh my gosh, they’re almost 30 now, and it’s like time has flown, and I need to see them since they’re no longer babies anymore.
Absolutely. I was talking to someone today about I this year I’m 81, and I thought, how did that happen? It seems to have been sudden, but of course it’s not. It happens day by day. You just don’t notice it happening. But way back when I was 15 years old, I went to school in a place called St. Albans, which is about five miles from Hatfield and about the same distance from Stevenage as Hatfield, and so I went to school in St. Albans along with four other boys, and we got together about the Easter of 1961, and that band became known as the Zombies. So, it kind of started as a school band. It was very much just a fun thing. I never thought we would ever make a. I didn’t even think we’d ever play a gig, to be honest. But I certainly never thought we’d ever make a record. And there we are, having hit records a few years later. So, it was a wonderful adventure.
That’s amazing. In fact, that’s a great segue to my very first question, because when I was starting to do research on you, I found out that you guys won a contest, and the first prize was an audition with Decca Records. I want you to tell us a little bit about that contest and transitioning from a high school ordinary band in England to being one of the biggest bands of all time in the British invasion.
Well, the actual competition itself took place at Watford Town Hall. Again, these are all Hertfordshire names in front of about 2000 people, and there were 10 bands every night on a Sunday night, and it ran for 10 weeks. So, there were 100 bands that played. I think we played four songs each, and in all, there were 100 bands. I think we took part in it for fun. I don’t think any of us thought we were going to win it.
I mean, we were still very young. And you know, just doing it for fun, and we hoped we’d win it, but we didn’t think we’d win it, and we did. I think for the that’s the first time I didn’t say anything. It’s the first time I thought there might be a future for the band. I didn’t dare. I thought I’d break the spell if I said something, and I thought you know maybe there’s a way ahead for our band. We’ve just beaten 99 other bands to win this competition, and it did lead to a contract with Decca. But we all disagree about the actual details of how it happened. Everyone remembers it completely differently.
If you, we had all The Zombies sitting around now, they’d all tell you a different story. I feel it introduced us to a producer called Ken Jones, and Ken Jones got us the deal with Decca. But other people remember it differently. I know, we had that first that first session in Decca Studios in West Hampstead, just down the road from Abbey Road, actually.
Wow!
And it was an evening session. Should I tell you about the session?
Yes, please.
It was an evening session. It started at 7o’clock, and it was our first time in a commercial studio. And when we arrived, the recording engineer who’d recorded lots of hits is very, very good, but he’d been at a wedding all day, and he was blind drunk and very, very aggressive. And considering I’ve been in the business now for about 60 years, it makes me laugh because in the first 10 minutes with this guy screaming down headphones at me, the worst language you can possibly think of, I thought, I don’t think this business is for me. I really don’t think it’s for me. But then we had a bit of luck. He collapsed flat on the floor, and we had to carry him out. Four of us, one on each arm, one on each leg, and we carried him out two flights of stairs. And we put him in a black London taxi. We waved goodbye, and I never ever saw him again, which very good news.
And his assistant took over, and his assistant was somebody called Gus Dudgeon, who went on to be one of the biggest producers in the world. He produced all of Elton’s early albums, worked with David Bowie, Kiki Dee, and many other people, and that was Gus Dudgeon’s first session, and he got that gig because the original guy passed out, and it was our first session. And Gus never forgot that, and I never forgot that. His first session, our first session, and we recorded “She’s Not There” in that session. We recorded four songs, so that’s how we started. The session nearly didn’t happen because this guy was just completely out of it.
I’m so glad it happened, and you got to do this brilliant, beautiful song. “She’s Not There”. Did you know at the time how unique “She’s Not There” was as a song at the time?
