Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Inside the
Speaker 1: Studio on iHeart Radio. My name is Jordan runt Dog.
Speaker 1: But enough about me. I have so much to say
Speaker 1: about my legendary guest. He's one of the most distinctive
Speaker 1: voices in music. His ethereal velvety vocals helped make his
Speaker 1: group The Zombies one of the most unique bands of
Speaker 1: the British Invasion. Their unmistakable blend of Beatles, Bill Evans,
Speaker 1: blues and baroque can be heard on sixties hits like
Speaker 1: She's Not There, Tell Her No and Time of the Season. Now.
Speaker 1: For years, those three titles basically summed up their creative reputation,
Speaker 1: but the band has experienced an unprecedented popular resurgence and
Speaker 1: the New Millennium thanks to an album that was basically
Speaker 1: ignored upon its release. I'm talking, of course, about the
Speaker 1: brilliant Odyssey and Oracle. It's a kaleidoscopic musical vision spanning cultures,
Speaker 1: genres and moods. Released just after the band split in nine,
Speaker 1: the album has risen from obscurity to be hailed as
Speaker 1: a pop masterpiece, praised by the likes of Tom Petty,
Speaker 1: Dave Grohl and Paul weller many so called lost albums
Speaker 1: oh the rehabbed reputation to a film soundtrack or a
Speaker 1: well chosen commercial placement. Not so with Odyssey an Oracle.
Speaker 1: It's rediscovery relies purely on the strength of the songs.
Speaker 1: In two thousand three, Rolling Stone placed it at number
Speaker 1: one hundred on their list of the five dred Greatest
Speaker 1: Albums of All Time, and in two thousand nineteen, the
Speaker 1: band themselves were given a much delayed induction into the
Speaker 1: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This renewed popularity helped
Speaker 1: the Zombies rise from the dead over thirty years after
Speaker 1: they're split, My Guests reunited with this bandmate, Rod Argent,
Speaker 1: the Zombies organist and chief songwriter, and they begin touring
Speaker 1: pretty much non stop, at least until the COVID crisis
Speaker 1: put a stop to live music. Undeterred, they kept busy
Speaker 1: with work on a new Zombies record, likely due out
Speaker 1: in My Guests also helped oversee the fiftieth anniversary reissue
Speaker 1: of his solo debut one year, complete with a bonus
Speaker 1: disc of outtakes and unheard ms that'll be hitting shelves
Speaker 1: on November five, until they can hit the road once again.
Speaker 1: The Zombies are thrilling fans with their so called world tour.
Speaker 1: In one night, a livestream concert held from the floor
Speaker 1: of studio to London's iconic Abbey Roads Studios, the famous
Speaker 1: room where the Beatles recorded the bulk of their work.
Speaker 1: It was a fitting choice of venue. Odyssey and Oracle
Speaker 1: and one year were recorded just a few steps down
Speaker 1: the hall. Fans can watch the concert and the special
Speaker 1: Q and A with veteran rock journalist David Frick on
Speaker 1: demand through October three via vieps dot com. I'm so
Speaker 1: thrilled the welcome one of my rock and roll heroes,
Speaker 1: Colin Bloodstone. We started our talk discussing his return to
Speaker 1: Abbey Road. It was really good fun and I mean
Speaker 1: it's such an atmosphere there to be in studio to
Speaker 1: the Beatles recorded the majority, the vast majority of their tracks.
Speaker 1: Um and and also of course I've worked in there
Speaker 1: with the Allen Posson's project. Allan was worked in that
Speaker 1: studio although the Zombies and on my solo albums, we
Speaker 1: worked in the studio just up the hall, Studio three,
Speaker 1: which is the first studio you come to when you
Speaker 1: when you walk through the front door the Zombies never
Speaker 1: recorded in studio too. That was our first time playing
Speaker 1: together in studio too. Wow. I mean just even just
Speaker 1: being in that studio album and it must have just
Speaker 1: as you say, packed with so many memories. I mean,
Speaker 1: what a special night for you are. Absolutely, you know,
Speaker 1: I found that when we first went there. I think
Speaker 1: we might have gone there the day before we actually played.
Speaker 1: And I was saying to all the guys who hadn't
Speaker 1: been in Appy Road, I was saying, yea, this is
Speaker 1: studio to where the Beatles recorded. This is Studio three
Speaker 1: where we did honestly and oracles so much Historildren and
Speaker 1: I had to stop because I was becoming emotional about
Speaker 1: the whole thing, and I thought, no, no, they're gonna
Speaker 1: have to work with out for themselves, because this is
Speaker 1: something that effects on me. I don't know what it
Speaker 1: was doing to them, but it was certainly having an
Speaker 1: effect on me. Oh, I can only imagine me. I've
Speaker 1: been lucky enough to stand in studio too, and there
Speaker 1: is an energy. You're right, it's it's it really envelopes you. Yes, absolutely,
Speaker 1: it doesn't intrigue me because it's the only studio I've
Speaker 1: ever known where the control room is on the next
Speaker 1: floor up, and so there's this flight of stairs up
Speaker 1: the left hand side, and I've always sort of it
Speaker 1: as the walk of shame when you've been down there
Speaker 1: trying to do a vocal so as I was with
Speaker 1: Alan Parsons, and you know, he wants to say, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, you haven't really got hold of this and
Speaker 1: there's a problem here. Would you like to come up
Speaker 1: and have a chat? And you know, you clip clop up,
Speaker 1: trudging up the stairs. There's nowhere to hide. You know.
