All language subtitles for Hung Up on a Dream The Zombies Documentary2

(MAN SINGING)
# Should I try to hide #

# The way I feel inside #

# My heart for you #

# Would you say that you #

# Would try to love me too? #

# In your mind #

# Could you ever be
Really close to me? #

# I can tell the way you smile #

# If I feel that
I could be certain #

# Then I would say the things #

# I want to say tonight #

# But till I can see #

# That you'd really
Care for me #

# I'll keep trying to hide #

# The way I feel inside #

I've never worked out
if The Zombies
are lucky or unlucky.

But there were times when luck
wasn't quite on our side.

(SIGHING)
Nothing went to plan.

(TIME OF THE SEASON
BY THE ZOMBIES PLAYING)

YouTube found community,
Zombies fans, random people
on the Internet,

my name is Giggens.

We are here today to talk
about the Zombie's 1968 album,
Odessey and Oracle.

Underrated as hell!
It is chamber pop gold.

What? Is this that song,
that's like...

Who's your daddy?

MAN: Right away.
When it came on,
I recognized it.

That background
with the... (VOCALIZING)

# It's the time of the season #

Essentially, after
the recording of this album,
The Zombies broke up.

It was only later that critics
and music aficionados
would welcome it

into the club of the late 60
classics as one of
the best records of all time,

with one of the best songs
of the decade,
Time of the Season.

I don't know if they still exist
and still do songs and stuff?

I'm really interested,
you know.

I'd like to meet some people.

What is your name, please?

-Rodney Terence Argent.
-Hubert Grundy.

-Paul Ashley Warren Atkinson.
-Christopher Taylor White.

Colin Edward Michael Blunstone.

-You probably know them
better as The Zombies.
- (CROWD CHEERING)

You must tell me
if I'm going on too much
about something

because I know I tend to go
from one thing to another.

I hope he's not giving
all his stories away over there.

My name is
Rodney Terence Argent.

Um... That's it.

I was born in Saint Allman's.
obviously a wartime family.

My father
was a self-taught pianist,
and he had his own dance band

from the age of 17
to the age of 83.

I can't believe it.
You know, we're getting towards
that sort of area now.

You want me to introduce myself?

Okay. My name's
Colin Blunstone.

I'm the lead singer
from The Zombies.

My mother came from
a big musical family.

Every Christmas
we had our own dance band,

and maybe that did affect me
because as a child
I sang all the time.

My neighbors
who didn't know my name,

just called me,
"the boy who sings."

Whenever I was
involved in music,

I just felt at ease,
and I felt like
I was at home.

It was how I expressed
myself really,

through strength
or excitement or sadness.

I remember my parents
buying me a harmonica
when I was six-years-old.

And I could immediately play it
because I could somehow,

visually see
where the scale was.

It felt that natural to me.
And my mum... Bless her.

When I was nine,
she said, "You ought
to get into a church choir."

I went along
to the first rehearsal.

I remember singing
the first chorus
of Bark Saint Matthew Passion

Ah, I just melted.

It had that
profound effect on me.

It was this fantastic
world of harmony,

which was different
to pop music.

Hearing 400 years
of some of the best
classical music ever written

gave me the most
extraordinary exposure.

And one day when I was 11,
I wandered down to
my cousin's house, Jim Rodford.

He was a bit of a mentor
all my life, really.

And in this wonderful
rock and roll group,

the Bluetones,
later were, were the Kinks,

and he was playing me
a couple of records,

and I sort of said,
"Yeah, it's okay. It doesn't...

"You know, I'm not completely
knocked out but it's all right."

You know, he said,
"Well, let me play you this."

And he put on Elvis' Hound Dog.

# You ain't nothing
But a hound dog... #

And my whole world
was blown away.

And to my parents' horror,
for the next six months,

I didn't want to do anything
but listen to the rawest
rock and roll I could find.

# I asked my friends about her
But all their lips were tight #

My really formative years
would have been listening

to Little Richard, Chuck Berry
and then later on Buddy Holly...

# That'll be the day... #

and Ricky Nelson
was a big favorite with me.

That you think about me #

# Oh, I got a little feeling #

And eventually
I begged for a guitar.

