I had been waiting some time for a group that holds my interest to attend the Robin 2 club in Bilston and was quite surprised that The Zombies with the original Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent were both going to be performing.
My knowledge of the group is pretty much like most of my music memories, locked in the 60’s so as far as I was concerned they were the band that had; She’s Not There, Time of the Season for love, and Tell her no. Argent had Hold your Head up, which I have fond memories of playing on a portable record player on the North Sea Ferries out of Bremerhaven in the early 70’s during a storm that reduced the playing time of a 9 minute album track to about 1 minute 20 seconds. Happy days, on leave from the army travelling with Alan Jones and Mick the Brick (there may have been another but, their name escapes me). As for Colin Blunstone, the name rang a bell but, nothing sprang to mind other than acknowledging his musical talent.
Nevertheless, I was determined to see them as I like the live music shows and I knew between them they had over 50 years of music. I was not disappointed either. The support band I had seen before with the Strawbs, cannot remember the groups name but, it was the one with the bra less woman with a massive pair 🙂
The Zombies did not disappoint either. I think you can tell if it is going to be a great night out if the band appear to be enjoying themselves and there were smiles all round. They played a mixture of old and new, having completed a new album last year, and included solo and collaborative efforts of group members. Hold Your Head up was a perfect performance as were the other tracks but, that one had the place buzzing.
Some surprises, I did not know they were behind the hit ‘God Gave rock and Roll to us’ and one or two others were mentioned that had been covered as hits that were pretty much overlooked in their original recordings.
Only downside for me, and perhaps I’m just a tadge picky, was Rod Argent name dropping telling us how all the big musicians loved their albums. It got a little out of hand when he was rambling on about a Scandinavian TV DJ saying how wonderful they were. He was pretty much preaching to the converted. In complete contrast Colin Blunstone seemed very modest about all their collective and solo achievements.
We had a little drama too, when Argent’s mike broke over his keyboard and he was leaning over scowling and fiddling with it and some wag defused the moment by shouting out ‘hold your head up’. this gave him a smile and when they asked if there was a sound technician and somebody else shouted ‘he’s not there’ the band were all smiles again. While they sorted that out the new lead guitarist played an acoustic solo including ‘Classical Gass’.
All in all a grand night out and we had close to two hours twenty minutes of great music. I’d be happy to go again anytime there not playing on a Friday. Final surprise, both Colin and Rod looked amazingly young for people who had performed for over 50 years.