Speaker 1: I've never known another studio like that where you have
Speaker 1: to go up this open staircase too to be told
Speaker 1: where you're going wrong. It's such an incredible place. But
Speaker 1: one of the details that I really loved about about
Speaker 1: your your performance the other night was that you had
Speaker 1: the stage crew dressed in the white lab coats. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if that was intentional, but I felt
Speaker 1: like a fitting nod to the days when Abbey Road
Speaker 1: was treated like a laboratory and they had the engineers
Speaker 1: dressed like scientists, but they did. It wasn't my idea,
Speaker 1: but you're absolutely right they were dressed in like. What
Speaker 1: happened was the engineers actually used to be dressed in jackets,
Speaker 1: collars and ties that are looking at the pictures, it
Speaker 1: reminds me of old sessions back in the day. They
Speaker 1: had colors and ties. And then what we would call
Speaker 1: the boffins of the technicians, who would you know, once
Speaker 1: in a while things would go wrong and in a flash,
Speaker 1: these guys would be up there. You didn't you didn't
Speaker 1: phone out for somebody, there's there's a whole department that
Speaker 1: looks after any any technical problems. They wore white coats
Speaker 1: and then there was seemed to be an army of
Speaker 1: guys who just moved things around um sort of loaders,
Speaker 1: and they had brown coats, so it was in a
Speaker 1: way it was quite regimented. It was a real contradiction
Speaker 1: at Abbey Row because they made so many wonderful records
Speaker 1: there and they had great, great engineers. We worked almost
Speaker 1: exclusively with Peter Vince and Jeff Emerick and they were
Speaker 1: absolutely wonderful. But they did have an old fashioned side
Speaker 1: to it. They were very strict rules and I think
Speaker 1: it changed when probably after Sergeant Pepper because the Beatles
Speaker 1: were recording all night, but and before that there were
Speaker 1: very strict rules. You started at ten, and you must
Speaker 1: finish at one. That's your session. Then you started at
Speaker 1: two and you went to a five and you had
Speaker 1: to stop, and then you went from seven to ten,
Speaker 1: and particularly in Studio three, you had to stop at
Speaker 1: ten because the soundproofing wasn't very good in Studio three,
Speaker 1: and it's built right next door to an apartment block,
Speaker 1: and they used to complain about the noise, so you
Speaker 1: had to finish at ten o'clock. It was. It was
Speaker 1: quite strange, really wow, I mean, such a fascinating I mean,
Speaker 1: as you say that to debt almost sort of regimented
Speaker 1: mentality almost helped the sessions in a way because it
Speaker 1: forced you to sort of really have the songs down
Speaker 1: and really get in and get out and know exactly
Speaker 1: what you wanted to do. In a way, it does,
Speaker 1: and I mean, particularly with them obnestly an Oracle, we
Speaker 1: had a very limited budget. We had a thousand plans,
Speaker 1: so I mean, you know, it's not very much. It
Speaker 1: wasn't very much then and it certainly isn't very much now,
Speaker 1: of course, But to to have a thousand plans and
Speaker 1: try and do an album in appy road, you're you're
Speaker 1: up against it. So we rehearsed really extensively before we
Speaker 1: went in to do Odesty an Oracle, and when we
Speaker 1: got to the studio, we knew what songs we were doing,
Speaker 1: we knew what keys we're going to do, and we
Speaker 1: knew the arrangement. We're just looking for a performance and
Speaker 1: we recorded very very fast, but there wasn't there was
Speaker 1: that added element that we knew we could record from
Speaker 1: center one and that was it. And on one occasion,
Speaker 1: there's a song called changes on Odyesty an Oracle, and
Speaker 1: it's the only song that we're all singing on. Everybody's
Speaker 1: singing harmonies on that, and so we were all around
Speaker 1: the piano, lovely Steinway piano in Studio three. There's a
Speaker 1: red light on at the door, but because we're recording,
Speaker 1: we're singing, and the hands of the clock just went
Speaker 1: past one o'clock and these guys in brown coats came
Speaker 1: in and we're singing around the piano and they took
Speaker 1: the piano art and took it to another studio in
Speaker 1: the middle of a take. Yes, well, and we just
Speaker 1: kept singing, but we didn't dare stop because we just
Speaker 1: didn't have any money to pay for those sessions. So
Speaker 1: I've always liked to think that you can hear the
Speaker 1: piano being moved out on that particular track, but I
Speaker 1: think we had to do it again because I think
Speaker 1: it was a bit noisy. I've listened, I can't hear
Speaker 1: the piano being moved, but it did happen. It was
Speaker 1: It was quite interesting. I was rather proud of us
Speaker 1: that these guys I didn't know who they were. I've
Speaker 1: never seen him before, and they walk in and take
Speaker 1: the piano. They could have been stealing the piano for
Speaker 1: all I knew, and we just kept singing. So I
Speaker 1: was quite proud of us in that respect. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, that's professional right there, even though the rolling
Speaker 1: pianos around you don't miss a note, it's professionally. It's
Speaker 1: also desperation when you when you don't have any money
Speaker 1: and the studio times running out, you just keep going,
Speaker 1: you know. And so that's what we do well, despite
Speaker 1: the sort of over zealous movers. Abbey Road then and
Speaker 1: and now is such a technologically advanced place. How did
Speaker 1: that the cutting edge of technology at the time, help
Speaker 1: faster out of see an Oracle? Well, of course, they
Speaker 1: just literally finished saga Pepper. I think the Beatles have
Speaker 1: left two days before we went in, and famously John
Speaker 1: Lennon left his melotron in Studio three and Rod used it.
Speaker 1: And if you listen to Odessy an Oracle, it's melotron
Speaker 1: all the way through it. It would have been a
Speaker 1: different album if John hadn't have left his melo drown behind.
Speaker 1: And they also left percussion instruments all on the floor
Speaker 1: at tambourines, miracus and things, So we were picking up
Speaker 1: the percussion instruments that the Beatles had left from Sergeant Pepper,
Speaker 1: which was a big thrill for us because we're a
Speaker 1: huge Beatles fans then and now. Um. But I say
Speaker 1: that because just before that, the Beach Boys in America
Speaker 1: have been using an eight track machine, but there was
Speaker 1: no eight track machine in the UK. That John Lennon
Speaker 1: said we wanted to use an eight track machine, there
Speaker 1: wasn't one in the UK, and he just left the
Speaker 1: engineers to sort that problem out. And what they came
Speaker 1: up with was they actually attached to four track machines.
Speaker 1: I mean they call it sort of, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's quite rough. I think they just put to four
Speaker 1: track machines together, which in effect gave you seven tracks.
Speaker 1: It didn't give you eight tracks. You lost one track
Speaker 1: when you did this. But so the Beetles have been
Speaker 1: using seven track recording and we inherited that from them
Speaker 1: because we have used to recording on four tracks. In
Speaker 1: the UK, everyone recorded on four tracks, and this game
Speaker 1: is a lot of opportunities to try other things. For instance,
Speaker 1: on time that the season the track was recorded, and
Speaker 1: Rod got the idea of putting a ah and we've
Speaker 1: got an extra track, so he just it was one take,
Speaker 1: you know, he just went into the studio and he
Speaker 1: put that on on on the track, and I mean
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be the same song without that, and we
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been able to do it if we'd only
Speaker 1: had four tracks. So it did. It really did help
Speaker 1: in many ways. It's so interesting to hear how how
Speaker 1: you build these tracks up. I mean you mentioned Brian Wilson. Uh.
Speaker 1: In my mind, I've always associated honestly and Oracle Pet
Speaker 1: and Pet Sounds as just for their sonic scope and
Speaker 1: the rich harmonies and the lyrical maturity. And I think
Speaker 1: about Brian using a sort of modular recording technique for
Speaker 1: something like good Vibrations, where he would record segments of
Speaker 1: songs and assemble them almost like movie scenes, because they
Speaker 1: all had a very different and I listened to tracks
Speaker 1: like something like Changes and Honestly and Oracle or even
Speaker 1: Brief Candles, where it's there's such distinct musical moments and textures.
Speaker 1: How would you go about assembling tracks like that? Did
Speaker 1: you go instrument by instrument and build it up or
Speaker 1: were the complete band performances opposite. We didn't have the
Speaker 1: time to do things like that. I don't think it
Speaker 1: even occurred, but we were recording really fast, and from memory,
Speaker 1: all of those tracks would have all four guys in
Speaker 1: the band playing at the same time in the same room.