And it wasn't easy
for my parents to afford it,

but I eventually got a guitar
when I was about 12,

and then I could
accompany myself.

RODNEY: This was all
within the background
of an England that was emerging

from a lot of privation
from wartime conditions.

There was a real
upsurge of energy,

and I believed
that particular time

was a magic crucible
for music in the UK.

I always considered
that I was incredibly lucky

to be growing up absolutely
in that time period.

I had to try and form a band.

When I was 15,
I went to visit a friend of mine
in the folk club

and in the corner
there was a guitarist,

and I thought, ah, he's got
a really nice groove.

I just walked up to him
and said, "I'm sorry,
you don't know me,"

you know,
"Do you want to be in a band?"

And he said,
"Yeah, I don't mind if I do."

Hello.
Lucy Marie Atkinson.

I'm the daughter
of Paul Atkinson, the guitar
player of the Zombies.

His parents bought him
this really expensive violin,
and he hated playing it.

He was at school one day,
and one of the older boys

had a rusty old guitar
and asked to swap.

And he did.

RODNEY: One of
my best friends at the time,
he was building a bass guitar,

and I said,
"How's that coming on?
Have you finished yet?"

He said, "Yeah,
I've just finished it."

I said, "Fantastic."

I said,
"You can be a bass player
in a group."

And I thought,
"Right, here we go."

There was an Army Corps
at the school.

I tried to look at the drummer
who had the best
sense of rhythm...

just playing... (VOCALIZING)

(MARCHING BAND MUSIC PLAYING)

My name is Hugh Birch Grundy.

I was a lazy type chap, really,
and if I could
get out of sports...

uh, I would.

The cadets had a marching band
and we would parade
through Saint Albans.

And this is
where vanity came in.

Because I thought I would
rather prefer to be up front

where I am more seen
by the young ladies of the town.

So I applied to join the drums.

I went up to him and said,
"Do you want to be in a band?"

And I immediately
said yes.

RODNEY: And I thought that
was going to be the band.

COLIN: It was only
a coincidence that I joined
The Zombies in the first place.

Paul Arnold turned to me one day
and said, "You've got a guitar,
haven't you?"

And I said, "Yeah."

And the next question was,
"Do you want to be in a band?"

And because
of my sports commitments,

I wasn't sure if I had
time to be in a band.

I liked the idea of it.

Attracting girls
and drinking beer

always seemed like
a very worthwhile
occupation to me,

when I was in my teens.

-I was going to be the singer.
-Rod was going
to be the lead singer.

I joined as a rhythm guitarist.

RODNEY: And we met
for the very first time outside
a pub in Saint Albans.

And three days before
I had broken my nose.

RODNEY:
He was a keen rugby player

and he'd had
an accident on the field.

White tape all across my face,
two black eyes.

And I know Rod,
for one,

was really hoping that
I wasn't there to meet them

because I looked a bit fearsome.

I probably looked
a bit like a zombie.

And we all walked
down to a place called
the Pioneer Youth Club.

Rod's cousin played in the band.

He said, "Well, look,
just try it with our equipment,
see, see how you get on."

(ALL VOCALIZING OVER TAPE)

(STRUMMING GUITAR OVER TAPE)

-MAN 1 OVER TAPE: Okay, then.
-MAN 2 OVER TAPE:
A and D, right?

Right? A one...

-What are the chords?
-Just D and G and A.

You know, it's sort of...
A one two, three four.

(GUITAR PLAYING)

(SINGING) # Bumchiwadi-wadi,
Bumchiwadi-wadi#

-# I just want to be
your teddy bear#
-(WHISTLING)

(ALL LAUGHING)

Jim said to us,
"Don't bother, lads.

"I don't think
you're going to go anywhere."

Which, of course,
I think, was the spur.

Maybe that we needed
to encourage us to go further.

RODNEY:
Paul played all chordal stuff.

And he was an unusual
guitarist and really put his
stamp on part of the band.

Dear Paul,
who, sadly, no longer with us,

seemed absolutely
right to fit in.

He didn't want
to be the front man.

He's not shredding...

He's not doing
any two minute solos
or anything.

He was a team player.

