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Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees, The Zombies reveal their all-star supergroup

Colin:  But I would go for the writers, and so, you know, I'd have Elton on keyboards, McCartney on bass, uh, Dave Grohl on drums, um, and, uh, gui- and Eric, uh, Clapton on guitar.  OK, so, can you arrange that?

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Rod:  To actually finally make the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is, well, it's just a huge honor.  It, it really is.  I mean, it, it's felt fantastic enough in the last five years to have been nominated four times.  I mean, we weren't looking for that, and that felt fantastic.

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Hugh:  I was actually sat in a bar where I live, and I'm fortunate enough to live in Spain, in a[n] island called Menorca, and, my wife and I were in the bar.  The phone call came, and I, I instantly just choked up with the ab-, the beauty of it and the surprise and everything else.  It was wonderful.  And I was told- the, the person [at] the other end, who's not a million miles away from me, said, "Maybe you should buy everybody a drink in the bar."  Well, the bar was empty except for us.

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Rod:  So many people have said, and, and really quite famous people have said, you know, "We were so influenced by all the stuff that you've done," and that's always a huge surprise and shock to me because when I listen back to what we've done, it just sounds like us.

Chris:  Yeah.

Colin:  Yeah.

Rod:  You know?

Colin:  And al- I'm- and also, it's so great to have things in films and TV.  It's the equivalent of having a hit record, really.  It's another way of, of reaching your audience.

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Chris:  I know what I was gonna say about [how] I knew it might have had some influence after we split up.

Rod:  Yeah.

Chris:  I was at a party with, uh, in Lo- Bel, in Bel Air, and Jimi Hendrix was- I was at the bar with him, and he said, "Oh, yes, the Zombies.  You did-" and he sang "Time of the Season" to me at the bar.  Now, not many people can say that basically.  I knew that, that we had made some little mark, you know?

Rod:  But we also heard that John Lennon had said, "I wish I could have produced-" uh, that's, that was the story.

Chris:  That's one, yes, yeah, he said, "I'd like to produce them."

Rod [overlapping with Chris's last comment]:  "I wish I could produce them."

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Colin:  I like to think sometimes that we're passing the baton because, obviously, there are people who influenced us, the rock greats, uh, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, and then the Beatles, who were a huge influence on us, and hopefully we took the baton and ran with it, and now, we've reached the autumn of our careers.

Rod:  Well, Colin has, yeah.

Colin:  We're passing the baton on.  So I hope they don't bloody drop it.

"Imagine the Swan" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"Imagine the Swan"

Rod:  'Imagine the Swan' came about because by that time, the band had broken up, uh, and 'Time of the Season', after a long period, had just been picked up and over a six months' period become a hit in America.  Uh, one DJ only in the whole of the States was playing it, in Idaho, and it gradually started, like ripples in a pond when someone throws a stone, and it's spreading out and becoming an enormous hit, and it became a number one.  By that time, I'd already formed Argent, with Chris White as a silent partner of Argent.  He didn't wanna play anymore, but, uh, he wanted to co-produce and, and be involved, and we'd already convinced Colin that we should do a solo album for him [One Year], which resulted in some big hits in, in Europe and the U.K., and so we had all these things on course, but our hearts weren't in, you know, to carrying on with the band [the Zombies] in its present form, but Al Gallico, our publisher, said, 'Look, you've got more than a million selling record in the States, you've- you can't just let this go; you've gotta do something', and in the end, we said, 'OK, we'll put a few tracks together', and very quickly, we did.  Now, I quite like this track, 'Imagine the Swan', but it- in a way, it was done as a response to pressure, and it doesn't mean that, that we weren't enthusiastic about doing it when we're doing it, and we gave it our best, but I sang it, um.

Colin:  I had nothing to do with this, this particular track.

Rod:  I think- weren't the members of Argent playing on that?

Colin:  I think it's actually-

Rod:  Or was it Hugh as well?  I can't remember.

Colin:  Well, I always remember it as actually being Argent with Rod singing, so Chris wrote it, [and] Rod sang it.

Rod:  Yeah.

Colin:  But the, the guys playing on it, I think, are Argent.*

Rod:  Very possibly.  It was a long time ago, so I can't quite remember.

Colin:  Yeah.

Rod:  But, um-

Colin:  But you know, there was never any talk amongst the band, uh, when 'Time of the Season' was a hit, probably nearly two years after the band finished, there was never any conversation about re-forming the band, but I s'ppose in a way this is as near as we got.

Rod:  I guess so, but, you know, it wasn't, uh, a permanent thought, but- and strangely enough, we left a huge void, so there was some fake Zombies going around, and the band that became ZZ Top, last year or the year before admitted in print that they went out as the fake Zombies, and that was, um, Dusty Hill and Frank Beard, the, the two guys from ZZ Top, and, uh, we only just found out about that, didn't we?

Colin:  Yeah, yeah.  Good luck to them, you know?

Rod:  Yeah.

Colin:  Good luck to them.

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*The Zombie Heaven liner notes confirm that "Imagine the Swan" was played by Argent:  "With pressure upon Rod and Chris to capitalise on the unprecedented success of 'Time Of The Season', this new composition of Chris' was released as by the Zombies while in fact it featured the personnel of the soon-to-be named Argent:  Russ Ballard on guitar, Jim Rodford on bass and Bob Henrit on drums" (p. 53).  Along with providing the lead vocal, Rod played harpsichord and organ.

"If It Don't Work Out" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"If It Don't Work Out"

Rod:  'If It Don't Work Out' was a song that I wrote when we were on tour with Dusty Springfield, and Dusty really liked us on, on tour, and she came up to me one evening towards the end of one week and said, 'Will you write me a song?' and I said, 'Oh, G--, I'd be honoured to', you know, 'cause we loved her voice.  I went away that weekend, and I came up with a, a Motown-ish sort of feeling song.  At the beginning of the following week, I played it through to her, and she loved it, and she said, 'I'm gonna record this', and she wanted it to be a single.  She wanted me to play on it, but I was going away that week.  The tour was just finishing.  I couldn't play piano on it, and she had to get someone else to do it.  Um, but Madeline Bell sing[s] on it.  Madeline Bell loved it.  So it didn't in the end turn out to be a single, but it was the opening track on [the B-side of] Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty, that album, and, um, I loved her singing on it.  It was just brilliant.  We recorded a version, didn't we?

Colin:  Yeah, absolutely.

Rod:  Yeah.

Colin:  We recorded a version, too, and I, um, I mean, I'm not comparing our version with her version.  Her version is great, you know, but I thought we did a pretty good job

Rod:  Mm.

Colin:  as well.

Rod:  Mm.

Colin:  I think that could have been a single.  I don't know why it wasn't, but I think it's a really strong track, but it never was [a single].

"Time of the Season" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"Time of the Season"

Rod:  'Time of the Season' was, uh, we, we were doing O-, you know, by this time, these are the Odessey and Oracle songs, so by this time, we were in Abbey Road.

Colin:  Studio 3.