Speaker 1: That would be the basic track, and then I would
Speaker 1: put a lead vocal on and Chris and Rock would
Speaker 1: put harmonies on afterwards. That's as I remember it. Um
Speaker 1: and occasionally then because we had these extra tracks. Again
Speaker 1: using time of the season as an example, there are
Speaker 1: two keyboards on, especially on the playout at the end,
Speaker 1: that's there's two keyboards playing. They're both it's both Rod,
Speaker 1: but he's just playing two organ solos at the end,
Speaker 1: And there are probably one or two other instances of that.
Speaker 1: And also we double tracked some of the harmonies which
Speaker 1: we weren't able to do before. So it wasn't incredibly
Speaker 1: complicated the things that we added. It's just that we
Speaker 1: were able to sometimes overdub a keyboard and overdub harmonies
Speaker 1: as well. But it really did help. And then once
Speaker 1: or twice we would put an effect on like the
Speaker 1: time of the season, handclap and breath. You just sopped
Speaker 1: a mystery that I've been grappling with for years. I've
Speaker 1: tried to play the outro solo. Never realized thing it
Speaker 1: was for two keyboards, and I could never figure out
Speaker 1: why I could never get it. Thank you for that.
Speaker 1: But also another thing with our harmonies, which I think
Speaker 1: it's probably puzzled people a little bit. We didn't do
Speaker 1: harmonism in a way that most people did, where being
Speaker 1: the lead singer, I would just sing the melody and
Speaker 1: then we would have somebody sing a harmony above and
Speaker 1: somebody singing a harmony blow. We didn't do things like
Speaker 1: that because I was a fairly indisciplined vocalist. I had
Speaker 1: no um classical background or at all, and Rod would
Speaker 1: always say to me, you sing what you hear. This
Speaker 1: would usually be in a chorus I'm thinking about more
Speaker 1: than anything else. He would sing, say, you sing what
Speaker 1: you hear as the melody, and because I've got quite
Speaker 1: a high voice, I would often automatically go into the
Speaker 1: top harmony. So having established that's what I heard, we
Speaker 1: would we would play that four or five times with
Speaker 1: me probably just rodding me on piano, and we played that,
Speaker 1: did I've got that lot in my mind? And then
Speaker 1: he would try and find a very easy harmony for Chris,
Speaker 1: because Chris has got to play bass at the same
Speaker 1: time as he's singing, So we try and find a
Speaker 1: very easy harmony for Chris. And because of doing those
Speaker 1: two things, Rod often would have an incredibly complex harmony
Speaker 1: that he had to fill in all the holes that
Speaker 1: we weren't achieving in in the harmony. So some of
Speaker 1: our harmonies are really unusual. And if you just if
Speaker 1: you tried to copy them, I think it would be well,
Speaker 1: you'd be all right if you knew what I just said,
Speaker 1: I've let the I've let the cat out of the back, haven't.
Speaker 1: If you knew what I just said, it would be
Speaker 1: a lot easier. But people try to copy them, and
Speaker 1: of course they're thinking of somebody singing the top harmony,
Speaker 1: somebody singing the bottom harmony, and somebody singing the melody.
Speaker 1: But that's not sometimes that wasn't how we did it.
Speaker 1: A few years back, you toured with with Brian Wilson
Speaker 1: for the Something Great from sixty eight tour. What was
Speaker 1: that like, the interplay between between you and m bri.
Speaker 1: I mean, that must have been like a master class
Speaker 1: on harmony that tour. It was incredible. I'm a huge
Speaker 1: by a Wilson fan and and Beach Boys fan, you know,
Speaker 1: and I always have been. I just think they're absolutely fantastic.
Speaker 1: Is a master It was wonderful to two with him,
Speaker 1: and of course he has an incredible band who we
Speaker 1: got to know quite well. And one of the wonderful
Speaker 1: moments was they would always have a warm up before
Speaker 1: the show and they would usually they'd usually sing in
Speaker 1: my room, just acapella. It was mind boggling beautiful. If ever,
Speaker 1: if I had the chance, I would be there every
Speaker 1: night if I could, and I'd just like to listen
Speaker 1: to them sing. Absolutely fantastic and you really hear it
Speaker 1: when it's just voices in a room, Um, you know
Speaker 1: it's not it's got up on the stage with all
Speaker 1: acoustic problems and whatever, You're right there in the middle
Speaker 1: of it. Absolutely wonderful, great singers. And there's a version
Speaker 1: that I've heard of you on stage with Brian singing
Speaker 1: God only knows, and it brought tears to my eyes
Speaker 1: and absolutely incredible parts. I'm always going to remember that
Speaker 1: I only did it twice. I did it in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles and I did it in Seattle, and I'll always
Speaker 1: remember that. It was a wonderful experience. But it was
Speaker 1: one of you know, it's one of the greatest contemporary
Speaker 1: songs that's ever been written. So to have the opportunities
Speaker 1: to sing that with the guy who wrote it, um,
Speaker 1: it's a little intimidazing. It's a little intimidazing, but it was.
Speaker 1: It was a great thrill. It was. It was wonderful.
Speaker 1: I encourage everyone listening to to go go check that
Speaker 1: out online and also check out the interview after the
Speaker 1: Abbey Road live stream that that you and Rod did
Speaker 1: with with the journalist David Frick and he he uh.
Speaker 1: During that discussion, which was so illuminating and so interesting,
Speaker 1: he mentioned, uh, you're singing parts as a full performance
Speaker 1: and not sort of camping in. You know, a chorus here,
Speaker 1: redoing a line or two there, and really wanting to
Speaker 1: to sing complete takes start to finish. That's so interesting
Speaker 1: to me. I wanted to ask you more about your
Speaker 1: your process of completing vocal takes well, and particularly when
Speaker 1: I'm working with Rod, which pretty much now is exclusively
Speaker 1: what I'm doing. It really come from Rod. I mean,
Speaker 1: I would prefer to do it that way anyway, but
Speaker 1: Rod is adamant. You know, we do a whole performance
Speaker 1: and we'll do four or five takes and then try
Speaker 1: and try and pick a favorite one and then just
Speaker 1: see if there's anything better that we you know, we're not.
Speaker 1: I would say to Rod, I'm not proud. You know,
Speaker 1: we need to catch something. That's fine by me, and
Speaker 1: I'm more recently I'm quite pleased that. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: as I've developed vocal technique a little bit, the takes
Speaker 1: will be very very similar, so almost identical. So if
Speaker 1: he wants to double track anything, it's there. If we've
Speaker 1: done four or five takes, that he can just take
Speaker 1: another take and there's your there's your double track if
Speaker 1: you want to double and if you want a trouble track,
Speaker 1: you know it's there. If you want to do it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's as simple as that. Really. We always
Speaker 1: do whole performances, um, and and then we'll do four
Speaker 1: or five and then stop and see where. Or on
Speaker 1: the topic of your incredible voice, I think I'm correct
Speaker 1: in saying that you still perform these songs in their
Speaker 1: regional key, which and you sound just as rich and
Speaker 1: flawless as fifty five years ago. I think I speak
Speaker 1: for all singers and vocal coaches listening right now. When
Speaker 1: I asked, how do you do that? What is your secret?