RODNEY:
In the early days of rehearsing,
I persuaded him to improvise,

and I said, "Well, just
play anything first of all

"and then adapt it,
see where your sense takes you."

And he was very musical.

COLIN: Paul was very good
at supporting Rod.

And at our first rehearsal
we had a coffee break,

by chance there was
a broken down piano.

RODNEY:
And I played Nut Rocker

by Bee Bumble and the Stingers.

It was a hit at the time,
the rock and roll take
on a classical piece.

And he was
so much better than us.

We were fairly ordinary,
but Rod, even at 15,

was spectacular,
and I didn't know him.

I just met him
and I went over
and said to him,

"You know, you should play
keyboards in this band."

Well, no, no, no, no.
I'm the singer.

I'm going to, you know...
And I was really confused,
you know?

It's got to be
rock and roll band.

We want three guitars,
no keyboards.

And then, just at the end
of the rehearsal,

I was just putting
my guitar away,
singing to myself.

Colin started singing
a Ricky Nelson song.

And I thought
he sounded fantastic,

and I walked up to him
and I said...

"Okay, you've got
to be the singer."
I said, I'll play piano.

And that's how I became
the lead singer in the Zombies.

My audition was fairly informal.

RODNEY: Names were
the hardest thing in the world.

We were desperate
for a name.

It just seemed impossible
and embarrassing
most of the time.

COLIN:
We'd been the Mustangs
for about a week,

and we realized there
were hundreds of bands
called The Mustangs.

RODNEY:
The Searchers got their name
from a John Wayne film,

and we were looking
around at films.

To my complete shame,
I came up with the name
the Sundowners.

I thought it might be
a reasonably catchy name.

No one else had any ideas.

We were the Sundowners,
but then I thought, no.
No one was happy with it.

And then one day,
Paul came up
with the name the Zombies.

I loved it immediately,
and Colin hated it.

He absolutely hated it.

COLIN: I didn't know
what a zombie was.

I still don't know
what a zombie is, really.

I wanted us to be
something like, you know...

The Rocking Thunder Balls
or something.

Something dramatic,
which would
be absolutely terrible.

I'm embarrassed to say.
Oh, God, the Sundowners.

( STICKS AND STONES
BY THE ZOMBIES PLAYING)

# People talk
About breaking off#

# Can't they let us be?#

# Sticks and stones
May break my bones #

# But talk don't bother me#

COLIN:
The original bass player.
He wanted to be a doctor.

He retired at a very early age
from the music business.

And Chris White arrived.

Christopher Taylor White.

I loved music,
so I played in several groups.

A friend of mine
said his brother
wanted to leave the band.

So he said, "Would you come
along to a rehearsal

"and see if you can join?"

Am I gonna fit in here?
That's the first
thing you think.

And then,
what have I got to learn?

Because they'd been together
about a year and a half.

Normally the bass player
and the drummer,

they're a very close unit
because they're
the rhythm section.

After about six weeks
of Chris White coming in
and playing bass,

Hugh Grundy came up
and whispered in my ear
at rehearsal,

"Who's this bloke
who keeps coming in?"

They hadn't spoken.

HUGH:
And we got to know each other
better and better.

And Chris and I found
that we fitted in,
a mental allegiance, as it were.

We really had the same
taste in music,
and that's how it all started.

HUGH: We would rehearse
regularly and we would
get better and better,

and we then got to
a point where we could actually
go out and and play.

# You said that
I'm the only one... #

ROD: The very first one
that I remember was when
we played at a youth club.

COLIN: It was a dance
for teenagers,
and I'd got this microphone

that would feedback
all the time.

But I was loving it so much,
I didn't care at all.

HUGH:
We started there and we played
some of the smaller clubs

and ballrooms
and places in Saint Albans.

COLIN:
But we had to work really hard
to get any kind of following.

We were playing in working men's
clubs who weren't paying
much attention to us.

We would play anywhere.

And they weren't particularly
glamorous places to start with.

We charged six pounds a night,

and five pounds
would go towards
buying new equipment.

And one pound was
for everyone's bus fares.

And we would carry
all the gear on a, on a bus
until we got transport.

HUGH: Our first vehicle
was a scooter.

