The Zombies
Biography The Zombies
The Zombies
Following the first jam of the initial three band members, Rod Argent, Paul Atkinson and Hugh Grundy, in 1961 in St Albans, Argent wanted to form a band.
He asked his cousin, Jim Rodford, to join them as a bass player, but as he already was in another band that was doing good at that time, he declined. Despite that, he offered his help, and he eventually joined the band when they regrouped in 2004.
Paul Arnold and Colin Blunstone joined the other three in April 1962, and they held their original rehearsals at the Pioneer Club in Hatfield Road. They were using a borrowed equipment from the Bluetones, the band whose member was Jim Rodford.
Their first gained reputation was from playing the Old Verulamians Rugby Club in St Albans. The first name of the band was The Mustangs, but as they found out that it was already used by others, they renamed themselves The Zombies. As band members had said, The Zombies name was Paul Arnold’s idea.
Later on, Arnold left them to become a physician, and Chris White took his place. They participated and won a beat-group competition and were signed with Decca. This was when they recorded their first hit song, “She’s Not There”, released in the middle of 1964 and reached number 12 in the UK chart, but it became number 2 in the United States. The song sold over one million copies!
After their hit single, they started touring in the United States, where they had days playing seven performances. In their first in-person TV appearance in the US, they were cheered by screaming teenage girl fans in the audience, where they performed “She’s Not There” and their newer song “Tell Her No”. It is unknown why their music was not so well received in the UK at the time as it did in the US.
They had more songs released and were met with great success in Scandinavia and the Philippines too. This led to many concerts in 1967. Their first UK album was called Begin Here and was released in 1965. The band continued recording songs throughout 1965 and 1966, but most of them were not released at the time due to lack of chart success.
In 1967 The Zombies were unhappy with the lack of success and moved from Decca to sign with CBS Records. Their album Odessey and Oracle was recorded at EMI’s world-famous Abbey Road studios. The released singles were not received in the desired way, and their gig requests were declining, leading to the break-up of the band in the middle of December 1967.
The album was nevertheless released in the United States, as the musician, Al Kooper persuaded his label that the album was worth it. The song from the album “Time of the Season”, which was written by Argent, was released as a single in 1968.
It took it a while, but by 1969 the song became a huge hit, peaking in the Hot 100. CBS approached Rod Argent and Chris White for a new album of The Zombies. Some new tracks were made by Argent, Hugh Grundy, Rodford on bass and Rick Birkett on guitar and were also combined with old material from Decca.
Only a few songs were released as the album, which was initially planned for release in 1969, got cancelled. Some of the unreleased material saw the light on various compilation albums in the years to come.
The original line-up was asked to tour in the United States after the success of “Time of the Season”, but the band members declined. This led to impersonators falsely touring and pretending to be The Zombies at concerts. This was organized by an agency that was also organizing fake tours of The Animals and The Archies. In 1969 two fake line-ups of The Zombies were touring in the US.
Each of the original band members reunited again at The Jazz Club in London in 1997 and played live together for the first time in many years. After few years, Argent and Blunstone began touring together, and promoters were billing them The Zombies, despite that they used their real names.
The Zombies had been through lots of ups and downs in their music career, and after many, many years had passed from the smashing hit “Time of the Season”, fifty years to be precise, they were finally immortalized into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. It was about time for them to get the credit deserved and long overdue! And let’s not forget the numerous Zombies Slots Games they inspired along the way, too.
The current members of the band are Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone, Steve Rodford on drums, Tom Toomey on guitar and Søren Koch on bass guitar.