Speaker 1: Do you have a special tea or what have you?
Speaker 1: How do you protect your voice? Well? I do do
Speaker 1: singing exercises. Both Rod and I started with a singing
Speaker 1: coach called Ian Adam in London is sadly no longer
Speaker 1: with us, but um, he used to coach a lot
Speaker 1: of the singers in the West End, which would be
Speaker 1: like Broadway in America. And he never wanted to change
Speaker 1: your voice, but he was trying to make it stronger
Speaker 1: and more accurate because singers in the West End have
Speaker 1: to sing night after nights after night, and you know
Speaker 1: you have to have a fairly strong voice to do that.
Speaker 1: And he just taught me a little bit about singing technique,
Speaker 1: and he gave me a series of exercises, and when
Speaker 1: we're on the road, I'll do those exercises before sound checks,
Speaker 1: probably half an hour before sound check, and then I
Speaker 1: do them again before the show. So I will have
Speaker 1: sung in the sound check itself, maybe quite long. It
Speaker 1: just depends. It's more dependent on technology than anything else.
Speaker 1: If everything works, but I will have sung for an
Speaker 1: hour before the show starts, but not but in two
Speaker 1: half hour bursts, one before sound check from one before
Speaker 1: the show. So hopefully my voice is warmed up. And
Speaker 1: if I do it every day, it just makes it stronger.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think people who don't practice are very
Speaker 1: prime to losing their voice, and you often see that
Speaker 1: where a band goes out on tour and then we
Speaker 1: lead singer loses his voice after two or three nights,
Speaker 1: and I just want to avoid that. And another thing
Speaker 1: I often hear is singers will come off and they'll say,
Speaker 1: you know, once my voice had warmed up after the
Speaker 1: fourth office song and it's really great, and I don't
Speaker 1: say anything, but I'm thinking, well, why didn't you warm
Speaker 1: your before you went on? And then it would have
Speaker 1: been great from the first song. I mean, I'm not
Speaker 1: saying it always works, but it's it's worth a try. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's so. That's that's all I do. Really, I try.
Speaker 1: When we're on the road, I do try and eat
Speaker 1: sensibly obviously, try and get as much sleep as possible.
Speaker 1: I think you need to drink a lot of water.
Speaker 1: Will always have water on stage. There's one occasion when
Speaker 1: I thought I'd lost my voice in the middle of
Speaker 1: the show. I honestly I thought it had gone completely,
Speaker 1: and I drank some water. It just came back. Just
Speaker 1: like that. Said, I would always say, have some water around.
Speaker 1: I admire people who can do it, like a two
Speaker 1: hour set with not drinking any water, but I'm not
Speaker 1: quite sure how they do that. The other thing that
Speaker 1: I've done is that I was always always like to
Speaker 1: enjoy a consert night and we'd always have a few
Speaker 1: drinks and you know, make a bit of a social
Speaker 1: of it. But four or five years ago, it's four
Speaker 1: and a half years ago, I gave up alcohol altogether.
Speaker 1: And you know, that's that's a big, a big thing
Speaker 1: to do. But if you think you perform better without alcohol,
Speaker 1: it's worth considering. You know, if you're getting you a
Speaker 1: bit sloppy. If you make mistakes and your intonation is
Speaker 1: not on the button, it might be worth looking at
Speaker 1: your alcohol consumption. I'm not saying people what to do.
Speaker 1: I'm only telling you what I do. You know, actually
Speaker 1: I'm going to have a drink. Talking about water are
Speaker 1: amazing tips. I mean, you know your voice is so distinctive,
Speaker 1: but it blows me away how many different styles you singing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm thinking about your first album. You go
Speaker 1: from Groce Win tunes to Smokey Robinson to Bo Diddley.
Speaker 1: When you first started singing with their voice voices that
Speaker 1: you wanted to emulate. Who are some of your your
Speaker 1: your vocal heroes when you were first starting out as
Speaker 1: a musician. Well, I'll tell you in a minute that
Speaker 1: I only became a singer really by chance. But I'll
Speaker 1: explain that in a minute. But for me, it was
Speaker 1: always the greats of rock and roll, Chuck Berry, Elvis,
Speaker 1: Little Richard. They were the people that I idolized and
Speaker 1: then that encouraged me to buy My parents bought a guitar.
Speaker 1: And it wasn't easy for them, you know, they bought
Speaker 1: the guitar. I was eternally grateful and through that I
Speaker 1: got an introduction to this band that was forming as
Speaker 1: a guitarist, and I went along and it was our
Speaker 1: first ever rehearsal, and you know, I didn't know Rod
Speaker 1: at the time. I knew one guy who was in
Speaker 1: this joining this band, and he was late. So I
Speaker 1: kind of turned up and there were all these strangers there,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't helped by the fact that I played
Speaker 1: a lot of rugby and I just broken my nose
Speaker 1: and I had two black eyes and taping across my face,
Speaker 1: so I actually looked like a zombie when I turned up.
Speaker 1: I think they're a bit afraid of me, actually, which
Speaker 1: was lovely. Anyway, I was a rhythm guitarist. Didn't last long.
Speaker 1: I was a rhymen guitarist and Rob was going to
Speaker 1: be the lead vocalist. And at this first rehearsal we
Speaker 1: played um. We played a song called malaguenan instrumental called
Speaker 1: Mala It's an old classic Guene and Rob didn't because
Speaker 1: it was instrumentally, didn't do anything because he was the singer.
Speaker 1: And then we had a break and he went over
Speaker 1: that just by chance, there was an old broken down
Speaker 1: piano in the corner and he just started playing nut
Speaker 1: rocker by be bumbling the stingers, which is it's quite
Speaker 1: an accomplishment for say a fifteen year old boy to
Speaker 1: play that with authority. And I went over to him, and,
Speaker 1: as I said, I didn't really know him, so I
Speaker 1: probably I probably didn't call him his name. I just said, boy,
Speaker 1: you should play keyboards in this band. I don't know,
Speaker 1: why aren't you playing keyboards? And he was adamant, you've said, no,
Speaker 1: it's a rock and roll back. We want three guitars,
Speaker 1: which was the fashion at the time, and the conversation ended.
