Many bands are equated with the mid-’60s boom known as the “British Invasion." Every bit as important and vital are The Zombies, a band that mastered the art of baroque and psychedelic pop while putting its indelible mark on those genres and on the decade itself.
Following its 1968 landmark album, the exquisite Odessey and Oracle from 1968, the group disbanded, citing what it felt was a lack of interest in what the band was achieving. The record has gone on to achieve legendary status and is often listed as one of the greatest albums of all time by critics, fans and fellow musicians alike. Enjoying a renaissance and a resurgence in recent years, The Zombies have attained a new fan base, toured extensively and released several outstanding albums of brand new original material.
At the helm of the band is Colin Blunstone, the vocalist with a warm, velvety voice that has helped give the group a unique and distinguishable sound.
The Zombies are part of this year’s roster for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and Blunstone is truly honored to be acknowledged in this manner. I caught up with him recently when he checked in from his home in England before coming to America to kick off another tour that features several Florida performances including a stop at Clearwater’s Capitol Theatre.
The Zombies, Tues. Feb. 19, 8 p.m. $49.50 & up. Capitol Theatre, 405 Cleveland St., Clearwater. rutheckerdhall.com.
I know you’ve played here in the Tampa Bay area several times over the last few years but many local fans are really looking forward to your return.
We’re looking forward to coming as well. We love to play in the States and it’s been great for us to reactivate and get interest back in the southern states as well because, when we first came over, especially in this incarnation of the band, we were mostly just playing up in the Northeast. Gradually we managed to get some concerts down in the south, and now we really love to play down there.
The Zombies are playing several shows all over Florida which is really exciting for us, but the first thing I want to mention, and I would be in the remiss if I didn’t talk about this: Congratulations on being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year!
Well it’s incredibly exciting. We’ve been nominated, I think, four times before, but obviously this is the first time we’ve ever been inducted. We have a very loyal fanbase which voted over 320,000 times for us in the fan vote and then, of course, the rock hall voted for us to be inducted as well. I think all musicians crave peer group acceptance, and to feel that our fellow musicians have noticed and have appreciated what we’ve been doing over the years is incredibly exciting. Sort of the way I feel is like it validates the work that we’ve put it over the years or the work that we’ve produced over the years so it is an incredibly exciting thing to be inducted into the rock hall.
You certainly deserve it. I’ll tell you that as a longtime fan so I’m so happy about that.
Thank you very much.
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You just answered another one of my questions: It sounds like the induction is something very meaningful to you. I know a lot of people take this lightly but it sounds like, because of the peer aspect, that you value it very highly.
Absolutely, I also feel that it’s astronomical to get that kind of response from the fan base, so it was it was exciting in separate ways really; from the fan vote and then of course from the rock hall. And I can assure you — we didn’t take it lightly at all. It’s not a career-defining thing but maybe a life-defining situation where you’re actually inducted into the rock hall. It’s something that’s incredibly important and heartening for the future and it’s something I talk to (bandmate) Rod Argent about. We have to be sure that we don’t start thinking of this as, you know, the end of our career or that we’ve achieved what we set out for. We should take this as huge encouragement in the way of energizing ourselves to go forward and to record future albums and of course to be touring again. We will be touring in the States within the month, but I believe will be coming over a couple of times later in the year as well. And we’ve already started recording our next album. We are just actually on the very first song and during the year, I think we’ll finish the album. Of course, as I just said, being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame energizes everything that we’re trying to achieve which is obvious.
What a great outlook to have. Some people look at their inductions as the twilight of their careers but you’re looking at it differently; you’re instead saying this is going to encourage us and energize us to kind of keep going which is so brilliant.
Absolutely. You know, I think there’s as much energy on the stage when we play now as there was when we played in the ‘60s. We really do love playing, and that’s why we do it. If we didn’t enjoy playing, you know, we wouldn’t be touring like we are now.
