bitflipper Posted July 16, 2022 Share Posted July 16, 2022 Yesterday afternoon my bass player called me up and said he had an extra ticket to a concert and did I want to go. I said "sure", even before I knew who the act was. It was at a favorite local venue, a 121-year-old 600-seat theater that's run mostly by community volunteers. I'd played there a couple times and knew that it was a good room, acoustically-speaking. Then he told me it was The Zombies. Right, I thought. Aren't those guys like 80 years old? And I was under the impression that the band's principle creative force, Rod Argent, had retired. But OK, I'd be up even for just a decent tribute band. On the way to the theater, I told my friend the story of the fake Zombies back in the day. It's a great story, google it. It's part of ZZ Top's origin story. Short version: two fake Zombies bands toured the US to exploit the real band's hits. The real Zombies had never toured America, having broken up before they had those hits, so nobody knew what they looked like. The promoter was such a hack that he didn't even bother having keyboards in the fake Zombies. So I was pleasantly surprised when they came onstage and there's Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone. The other three guys were clearly hired guns, but awesome players, especially the bassist. The five of them kicked *****, with extended jams on Hold Your Head High and She's Not There. It was a great performance, and I had the luxury of enjoying from 4th row center. Sadly, the FOH guy must have been one of those volunteers, because the sound was atrocious. I mean, really, really bad. I'd have given them a piece of my mind, had I actually paid for the ticket. Best part of the show was when Rod told extended anecdotes of their experiences at Abbey Road with Geoff Emerick as their engineer, using the Mellotron that the Beatles had left behind from recording Sgt. Pepper, making friends with a new intern named Alan Parsons. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bapu Posted July 16, 2022 Share Posted July 16, 2022 Sounds (pun intented) like it was a great-atrocious show Dave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
user 905133 Posted July 16, 2022 Share Posted July 16, 2022 Nice!!!! I still have the 45 of "She's Not There" which my brother (the bassist) got way back when. Tons of great music from them over the years. Lots on YouTube. (Never knew about the Fake Zombies.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted July 16, 2022 Share Posted July 16, 2022 4 minutes ago, User 905133 said: Nice!!!! I still have the 45 of "She's Not There" which my brother (the bassist) got way back when. Tons of great music from them over the years. Lots on YouTube. (Never knew about the Fake Zombies.) As much as I like the original, Santana's version is still my favorite for that guitar solo. I would have loved to have gone to that concert Dave did though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted July 16, 2022 Author Share Posted July 16, 2022 yeh, I've always liked that version, too. I very much liked that version of Carlos Santana, too - back before he started phoning in his performances. But it was the Zombies' vocal harmonies that drew me in initially. Imagine how awesome Santana's cover could have been if they'd had more than one vocalist. Earlier I described the guitarist, bassist and drummer as "hired guns", but here's a video from 2013 that shows nearly the same lineup I saw last night, with only the bass player changed. So those guys have been zombies for quite a while. Rod still plays the same keyboards. Main difference is all of them are considerably greyer now. So am I. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Smith Posted July 18, 2022 Share Posted July 18, 2022 If they keep playing eventually they will be zombies. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted July 18, 2022 Author Share Posted July 18, 2022 I'm surprised no one has yet thought to include a Zombies track in a zombie movie or TV series. It would be such a great gag, having the hero frantically running from a zombie horde accompanied by "Tell Her No". No, no, no, don't hurt me now... 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Fogle Posted August 7, 2022 Share Posted August 7, 2022 +++ HERE +++ is a recent interview of Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone recorded shortly they began the tour. The 42 minute interview is conducted by Joe Chambers, the CEO and founder of the Musicians' Hall Of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bitflipper Posted August 7, 2022 Author Share Posted August 7, 2022 Thanks, I enjoyed that. But does anybody else hear Chris Farley when Joe speaks? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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