Rod:  Producing ourselves, being knocked out with the fact that the songs were sounding like we wanted them to sound completely.  We had great engineers.  We, we moved into, um, Abbey Road just as the Beatles had moved out, having recorded Sgt. Pepper['s Lonely Hearts Club Band], and they'd left a lot of their stuff around the studio, including John [Lennon]'s Mellotron*, which I used without asking 'cause they were ju- it was just there.  With 'Time of the Season', we needed one more song.  We, we were running out of money.  They- CBS hadn't given us a lot of money to make this album.  We were running out.  Last track.**  And I remember, I shared a flat with Chris White.  We had a room each, and we would always play our songs to each other as we were writing.  I s-, I said to Chris, 'I think I've got the last song'.  I said, 'Come in and have a listen', and I said, 'I think this could be a hit, Chris', and, and he thought so, and, and we recorded it.  We were a bit pushed for time, and Colin was singing, and as is my wont, you know, as I was in the control room, Colin was putting the lead vocal on, and I was saying, 'Yeah, it sounds great, Col, but, um, could you just push that phrase a bit and, you know, just anticipate that note and anything', and he got so pissed off at this that in the end, he was saying, 'Oh, for God's sake'.  He said, 'If you're so f'ing good, you come in here and do it', and I said, 'Oh, come on, Colin.  This is the last track.  It sounds great.'  You know?  'It's, it's gonna be great'.  [Imitates Colin's grumbling noises]  Um, you know, 'cause I was saying, 'Look, you gotta do it.  Come on.  This is, you know, it sounds great, Colin.  You're the singer.  For goodness sake, just, just do it', and so [imitates grumbles again], and then he was singing, 'It's the time of the season for loving', you know?

Colin:  And while I'm singing that, we're having this re- real shout-out.

Rod:  [indistinct]

Colin:  Yeah.

Rod:  Yeah.

Colin:  Oh, it's always made me laugh, that, but we were really up against it, and as the mic was set up, there was a great big clock right in front of me.  I could see we were running out of time by the minute.  There was a big red light just to emphasise the mic's live, and, um, the song had only just been written, so to be honest, I didn't know it that well, and Rod was very kindly coaching me through it phrase by phrase, and, uh, I think I got a bit panicky, and we, we- it only lasted for an hour or so.  I mean, it was not like it was a life-changing argument, but we certainly did go at it while, uh, while we were recording this song, and then- I'm really glad I did stay there- 'cause I said to him, '[If] you know it so well, you come in, and you sing it', and, uh, he said, 'You're the lead singer; you stand there till you get it right', and I was really glad later on because it sold about about two million copies.

Rod:  'Cause you never heard that as a hit, did you?

Colin:  No, that one.  I mean, I hear some of the songs as hits, but that one I-

Rod:  You mean the ones that never get anywhere?

Colin:  Yes.  Most of the ones I hear as hits don't stand a chance, uh, but I didn't hear this one.  Rod, Rod did, but I didn't.

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*Some sources claim that the Mellotron that the Beatles were using in Abbey Road at this time wasn't actually Lennon's, although he did own one.  solobeatlesstudios.com explains that this Mellotron was rented by Abbey Road directly from the company.

**According to the chronology in the Zombie Heaven liner notes, the last track recorded for Odessey and Oracle was "Changes" (on 7 November).  There's no specific date given for "Time of the Season," just "August," although this photo set from the session gives the date as "September."

"This Will Be Our Year" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"This Will Be Our Year"

Colin:  'This Will Be Year's written by Chris White.  I think- it's got a sort of a, a bit of an anthem feel about it now because I know that a lot of people like this song to be played when they get married, and, and I, I can see why.  It's- I think it's one of Chris's better songs.

Rod:  I think Chris was coming into, really, into a wonderful period.

Colin:  Yeah.  He, for about-

Rod:  This was Odessey and Oracle.

Colin:  Yeah, for about five or six years, Chris wrote so many great songs, and I think this is one of the, the best songs, and we play this, um-

Rod:  Yeah, we still do it every gig.

Colin:  We play this every night.  Great song.

"The Way I Feel Inside" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"The Way I Feel Inside"

Rod:  OK, 'The Way I Feel Inside'.  This is one of the quickest songs I ever wrote.  We were on tour with the Isley Brothers, Dionne Warwick, and what used to happen:  the tour bus used to stop at a service station for a coffee break, and I suddenly had a gli- glimmering of an idea for a song, and so I went into the, the loo, into the toilet, and I had a piece of manuscript paper with me.  I sat on the loo, and I wrote this song.  Most of the lyrics - not all of the lyrics - [and] the whole melody of it just came to me, and I wrote it down on a piece of manuscript paper, nowhere near a keyboard or anything, and strangely enough, it was called 'The Way I Feel Inside', but that wasn't a commentary on, on the situation.  It really wasn't.  It was a very romantic song, but I- sorry to spoil people's illusions, you know, if they think of that as a lovely roman- romantic song.

Colin:  I'll, I'll, I'll always remember this.  The bus was ready to leave,

Rod:  Yeah.

Colin:  and we couldn't find Rod, and everyone went to look for him, and I found him in the loo with this manu- writing with this manuscript.  I thought, 'What on earth are you doing?' and he was writing this song.  It's a, it's a beautiful song, and we, we play this, don't we?

Rod:  We do play this, yeah.

Colin:  Yeah.

Rod:  We often do it as a, an unexpected encore.  We, we might end up the, the set with the, uh, the Argent hit 'God Gave Rock and Roll to You' and then completely bring it down and just do an- just a very quiet piano and Colin singing 'The Way I Feel Inside'.

"Indication" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"Indication"

Colin:  This was still produced by Ken Jones, but I think that there was a period here where 'Indication' was, uh, recorded that you can hear Rod and Chris's songs evolving in a way that was gonna climax with Odessey and Oracle.  You know, I've gone back and li- listened to the tracks of that era, and it just sounds as though something's coming, you know?  And I- especially with Chris.  This song was from that era.  We didn't record this at Decca Studios.  We recorded-

Rod:  Lansdowne.

Colin:  Lansdowne, didn't we?

Rod:  Yeah.

Colin:  Yeah, and of course, there's there big, uh, improvised thing at the end.

Rod:  But which Ken was very worried about so he submerged it into the mix and, and, and concentrated on the guitar.  This actually came out of the fact that we always used to do a blues song, a Jimmy Reed song called 'Got Me Running, Got Me Hiding, Baby, What You Want Me to Do', um, and strangely at the end, I went into this bizarre thing where I was playing 'God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen', and just all sorts of things were happening, and it used to go down a storm on stage, and we wanted to put a little bit of that into the track, and it is there if you, if you listen for it, but it was submerged a little becau- because they- Ken got a bit worried that this might be too avant garde, but like everybody else, like the Beatles particularly, we were tryna push the boundaries.  We were trying to be cutting edge in what we were doing, and this was one of the ways i- in which our feelings were portrayed at that time.  We actually were being a little bit experimental, but people got a bit worried about it and sort of held it down a bit, but it is there, and it's become a real favorite with people.  I know, uh, Little Steven plays it all the time; he loves this track.  Um, and, yeah, I'm, I'm fond of this, and I, I- and the, the B-side of the record as well.  'She Does Everything to Me' [sic]* I was really fond of as well.

Colin:  Oh, yes, yes.  We've played that a bit live as well.

Rod:  It's- yeah, occasionally, yeah.

Colin:  But I mean, you know, the thing is this battle with Ken Jones, our producer.  He was tryna do the best for us

Rod:  Oh, yeah!

Colin:  in his opinion, but he was tryna make everything in our- to our mind more ordinary, and he was thinking more commercial, whereas we were trying to make things different, so it's just a- it's two different ways of looking at recording, really, but it was a continual battle for the first two and a half years of our career.

Rod:  But it is still nice to go back and, after not hearing these tracks for a long time,

Colin:  Mm.

Rod:  hear them again, you know, and, and they have more going for them than, than we ever thought at the time, when you go back and say, 'Yeah, I really like that', you know?  And I do like 'Indication'.