COLIN: Hugh used to get him,
his drum kit, me,
and my guitar,

on his Lambretta scooter

when we were getting a bit more
big-time.

We used to go touring around
in an old ice-cream van.

RICHARD:
That's when I learned to sleep
anywhere to be quite honest.

You came back late from a gig
and drafty bands,

pumping out smoke
and everything.

COLIN: And somehow
we used to get to the gigs.

When you're 15 or 16-years-old,
to have that sort of love,

and something
that's actually working,

and getting you credibility
with your school friends.

That was really like magic.

We were totally
in love with rock and roll,

and we loved playing
our early gigs.

# Oh, this old heart of mine
Been broke a thousand times#

# Each time you break away
I think you're going to stay #

All the nights are gone,
Memories that go#

Bringing you back again,
Hurting me more and more#

# Maybe it's my mistake#

# To show this love
I feel inside#

# Each time
I feel you come closer#

# I'll never stop breathing#

# 'Cause my heart
has stopped beating #

# But I#

# I love you,
Oh, I love you#

-# Yes, I do#
-CHORUS: # Yes, I do#

# Yes, I do#

(CROWD CHEERING)

Eventually we entered
a rock and roll competition.

It was called
The Heartbeat.

And we said, "Well, let's try it
and see what happens."

'Cause they were going
to go to college and I was going
to be an art teacher.

COLIN: It was sponsored
by a major London newspaper,

and people came
from all over the country.

There were 10 bands
a night and it ran for 10 days,
so it was 100 bands.

HUGH: First heat came along
and all the bands,
various players.

There were judges there.

COLIN: It was a big show for us.

At Watford Town Hall,
there were 2,000 people
there screaming.

They had scarves and rosettes
and the colors of the bands.

I remember they had these
sort of noisemaker things.

It was like playing
a sports match,

and amazingly,
I think we all felt
fairly relaxed.

I know I did.

I think,
probably because I didn't think
we stood a chance.

At that point,
it was just fun.

HUGH: As it so happened,
we won that first heat,

which allowed us
to go back to the final.

We had very little hope,
really, of, of winning it,
but we did.

I was astounded.

We won it.

And it was then,
for the first time,
I dared to think

there could be
a way ahead for us
as a professional band.

And I think it affected
everybody in the same way.

But we didn't talk about it.

It was just a thought.

Maybe...

(SUMMERTIME
BY THE ZOMBIES PLAYING)

# One of these mornings#

# You're going
To wake up singing#

# Then you're going to
Spread your wings#

# And take to the sky #

# But 'til that morning#

# Ain't nothing, nothing
Going to harm you#

With your mommy and daddy
There standing by#

Let's face it,
we're still young
and we've got chances.

Still got the idea
of university in the background,
but it is in the background.

Paul came from a very strict
background, to be quite honest.

His father was in business
and everything,

and they didn't want him
to be in a band.

There was no recognition
that he was
working his arse off.

My dad would
have been considered
quite a rebel back in that day.

It took a lot of guts
to do what he did.

(YOU MAKE ME FEEL GOOD
BY THE ZOMBIES PLAYING)

# You don't need any reason,
Do you, baby? #

# Surely you should
Know that by now #

COLIN: From winning that
rock and roll competition,

we got a contract
with Decca Records.

HUGH: And they said,
"Time to go into the studio
and record some songs."

COLIN:
We were introduced to a producer
called Ken Jones,

and he was giving us a pep-talk
of the sessions
in a couple of weeks' time.

"You guys could
always write something,
you know."

It didn't make
a particularly big impression
on me because I thought it was

a slightly different
part of the business.

But to their eternal credit,
Rod and Chris
saw it in a different way

and they went away
and they wrote
two cracking songs.

RODNEY:
The idea of success
was very much on their mind,

and you only had the naivety
and arrogance of youth once.

And that's
a very powerful thing.

I wrote,
You Make Me Feel Good
with acoustic guitars,

just working on
the basic principles of it.

And I thought,
"Yeah, I can write something
that's as good as the Beatles."

And the recording
is going to sound fabulous.

I got some of my blues
records out and one was
a John Lee Hooker album

and there was a song on it
called No one Told Me.

I just liked the way those words
tripped off my tongue.