Speaker 1: And then at the end of that first rehearsal, I
Speaker 1: was just going to put my guitar in its case
Speaker 1: and I just sang a Rocky Nelson song pretty much
Speaker 1: to myself, just in the corner, which is having a
Speaker 1: bit of fun. It was either Hello Mary Lou or
Speaker 1: It's late. May would have been It's late. And Rod
Speaker 1: came over. I wasn't singing to him. He just heard
Speaker 1: it and he came over and you said, look, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what. If you'll be the lead singer in
Speaker 1: the band, I'll play keyboards. And that essentially was how
Speaker 1: the Zombies came together. Wow, maybe maybe he couldn't sing
Speaker 1: and play at the same time back then, maybe he couldn't. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know whether he could or not, but that
Speaker 1: was the beginning of it. When we were always slightly
Speaker 1: differ in that we were a keyboard based band when
Speaker 1: that was not the fashion at all, and we always
Speaker 1: did three part harmony, you know, and very few other
Speaker 1: bands we're doing three part harmony at the time, but
Speaker 1: we always did it. It's so interesting to think about
Speaker 1: how much R and B you are played early in
Speaker 1: your career and a lot of British bands to him.
Speaker 1: It got my mojo working road Runners, Sticks and Stones.
Speaker 1: It's funny to think the Zombies re introducing this American
Speaker 1: music two Americans in a lot of ways. At one time,
Speaker 1: the Zombies were called the Zombies R and B because
Speaker 1: that's what we played. What we dropped the R and B.
Speaker 1: And of course I'm just before the first We won
Speaker 1: a rock and roll competition which led to a contract
Speaker 1: with Decca and we were introduced to a producer called
Speaker 1: Ken Jennes who was going to produce that first session.
Speaker 1: And about two weeks before the session, he said to us,
Speaker 1: you know, sessions coming up in two weeks time. You
Speaker 1: could write something for this session if you want. And
Speaker 1: then he went on talking the other thing wasn't a
Speaker 1: big deal, and Rod went away and he wrote She's
Speaker 1: Not There, came back to us fourt year hours later
Speaker 1: and played us a song. You know, we knew it
Speaker 1: was a special song, and actually Chris White wrote a
Speaker 1: great song as well, which was a B side, You
Speaker 1: Made Me Feel Good. I didn't know either of them
Speaker 1: could write songs. It was a huge surprise to me
Speaker 1: and that changed everything because up until then we've been
Speaker 1: playing predominantly R and B classics. But of course we
Speaker 1: recorded She's Not There, and it was a huge hit
Speaker 1: and people wanted more songs like that week. We also
Speaker 1: used to play quite a lot of Beetles tunes as well,
Speaker 1: but once we had a hit record, we couldn't play
Speaker 1: Beetles tunes and people didn't really want the R and
Speaker 1: B classics, so there was there was a problem because
Speaker 1: Rod and Chris didn't have a backlog of songs. They
Speaker 1: were the first two songs. Actually, Robs told me he
Speaker 1: had written two songs before that um, but he didn't
Speaker 1: have a backbob of some to Neither did Chris White,
Speaker 1: and so it created a bit of a problem for us,
Speaker 1: especially as Decca always put pressure on artists who had
Speaker 1: a chart record to within six weeks to have a
Speaker 1: follow up. It's six weeks. It's just it's just inviting
Speaker 1: me to fail. I mean, we were working every night,
Speaker 1: we were we were out ontour. There was no opportunity
Speaker 1: to write. And so when the sort of dreaded six
Speaker 1: weeks came up, roughly speaking, we had one song. Chris
Speaker 1: White had got a song. It wasn't an aside. We
Speaker 1: all knew, it wasn't an a side Leave me be,
Speaker 1: it was cool. It was a very dark and depressing song.
Speaker 1: It was all we had, and so Deca put it
Speaker 1: out and of course it was a dismal failure. And
Speaker 1: in the States we skipped that, and the follow up
Speaker 1: to She's Not There in America was Telling Her Note,
Speaker 1: which was quite a big hit, and it was a
Speaker 1: small hit in the UK as well. But people away
Speaker 1: seem to be so short sighted in these days. You know,
Speaker 1: you have to have a follow up, regardless of whether
Speaker 1: you've got a new material. They were just forced this
Speaker 1: follow up, and it just seems like they're almost willing
Speaker 1: you to fail and so they can get onto the
Speaker 1: next new band, And in many cases that is what happened.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's so I mean, you think about it,
Speaker 1: The Zombies seem to fall prey to so many really
Speaker 1: unfortunate music industry practices in the sixties, both creatively and financially.
Speaker 1: I mean, the thing I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: don't understand now is how could the Zombies break up
Speaker 1: when you've just completed an album of spectacular as artsy
Speaker 1: an oracle. In hindsight, it almost looks like you broke
Speaker 1: up at the top of your game creatively, but obviously
Speaker 1: there were so many more factors and forces of playing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean a hindsight, I completely agree with you. But
Speaker 1: the fact is that we were very, very poorly managed.
Speaker 1: And it's difficult to say how poorly managed without sort
Speaker 1: of getting into legal terry blaming. Yeah, really really poorly managed,
Speaker 1: and particularly the three guys who weren't writers. Thank heavens,
Speaker 1: the writers income didn't go through our management company, so
Speaker 1: One and Chris were actually doing quite well, and you know,
Speaker 1: and that's wonderful because they were writing great songs and
Speaker 1: they were being rewarded for it. But the three non writers.
Speaker 1: We just weren't earning any money. I mean, we were
Speaker 1: just broke, and we've been three years on the road
Speaker 1: playing all the time. We just had a very challenging
Speaker 1: tour into the Far East where we didn't realize it,
Speaker 1: but when we got there we had sort of five
Speaker 1: records in the top ten. We played at the Arenessa
Speaker 1: Coliseum in the in the Manila or just outside of Manila,
Speaker 1: Cason City, and we opened to twenty eight thousand people.
Speaker 1: We had no idea this was happening. We did a
Speaker 1: ten day residency. We played to fifteen thousand the matinee
Speaker 1: on the Saturday after the and on the Saturday night
Speaker 1: we played to thirty two thousand people. This basically went
Speaker 1: on for ten nights. We were being paid eighty pounds
Speaker 1: a night, which is it no and our manager and
Speaker 1: our agents were taking of that. I mean, in a
Speaker 1: in a way it's funny, but then we also think
Speaker 1: about it. You know, we couldn't live. We just didn't
Speaker 1: have any mind, and even we could see that that
Speaker 1: was not right. And when we came back, we left
Speaker 1: that manager and that agent, and I think he more
Speaker 1: or less gave up on us. Really, I think he
Speaker 1: knew that we knew what was going on, and so
Speaker 1: we were free of him. But we couldn't find anyone
Speaker 1: else who was interested. But we got this deal with
Speaker 1: CBS for a small amount of money. As I said,
Speaker 1: and especially Robn Chris wanted to make an album of
Speaker 1: their songs that that that sounded how they envisioned, envisioned them.