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*According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, "She Does Everything for Me" was actually the B-side to "Goin' out of My Head," the Zombies' last single for Decca.  The B-side to "Indication" was Colin's "How We Were Before."

"Is This the Dream" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"Is This the Dream"

Rod:  'Is This the Dream' was perhaps of all those tracks that we did was the one that at the time disappointed us the most because before it was mixed, we heard the monitor playback and we thought, 'This sounds great!  Really steaming, really stonking' and we were made to go away to the pub while it was mixed, and it was all mixed very quickly in those days, wasn't it?

Colin:  Yeah.

Rod:  Everything was mixed in a couple of hours.

Colin:  Well, um, Rod and I just went and had a couple of pints

Rod:  Yeah.

Colin:  at the top of the road in a pub.

Rod:  Yeah.

Colin:  And then we came back.

Rod:  And we thought, 'Where's our track gone?' bec-

Colin:  Uh, and he [presumably Ken Jones, the Zombies' producer] played it, and I thought maybe- in my mind's eye, I thought maybe he got someone else in to play an alternative version.  I couldn't work out what we were listening to.  It bare- it had no relationship to, uh, what we'd done.

Rod:  Because when we did it, it had a bit of a, a rough edge to it, which we really liked.  Colin sang it great.  Um, it was a very uncharacteristic [electric] piano solo.  I mean all, all the solos were always improvised, you know?*  I, I, I never constructed them.  If you listen to different, um, takes of our songs, you'll hear a completely different solo on each one, and this was no exception, and I started hitting a little contrapuntal thing, two-handed thing, and I- it was just on the spur on the moment.  I loved the way it came out.  It sounded quite rough, but in a good way, quite biting, and when we came back to listen to it, everything was really smoothed out, and, and for the whole band, it actually lost some of the excitement.  We, we've never done this on stage, have we?

Colin:  No.

Rod:  I mean we did it- I remember we played with the Who, and Pete Townshend liked it very much, and he, he went out front to listen, and, at the time, and he, he said, 'Oh, I couldn't hear what you were doing in the, in, in the solo' 'cause he, he liked the, the quirkiness, you know, of, of, of, of what happened in that solo, um, but I was fond of the track at the time, and we all thought it sounded great before the mix.  We, we were probably a little bit too hung up on all of this because we knew the track so well, um, and sometimes we wanted it to, um, in our mind's eye, to be as good as it could be, and, and so we tended to discount what we ended up with, and, and actually sometimes going back and listening to them, it's much more attractive than we thought at the time, you know?  What was in our head.  So I still think it's worth listening to, but I think this was the, you know, one of the tracks that we thought had lost again.

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*The solo in "I'll Keep Trying" seems to be an exception to this.  There's very little difference between the solo in the demo version (available as a bonus track on Begin Here) and the solo in the final version.  Obviously, there was some degree of planning since the electric piano and electric guitar play basically the same notes (with slight differences in articulation).

"Just out of Reach" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"Just out of Reach"

Rod:  This is one of Colin's, and, uh, it w- was it your first real [song]?

Colin:  I think it was my second song that I wrote.*

Rod:  'Just out of Reach'.

Colin:  Yes.

Rod:  Yeah.

Colin:  I mean, we had to write for a deadline.  We'd been asked to write some music for Otto Preminger's film-

Rod:  Oh, Bunny Lake Is Missing.

Colin:  Bunny Lake Is Missing, and the way the deal was put together, they wanted three new songs written and recorded in about ten days.**  They had to be new songs, and, again, Rod and Chris didn't have a great backlog of songs, and so, uh, you know, I, I'd always been really intrigued and impressed by the way they wrote songs, and these were- this is one of the times when I thought, 'Well, at least I'll have a try', and so I wrote this song really for a deadline.  I mean, sometimes people say, 'How do you write a song?' and, and the answer would be:  you get the phone call, and, and that's what happened:  we got the phone call 'We need three songs written and recorded in ten days', so, um, I had a go, and this is the result of it, and-

Rod:  I, I think 'Just out of Reach' is a great snapshot of what sixties singles or records should sound like.  It's very sixties, very characteristic, but it was very naturally done.  I think it works great, and we often still do it on stage.

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*If I'm not mistaken, the first was "How We Were Before."

**The other two Zombies songs in the film are "Nothing's Changed" and "Remember You," both written by Chris White.

"I Love You" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"I Love You"

Rod:  'I Love You' is a, is a track that we still do on stage now, and I, I think it's, uh- Colin always had a little bit of troub- um, a problem with- when he first heard the lyrics, you know, 'I love you.  I love you.  I love you,' um, but I think it's a terrifically constructed song.  This is one of Chris's early songs that I really, really like 'cause it's so dramatic, and you've got that really high bit where the band stops and Colin sings, 'I don't know what to do.'  We opened the set for ages, in this incarnation, so often with this, with this track, and it's a great little concise example of what the Zombies are in a way, and that's why I love it as an opener.  We've opened for so long with it that we don't open with it now, but we may, may go back to doing it at some point, uh, because it's got, um, three-part harmony.  It's got Colin singing really at the top of his register, which he still does on stage; we do everything in the original keys.  It's got a short but quite jazzy electric piano solo in the middle.  It, it's a sort of concise way of looking [at] what the Zombies had distinctively at that time, and, uh, I'm really fond of it.

Colin:  I, I was always a little concerned that we opened with that number 'cause it's got a top B and, um, it's easier to do it in the middle of the set, but it is, it is a good opening tune, but, you know, I've gotta be ready to get that note.

"Whenever You're Ready" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"Whenever You're Ready"

Rod:  'Whenever You're Ready' was, um- we'd discovered bands like the Impressions, and I wanted something with that sort of feeling.  What did, what did we used to do on stage by the Impressions?  I can't remember.

Colin:  'I'm- I'm Alright'?

Rod:  'It's Alright'* and also 'People Get Ready'.

Colin:  OK.

Rod:  Used to do that, didn't we?  And it was my attempt to do something slightly in that style.

Colin:  There was an ongoing battle with our producer.  Lovely guy, very talented bloke, but there was an ongoing battle with him, really for the whole time we were recording till we got to Odessey and Oracle, about the kind of sound he was putting on the records, but he was very, uh, he was very strict.

Rod:  Very autocratic, wasn't he?

Colin:  Very autocratic.  We didn't go to the mix sessions at all.  He insisted that he did that without us there, and def- this was one of the songs that we were definitely, uh, unhappy with, not the song, I hasten to add, but the sound of the record.

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*A live recording of 'It's Alright' is included on various collections of BBC sessions the Zombies did, along with a cover of the Impressions' 'You Must Believe Me'.

"I Want You Back Again" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"I Want You Back Again"

Colin:  Well, 'I Want You Back Again', it's, um, an interesting song in that it's one of the songs that we sort of rediscovered in this incarnation of the band.  I think we'd probably forgotten about it to some degree, and then we heard a- Tom Petty did a live version of-

Rod:  And used to talk about it for about ten minutes on stage before he did it.

Colin:  And we listened to this live version by Tom Petty, and we thought, 'Sounds pretty good.'

Rod:  'Why aren't we doing this?'

Colin:  Yes.

Rod:  Yeah.

Colin:  So I, I often say on stage [that] we're doing a cover version of Tom Petty doing a cover version of us, and this is the song:  'I Want You Back Again.'

