Good blokes to travel with – Colin with his solo band<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nYour UK tour starts on 20 April \u2013 you seem to be on the road constantly \u2013 do you enjoy touring and playing live?<\/strong><\/p>\nI Just got back from the States this morning so I\u2019m a bit spaced out, but it\u2019s all part of the adventure. It\u2019s really nice to be home. I love playing, I love touring, but it\u2019s always the same \u2013 we were there for four weeks and for me that\u2019s long enough. We seem to be forever going to The States, which is great because there\u2019s a huge demand there for the Zombies. The last 10 years we\u2019ve done three full tours there a year.<\/p>\n
Are you looking forward to playing in the UK again?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s always great to play in the UK, we\u2019re starting in Derby and carrying on pretty much to the end of April. I think it\u2019s going to be fun. The solo band is a really good band, they\u2019re really nice blokes. Good blokes to travel with.<\/p>\n
Can you give us an idea of what will be in the set?<\/strong><\/p>\nAs ever I think fans expect to hear the hits, but I try to make the solo band as different from The Zombies as I can, so at most we\u2019ll only play She\u2019s Not There<\/strong><\/em> and Time of the Season<\/strong><\/em>. There\u2019ll be I Don\u2019t Believe in Miracles<\/strong><\/em>, Say You Don\u2019t Mind<\/strong><\/em>, What Becomes of the Broken Hearted<\/strong><\/em> and a bit of Alan Parsons<\/strong> and then some more obscure tracks, things that it\u2019s nice to give an outing to every once in a while.<\/p>\nAny personal favourites you\u2019ll be playing?<\/strong><\/p>\nThere\u2019s an Alan Parsons song called Old and Wise<\/strong><\/em> that I really like and I know that for a lot of people that\u2019s a really important song. It\u2019s full of memories and meaning for a lot of people. It\u2019s a hugely revered song in Holland. I didn\u2019t write it so I can say this – I can often see people in tears in the audience. I actually feel quite a responsibility singing that song just because I know it means so much to so many people. And in some ways it makes it a more challenging performance, so the pressure mounts to not get it wrong. I always enjoy She\u2019s Not There<\/em>, it was the first song I ever recorded and it does sound of the \u201860s, but it also has a timeless feel about it which quite fascinates me. I will be singing a few of my own songs, which we don\u2019t do with the Zombies. That\u2019s one of the reasons I continue to tour as a solo artist \u2013 I want to play my own songs.<\/p>\nEarly days – Colin with the Zombies in the ’60s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nYou have a new solo album planned for next year \u2013 are all the songs written?<\/strong><\/p>\nWe\u2019ve actually recorded six or seven songs, but only to a very limited level\u00a0 – three or four of whom will actually go on the album \u2013 we\u2019re making progress. It\u2019s incredible to have the opportunity to tour in the way I am at the moment, the only downside is it limits the amount of time I can get into the studio. I\u2019m constantly trying to explain to managers and agents and record companies that I can\u2019t guarantee a release date, because I\u2019m just not in the country that much this year.<\/p>\n
Will you be writing all the songs on the new album?<\/strong><\/p>\nI would hope to write about half, but I\u2019ve got a list of songs I would like to try and a lot of what I\u2019ve recorded so far is songs by other people and I think I\u2019ve found some very strong material. But it is very important, I think, to write about half of the songs. I didn\u2019t have a guitar with me when I was in America, so it\u2019ll be a good opportunity in the next week to try and get a couple of songs going. I think I might have to start travelling with a guitar and trying to write on the road, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s easy.<\/p>\n
Does songwriting come easily to you?<\/strong><\/p>\nThere are two extremes when I write songs. Occasionally I write quickly, but in general it takes time for me to write a song and I think a lot of that stems from the fact that, despite playing the guitar all my life, I never progressed into a rounded professional guitarist and so I struggle with the melody side. I\u2019m limited by my own guitar technique. Sometimes \u2013 and I can\u2019t even explain this \u2013 I write songs that are actually quite complicated and then when I play them to people I have to play them in bits, because I can\u2019t play it wall the way through. People have to put on their imagination hat and hopefully they\u2019ll go \u2018Oh I see what you\u2019re trying to do now\u2019 and, if they\u2019re good players, they can take it from there.<\/p>\n
