Ahead of their performance at this year's Cornbury Festival, we got Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent to tell us 10 things everybody should know about The Zombies:
The Zombies / Credit: Andrew Eccles
- The name The Zombies came from original bass player Paul Arnold. Before that for a very short time we were called The Mustangs and then The Sundowners.
- Our first professional gig was in Hayes in Middlesex... Nobody came.
- Our first national tour was with The Searches, Dionne Warwick and The Isley Brothers... Many people came!
- The current incarnation of the band first toured in 1999. We didn't use The Zombies name for many years but when we were continually asked to play more and more Zombies tunes, it seemed the obvious thing to do.
- Since reforming The Zombies we have performed in the UK, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Greece, Japan, the Philippines, the US and Canada... And probably a few other countries too!
- John Lennon was reputed to have wanted to produce us, before we split up for the first time in 1967.
- Our 1968 album 'Odessey And Oracle' sells more every year now than when it was first released.
- Our new album 'Still Got That Hunger' actually charted on the Billboard top 100 album sales chart in America - the first time for The Zombies in the US for 50 years!
- Rod really enjoys ballroom dancing with his wife.
- Paul McCartney was indirectly responsible for the release of new album 'Still Got That Hunger' - when Sony said the record couldn't come out, because one of the songs quoted 'Yesterday', Paul said he really liked it and overrode the objection. Lovely of him...
The Zombies are playing at Cornbury Festival on Sunday 10th July. www.cornburyfestival.com