Following their intense US and UK tours of their new studio album, ‘Different Game’, the two remaining co-founders of the band additionally completed a succession of small record store dates, performing a stripped-down, slowed down acoustic set on just Rod Argent’s keyboard accompanying Colin Blunstone’s voice, which gave a rare insight into how the pair originally song write. They performed classic Zombies tracks from their magnitudinal 60-year history, together with a selection of new songs.
They set included their US number 6 hit and third single, ‘Tell Her No’; against only the keyboard, more tones of Blunstone’s voice revealed themselves, also with Argent providing more central vocals than when playing with the full band. This also showed in their new title track and single ‘Different Game’, where the song became more of a duet, with Argent singing higher octaves. They then played their new main album single, ‘Dropped Reeling & Stupid’.
For the final part of their set, they performed from their critically acclaimed 1967 studio album, ‘Odessey & Oracle’; after Argent told the story of the album’s production, they performed ‘Care of Cell 44’, ‘This Will Be Our Year’ and classic 1968 single ‘Time of The Season’, the latter with Argent’s keyboard solos. The pair finished their set on their debut single, 1964’s hit ‘She Not There’ and an encore of ‘The Way I Feel Inside’ before answering audience questions.
16/05/23: Rod Argent + Colin Blunstone (The Zombies) @ PRYZM, Kingston.
Photo © Ayisha Khan.
© Ayisha Khan.