You had a big comeback hit with <\/strong>What Becomes of the Broken-Hearted<\/strong><\/em> with prog keyboardist Dave Stewart \u2013 how did that combination come about?<\/strong><\/p>\nLike a lot of things in life it was chance. Dave Stewart had already recorded the track. He\u2019s a really fantastic keyboard player and also a great authority on sound. He\u2019d got a vocalist on it and I don\u2019t think he\u2019d got much of a reaction. He was also recording with a singer called Barbara Gaskin,<\/strong> who later on he had a big hit [I<\/strong>t’s My<\/strong> Party<\/strong><\/em>] with and she happened to come from the same town as me. She was quite a bit younger than me but went to the same school. And her sister actually was in my class. She suggested to Dave \u2018Why don\u2019t you try and get Colin Blunstone?\u2019 He got a lot of his keyboards from Rod Argent<\/strong>\u2019s shop in Denmark Street, so while he was in there he asked if he could get a message to me. The minute I heard the track I absolutely loved it and said \u2018Yeah! I\u2019d love to do it!\u2019. It was recorded about a year before it was a hit. Then one or two DJs just started playing it. And it started to pick up plays on radio.\u00a0 Dave Stewart was in America and I called him and I said \u2018We\u2019re getting massive airplay, but it\u2019s not being shown in the charts\u201d, because the label it was on was not very strong. He said I can\u2019t do anything for two weeks, but when I get back I\u2019ll sort it out and he went straight from the airport to Stiff<\/strong> Records<\/strong>, they signed it and the record zoomed up the charts. It got to about 14 or 15 which is fantastic, but I think it would have been a top five single if we could have got it onto Stiff Records earlier.<\/p>\n\n
<\/path><\/path><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\nWas it a surreal experience appearing on TOTP?<\/strong><\/p>\nNo I wouldn\u2019t say It was surreal, but it was interesting because there was girl singer, Amanda Parsons<\/strong> playing and singing and Dave Stewart was there. What happened with that record was I\u2019d had a falling out, a legal misunderstanding, with CBS Records and there was talk of a lawsuit. So I said to Dave that it should be his record with guest vocals by Colin Blunstone, so it was billed in a funny way. I was hoping in that way I could put CBS off their legal approaches, but it didn\u2019t work and as a result of that record I was actually sued by CBS, which meant I was very limited in what I could record after that, because CBS were claiming rights to my records. It was very exciting to have that hit with Dave, but with it came this unbearable legal struggle, which took about three years to resolve. In a way my record career never really recovered, because it\u2019s very hard to sustain a career without recording. And when I was free to record again in many ways I had to start from scratch. That would be about the mid-\u201880s and I didn\u2019t really get things going again until the mid-\u201890s when I started playing live. Don Airey<\/strong> the keyboard player in Deep Purple<\/strong> \u2013 we\u2019d met a few times \u2013 took upon himself to start calling me and reminding me that I should really be out there playing. He put a band together for me and in 1997 I started playing live again and in 1999, when Don had moved on to other bands, I asked Rod Argent if he\u2019d be interested in going on the road. I\u2019d just got a short mini-tour of six dates. He said well look I\u2019ll do those six dates, but I\u2019m not really interested in touring full time, because he was a very successful producer then. But he enjoyed those six dates so much that bizarrely we just kept going and we\u2019ve actually been working together in this incarnation of the Zombies for 19 years. It\u2019s just strange the way things work out. It\u2019s been a wonderful adventure, especially as it was so unexpected. We\u2019ve been to America, to the Far East, we\u2019ve been all over Europe, to Scandinavia – and I thought my touring days were long gone!<\/p>\nColin performing with the Zombies at the Palladium last year – picture by Sam Wells<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nDo you find that you\u2019re attracting new audiences. I noticed at the Palladium<\/a> show there was a real mix of ages?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt varies from country to country, but especially in America there\u2019s always a young element in the audience. There are people who\u2019ve stayed with us right from the beginning, but there\u2019s a lot of teenagers and people in their early 20s who are interested and probably fascinated with how we\u2019ve managed to keep going all this time. I\u2019m quite interested and fascinated myself to be honest! We\u2019re just relishing every tour and every concert we do. Both bands are really sophisticated musicians and they\u2019re lovely people.<\/p>\n
