With mainstays Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone both now 78, and founding the band before the trailblazing Beatles were born, it’s very much a case of catch them while you can. And it’s good to see the energetic band thriving, playing theatres these days rather than smaller venues like Mr Kyps in where they went down a storm back in the day. The band’s settled line-up sees late bass player Jim Rodford’s son Steve remaining on drums, with session man Tom Toomey on bass and the Dane Søren Koch on guitar since 2018.
With Blunstone’s vocals breathy as ever on the slower numbers and the elegantly coiffured Argent still a mad, genial professor on the Hammond, what was not to like about another dose of psychedelia? But don’t assume this was just a nostalgia fest as The Zombies are still making , with latest album Different Game dropping just last year and more new writing and recording set for this summer. They play mostly in the States these days so it was a treat to see them back in Poole for the first time in 10 years for the opening date of their short UK tour. Introduced by their loud American manager, the uniformly hirsute Zombies strolled into the spotlight, the slight Argent in a battered leather jacket, Blunstone in trademark jacket and scarf, Toomey in a buttoned-up maroon velvet jacket and the portly Rodford in shorts.
We started at the very beginning of their recording career 60 years ago, with It’s Alright With Me, followed by three tracks from 1965 debut a.