Speaker 1: Can't speak this aften and I don't know why, and
Speaker 1: and so that's what we did. And then at the
Speaker 1: end of it, we released a single in the UK
Speaker 1: called Care of Self Well Before. It's the first track
Speaker 1: from the album, and I think it's the most commercial
Speaker 1: song on there actually myself. It's incredible. I still will
Speaker 1: never understand why that was not a smash. That is
Speaker 1: an amazing song. And at the time, of course, the
Speaker 1: business was very singles orientated, so just a little bit
Speaker 1: later it was more albums the end of the sixties
Speaker 1: beginning of the semence. But the single was ignored, really
Speaker 1: it did, wasn't played, and it didn't sell, and it
Speaker 1: just seemed as so we'd we'd come to the end
Speaker 1: of the road. And then actual fact, the band finished
Speaker 1: before Honestly and Oracle was even released, and in a
Speaker 1: way that that was a little silly, but it's just
Speaker 1: it was the it was because of the year or
Speaker 1: so before, or it just drained us, you know, and
Speaker 1: nobody had any money. In particular Pull that conser a guitarists.
Speaker 1: It just got married and he absolutely had no money.
Speaker 1: And he'd been offered a job in a computer phone,
Speaker 1: you know, really good money, and he you know, he
Speaker 1: didn't want to take it, but there wasn't an alternative
Speaker 1: for him, really, and so it just seemed that it
Speaker 1: would be best that we just very amicably that the
Speaker 1: band should should end. And that was it. And then
Speaker 1: Al Cooper was over in London and he bought about
Speaker 1: two hundred albums and he just said one of them
Speaker 1: just really stood out to him. It was, honestly an oracle.
Speaker 1: He had just taken a job with CBS as a
Speaker 1: producer at CBS CBS and on his first day he
Speaker 1: went to see Clive Davis and he said, we have
Speaker 1: to buy this album. It doesn't matter what it costs.
Speaker 1: We've got to get this album. Honestly an oracle. And
Speaker 1: Clive Davis said to him, we owned that album. We
Speaker 1: we weren't going to release it, you know, And our
Speaker 1: Cooper fought for it, you know, we owe him so much.
Speaker 1: He fought for it. And eventually the album was released,
Speaker 1: and I think there were either three or four singles
Speaker 1: released before one of them talk and that was Time
Speaker 1: of the Season, and famously a DJ and Boise Idaho
Speaker 1: would not stop playing Time of the Season and gradually
Speaker 1: it spread from Boise out and it took months, you know,
Speaker 1: and then it got right across the country and eventually
Speaker 1: it was a huge hit, like that DJ the cinema
Speaker 1: thank You code, I know, Well absolutely changed our lives,
Speaker 1: you know, as did our Cooper. But it's a very
Speaker 1: strange story. And even when Time of the Season was
Speaker 1: a hit, obnessly an Oracle wasn't really in it. I
Speaker 1: think it went into the bill Billboard top hundred once
Speaker 1: for like two weeks, got to about really a hit.
Speaker 1: But then ten years later people started talking about it,
Speaker 1: and in particular Tom Petty in America and all Well
Speaker 1: in the UK became champions of this album and of
Speaker 1: the band, and they wouldn't stop promoting, you know. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a wonderful thing when you've got two internationally wonderful
Speaker 1: artists like that who are acting as your promoters, you know,
Speaker 1: and they wouldn't start promoting the album, and eventually it
Speaker 1: started to really create a lot of interest. And I
Speaker 1: think Rolling Stone and they do these charts every five
Speaker 1: or eight years or something, but certainly in one of
Speaker 1: the charts, we were in the top hundred albums of
Speaker 1: all time. They do a top five hundred, but we
Speaker 1: actually just got into the top hundred, which is incredible
Speaker 1: for an album that's never really been a hit, although
Speaker 1: year on year it just sells more and more. It's
Speaker 1: it's a mystery. I cannot tell you how this has happened.
Speaker 1: But really, sixty years later we're talking about this album.
Speaker 1: There was never a hit, and and yet it's it's
Speaker 1: meant so much to so many people as a work
Speaker 1: of art. You know, people are inspired by it and
Speaker 1: constantly write about it and talk about it. And it
Speaker 1: was never a commercial success at the time, and most
Speaker 1: people probably think it still isn't a commercial success, but
Speaker 1: it sells quite considerable numbers. Now, I mean, that's what's
Speaker 1: so precious about it is that, you know, most people
Speaker 1: rediscover these albums through a movie soundtrack or a commercial
Speaker 1: or something like that, but this just purely stands on
Speaker 1: its own merit and word of mouth and people who
Speaker 1: just pass it down and say this is really incredible,
Speaker 1: check it out, and it just completely sells just based
Speaker 1: on the strength of the songs and the music. Well, Paul,
Speaker 1: if if he talks to you about honestly an oracle,
Speaker 1: which and he talks to a lot of people about honestly,
Speaker 1: and if you haven't got the album where you don't
Speaker 1: know what he's talking about, he will buy you with
Speaker 1: you even do it to you. Also, you just mentioned films,
Speaker 1: and that's another I find quite intriguing thing that zombie
Speaker 1: songs turn up in films a lot. We were we
Speaker 1: were in the Disney film Cruella at the Summer and
Speaker 1: the Canned Film Festival, a French film one the can
Speaker 1: Film Festival called to Tame t I t A n
Speaker 1: E and she's not there was in that. And there's
Speaker 1: another film that's just come out called Where do You
Speaker 1: Go To? Where do You Go to? Bernadette with Cape
Speaker 1: and I always say her name on Cape blanchard Um.
Speaker 1: She's a very very famous actress and that's got she's
Speaker 1: not thearing it. So there's that's this summer, we've had
Speaker 1: three songs and films. Plus there's a department store in
Speaker 1: the States called colm Ko l H. And they used
Speaker 1: a Zombies song over the summer. It was this will
Speaker 1: be our year. But these songs, these songs are fifty
Speaker 1: years old, sometime, some nearly sixty years old, and people
Speaker 1: are using them in contemporary films and commercials. It's it's
Speaker 1: I think it's fascinating. It's a huge mystery to me.
Speaker 1: But but I mean, I don't mind about it now.
Speaker 1: It's a mystery. I don't understand it, but it's wonderful
Speaker 1: that these songs are being discovered after all this time.
Speaker 1: I think they called that timeless. Do you know what?
Speaker 1: I think A lot of zombie songs are timeless. You know,
Speaker 1: people sometimes saying it, how do you feel about singing?
Speaker 1: Time of the season and she's not there every night
Speaker 1: for years and years when you're on the road. But
Speaker 1: they are the timeless classics. And I love singing and
Speaker 1: quite honestly, they're slightly different every night when you play,
Speaker 1: and I thoroughly enjoy its. Speaking of absolutely incredible albums.