I don’t think I really did. I knew it was a really good song. Maybe what I’d forgotten was you know the zombies were always a keyboard-based band featuring three-part harmony. That’s how I saw the zombies, and that was quite rare in those days. Even more rare in ’61 when we started. This now we’re talking about ’64. Like Manfred Mann had a keyboard player. The Alamos had a keyboard player, but there weren’t many bands that had a keyboard in them. We were the only band that had a keyboard, and of course, Rod (Argent) was a phenomenal keyboard player, even as a teenager. And that kind of jazzy break in the middle of “She’s Not There”, it really does give it a unique sound. It’s a haunting song with that jazzy break in the middle, and it’s looking back, it does have a sort of a unique sound. At the time, it just to me, it just sounded like us. You know, when you’re close to something, you’re probably not the best judge of it. But with the benefit of hindsight, I guess it does sound quite different.
It really does, and it has stood the test of time over 60 years later. And speaking of 60 years later, it has been six decades since the British invasion. What was it like to travel overseas, across the pond, as they say in the United States and being part of this?
Well, the first part, I think it was quite a thing in those days to fly across the Atlantic. It wasn’t something that people did all the time. It’s a, it was a real adventure, a real set. Of occasion to fly across the Atlantic, I find it quite mystifying that we manage to. I think we’ve just been to Norway before we came to the States, and young teenagers, you just accept these things. You’re just told, “Oh, you’re going to Norway next week, and then you’re going to the states”, and I look back and I tremble with horror at what might have happened.
In early ’64 we were an amateur band playing in local bars and social clubs around where we lived, and in late ’64 we’re an international hit playing with world class artists. When we played in New York, we played Murray the K Christmas Show in New York. Murray the K was one of the most, probably the most influential DJ of his time. He introduced himself as the fifth Beatle. Not sure what the Beatles felt about that, but that’s how he introduced himself, and there were sort of 15 acts on the show, like Dionne Warwick, Ben E. King, the Shirelles, the Shangri-Las, so many wonderful artists.
As I said a few months earlier, we had been an amateur band. We had to follow Patti LaBelle, and we did like six shows a day. We had to follow her in every show, and she used to sing. She had a really wonderful anthem that she used to end her show on, and she brought the house down, and then these five skinny teenagers from Hertfordshire had to walk on and follow Patti LaBelle. I think there was a third degree of apprehension in the wings before we went on stage, but we all used to fool them again, fool them again. We would just go out there and give it everything we’d got, and we got away with it.
I bet you did. I mean, to follow Patti LaBelle before she became Patti LaBelle -that’s a badge of honor that only few people can say they can have. You earned it. Oh my gosh!
Now it’s wonderful, and I’m so glad you were part of the British invasion and changed the landscape of music to where it is right now. Now let’s fast forward six decades later. You are about to embark on a great, wonderful tour. 19 stops, one of them being in Washington D.C. the Warner Theater. How does it feel to be part of this new tour and performing?
Well, I mean, it’s always exciting to get back to America. To me, it’s the home of the blues, it’s the home of jazz, it’s the home of rock and roll, and I don’t know any British musician who doesn’t feel a longing to get back to the states because it’s the home of contemporary music. Also, American audiences are very enthusiastic, and it’s always a thrill to play in front of them. In the UK, they’re a little bit more subdued, and it’s sometimes you have. To work a little harder to get a response, but in America, people are always very enthusiastic, and of course, they lift you when you go on stage, and their enthusiasm comes through.
This tour, I know Peter Asher. I met him first in the 60s, and I’ve met him a few times since then because The Zombies and Peter Asher have done a lot of these music-themed cruises that go out of Miami. Oh wow! Particularly on the blue and flower power, and you get 20 or 30 bands on these cruises, and it’s an exciting thing to do. Peter does a lot of them, and we have as well. I don’t know The Fixx well. I met them once at a truck stop in America. I’m really looking forward to touring with Peter and with The Fixx. I think it’s going to be great fun.
I take it this is not your first time being in the nation’s capital, correct?
No, I’ve played here many times, and I’m not very good on the names of venues. I go I know venues visually. But there was one tour I did with my very first solo band in about 1973, and it was in a small club. Was it called the Quiet Night?
I don’t know. I wasn’t around in ’73. Well, I’m so glad to hear that you’re coming back. But you have been busy this year, especially since you just finished a tour, a fan experience in St. Albans, UK. It was the third Begin Here festival. For those in the states who have never heard about that festival, tell us what it’s all about.