"She's Coming Home" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"She's Coming Home"

Rod:  'She's Coming Home' was a single.  In America, it was a, a small hit, but I always thought this could have been a big hit record, and we were very disappointed with the actual- the balls, if you like on, on, on the record.  We, we, we thought it was a little bit tame in its recording.  I think that the producer was looking too much for a particular - in inverted commas - 'gimmicky' sound rather than just being honest about the essence of the song.  It was actually covered, I think, by Brenda Holloway, at, at one point.  I know she certainly did it live on a big TV show, and I thought it was great, um, to hear her do that, but I was never quite happy with that [the production on the Zombies' version], and I think if it had sounded exactly, just simple and honest, I think it could have been a really big hit, so we were a bit disappointed, but I still love the song.  Um, I can say that, can't I?  It's one of mine, but, um, we still do it on stage sometimes, and I like- I prefer the way we do it on stage now and the actual sound to the original record.  'She's Coming Home.'

"Leave Me Be" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"Leave Me Be"

Colin:  Well, 'Leave Me Be' is, uh, an interesting song because it was written by Chris White, and Decca Records were very keen on, uh, a new single every six weeks, so the pressure was on; after 'She's Not There', the pressure was on to have a, a follow-up, and really this was about the only song that had been written at that time; we didn't have a great backlog of songs because Rod and Chris were just finding their way as writers, so when Decca heard this song, they decided it would be the follow up to 'She's Not There', and none of us in the band, including Chris who wrote it, thought that this was a hit single, but in the U.K., it was put out as a follow-up to 'She's Not There', and I'm afraid it, it, it wasn't a hit.  You know, it didn't happen.  I think it's, it's a good song, but I, you know, I don't think it would ever be a single, and I don't think Chris would mind me saying that; I think he feels the same way.

Rod:  We also hated the production on it, which- we, we had a few issues with production on some of our singles, which in the end- I'm going way forward, but in the end, that's why we desperately wanted to produce an album ourselves, which became Odessey and Oracle, but that's in the future, but I think that was the first one where we thought- the very first session we'd done sounded great, all the four tracks we did on it.  'Summertime', 'It's Alright with Me', 'She's Not There' of course, and 'You Make Me Feel Good' all sounded great, but after that, sometimes we had issues with the way- we, we would often demo things, wouldn't we?

Colin:  Yeah.

Rod:  And-

Colin:  And sometimes the demo would sound better than the master.

Rod:  At least more whole to our ears, yeah.

Colin:  Mm.

"Tell Her No" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"Tell Her No"

Colin:  Well, 'Tell Her No', we were, we were touring ex- extensively, and again we were recording very late in, in the evening, and, and they'd recorded about four or five backing tracks, and they just, you know, there would be four of them in the studio; they would just do the backing track, and I was in the control room, and I fell asleep.  Uh, we'd been working very hard, but I'm- I've always found it very easy to sleep anyway, but, uh, they woke me up to go and do the lead vocal on 'Tell Her No' and I- this is what I always remember about it is that I mumbled through the second chorus, but I kept going, and I thought, 'Well, we can put that right'.  You know, we'll- I'll just drop in on it.

Rod:  [mumbles in imitation of record]

Colin:  [also mumbles in imitation of record] and put the-

Rod:  People have been trying to work out what those words are, for years.

Colin:  And the producer said, 'Oh, don't worry about that; that's fine'.

Rod:  That was recording in those days.

Colin:  Yeah, so, 'Tell Her No' went on to sell nearly a million copies; it was a top five single in the States; and it has a, a mumbled second chorus, but I-

Rod:  I do remember also that we had a phone call halfway through that session from America; that was a big deal in those days.  Our American publisher Al Gallico was on the, on the line.  He said, 'I just want you guys to know that "She's Not There"s number one in Cashbox'.  We thought, 'Wow', you know.

Colin:  It was fantastic.

Rod:  Here we were eighteen years old, you know, and we had the number one in this hallowed land of America.  It was fantastic.

"You Make Me Feel Good" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"You Make Me Feel Good"

Rod:  'You Make Me Feel Good' was the, um, the first track ever written by, um, Chris White that we recorded.  I was a huge fan of Chris.  Um, I think, generally speaking, he came into his own a little bit later and became a- an absolutely wonderful writer, but he always had that spark of originality, um, but sometimes, you have to fashion things a little bit, but we all worked together on everything anyway, and we would take an initial idea and say, 'Well, why don't we make that minor chord a major chord?'  You know?  Things like that.  And this was one that we, we did that on.  It turned out so well that it was a toss up whether 'She's Not There' or 'You Make Me Feel Good' was gonna be the first single.  In the end, thank you very much 'cause I wrote it, 'She's Not There' was, but it could easily have been 'You Make Me Feel Good,' and 'You Make Me Feel Good' - in our opinion - should have been the follow-up, but in those days, they just threw everything out, and, um, it wasn't.

Colin:  It was-

Rod:  It was on the B-side.

Colin:  It was the B-side, yeah.

Rod:  Yeah.  But I still- we occasionally do it still on, on stage, and I still enjoy it.  'You Make Me Feel Good', Chris's first song. 

"She's Not There" (Track by Track at Gibson)

[Obviously, the videos in this Track by Track series were all filmed the same day, but for easier indexing, I'm putting them under the dates they were posted.]

Rod:  This is, uh, Rod Argent here from the Zombies.

Colin:  It's Colin Blunstone from the Zombies, and this is Track by Track at Gibson, and we're on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"She's Not There"

Colin:  This is the track that changed our lives completely, and I- as I remember it, we were talking to our then-producer called Ken Jones, and he was giving us a pep talk before our first session in Decca Studios, West Hampstead in London, and he said, 'You know, you could always write something for this session.'  Rod picked up on it, and he went away and wrote this song.  I didn't know he could write songs, and he came back with this song, and it was 'She's Not There,' and we all knew it was a special song, immediately.

Rod:  And the extraordinary thing is, our very first session, um, and because we had absolutely no knowledge of all the pitfalls that can happen, you know:  the engineer couldn't get the right sound maybe or, um, maybe on the day, the band wasn't gelling, you know, when things were recorded.  We didn't know any of that.  We just thought, 'Yeah!'  I thought, 'Colin's gonna sound great singing it, and, uh, the harmonies are gonna be brilliant, and the band's gonna sound exciting, and it's gonna come out, and it's gonna be a huge hit,' and it was.

Colin:  But it wasn't all smooth going.  I'll just sort of say about the session for 'She's Not There':  it was considered the, the, the cool thing to do to record in the evening and into the night, so we started at about seven o'clock, and the engineer, who was a great engineer, but he'd been at a wedding all day, and he was extremely drunk when we got there, but worse than that, he was very aggressive as well, and I kind of thought- it just makes me laugh:  we've been in the business for fifty years [but] after twenty minutes in the studio, I thought, 'This is not for me.'  This guy was screaming at us, really screaming at us, but then we had a bit of luck, and he collapsed, and we carried the engineer out of the studio, up three flights of stairs, and we put him in a London taxi, and we never saw him again, and his assistant took over, and he was called Gus Dudgeon, and he went on to be one of the most successful producers in the world ever.  He did all of Elton [John]'s early stuff, David Bowie, many, many huge records, and that was Gus Dudgeon's first session, and it was our first session, and he never forgot that.  Uh, so 'She's Not There,' it had its moments.

Rod:  Had its moments, and everything was done very quickly, and that, all that drama was compressed into a short space of time, but it was dramatic, and, you know, we ended up with a hit after a day's recording.