One of the things I find so fascinating about you all is that there are always new people being exposed to your work and becoming fans regardless of their ages. Obviously, kids who are younger weren’t around when you first came out. They are now discovering you, but a lot of older folks who maybe didn’t really catch wind of The Zombies the first time around are really into you now, and that’s really rare. You don’t see that happen very often. It’s so great that you’re still touring and recording because it seems like you’re constantly expanding the fanbase. Do you see it that way as well?
Well, I think we are and the thing that intrigues us and what we’re very grateful for is that there is a huge cross-section of ages at our concerts. You know, from 18 to probably 80, but you can always see that there’s a contingent of young people that often are young local bands because they come back afterwards and talk to us they’re very interested to see what we’re doing.
You’re one of the few bands that, being so influential and having inspired so many bands and artists, you remain one of the few that is still out there doing it. It’s got to be nice for these fans to connect with you and tell you that your records really influenced them after the shows as well as having the ability to see you perform those songs live. That’s such a major coup for so many people to be able to do that these days.
Well it is great for us because we realize that, when people come backstage, it’s something that we didn’t know at the time, that we have influenced many, many people. I may note that the first person to really support us in the States was Tom Petty. He told us that the first concert he ever went to was a show that we were playing. I think there were several acts on the bill, but we really impressed him. He was very open in telling us that. In England, in the U.K., Paul Weller has always said that we are incredibly influential to him and that Odessey and Oracle is his favorite album.
It’s funny that you mention Weller and his admiration for Odessey and Oracle; I know I’ve read where he and many other artists have indicated that it is their personal favorite album. I’ve heard that from so many different people. Looking back on it, is that something that, when that album came out, did you all have an inkling that it was going to be so timeless and that it was going to reach so many people for so long?
The short answer is “No.” I can tell you, and I think generally the other guys felt the same way, I thought, that it was the best that we could possibly do. I was really proud of what we achieved. Rod would always say that it got some good reviews, but I think the reviews were limited, I can only remember seeing one review that was in a magazine or newspaper that was called Disc — it was written by a journalist named Penny Valentine, and I remember it very well. As far as radio play, in those days, and as far as commercial success, it didn’t happen and that’s the main reason why the band disbanded.
In America, the album wasn’t even going to be released but we were really fortunate that Al Kooper from Blood, Sweat & Tears had been in the U.K. and he’d bought a whole load of albums. He’s always said that Odyssey and Oracle absolutely stood out to him. He’d just started as a staff producer at CBS and he was very courageous because he’d just started, but he went in and saw Clive Davis, you know the big boss at CBS, and he said, “We have to get this album Odyssey and Oracle on CBS,” and Clive Davis said, “We already have it but we weren’t even going to release it.” Well, it’s just because Al Kooper forced CBS to release it and, without Al Kooper, Odyssey and Oracle wouldn’t have even been released in America so we have a lot to be grateful for in Al Kooper’s vision.
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Well, thank you Al! But seriously, it’s a timeless, brilliant, masterpiece of an album — it was just inevitable that it was going to get the kind of accolades that it has, so I’m so glad that it was released over here. I’m so happy that it reaches so many new people year after year I think that record is going to live on forever.
That’s funny isn’t it? Originally, it didn’t reach that many people when it was released, but year on year it sells far more today than it ever did when it first came out. It keeps on selling more, and it’s a very strange story to some degree. It’s a little bit of a mystery really that it was, to a large extent, ignored when it was first released. There is a degree of mystery in that, and I think that appeals to people. It sort of all adds to The Zombies story. You know what happened to them, why was this album ignored, and it’s just a very interesting story.
So is there a part of you that says, “I told you so… I told you this was a great album,” does that ever come into your mind?