And I thought,
right, let's start a story.

I want the melody
to be very bluesy,
to start with a broken rhythm

in the way that Ringo
always used to do the early
stuff with the Beatles.

And then I wanted the harmony
to fill out the second section

and build into a big climax
with us changing
the harmonies underneath it.

And then finishing
on a major chord
and then falling down.

And, and it was just like
a relationship story.

And I wrote...
(SINGING) # Do-do, do,
Do, do, do, do, do #

( SHE'S NOT THERE
BY THE ZOMBIES PLAYING)

# Well, no one
Told me about her#

# What could I do?#

# Well, no one
Told me about her#

# Though they all knew#

# But it's too late
To say you're sorry#

# How would I know,
Why should I care?#

# Please don't bother
Tryin' t o find her#

# She's not there#

# Well, let me tell you
About the way she looked #

# The way she'd act
And the color of her hair #

# Her voice was soft and cool
Her eyes were clear and bright #

# But she's not there#

COLIN:
Of course, eventually,
we got a big name manager.

He was very
powerful and influential.

We were introduced to him
through our producer,

and he managed to get us TVs,
live radios, national press.

(ALL SINGING)
# Halabaloo#

ANNOUNCER:
Tonight on Halabaloo...

(ALL SINGING)
# Where the action is#

ANNOUNCER: Come on
where the action is.

Maybe she's not there,
but they're here
and they're the Zombies!

COLIN:
When She's Not There
was first released,

it went on to a panel show
in the UK called
Juke Box Jury.

And welcome to another session
of Juke Box Jury.

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

COLIN: And four experts
would judge various records.

Let's meet the jury
we have with us this session.

First up,
I'd like to introduce...

COLIN: And the week that
She's Not There was released...

George Harrison from the Beatles
was on the panel
of this national TV show,

so the whole country
would have been watching this.

we have
a mixed jury tonight.

So let's...
Let's have the first request.

COLIN:
They played She's Not There.

# Please don't bother
Tryin' to find her #

# She's not there #

GEORGE HARRISON: Well,
their voices are marvelous.

And the chord sequences
come in very nice,
and I think it'll be a hit.

-George Harrison loved it.
-And we all went... (VOCALIZING)

-That's a hit record.
-HUGH: And it went
to number one.

It was just incredible.

COLIN: We'd idolized
Elvis and the rock greats.

We never thought we could
follow in their footsteps.

We were fans.

The Beatles had just
unbelievably conquered America.

And then we made
the 9 o'clock news by being
the first band after the Beatles

to get a number one
with a self-written song.

(GOT MY MOJO WORKING
BY THE ZOMBIES PLAYING)

# I got my mojo workin'
But it just won't work on you #

COLIN: One of the problems
we had is that when
She's Not There was a big hit,

Decca Records
wanted an album straight away.

They didn't have any songs.

At that time
we were doing covers,
R&B classics,

and that first album
was recorded very quickly.

And the way
we got the songs together
was a little bit desperate.

RODNEY:
It was recorded in a day,
wasn't it?

-Or two days?
-COLIN: Two evenings.

(TELL HER NO
BY THE ZOMBIES PLAYING)

# And if she should tell you,
"Come closer" #

# And if she tempts you
With her charms #

# Tell her no, no, no, no,
No-no-no-no #

# No, no, no, no,
No-no-no-no #

# No, no, no, no, no#

# Don't hurt me now
For her love belongs to me#

COLIN: I'm telling you, I mean,
we've been working
really, really hard,

and I was in the control room
and I fell asleep.

And they really had to
wake me up

to go and sing Tell Her No.

And I think it's
on the second chorus,

there's a whole mumbled phrase.

I just thought, "Well,
we can go back
and correct that."

And our producer
just wasn't interested,

-you know, it doesn't...
-ROD: No, he said,
"That's fine."

it doesn't make
any sense at all.

-And he says,
"Fine. That's fine."
-ROD: He sings...

-(SINGING INDISTINCTLY)
-Yeah...

-# Belongs to me #
-(LAUGHS)

-# No, no, no, no #
-# Oh, oh, oh #

-# Don't let her down
from your arms #
-# No-no-no-no, no, no, no, no #

# No-no-no-no, no...#

-He thought that was fine.
-He said, "No, that's fine."

