A Zombie in Saddleworth!
Colin Blunstone.
Colin Blunstone frontman of the legendary Zombies will be playing at Uppermill Civic Hall on Sunday the 3rd February as part of his new UK solo tour.
As well as playing many of his solo hits including “Say You Don’t Mind”, “I Don’t Believe In Miracles” and “What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted” Colin will be journeying through a career that began in the mid 60’s.
He will be backed up by a superb four piece band and the fantastic Stefan Pope will be playing support.
The Zombies.
Colin is described as having a voice that is one of the “greatest British vocal sounds of the century” and having one of the most “quintessentially English” pop voices of its generation.
In an interview with Saddleworth News Colin said: “The Zombies first got together in Easter 1961 when I was fifteen and I made my first record at 18, I would never have been in the zombies if we hadn’t sat in alphabetical order at school. I sat behind Paul Arnold who was making a bass guitar in woodwork and later invited me to play along with him and three friends from another school.
“We all met up outside the Blacksmiths Arms in St Albans one Saturday night as we couldn’t get inside the pub, so we chatted away and made some plans and that was how we started the Zombies.
“We were originally the Mustangs, and then we realised there were other bands called the Mustangs. But Paul Arnold came up with Zombies and to be honest, everyone thought it was a great name, but I wasn’t that keen on it. After awhile though, it came to represent the band although I still think that the name Zombies sounds more like a heavy metal band.
“We got offered a deal with Decca and we had a nice producer called Ken Jones who told us we could always write something ourselves if we wanted, I’d never thought about doing anything like that, writing songs seemed like something that was done by a different breed of humans!
“Rod Argent went home and wrote ‘she’s not there’ and as soon as I heard it I knew it was a really good song, I felt it could be a huge hit without wanting to sound big headed, we just knew there was something very special about it.
“But ‘Time Of The season’ was our biggest worldwide hit ever for the zombies but funnily not in the UK, and it’s strange that in some countries we have had hits with songs we have almost forgotten about. In the Philippines for example we had to completely re learn nine songs as we hadn’t played them for years anywhere, but over there they were really huge hits and they wanted them played.
“We split up in the summer of 1967 after being together for three years, just after we split up ‘Time of The Season’ reached no1 in Cashbox and no2 in Billboard, but we didn’t even discuss getting back together for some strange reason.”
Colin had to reschedule the Saddleworth gig due to being quite ill with laryngitis and bronchitis, but that alone wasn’t the full reason he cancelled, it was mainly due to the fact he had lost his voice “completely” and jokingly said he thought he would just end up doing “exotic dancing” as a last resort.
“I have just done a new solo album called ‘on the air tonight’ and the Zombies have three tours in the USA this year and a UK theatre tour in May, it’s amazing how much work the zombies have got lined up and we don’t take any of it for granted at all. It’s a surprise for us the interest we are getting and its mostly worldwide,” he said.
Tickets for the concert on Sunday 3rd February are £15.00 (adv) £18.00 on the door, doors open at 7.30pm. They can be purchased from Uppermill Civic Hall, Lee Street, Uppermill.
Also from Uppermill Post Office, 54 High Street, Uppermill, Greenfield Post Office, 32/34 Chew Valley Road and Diggle Post Office.
For further information Contact: 07707 090108. Tickets can also be reserved by e mail neilbluesnights@hotmail.co.uk @ £15.00.
Author: Jude Gidney - Editor
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