Live on The Summit

Live video from Facebook:

Audio from SoundCloud:



Setlist:

• "Time of the Season"
• "Misty Roses"
• "Caroline Goodbye"
• "She's Not There"

My transcription (starting at ~3:36 in the Facebook Live video, after audience chatter)

Unknown host:  Well, welcome in, everybody, to a very packed and soon to be very warm Audio-Technica Studio C here at the Summit.  Uh, we are super excited today and honored to have the Zombies [applause, possibly drowning out further comments].  And we are recording audio and video for this, so ringtones, please silence those, and pictures are OK during the session, but please no flash, and I believe Colin and the crew will be available afterwards to sign some autographs and do pictures, so, and they've got merch for sale over there as well for after the session.  We're gonna record this and air it back at 6 o'clock tomorrow night, so you can tell friends and family and Facebook and tweet and Instagram and whatever else you kids do these days 'cause I'm too old for that stuff.  Uh, anything, any pictures you do take, whatever platform you share 'em online, please use the hashtag #liveatstudioC.  That way, we can search, and people can search and see what you guys saw while you were here, uh.

Unknown woman (Cindy Da Silva?):  And please hashtag the band, as well.

Unknown host:  And hashtag the Zombies?

Unknown woman:  The Zombies.

Unknown host:  Hashtag the Zombies as well so then they can see what you saw since they're [seeing a] different perspective here.  Um, we are also doing Facebook Live [indistinct].

Man running Facebook Live:  Wave, everyone!

Unknown host:  Facebook Live.  So you'll be able to share that video as well and make all your friends on Facebook jealous.  Um, we are, as I said, super excited and honored that they could make time.  They were at the Rock [and Roll] Hall [of Fame] last night [indistinct].  And they were gracious enough to stay an extra night and come in today and do this session for you guys, and thank you all for making this happen, truly, because you guys are the engine that runs this radio station each and every day.  We get to play on the radio and play great music for you guys, but without your support, this would not happen, so thank you all very, very much, and I believe we're gonna turn things over now to one Brad Savage.

Brad:  Yeah, yeah, so

Unknown host:  And, uh

Brad:  I'll be in the back, doin' the, uh, interview between the songs, and we'll bring the house lights down, uh, little bit [indistinct].  Check, check.  Hey, this is working.  Oh!  And, and Erin needs to start the cameras real quick.

Erin:  Sorry, I'm coming!  I'm coming!  I'm sorry!

Brad:  So, this'll- the, the video portion for Western Reserve PBS, that- those take a few weeks for production, uh, but, you know, late end of the summer is when that'll actually air.  Our TV show is Friday nights at 9 p.m. on Western Reserve PBS, so we're so excited and, uh, let's see.

Unknown man:  Don't forget to silence your ring tones as well.

Brad:  Oh, yeah, silence the ring tones; that's important.

Unknown man:  Silence your phones.

[The audio from Soundcloud starts here.]

Colin:  Brad, can I just say a couple of things?

Brad:  Yeah!

Colin:  I just wanted to say that usually when we do these sort of things, I have my usual partner in crime with me, Rod Argent, and sadly he can't be here this, this morning, uh, and he says he's really sorry and sends, sends his love to you all, but, um, our guitarist from the Zombies, Tom Toomey, has very kindly stepped in, so this is a world first.  We have never, ever done this before.

If it goes well, of course, we'll do it again, and if it goes badly, we will never do it again, so we'll, we'll see how it goes, and if I could just tell you a little story:  I was outside just now, and a very beautiful lady came up to me, and she said, "Just remember:  this is an audience of music lovers; think of them as your family."  And I said, "When I sing in front of my family, they all tell me to shut up."  So I really do hope you're not gonna do that, family.  OK, and then we're gonna, we're gonna sing some songs and do some talking.  Hope you're gonna have a great time.

Brad:  Alright.  [Audience applause]  Well, welcome, welcome, everyone.  We've got a full house of Summit members in our Audio-Technica Studio C performance area, and, uh, it's quite an honor.  I mean true legends in music, in rock and roll, and, uh, celebrating a major anniversary of their Odessey and Oracle album.  Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the Zombies.  [Applause]

And, uh, we'll do a, we've got kind of a unique, special set up here today, kind of a world premier in this particular four-piece setting, uh, of the group, so, uh, to first introduce Colin Blunstone.  Welcome, Colin.  Thanks for bein' here.  [Applause]  And also guitarist Tom Toomey.  Welcome, Tom.  [Applause]  And hello to Hugh Grundy.  Hello, Hugh.  [Applause]

Hugh:  Hello, hello.

Brad:  And rounding out our four-piece is Chris White today.  How's it goin', Chris?  [Applause]

Chris:  Hi.  Fine.  Fine.

Brad:  And, uh, as we mentioned at the onset, yes, Rod Argent is un-, uh, unable to be here today.  Uh, but this is very special for our Summit members because usually when you guys do these type of interviews, it's more of a keyboard-driven type of thing, and, uh, doing it as a, as a mostly stripped back, acou-, uh, guitar session, this is a first, right?

Colin:  This is absolutely a first.

Brad:  Ha!

Colin:  And if it goes badly, it'll be a last as well.

Chris:  And-

Colin:  So we're keeping everything crossed.

Chris:  And, and Hugh and I were on the way to the airport.

Brad:  Right.

Hugh:  Funny thing happened to us on the way to the airport.

Colin:  They didn't know, even know they were coming.  They thought they would watch tennis this morning.

Hugh:  I was watching tennis.

Colin:  And then go to the airport, so we, we've caught them.

Brad:  Well-

Hugh:  Glad to be here, [I] have to say.

Brad:  Yeah, and no, it's, it's, uh, just terrific to, uh, to meet you guys and share this music with our Summit members, and I'll tell you what:  let's jump in and do, uh, a first song and, uh, maybe you could say a little bit about this notable, signature tune that you guys are gonna start with today.

Colin:  OK, well, we're gonna play the last song* that we recorded for our last album, Odessey and Oracle, with the original band.  It was recorded in studio three in Abbey Road.  We were really, really watching the clock; we had such a small recording budget that things got very, very tense, and this song had just been written, and I wasn't getting the phrasing quite right, so Rod was tryin' to coach me from the control room.  The pressure's getting more and more.  I can see the clock just like that.  It was ticking by, and then we started shouting at one another and with the worst language you can possibly imagine, and it always makes me smile because while we were saying [vague argumentative noises] all this sort of stuff, I'm singing, "It's the time of the season for loving."  So maybe if you can just remember that while we, while we sing this song.

[Performance of "Time of the Season"]

Brad:  We are live in Studio C, an exclusive performance with the Zombies today, and, uh, we do a lotta sessions in this room.  We have a lotta local and regional bands, indie bands, and so forth, but that just might one of the most famous songs that's ever been performed live in Studio C, uh, really, I mean, what a, what a legendary album and song and place in rock and roll history, and, uh, Summit members here in Studio C, let's just give another hand for the Zombies for bein' here today.

[Applause]

So, let's talk just a little about Odessey and Oracle and, you know, the fiftieth anniversary and just how much of a landmark album that has become.  At the beginning, when you guy started recording that, did you set out to, uh, to make a classic album in rock and roll history, uh, and, uh, you know, maybe, maybe we can get Hugh to sa-, to make some remarks about that.

Hugh:  You certainly can, thank you.  Um, I don't think we set out to make a, a classic album because I don't think you know you're doin' it when you're doing it, but we had the songs, and we rehearsed them endlessly until we went into the studio, and, um, and recorded it there and then, within the time limits which we've already heard about.  Um.