Not really. I tend to only think about the future, so I’m thinking about what our next album is going to be like. There was a period of years and years where I never listened to Odessey and Oracle. I think it was around 2008, which was the 40th anniversary of the album, and I hadn’t listened to it in years. I had to spend time relearning the songs that we recorded because I’d forgotten them. I tell you something that I think was really interesting. We were talking about Chris White and Hugh Grant playing with us when we played the album in its entirety, from beginning to end. I said to Rod, after 40 years, you know we may have played it now and again at charity gigs or something, but maybe we should get together and just go through the songs and see if we can play them. We had to relearn it but it was a bit embarrassing actually, because we were making mistakes all over the place. The other guys were note-perfect, so we knew that as long as we did our homework we would be OK. Subsequently, we toured it quite a few times in America and I did the U.K. and Europe — it’s always been hugely successful when we do Europe.
That’s got to be a dream come true for so many people to hear those songs played live. It sounds like you had to get reacquainted with it before you went out and played it at some point.
Oh absolutely. Rod was the same. We both had to sit down and really have a really good listen to it because we’d finished after the album. As I said, I’ve never been someone who actually sits at home and listens to my old records. Some of those songs were very distant memories, and it was very refreshing to sit down and listen to the album in its entirety really. It’s not something that I do regularly, but I absolutely needed to because I needed to re-learn the songs right from the beginning.
So you’re working on a new Zombies album, you have this tour coming up and you’re also doing a solo tour. And I’ve also read that there’s a documentary being made about the band, so you got your hands full. It sounds like you’re pretty busy right now.
Absolutely and you know, all musicians like to work. And that’s fantastic because from now until the summer, I’ve got two solo tours: One of the Northeast of the States and one in the U.K. in April, but before then, I’m playing with The Zombies across the southern states in America. And then, of course, in March is the induction ceremony for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame so our diary is pretty full for the next four or five months.
That sure is better than the alternative.
It is better than the alternative because I’ve had enough years of the alternative, and I know which one I prefer. I’m so grateful for that.
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I see you’ve got six shows coming up in Florida; you’ll be spending quite a while here in the state. Is there anything else you hope to do or see while you’re here in Florida?
Well, unfortunately, usually, with traveling it takes up so much time but there’s not a lot of opportunities to get out and see places. But if I do get any time at all I would love to get out and see the towns in the cities that we’re playing — but very often we have breakfast, get into whatever mode of transport we’re using, and we drive all day and get to the concert. It’s rather sad when we travel really extensively, but we don’t really see the places that we play. It’s just not possible.
Lastly, in mentioning to a few people that I was going to be interviewing you, they all said the same thing: Please ask Colin how he keeps his voice so strong and sounding so great after all this time…
Well first of all, that’s fantastic that you should say that. Thank you very much. I think to a large extent, I was introduced to a singing coach comparatively late in my career, 10 or 15 years ago, and sadly he’s no longer with us. His name was Ian Adam and he coached a lot of the West End singers — that would be like Broadway stars in London. In the West End, these are the people who are in musicals and they have to sing night after night, and they have to have strong voices and they have to have accurate voices. So he taught me a little bit about singing technique. He also gave me a set of exercises to do while on the road. I sing twice on the day, just before soundcheck and once before the show.
Before every show I do those exercises for an hour at least and they help keep my voice strong. You would think that all that singing would make your voice tired, but with the special exercises they have the opposite effect. When we’ve done a lot of shows and a lot of traveling, my voice can get tired. So I start doing these exercises. And gradually when I go through these exercises, the voice starts to reappear. So I think I’ve been very fortunate to have studied with Ian Adam.
That’s an interesting technique. It seems very unorthodox, but it’s obviously working well for you because your voice sounds great.
Well it works for me. I’m not sure that the same coach would work for everybody, but anyone who sings in a rock band that doesn’t have any singing technique is liable to damage their voices at one time or another. I’ve had voice problems, not very often, but once in a while it’s usually due to catching colds and trying to keep away from people that have a cold is my biggest, if you like, problem, when we’re on the road. Sometimes they don’t know they’ve got a cold. In one instance, a cold developed into laryngitis. You can’t sing for six weeks if you have laryngitis.
This article appears in Feb 14-21, 2019.