Uh, you... you see,
it's so funny.

That record went to number six
in the US charts.

(LAST FEW NOTES
OF TELL HER NO PLAYS)

(CROWD SCREAMING AND CHEERING)

# I'm a road runner honey #

( ROAD RUNNER PLAYING)

(SONG PLAYS CONTINUOUSLY)

Because we had
a hit record straight away,

you know, you have
no control over this.

We joined these package tours
in the UK in the '60s.

Straightaway, we did
a big tour with the Searchers,

who people sometimes forget
were probably the second
biggest band

to the Beatles at the time.

Dionne Warwick
and the Isley Brothers,

really accomplished artists,
and we were just...

(CHUCKLING) Really,
we were just put
into the middle of that.

HUGH: Watching those stars
whose music we'd been playing,

it was absolutely incredible.

COLIN: American artists took it
a lot more seriously
in those days.

British bands came
out of pubs, you know.

Our warm-up would be
a couple of pints of beer.

I learned quite
a lot about being
a professional performer.

HUGH: It was the sheer joy
of playing regularly.

And the more regular you play,

you cannot help but get better.

#...see that it's true, no #

# Move over, baby,
I'm in overdrive #

-( ROAD RUNNER ENDS)
-(CAR TOOTS)

ROD: Uh, first time
we ever went to the US
was to New York.

CHRIS: We remember driving in,
seeing the skyscrapers

-and hearing sirens...
- (SIREN WAILING)

...because our police cars
only had bells.

It's quite exciting.

It's like watching something
from television.

ROD: We knew
we were going to play
on the Murray the K's show,

opening on Christmas Day
in 1964.

And we were really very,
very nervous.

-(AUDIENCE CHEERING)
-ANNOUNCER: The Brooklyn
Fox Theater proudly presents

the swingingest personality
of the USA,

the boss of the Swingin' Soiree
is Murray the K.

-(AUDIENCE CHEERING LOUDLY)
-(LIVELY INSTRUMENTAL
MUSIC PLAYING)

(MUSIC STOPS)

-(MURRAY SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY)
-(AUDIENCE SHOUTS)

-(MURRAY SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY)
-(AUDIENCE SHOUTS)

-(MURRAY SHOUTING INDISTINCTLY)
-(AUDIENCE SHOUTS)

MURRAY: Well,
what's happening, baby?

May we wish you all
a Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.

Happy Hanukkah
to all you soul people.

And may we tell you out there

that we've got some great sounds
for you tonight.

CHRIS: Chuck Jackson,
Ben E. King, the Shirelles,

you know, all these people
who are our heroes, basically.

And we were quite nervous
because we were singing
American songs.

We thought we were doing
a sort of sterilized version

of American music
and bringing it back.

"They're doing the real thing,
and they're going to hate us."

MURRAY: Raise big hands
for the Danny Boy crew,

-Patti LaBelle
and the Blue Belles.
-(CROWD CHEERING)

COLIN: We had
to follow Patti LaBelle
and the Blue Belles,

and they were fabulous
and they brought the house down.

(LABELLE SINGING DANNY BOY)
# The pipes are calling... #

How can we follow
such a wonderful,

magnificent artist
as Patti LaBelle?

(PATTI AND THE BLUE BELLES
SINGING FINAL NOTE)

(CROWD CHEERING LOUDLY
AND APPLAUDING)

COLIN: We were 19 years old,

skinny little kids
from rural England.

And the first day,
we were standing in the wings,

quivering, thinking, "Can..."
you know, "Can we do this?"

MURRAY: We've got
some more sounds for you
coming from England,

coming back to the USA
where she belongs,

after completing
a very successful tour of the...

COLIN: But it was fine.
We got out there,

and we did okay. We did okay.

( WOMAN PLAYING)
# Woman#

# When I walked
with you last night#

# My mind#

# Saw that you'd soon
hold me tight#

# I can't concede, no#

# I can't believe
you love me too #

-(FINAL NOTES OF SONG PLAYING)
-(MUFFLED CROWD CHEERING)

What an experience,
14 or 15 other acts.

