Founded in 1961 in St Albans The Zombies were in the midst of a musical revolution, surrounded by prominent bands like the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, The Zombies did their part too leaving us with their legendary album Odessey and Oracle. The very same album recently ranked at Number 32 in a recent Top 100 British Albums in the NME with the worthy comment “…British psychedelia with a kaleidoscopic vision that rivals even The Beatles.”
During the mid-and late- 1960s The Zombies scored a number of hits with ‘Time of the Season’, ‘She’s Not There’ and ‘Tell her No’ and 50 years on The Zombies are still packing out venues. Orginal band members Rod Argent on piano and Colin Blunstone on vocals are joined by a new line-up comprising of Tom Tooney (guitar), Jim Rodford (bass) and Steve Rodford (drums).
Lets firstly keep in mind that The Zombies have a combined average age of around 66, so squeezed into the Globe Theatre, a venue that’s temperature feels the boiler room in a World War 1 submarine, The Zombies take stage rather slowly. Blunstone’s voice still delievers on tracks such as ‘Time of the Season’ and Argent’s whirling organ playing have the crowd thinking that Ray Manzarek must have taken lessons from him. Argent proves that he isn’t simply an incredibly taleneted organist when he takes over on centre stage for ‘Show me the Way’. ‘Breathe out, Breathe in’ is well crafted, rich in harmonies and full of equisitive layers. Surprising too that the Globe paly host to a crowd that is mixed in age, Dad’s in there sixities bring their sons who are in their 30s and of course there’s me who sits in the under 25 bracket *cough, cough!
A band that has been to frequently overlooked, firm favourites of Paul Weller and Dave Grohl, The Zombies are quite simply a hidden gem, a landmark British band that are still cohesive now as they where 50 years ago. A band that offers quality, baroque-sounding pop, The Zombies new album Breathe in Breathe Out is avalaible now.
