TWENTY QUESTIONS


As THE ZOMBIES prepare to take their successful live performance of Odessey & Oracle out on the road again, Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone, Chris White and Hugh “Wild Man” Grundy generously gave several slavering Shindig! scribes the opportunity to quiz them about reforming, mellotrons and Elvis. VIC TEMPLAR types up the results.


Shindig!: Chris, is it true that you were asked to join The Zombies because your dad had a garage that could be used for rehearsals?


ChrisWhite: No. I was asked to join because Terry Arnold (brother of the leaving bass player Paul Arnold) was acting as schoolboy manager of the band. I went to school with him and he knew I played bass. My father didn't have a useable garage but he did let us use a lot of space in the house behind his shop. He was a bass player himself.


SD: Did the baroque surroundings of St Albans influence the sound of The Zombies?


Rod Argent: Not really the surroundings at all – The Zombies' sound was to do with a mix of influences; early Elvis, Miles Davis and Bill Evans, the whole exploding ’60s music scene, with its discovery of blues, R&B and Motown. The Beatles, of course, and also classical music. I will admit though, that as I was in a great choir (St Albans Abbey) from the age of 11 which did give me a great sense of harmony and a lifelong love of Bach!


SD: Did you meet Chris at St Albans grammar school and did that education have an influence on The Zombies?


Colin Blunstone: As Chris was a couple of years older than me I think I was more aware of who he was than he was of me. We both took art at school and I was very impressed with Chris's paintings and also with a band he was in that played in the art room during the lunch hour. I think Chris was in the school orchestra but I spent any spare time I had playing sport. I don't think our school had anything to do with me joining The Zombies other than the fact we sat in alphabetical order. The boy in front of me was called Paul Arnold and he was a neighbour of Rod Argent. Paul knew I could play a bit of guitar and asked me if I wanted to be in a band that Rod was putting together at the school up the road.


SD: What is your favourite cover of a Zombies song?


RA: ‘If It Don't Work Out’ by Dusty Springfield and Santana's ‘She's Not There’.


18


RA: All couples who were friends at the time. Most have now broken up, or died, but Jim of “Jim and Jean” (who are still together) is the guy who loaned us our gear on the very first day we were together and turned down an offer at that time to become The Zombies’ bass player. He later became a founder member of Argent and was, for 20 years, bass player with The Kinks.


SD: I read that the budget of £1,000 was considered “big” for O&O. How many hours of studio time did that buy back then?


RA: Can't remember specifics, but I do know it meant everything had to be carefully rehearsed before we went into the studio. I guess each track was generally recorded in a three-hour session.


SD: How did you hear that Al Kooper vouched for O&O at Columbia USA?


SD: Who came up with the idea of introducing strings in rock music; elements present both in The Zombies’ work and Colin's One Year LP?


RA: In The Zombies, the string areas were really mellotron areas. Both Chris and I, who produced both Odessey & Oracle and One Year, listened to a lot of classical music, and loved the idea of using some of that language. I remember being very keen that the song ‘Misty Roses’, the first track we produced for the One Year album, should having a feeling of Bartok –a fairly avant-garde classical composer –about it.


SD: Who are all the folks in ‘Friends of Mine’?


RA: When it gained its US release, we learned at that time that Columbia were going to pass on the album before Al, who had just become their senior A&R man, told them they were mad. He'd picked up the album in the UK a couple of weeks previously, and said that he'd been blown away with it. When we went to the US to pick up a gold record we made a point of visiting him to say thanks a million.


SD: Is the ‘Butcher’s Tale’ meant to be a reading of The Canterbury Tales story or is there another story behind that track?


CW: It is set in 1916 during the First World War. I had been very moved reading about the Somme offensive that year. The song just appeared while I was seated at the organ keyboard. On the album, an error was made by the record company and it was entitled ‘Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914)’. I had called it ‘Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1916)’!


SD: ‘Butcher’s Tale’ is based on harmonium and vocals. Did you compose the harmonium part or was this done in conjunction with Rod who adapted a guitar or bass sequence?


CW: At that time, Rod and I were sharing a flat (along with the


designer of the O&O album cover, Terry Quirk). I had bought an old American pedal organ and it was on that instrument that ‘Butcher's Tale’ was written by me. Rod, with his superior keyboard skills, took my simple playing and turned into a great accompaniment. We then had to carry the organ to Abbey Road studios!


SD: Same process for your other compositions?


CW: Each song had differing creative processes. We usually played the rough versions to the whole band and then worked on them during lengthy rehearsals.


SD: When did you start experimenting with the mellotron and was its use planned in advanced for the recording of O&O?


RA: It wasn't planned in advance. As I remember, we recorded the album at Abbey


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