Chris:  It's also basically the first time that Rod and I had produced ourselves

Hugh:  Yeah.

Chris:  'cause we weren't quite happy with the way it was going, so we managed to get into Abbey Road, which- we're the only group I think who weren't signed to EMI at the time.  We were the first group who were non-EMI.  But we had a very small budget, so as Hugh said, we had to rehearse ourselves very silly, and

Hugh:  Uh.

Chris:  we did three-hour sessions.  Sorry.

Hugh:  While, uh, of course, being in the studio there, there were one or two instruments lying around, which, um, we were able to use because of the tracking we had available.  Um, for instance, there was a Mellotron left there by John Lennon, and, uh, Rod at that point decided to use it, and it became a lot of the sound of, uh, of Odessey and Oracle.

Brad:  Wow.  I mean, just hearing the, these type of, of stories and, um, you know, from that, that legendary era of, uh, of rock and roll.  Oh, and now here we are, we're, we're, uh, today in Akron, Ohio, recording this session for the Summit radio.  You guys have been kind enough to stay back, uh, in Ohio one more day after an event at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last night, so, uh, tell us, uh, a little bit, uh, and, and maybe Colin can talk about what that, uh, session was all about yesterday and kind of campaigning for induction, right?  A little bit.

Colin:  Well, I hope so.

Hugh:  Third time lucky.

Brad:  Yeah!

Colin:  It would be wonderful.  You know, um, we've been nominated twice, but we haven't been, obviously, been inducted, so that would be fantastic.  It would be the icing on the cake for us, but yesterday there was, uh, there's an exhibition of Zombies memorabilia**, and, um, it's all, it's, uh, Rod's electric piano, Chris's home-made bass, which he used on "She's Not There."  I mean, we were practically an amateur band when we recorded "She's Not There" way back in 1964, and Chris was playing a home-made bass, and a lot of the, the memorabilia from that time is in this exhibition.  What I really liked, it- well, it was great to see, um, all these things I hadn't seen for ages.  There's a pullover of mine right in the middle.  It's rather misshapen now and rather discoloured.

Chris:  That's not because I was wearing it later, you know.

Colin:  Well, it might have something to do with it 'cause Chris did wear it in a photograph.***  Um, but, uh, I've for- completely forgotten what I was gonna say....  I know what I was gonna say!  And in the next exhibition is the Doors, and then right next door is U2, so when you walk in there, after all these years that we've been playing, remember:  we started off as fifteen-year-old boys and had no idea that we would ever be celebrating a fiftieth anniversary in the home of rock and roll.  The US for us is the home of rock and roll.  It's, it's the golden grail.  It's, it's, it's where everyone wants to come play, and there we are, in an exhibition next door to these two musical giants, so for us it was absolutely wonderful, and also we got champagne!  So it was a wonderful afternoon.

Brad:  Nice.

Colin:  We were really, really thrilled.

Hugh:  It certainly was a wonderful afternoon.  Just a quick a-, a-, addition to that:  um, Chris and I flew in especially for it.  Uh, we came in on Tuesday.  We did the wonderful thing yesterday at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and

Chris:  And we're on the way to the airport now.

Hugh:  and we're on the way to the airport now.

Brad:  Yeah.

Hugh:  Funny thing happened on the way to the airport.

Brad:  "Hey, guys, you gotta do a radio session before you go, go home," right?

Hugh:  Why not?

Brad:  "Stop on by."  Well, it's a, an honor to have you here, and, uh, let's, uh, let's do another live song, and, uh, which, which one up next, uh, and I understand, uh, this is one that is recorded under, under Colin Blunstone's name as a solo hit, right?

Colin:  That's right, yeah, um, when the Zombies finished, Rod and Chris, um, started up a band called Argent, and I started a solo career, but Rod and Chris produced my first three albums, so in a way, my solo career started practically [as] the Zombies but under a, another name

Brad:  Right.

Colin:  if you see what I mean.

Brad:  Yep.

Colin:  And one of the songs that we recorded all those years ago - I guess it was about 1970 - was a wonderful Tim Hardin song called "Misty Roses," so this gives us a chance to play something that we don't normally play in a Zombies set, but remember Tim Hardin; he's an American singer/songwriter, one of the most beautiful writers there ever was, and this is one of his songs.  It's called "Misty Roses."

[Performance of "Misty Roses"]

Brad:  Well, today, it's a very special set-up in Studio C and a special performance from the Zombies live for, uh, an audience of Summit members, and for those listening on the radio, uh, hearing this interview, this is one of the top perks of being a station member and being, uh, belonging to the music as we say, as, uh, you get the invites to Studio C sessions and other special events for Summit members.  Um, uh, maybe, maybe you guys could speak, uh, of the impact of radio airplay over the years, especially those ear-, you know, those early singles, you know, "She's Not There" and "Time of the Season" and "Tell Her No."  I mean, these are songs that got a tremendous amount of airplay, uh, that made them into the classics that they've become, uh, in music history, so, uh, yeah, cou-, yeah, Chris, please, uh, to talk about the value of radio over the years.

Chris:  Well, it very- it was very important for us in the U.K., um, uh, we all had [indistinct] pirate stations, which, uh, managed to make music far more interesting.

Brad:  Right.

Chris:  That, that was that period.  And then we were very lucky with "She's Not There" because we had a programme called Juke Box Jury, which was a television programme where they voted on new singles, and one day, George Harrison was one of the members of the thing [the panel], and he heard our record for the first time and really liked it, so that was a great help to us and so it got played on the radio much more.

Brad:  Well, a-, and, I, I wanna go back to what you said about the pirate radio stations.  We were just discussing this yesterday, our staff.  Uh, at the time in the late sixties, the BBC was not playing rock music; they didn't play rock and roll, so the pirate radio station[s] - Radio Caroline was probably the most famous - they would anchor on a boat offshore and play your music, and I know a lot of the Zombies songs from playlists of those stations.  Wh- what was it like listening to those type[s] of radio stations?

Colin:  Well, they were fantastic, absolutely the opposite to [the] BBC.  BBC was very proper.  They- literally, I think they had one programme a week that played pop music; otherwise, it was light orchestral music.

Brad:  Yep.

Colin:  It was, it was very, very dull. and...

Chris:  And also we- the only other-

Colin:  All those lovers of light orchestral music, I apologize.  But I mean, it was continuous, you know?  I mean, you a bit of variety.

Chris (simultaneously with Colin's last remark):  It was called The Light Programme, wasn't it, yeah?

Brad:  Yeah.

Chris:  It was called The Light Programme.

Colin:  It was called The Light Programme, yeah.

Chris:  But the only other thing we got was listening to Radio Luxembourg, which was the first pirate station, right in the middle of Europe.  It was broadcast to us from two oh eight, wasn't it, or something?

Colin:  Two oh eight, yeah.

Chris:  And it used to go in and out of phase as well, so that we first heard our rock and roll from America on that.  That was very interesting.

Brad:  Wow!

Hugh:  And of course, the proof-

Colin:  So, so what happened, they, they had this ships, I mean there were two or three that would [be] out in the what we call the Channel, and they were outside of territorial waters so they could broadcast in, and, and they were giving us programmes much the same as you would hear over here, which was just incredible for us because for the first time, we could hear a commercial, cutting-edge music

Brad:  Yeah.

Colin:  over the radio, but the government didn't like it because I guess they felt they were losing control, and so they found a way of closing those pirates down on the understanding that we would have the same sort of thing from the BBC, but I think over the years, it's become very watered down and

Brad:  Yeah.