Speaker 1: Just down the hall from where you performed the other
Speaker 1: night at Studio too, at Abbey Road, you recorded your
Speaker 1: debut solo disc One Year, which is is absolutely staggering album,
Speaker 1: one of my favorites, and I'm thrilled to hear that
Speaker 1: it's getting a reissue with a bonus disc of some
Speaker 1: unheard compositions and demos. Uh, can you take me back
Speaker 1: to those sessions? What was it like during that that
Speaker 1: one year? Well, I, you know, I think it's quite
Speaker 1: interesting in that it's all there's definitely a connection with
Speaker 1: Honestly and Oro because that was Rod Argent and Chris
Speaker 1: White co producing me in Studio three with piece of
Speaker 1: Vince Engineering, and he engineered the majority of Odessy an Oracle,
Speaker 1: So there was huge It was a huge connection with
Speaker 1: Honestly an Oracle, and it was great to get the
Speaker 1: old team back together again and we introduced a wonderful
Speaker 1: string arranger called Chris Gunning into the mix, and that
Speaker 1: I just think it was he came up with things
Speaker 1: that was just so different what he was saying to him.
Speaker 1: I think this came from Rod more than anyone. Think
Speaker 1: Bartok when you're doing think Bartok. And boy did he
Speaker 1: come up with some great arrangements so unusual, and one
Speaker 1: of them a song called say you Don't Mind which
Speaker 1: is a Denny Lane song, was a huge hit in
Speaker 1: the UK. Really took me by surprise because it's um
Speaker 1: it wasn't actually a string quartet, but it's written as
Speaker 1: if it was for a string caute. But it's actually
Speaker 1: a twenty one piece string orchestra, but no rhythm track,
Speaker 1: no other instrument, just strings. And it was a hit
Speaker 1: in the UK, but it never it didn't make an
Speaker 1: impact at the time in the States. It's a little
Speaker 1: bit the opposite to the Zombies because the Time of
Speaker 1: the Season was a big hit in America. The Time
Speaker 1: of the Season was never a hit in the UK.
Speaker 1: It was a hit everywhere else but not in the UK.
Speaker 1: But from my first album, Say Don't was a hit
Speaker 1: in the UK but not in the States. Exactly the opposite,
Speaker 1: but an incredible track. I mean you mentioned bar talk.
Speaker 1: I think of the string break in Misty Roses, which
Speaker 1: I mean for me, that's a definitive version of of
Speaker 1: I know Tim Harden wrote it, but that's your version
Speaker 1: of Misty Roses, the definitive version of that song. For me,
Speaker 1: that is an incredible track. Well, it's funny because I'm
Speaker 1: a huge fan of Tim Harden and um, I think
Speaker 1: he did an incredible version, but so I would never
Speaker 1: say one was better than the other. Hopefully people have
Speaker 1: been able to both of them, you know, I think
Speaker 1: they're both worth to listen. And you know, I'm a
Speaker 1: huge fan of Tim Harden and but particularly that song.
Speaker 1: It's such a beautiful song. And the original songs that
Speaker 1: that you wrote during these sessions and Caroline Goodbye, that
Speaker 1: You're Far Away, I mean, they're my favorites on the
Speaker 1: album as well. I mean, I know you contributed, um
Speaker 1: just out of Reach to the Zombies can and uh
Speaker 1: may to be with hearing these songs that you've written more.
Speaker 1: I mean, did any of the one year tracks date
Speaker 1: back to the Zombie's era. I don't think so. No,
Speaker 1: I think I did write one other Zombie Tunit's first
Speaker 1: song I ever wrote is called how We Were Before.
Speaker 1: It's very romantic, simple tune. Um. But you know, I
Speaker 1: was sort of watching Rod and Chris and seeing them
Speaker 1: developers writers, and as I said before, I didn't know
Speaker 1: they could write before She's Not There and the B
Speaker 1: side you make Me Feel Good We're written. I had
Speaker 1: no idea. I thought songwriters came from a different part
Speaker 1: of the business too. Performing artists. I didn't realize. And
Speaker 1: I think there's another thing that we owe the Beatles
Speaker 1: that they made us realize that you could write your
Speaker 1: own material. There seemed to be an unwritten law that
Speaker 1: bands didn't write their own material, but they changed all that.
Speaker 1: And watching Rod and Chris developers writers, it just encouraged
Speaker 1: me to have a go and I just developed slowly
Speaker 1: over the years. And and also I went to live
Speaker 1: in a flat with a couple of guys who were
Speaker 1: in the music business, and one was a manager. One
Speaker 1: was a singer songwriter called Duncan Brown and if you
Speaker 1: ever check out his stuff, Duncan Broun. He had one
Speaker 1: hit in this country called Journey, but he made several
Speaker 1: really really good albums, and he was also in a
Speaker 1: band called Metro, which was really good as well. So
Speaker 1: I lived in this flat with these two guys, and
Speaker 1: Duncan was a wonderful classical guitarist, and I just sat
Speaker 1: mesmerized by his playing, and all three of us played guitar.
Speaker 1: Duncan was by father best and we would play through
Speaker 1: the night. And they showed an interest in my writing
Speaker 1: that I wasn't aware of before. I wasn't aware that
Speaker 1: anyone was particularly interested in my writing, and they encouraged me.
Speaker 1: And that's why I called my second album and as
Speaker 1: More because we lived in this flat apartment in a
Speaker 1: place called enns More Gardens in London, which is right
Speaker 1: behind the Albert Hall, so it's a lovely area of London,
Speaker 1: and I thought that that's in some ways that's when
Speaker 1: my songwriting started. In that flat in Ender's More Gardens.
Speaker 1: I just started to get the idea of of becoming
Speaker 1: a writer as well as a as a singer, and
Speaker 1: they really encouraged me. So I always remember Duncan Brown.
Speaker 1: Do check him out. He's really really good. And you
Speaker 1: have the album Journey too, right, I think I think
Speaker 1: it was an album. It's called Journey keep the Curtains
Speaker 1: Closed Today and the gorgeous songs. I wish i'd recorded
Speaker 1: more with him. In fact, I've got some demos of
Speaker 1: me and him, and I mentioned it's someone the other
Speaker 1: day and it's very you've got but they're on a
Speaker 1: real to real tape. You know. I've got to I've
Speaker 1: got to have it transferred professionally because otherwise it might
Speaker 1: just disintegrate. But when I mentioned that to someone actually
Speaker 1: in America. You've got to get that onto either CD
Speaker 1: or or on you know, onto something so that people
Speaker 1: would be really interested to hear that. And we were
Speaker 1: just mucking around. But it's funny how time sort of
Speaker 1: makes it changes how people view what you were thinking
Speaker 1: of as quite a lighthearted musical romp. It's just having fun.
Speaker 1: And you know, after fifty years, people are saying, man,
Speaker 1: this is history. You know, you've got to do something
Speaker 1: with this. So that's what's happened with the One Year album.