Okay, well, thinking about this year, I’ve been recording an album, as you said. I toured the early summer all the way through the UK. Now back to recording an album. Now we’re coming to the States, and the Begin Here Festival is on the weekend of the 30th and 31st of October, and then it will be the first of November, presumably after the 31st of October. And it’s a meeting in St Albans where the band first met.
Nice!
And t’s a festival of all things Zombies. So, on Friday the 30th, there’s a 60s party where all the Zombies will be, all the fans get together and we have a party. Then there’ll be different talks and many other adventures over the weekend, but on the Saturday night, I’m playing at the St, Albans Cathedral. It’s a huge cathedral. I think it’s one of the first cathedrals ever built in the UK, and I’m going to play there. And some of the other guys will be playing on Sunday lunchtime. Søren Koch, who’s the guitarist from the second incarnation of the zombies. It will be giving a lunchtime festival, and a lunchtime recital.
Sunday night, Steve Rodford, the drummer from the second incarnation of the zombies, will be giving a show. So, there’s something going on all the time for that weekend, for the 30th, 31st, and first of November, and you can just come for one day if you want, or you can come for all three days. It really is fun. It’s very light-hearted, and you don’t have to go to everything because it can get a bit exhausting going from one talk to and now, we’re walking around this place where they walked around 50 or 60 years ago, now we’re doing this. You don’t have to do it all, but if you’re really interested in The Zombies, it’s quite an experience.
We mentioned just moments ago that you’re back in the studio. You’re recording a new solo album that’s going to be released sometime in 2027. Can you give us a preview of what we are going to expect for this new album coming out?
I’m working with a young producer called George Moore, so do check out George’s work because he’s recording some fabulous tracks, we’re using mostly musicians that he’s familiar with. So, these are people I that all they’re all new to me, new fresh, exciting players, and we’re recording all my songs. I’ve never done it, but this is the really exciting thing for me. I’ve never recorded an album before of all my songs. I think if people know of me, then they think of me more as a singer who writes a bit. But all 10 tracks I’ve either written or co-written. So that’s it’s a new a new adventure for me, a new episode in in my career. At 81, you can still do new things, you know. And wonderful thing about life, you know, there’s always new adventures to be had.
Always, indeed. And my last question for you is this: The Zombies music has been around for many generations. Old and new fans have captured it. It’s featured in TV shows, movies, specials, and more. In your humble opinion, why do you feel The Zombies’ music have lasted these 60 years and beyond?
Well, if I can answer that in two separate ways, I think one of the reasons is we had two exceptional writers in the band, in Rod Argent and Chris White, and they wrote timeless classics. It’s a strange dichotomy, I think, is the word that the music sounds both of the 60s. If you wonder, if you’re doing a 60s film, you will probably think if she’s not there in time of the season would be good songs to go in the film, but also they have a timeless feel about them at the same time, and they’re used in commercials regularly today. So that would be the first part of my answer: is that we had these two wonderful writers in the band.
The second part is there’s a mystery involved in the zombies that I don’t understand, and I don’t think anybody really does. They’ve had a very unconventional career. It’s very short in the first place, three-year career. They finished believing that they were being unsuccessful, and they’ve just gradually re-emerged. And they weren’t promoted, they weren’t managed. They weren’t marketed. It’s just a word-of-mouth thing. People, particularly like Tom Petty and Dave Grohl and Susannah Hoffs in America, and in England Paul Weller have really talked about “Odyssey and Oracle” and the zombies endlessly and promoted us. And the zombies just lasted, supported by these wonderful artists. And I don’t fully understand how people are still, still discovering Odyssey and Oracle now, 60 years after it was recorded and pretty much ignored at the time. And it’s it’s much better known now than when it first came out, and I think that’s quite unusual. Rolling Stone at one time named it one of the top 100 albums of all time.
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Thank you, Colin, it was an honor to talk with you! If you want to see Colin, along with The Fixx and Peter Asher, head on down to the Warner Theatre, THIS SATURDAY at 7:30pm. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster, click HERE to get yours!
Until we meet again, See you… Out There!
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