Colin:  at the BBC- I'm cutting my own throat here.  We all wanna- we wanna be played by the BBC 'cause it's the only thing that we can be played on in, in the U.K., but gradually, I think it's got swamped by bureaucracy, and so it's

Brad:  Sure.

Colin:  it's fast becoming what it was before.  Not light orchestral music, but it's very, very controlled, and a lot of those inspirational DJs that were working on the pirates, those people are sidelined because they want control, and

Brad:  Right.

Colin:  so we're heading back to what it was before.  Luckily, we're in the autumn of our careers, so personally, it doesn't affect us that much because-

Chris:  And I've got the-

Colin:  I've, I've, I worry for the new people coming into the industry.

Chris (having pulled out his cell phone):  Colin, I've got the BBC on the line here, complaining.

Colin:  OK, my career's over.  It's been great, folks.  It's been great.

Brad:  Well-

Hugh:  The, the absolute proof, the absolute proof, the importance of radio and of course over here in America was the fact that, uh, after we'd split up, uh, Odessey and Oracle was released to pretty much nothing, and the first single was taken off it, was "Time of the Season."  Now, the [sic] only became a hit when it started being played on one - one - local radio station in Boise, Ohi-, uh, Idaho.

Chris:  Idaho.

Hugh:  Thank you.

Brad:  Yeah.

Hugh:  Um, and, but from there, other radio stations nearby started realizing that it was, uh, something going on here.  They started playing it, and gradually, it spread over the States until it became a number one.

Brad:  And there you go.  That's, that's the perfect story right there, too.  I mean, the perfect way of how radio - hopefully - should work.  Also, I just wanna throw in a plug for the movie Pirate Radio that came out a few years ago.  You guys may know it.  It had a different name in the U.K.; it was called The Boat That Rocked.

Chris:  Oh, yeah.

Brad:  In the U.K.

Hugh:  Yes, of course.

Brad:  In the U.S., they called it Pirate Radio.  Great film about that era of music, and any music fanatic, uh, will enjoy that, so, uh, there goes, uh, there goes the Amazon.com rentals, I can tell it, like, their, their numbers are gonna be going up.  Uh, we're with the Zombies here in Studio C, uh, for an audience of Summit members, and let's hear another live song.  Which, uh, which song, uh, up next?  This is another, uh, another of your solo tunes.

Colin:  It is, actually, yes.  Uh, when, um, when I started recording as a solo artist, I, I, at the same time, I started writing again.  I'd been really inspired by watching Rod Argent and Chris White, um, hone their craft as they were writing from '64 to '67/'68.

Chris:  We were younger than that.

Colin:  And so I started writing.  I started writing, too, and of course, when you first start writing, you're writing about things that are happening to you, and as a young teenage boy, of course, what was happening to me was [clears throat dramatically] girls.  And, uh, I'd just gone through a traumatic first relationship with a very beautiful girl who'd become a very successful model and then had got into film, and she went to Spain to, um, to make this film in Spain, and, and I thought, in my innocence, I thought, "If we can get through this six months' break"- I mean, there was no online.  There was no phoning.  I've got this six months.  "If we can get through this, we'll get married."  We didn't get through it, and we didn't get married.  She ran off with somebody else.  She ran off with somebody in the film, and so, of course, I was crushed, and all those things that teenage boy- that happens to teenage boys.  But this gave me the idea for this song, so thank you.  Thank you because you gave me the idea for this song, and just to give it a little bit of place:  if you ever see, um, a film called The Spy Who Loved Me, I know that all the girls are walking around in bikinis, which frankly, I think is a very good idea, but this particular girl gets into the helicopter, and then she comes in, and she talks to Roger Moore, and that's Caroline, so that's who we're talking about.  And the bit I like is when she gets back in the helicopter, and she flies up into the sky, and then a missile goes up and blows the bloody helicopter up, and I love that bit!  This is "Caroline, Goodbye."

[Performance of "Caroline, Goodbye"]

[Simultaneously]

Colin (to Tom):  I liked when you went into that freeform bit in the middle.

Brad:  Uh, we-

Tom:  Yeah, there was only one note not right- in the right order, wasn't it?

Colin:  Only one!

Tom:  They call it jazz, apparently.

Brad:  We are live in Studio C, the Zombies here today for an audience of Summit members, and Tom Toomey and Colin Blunstone, uh, Chris White and Hugh Grundy are the set-up.  Uh, Rod Argent is not able to be here today, but we are so excited to have you here, and, uh, I, I wanted to ask a little bit about your, uh, recent album, so in 2011, uh, Breathe Out, Breathe In came in and then Still Got That Hunger followed in 2015, and, uh, and I know Chris is kind of a studio wiz and has a long history in production, so:  what are the main differences today in recording new material and doing that album recording process, uh, you know, versus the early days?

Chris:  Well, actu-, well, we- there's- truth of the matter is:  the Zombies finished- the initial, initial group finished in 1967 'cause nobody wanted the album Odessey and Oracle, and, uh, then we carried on...  Rod and Colin got together in what, what year was that?

Colin:  1999.

Chris:  1999, yes.  And, uh, been together ever since with the new group, and they called us in, Hugh and I, to- when we got to the fiftieth [sic] anniversary of Odessey and Oracle, which we'd never performed, so, the new recordings, Colin needs to talk about those

Brad:  Gotcha, gotcha.

Chris:  'cause I'm not even involved.

Colin:  Funnily enough, the, the latest album that we did, we thought it would be a good idea to go way back to how we recorded with Odessey and Oracle, and with Odessey and Oracle, there was a very- I, I've already said, there's a very small recording budget, and we were in the most expensive studio in the world, probably, in Abbey Road, so those two things don't go [together] very well.  Um, so we decided to rehearse really extensively so that we really, really knew what we were doing.  When we went into the studio, we knew the songs we were gonna do; we knew the arrangements; we knew the keys we were gonna play in.  We were just looking for a performance, so we were- we could record very, very quickly, and that's how we could record in Abbey Road with this small budget.  And we thought, you know, there was a lot of energy when we recorded like that, so when [we recorded] our last album, Still Got That Hunger, we did the same thing:  we rehearsed extensively, went into the studio.  We played live.  Um, we kept all the solos.  All the solos are live, and all the lead vocals are live.  The only thing we overdubbed was, uh, the vocal harmonies.  So we could have done it just one thing at a time, and most people, when they record nowadays, you may not see the other musicians because people come in one at a time and record.  That's just- seems to be the way that recording's done, but we did it in exactly the opposite way:  we were all in one big studio complex at the same time, and we recorded the album, and I've gotta tell you:  it's far more exciting to do it like that, and I hope that when we do the next album, we do the same thing.  But I, an- an- and also, if I could just say that we- the whole music business has changed so much since 1967; it's changing day by day; the business side of the music business and the recording side is changing all the time.  But I've always thought I'm really lucky because I never understood the music business in 1967, and I don't understand it now, so for me, nothing's changed.

Brad:  Right!  Right!

Colin:  It's just

Brad:  Perfect.

Colin:  fortunate for me.  I mean, it's all a mystery, and so probably best not to ask me anything too technical.

Brad:  Right.  Well, and, you know, we're real proud of the heritage of Ohio music, uh, around here, and we even have our second station is the three three oh dot net.  It's all local music and independent artists from northeast Ohio, uh, and the Akron/Canton and Cleveland and Kent and Youngstown areas, and, uh, you know, I wonder if, uh, if you guys might, uh, have one bit of advice, maybe each of you could share one bit of advice for those hard-working, local musicians.  There's a few of 'em in our audience in the room right now, in fact, so:  what have you learned along the way?