You seem equally comfortable performing other people\u2019s songs as well as your own \u2013 do you approach your own work in the same way as you do other writer\u2019s songs?<\/strong><\/p>\nI work much harder on other people\u2019s songs because my songs are completely natural. In particular with the Zombies I work with Rod Argent on the phrasing for all those songs and we\u2019re really quite meticulous about it. I\u2019ll go through a song quite a few times until I\u2019ve got it set in my mind. I do a lot of preparation before I perform a song live. Even recording, although you can stop and do it again, you really should know a song well enough that you can go out and do it live. On the Zombies’ last album [Still Got That<\/strong><\/em> Hunger<\/strong>],\u00a0to all intents and purposes it was a live album played in a studio environment because we\u2019d rehearsed extensively and we went into the studio and we played it live. I sang the vocals live and the solos were all live as well. The only thing they overdubbed was vocal harmonies. Not only is it much faster to do it that way, I find it more enjoyable. But you\u2019ve got to rehearse beforehand. Generally speaking nowadays everything is done in bits, you may never meet the other people on an album, but I like it if the whole band\u2019s in the studio at the same time, because you work off one another.<\/span><\/p>\nIs it helpful to see the other musicians?<\/strong><\/p>\nI think it is. There\u2019s an energy in the studio with all the musicians playing together that is not there if you do it all separately. It\u2019s much more fun and it\u2019s much more fulfilling, I think, if everyone\u2019s there at the same time and people have got to be good players to do that as well. So far on the solo album it\u2019s been sort of 50-50. Two of the tracks were recorded with me not even there and I added my vocals afterwards and three of the tracks I recorded with other musicians in the room and I sang live.<\/p>\n
Who\u2019s idea was it for you to adopt the alter ego Neil McArthur at the end of the 1960s? <\/strong><\/p>\nWhen the Zombies finished the three non-writers myself, Paul Atkinson<\/strong> and Hugh Grundy<\/strong> \u2013 had made no money on the road at all. And all three of us had to get jobs and I went and just worked in an office. Then belatedly the Zombies started having hits and particularly one hit \u2013 Time of the Season<\/em> \u2013 and there was the opportunity to record again. But I was so devastated by the end of The Zombies that I wasn\u2019t sure if I wanted to commit to being in music business again. A producer called Mike Hurst<\/strong> convinced me to start recording. So, in the evenings after my job finished, I\u2019d go to Olympic<\/strong> Studios<\/strong> in Barnes. He suggested \u2013 and I don\u2019t really know why \u2013 that I record under another name, which I did for about a year. One of those records was quite a big hit \u2013 a re-working of She\u2019s Not There. For me it was all an experiment just to see how I\u2019d react to being in the studio again. At the end of that year Chris White<\/strong> suggested that he and Rod Argent work as co-producers on a project and forget the Neil McArthur thing (chuckles) and I was back to Colin Blunstone. I made One Year<\/strong><\/em> and from that album there was a hit called Say You Don\u2019t Mind<\/strong><\/em>, so in many ways that\u2019s where my solo career started.<\/p>\nHow did you come up with the pseudonym?<\/strong><\/p>\nI don\u2019t think a lot of thought went into it. It was going to be James McArthur right up until the last minute. It was pretty casual and I wasn\u2019t sure I wanted to commit to a career, so I just went along with it really.<\/p>\nMusicians’ musician – Jim Rodford rocking out with son Steve – picture by Sam Wells<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe Zombies\u00a0had just returned from dates in Florida when news broke of the death of Jim Rodford. That must have been a terrible shock?<\/strong><\/p>\nI was absolutely devastated. I think we came home on a Tuesday and he died on the Friday night. I don\u2019t think anyone really understands the precise details of what happened, but he had a bad fall on the stairs at home. I was talking to him on that Friday night at about 9 o’ clock \u2013 he was the last person I spoke to that night. And the first person I spoke to in the morning was his son Steve Rodford<\/strong> – who\u2019s the drummer in The Zombies and the solo band – at about quarter to nine, telling me that Jim had had an accident. It\u2019s just dreadful, such a wonderful person, a musician\u2019s musician and a true gentleman. He\u2019d been a cornerstone of this incarnation of The Zombies for the last 19 years. After this devastating news we had to make an instant decision \u2013 are we going to do the next tour? Because it was only like three or four weeks off. We said well I think Jim would want the show to go on, so then of course we had to find someone to fill his shoes. You\u2019re not going to find another Jim Rodford, but we found a wonderful bass player in Denmark, who we were introduced to through friends of friends. He\u2019s called Soren Koch<\/strong>. He\u2019s a wonderful musician and he knew all the Zombies\u2019 songs. With just one play through the set, we opened in New York and he was fantastic! As I said we\u2019re not looking to replace Jim Rodford, there\u2019ll never be another Jim Rodford, but Soren is a wonderful bass player and a great harmony singer as well, so we were very very lucky to find him.<\/p>\n
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