With the 50th anniversary of his debut solo album coming up soon and news of THE ZOMBIES embarking on a UK tour throughout Feb/Mar 2022, we were given the opportunity to catch up with Colin Blunstone of The Zombies and chat about touring, recently discovered tracks, the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame, social media and an amusing story about a string of dates in the Philippines back in 1967, read on to learn more….

Firstly, thank you for agreeing to answer some questions, it’s not every day we get to work with a genuine legend from the music industry. You’re on tour with The Zombies in 2022, performing in the UK, USA, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany, which country are you MOST excited about playing?

After 2 years of not playing live, right now I’d be excited about playing the pub at the top of my road!!!!

Do you tend to find the audiences differ from country to country?

Yes I think audiences do differ from country to country. Some nationalities are just naturally more extrovert than others.

When you play live, do you see a broad range of age groups in the audience?

It’s a huge plus for The Zombies that we’ve always attracted a wide range of age groups to our concerts from teenagers to life-long fans who’ve supported us from our first record in 1964.

I hear that you’re performing on the ‘Flower Power Cruise’ in March 2022, which other bands will you be sharing the stage with?

Yes we are performing on the “Flower Power" cruise in 2022. When it was originally planned in 2020 I was excited to be told that amongst others The Hollies were performing.

You were inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2019 for your work in The Zombies, how did it make you feel when you found out?

I felt extremely honoured that our fans and our peers had voted for us to join the illustrious company at The Rock ’N’ Roll Hall Of Fame.

You’re celebrating 50 years since your solo debut album ‘One Year’ was released in 1971 by releasing a Double LP featuring 14 Previously unreleased Recordings and Nine previously unrecorded Compositions, where did you re-record these and who was on production duties?

The 14 demos that have been included in the “One Year” re-release were discovered by (fellow Zombie) Chris White’s sons as they were cataloguing some of Chris’s older compositions. I have only the vaguest memory of most of these songs and no memory of the studios they were recorded in although Chris White remembers a demo session in Regent Sound in Denmark Street where The Stones recorded their first album.

Does it really feel like it’s been 50 years since ‘One Year’ was released?

Time is always playing tricks on you……sometimes “One Year” seems like yesterday and sometimes it seems like another lifetime!!

The album is released on November 19th, how will you be celebrating?

Either a nice cup of tea at home in front of the fire or partying through the night with buckets of champagne and naked dancing girls!! Probably the former!!!!

Your career has spanned 5 decades and you have survived the likes of psychedelic rock, glam-rock, disco, punk, post-punk, new wave, rave, jungle, techno and just about every other musical genre known to man, what are your favourite memories over the past 50 years?

In general my favourite memory is one of simple survival!! More specifically it’s great to remember that this incarnation of The Zombies only began in 1999 and yet through constant touring and continually releasing new records of new material we’ve managed to tour the world culminating in the magical Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at The Barclays Centre in Brooklyn in front of 17,000 people.

Were you ever approached in relation to having your tracks remixed in a different style?

I remember one or two vague conversations about re-approaching old tracks but nothing serious.

When social media platforms started popping up, did you jump on them straight away or leave them to settle down before joining up?

I still haven’t really “joined up”!! I try my best but social media is and probably always will be a bit a mystery to me.

Lastly, I bet you have some interesting stories to tell about being in The Zombies over the years, please tell us your favourite one…..

When we were asked to play 10 days in The Philippines in 1967 although the offer of £80 pounds a night was (even then) a bit disappointing, I consoled myself with visions of sun drenched days spent on exotic beaches followed by a couple of relaxed sets in the evening playing in some deluxe hotel complex. Later we were genuinely shocked to be greeted by thousands of people at Manila airport and to be told we had several records in the national charts (this was before the internet). Our excitement at starting our 10 day residency at The Arenata Coliseum in front of 28,000 people was only tempered by the realisation that we were only being paid £80 between us per night. Our advisers were either a bit “slow off the mark” or currently buying a brand new ocean going yacht to go with the Rolls Royce our honest endeavours had financed!!!!!

They weren’t our advisors for much longer!!!!!!!



We’d like to thank Colin Blunstone from The Zombies for sparing his time to chat to us and we wish him all the very best for the reissue of his 1971 debut album and the UK tour that will be taking place throughout February and March 2022, more details and tickets are available HERE