Hugh:  Um, when I first started playing drums, um, I little suspected that I'd still be doing it, uh, at this time of my life, but I'm very happy doing it, so my advice to anybody who's taking up an instrument, be it the drums or whatever, is to stick with it.  Don't give up.  Keep practising, and if you're still playing at my age, like I am, then you'll have done well.

Brad:  Nice.  Yeah.

Chris:  And, uh, for me, the most important thing was when we got going, is basically writing our own songs, so that's the most important thing:  be different.  Don't be the same as everybody else.  Try new things, and never give up, and do it for the pleasure of doing it; never do it for the money because that rarely ever comes along, but basically, do it because you like playing the music, and have fun doing it with your friends.

Brad:  Yeah.  Yeah.

Colin:  And I, I'd just like to say two things.  I mean, actually, what, um, Hugh and Chris said pretty much covers it, but as a vocalist, if I can just say to vocalists out there:  generally you start singing because you were born with a voice, but as you get older, l- like everything else, your voice changes.  Your voice is basically a muscle, so I always liken it to when you're a kid, you can run all day and you don't have to warm up or worry about, you know, your muscles; you're not gonna get tired.  So your voice will change, and if you can find, um, some, um, musical exercise regime so that you can practise as near as possible every day, then you can go on singing for the rest of your life because a lot of people think that vocalists, you know, they always say, "Ah, he's lost it, eh," and all this kind of thing about vocalists, but if you practise, you can keep your voice into your seventies.  And I'm hoping I can keep it into my eighties.  Um, the other thing, just on a, a business side, I've- I mean, there's- it's a minefield, signing contracts.  Personally, if someone gives me a contract that thick [indicates about five or six inches], I wouldn't sign it.  Um, there's nothing that can't be put on just two or three sheets of paper, but one of the most important things to remember if you're gonna sign a contract is "When does it end?"  Don't worry about when it starts, and you should look at the percentages and the advances, I know all that.  But if it goes wrong, you need to know when it ends because some contracts, they've got little, little bombshells in there that means that it rolls on and on and on, so

Brad:  Mm.

Colin:  look for when the contract ends.  There's a-

Brad:  Yeah.

Colin:  that's a good thing to remember.

Tom:  I'd like to add a little

Brad:  Yeah?

Tom:  something to that as well.  I completely and utterly agree with the guys, and, uh, I used to teach guitar till I joined the band, and, um, I was playing in pubs, and I can remember one time I was, uh, playing this one pub and I had everything ready and I had my backing tracks ready, it was nine o'clock, and, and I start playing at nine o'clock, and there's one guy in the pub with his head on the bar.  Never give up!  Also, I taught for a long time, and, uh, whenever a student used to come to me, and, uh, they were probably about sixteen, seventeen, they're getting to that time when they're thinking they're not quite sure what they wanna do with their lives, my advice to everybody, and it, and it is now is that what do you love to do?  What are you best at?  If you go and do that and stick with it, you'll never work again.

Brad:  Yes.  Well, our guests in Studio C are the Zombies, and, uh, let's do one more live performance song.  Which one up next?  And maybe a little, uh, little historical perspective on this one.

Colin:  Absolutely.  This is the first song we ever recorded, and we won a big rock competition in the spring of 1964, which probably finally decided us that there was a future for us as, or at least we stood a chance of being, professional musicians, so we decided to become a professional group before we ever made a record, but that, that rock competition led us to our contract with Decca Records, and I remember a little conversation before we went into the studio with our producer [Ken Jones], and he said, "You know, uh, you got the session in two weeks' time.  You could always write something for the session."  We were gonna do R&B classics, and then he went on and talked about other things.  It was just an aside, and I completely forgot about it, and Rod and Chris went off and wrote songs, and Chris wrote "You Make Me Feel Good," which it- if you know that song, it's a fabulous Zombie track, and Rod wrote "She's Not There," and when they came back and played these songs, I was absolutely amazed.  I had no idea they could write songs that I think-

Chris:  Neither did we.

Colin:  I think we knew that they were special songs, and, and that, that really did change things.  And if I could just say a few words about our

Brad:  Yeah.

Colin:  our first session in West Hampstead studios, which is in northwest London.  We walked in in the evening; it was very fashionable to record in the evening and through the night.  And we walked in, and- very, very good engineer which [was] recording us.  Sadly, he'd been to a wedding all day, and he was blind drunk.  This is not a good way to start your recording career, and inside- considering I've been a recording artist for over fifty years, within twenty minutes of being in the West End- West Hampstead studio, I knew I didn't wanna be in the music business.  This guy, like, you know, we had headphones on, and he was screaming obscenities down the headphones at us, and I thought, "This really isn't pleasant.  It's really not nice."  But then we had a bit of luck, and he collapsed.  And we had to carry him out of the studio.

Chris:  One on each leg and arm [indistinct].

Colin:  We had a Zombie on each arm and a Zombie on each leg, and we carried him up.  Not many people can say that!  And we carried him up three flights of stairs, and we put him in a black London taxi, and I'll be honest and say I never saw him again.  I, I wish him well.  And the assistant engineer took over, and the assistant engineer was called Gus Dudgeon, and he went on to be one of the biggest producers that ever was.  All the early and, and for many years the Elton John albums, Kiki Dee, David Bowie.  He went on to produce all, all these wonderful artists, but his first session ever was because the initial engineer collapsed, and he was the assistant, and he took over, so this was his first session, and it was our first session as well, so it worked.  "She's Not There" was number one in Cash Box in America, and it was number one all round the world, so if ever you're gonna do a session, make sure the engineer's blind drunk, and I'm sure it'll work out for you.  Here we go.

[Performance of "She's Not There"]

Brad:  Well, ladies and gentlemen, what a moment in the history of the Summit and Studio C.  We've got a standing ovation in Studio C for the Zombies.  Just fantastic and one of the true perks of being a member of this local, independent, public radio station, and, uh, we really, really appreciate you guys, you know, sticking around.  You did the Rock [and Roll] Hall [of Fame] event yesterday and then sticking around for, for this radio session for our Summit members, so, uh, thanks again to Hugh Grundy and Chris White, Colin Blunstone and Tom Toomey and Mr. Rod Argent, who couldn't be here today, but the session turned out great.  Did we make it through doin' the, the guitar?  Yeah!  Well, just a proud honor to have the soon to be Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, the Zombies.

Hugh:  Thank you!

Brad:  In Studio C.

Hugh:  Yeah, absolutely!  Please vote for us next time.

[The audio from Soundcloud ends here.]

Brad:  Well, very good, yeah, so, uh, like we said, this recording will air at 6 p.m. tomorrow night, Friday night, on the station, and, uh, and we have been on Facebook Live as well, so that will be archived on our Facebook page, uh, and the band has, uh, some vinyls, some CDs, and even the, uh, the full-color, uh, coffee table book, the, the historical book available, and they're here to do, uh, some photos and so forth, so, uh, thanks, everyone for being here in our audience.  Thanks so much to the Zombies.

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*According to the chronology in the Zombie Heaven liner notes, the last track recorded for Odessey and Oracle was "Changes" (on 7 November).  There's no specific date given for "Time of the Season," just "August," although this photo set from the session gives the date as "September."

**Here's an Instagram post from a couple months after this interview that shows part of the exhibit:

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***I'm pretty sure this picture dates from before Odessey and Oracle, but I believe Chris is wearing the sweater here:

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