Speaker 1: It's kind of strange. Chris White's two sons. Uh, we're
Speaker 1: working on all his black catalog and Chris has written
Speaker 1: many many songs and also he has produced a lot
Speaker 1: of people, and so they're putting out a series of
Speaker 1: CDs called Chris White Experience. And they were going through
Speaker 1: his attic looking at cassette cassette real too real and
Speaker 1: what happened And they found some real to reel of
Speaker 1: songs of mine and sort of phone me up really excitedly, saying,
Speaker 1: we found all these songs and when I listened to them,
Speaker 1: it's the most extraordinary feeling that because they're so old,
Speaker 1: I just certainly did not remember the sessions at all
Speaker 1: and some of the songs I don't well, I didn't
Speaker 1: remember them then that they are a vague memory. Now
Speaker 1: I've played them a few times. But most of these
Speaker 1: are just me sitting down with a guitar, and I
Speaker 1: would call them sort of rough ideas of songs. They're
Speaker 1: almost sort of pre demos a lot of them, really,
Speaker 1: but they do they do show what kind of area
Speaker 1: I was I was writing in and the record company
Speaker 1: got to hear of these tracks and then it was
Speaker 1: sort of taking out of my hands then and it's
Speaker 1: now a double album and I don't My input in
Speaker 1: that wasn't very much except I sang the tracks in
Speaker 1: the beginning. Chris White's sons found the tape and the
Speaker 1: record company took the tapes on the on the CD.
Speaker 1: I hope people and will enjoy them. I mean it
Speaker 1: they I think they do have some some value. Oh
Speaker 1: the song that that's out there now that I've heard,
Speaker 1: I Won't Let You Down, which is available for for
Speaker 1: for preview, is absolutely stunning. It is I cannot wait
Speaker 1: to hear the rest. It is gorgeous. I mean, it
Speaker 1: makes me wish that it was a double album to
Speaker 1: start with. It is an absolutely incredible song. Then you've
Speaker 1: picked up on that and it's so funny. I mean
Speaker 1: the Yeah, there are thirteen other songs like that, you know,
Speaker 1: some have a story and some some don't. I mean,
Speaker 1: there was there's one on there and it was written
Speaker 1: because there were some phony Zombies growing up and playing.
Speaker 1: I think there were three phony Zombie bands. I think
Speaker 1: those guys in zz Tapper and one of them. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's true. Yeah, And because the Zombies had finished and
Speaker 1: sort of nearly two years later, time in the season
Speaker 1: was a big hit in the States, there was a
Speaker 1: huge vacuum. You know, there was all this work and
Speaker 1: no band, and so a lot of managers start thinking, well, listen,
Speaker 1: we don't like black cubes. We've got to fill it.
Speaker 1: And so they these bands started playing. And on one occasion,
Speaker 1: Chris White was in the offices of Rolling Stone and
Speaker 1: they said, look, we've got the phone number of the
Speaker 1: manager of one of these bands. So we want you,
Speaker 1: Chris White, original base baron the Zombies, to phone um up,
Speaker 1: but pretend that you're from Rolling Stone and get the story.
Speaker 1: So you phoned up the guy and the guy said, well,
Speaker 1: the thing is, we wanted to honor the life of
Speaker 1: the lead singer of the Zombes who was killed in
Speaker 1: a car crash. And this is why we put the
Speaker 1: band together. And this is in Rolling Stone. Actually, I
Speaker 1: think this article is printed at least in part on
Speaker 1: the sleeve of the double album that's coming out. And
Speaker 1: so I wrote. One of the songs that I wrote
Speaker 1: is Yesterday and Rolling Stone a man said I'm dead,
Speaker 1: and that's that's not the start, because it was a
Speaker 1: very strange feeling to have it in a major you know,
Speaker 1: a major outlet. But you're dead, You're dead, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean, news of my death is rather rather premature.
Speaker 1: I'm afraid of famous statement, not mine. Um. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was kind of weird, and that got me an idea
Speaker 1: for one of the songs, sing your own song. It
Speaker 1: is no I haven't I've I've read. I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to hearing them, but I haven't had a chance to
Speaker 1: hear him yet, so they are quite rough. You know,
Speaker 1: what would be really exciting if there was a general
Speaker 1: interest in these songs and we could expand them, and
Speaker 1: you know, there's enough material there to to record an album.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't that be extraordinary? After fifty or sixty years, we
Speaker 1: take these very primitive demos and make them into actual tracks.
Speaker 1: That would be a thrill. Yes, it would, Yes that
Speaker 1: that would I would love that, and I know that
Speaker 1: that many people would too. I mean, I know that
Speaker 1: you and Rod and the band right now are are
Speaker 1: hard at work on a new new Zombies album, but
Speaker 1: perhaps perhaps after that. Yeah, we're sort of halfway through
Speaker 1: a Zombies album. We probably started seven tracks, but some
Speaker 1: of them are not finished, and hopefully we can we
Speaker 1: can wrap that up certainly before the end of the year,
Speaker 1: and I would hope that we'll have a new album
Speaker 1: early next year. It's just with the situation as it
Speaker 1: is at the moment, it's difficult to get everyone together.
Speaker 1: We the last album and this album, we've decided we
Speaker 1: want everyone in the studio at the same time playing.
Speaker 1: You know, in some ways it's almost like a live
Speaker 1: album within a studio setting. But we find that people
Speaker 1: play differently if they're all in the same room at
Speaker 1: the same time. There's an energy that you don't get
Speaker 1: if you record your parts separately and layer the track.
Speaker 1: Um So on the last album still got that hunger.
Speaker 1: Everyone was in the studio at the same time. We
Speaker 1: kept the solos from the live versions and we kept
Speaker 1: the lead vocals. We only over dubbed harmonies vocal harmonies.
Speaker 1: Otherwise it's it's like a live album. That was a
Speaker 1: highlight of your concert at Abbey Road. Just hearing some
Speaker 1: some new some of the new songs that are coming
Speaker 1: out soon with an incredible stringer company meant they're absolutely
Speaker 1: gorgeous and when they're wonderful players, really good, so wonderful.
Speaker 1: I hope we can work some more with that quartet.
Speaker 1: They're called Q Strings, really really good. It was, it
Speaker 1: was such it was such a treat to hear, you know,
Speaker 1: get a tease of the the upcoming album. I can't
Speaker 1: wait to hear the rest of it. I think it's
Speaker 1: going to be good. I'm really too ah well, call
Speaker 1: your music has meant the world demanded is touched me
Speaker 1: from many, many, many years, has brought me so much
Speaker 1: joy to me and my loved ones. I am so
Speaker 1: grateful for that, and I'm so grateful for your time today.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, thank you. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 1: I've really enjoyed having a chat. Thanks for having to
Speaker 1: be on the show. We hope you enjoyed this episode
Speaker 1: of Inside the Studio. A production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more episodes of Inside the Studio or other fantastic shows,
Speaker 1: check out the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or
Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.