And because we were playing
over Christmas,

everyone was away
from their families,

so there was a wonderful
camaraderie backstage.

ROD: And I remember Patti coming
to our dressing room

and having really long chats.
She said,

"Oh, you've got to check out
this new kid on the block,
Aretha Franklin," you know?

"And you've got
to check out Nina Simone."

So, we're getting
all this input.

ANNOUNCER:
It's the greatest stage show
ever to come

to The Dick Clark
Caravan of Stars.

Here's where you can get
your advance tickets now.

CHRIS: A year later,
we did Dick Clark tour.

That required us to go
all over America.

It was exciting,
absolutely thrilling.

Nobody I knew
had been to America.

It was an education.

ROD: The very first day
we got on the bus,

everyone was very friendly.

There was a lot
of singing going on,

and they would sing
R&B standards,

you know, or a cappella.

And then suddenly,

they turned to us
and said, "Okay..."

-"Hey, you guys."
-"...you sing something."

"Can you sing?"

And Colin said, "Oh, my God,
what are we going to do?"

I said, "I don't know."

I said, "Why don't we do,
just you and I,

"sing a cappella If I Fell,
the Beatles song."

So, we... (CHUCKLING) we took
our courage in our hands.

And we did it from start
to finish, in harmony.

And they all went quiet,
and we thought, "Ooh."

And at the end of it,
they just all applauded.

-And they loved us after that.
-(MUTED APPLAUSE)

HUGH: We would travel
in a coach.

One night overnight
in the coach,

and the next night
we would stay in a hotel.

And driving
through the night, you know,

we would hear singing quietly.

Someone would just go...
(HUMS A NOTE)

and then build up a chord.

Like, sort of, spirituals
and stuff like that.

It was just hairs
on the back of the neck.

It's such a privilege
to be part of that world

and... and to hear it firsthand.

Oh, this is the Zombies.

So, we're backstage.

We're playing
with the Beach Boys.

( I REMEMBER
WHEN I LOVED HER PLAYING)

That's Del Shannon,
and Del Reeves,
who's a country singer.

That's the Shangri-Las.

# And I remember
when I loved her#

That's Peter and Gordon.

# She seemed so cold to me#

That's Mike Pender
of the Searchers.

# But I remember
when I loved her#

This is in the Philippines.

We seemed to be very popular

with the Pakistan
ambassador's family,
particularly the daughters.

And so, they asked us back
to the embassy.

( IT'S ALRIGHT WITH ME PLAYING)

(SINGING)
# If you want to mess around#

# Just stay away from my door#

# I've got a leak in my bucket#

# And a great big hole
in my floor#

# But if you wanna stay around
and love me#

# You know it's all right
with me#

# I've got no money
can't afford no big black car#

ROD: The world
was such a big place
in those days

that to go abroad,
was a much bigger deal.

And we didn't always know
what was happening
in other places.

Our manager said,
"We've been offered
a ten-day residency

"in the Philippines.

"Do you fancy seeing
a bit of the East?"

For �100 a night between us.

COLIN: It seemed an opportunity
to go to a tropical island.

The promoter was going to pay
for our travel, uh, hotels
and all the equipment.

We didn't have
to take equipment with us.

COLIN:
I thought probably we would lie
on the beach all day,

and play in a hotel bar
in the evenings.

In those days,
getting to the Philippines

wasn't a one-day job.

It was via Paris,
Delhi, Hong Kong.

We... we had to stop
in all these places.

Anyway, we eventually got there,

and as we touched down,

there was this huge number
of people

on the tarmac.

I remember saying to Colin,

"Is there a famous politician
on the plane? You know,
have you seen that?"

It was for us.

We were second
only to the Beatles
in the Philippines,

in the number
of hit records we'd had.

We couldn't believe it.

# You know it's all right
with me#

HUGH: The Beatles
had played there,

but they'd upset the President
and the President's wife.

So, we were invited
to the President's palace,

and we said, "Yes,
of course we'll go."

( WHAT MORE CAN I DO? PLAYING)

# What more can I do#

-# Ooh, ooh #
-# You know I'd gladly... #

COLIN: And we opened
in this place called
the Araneta Coliseum,

which at the time was the second
biggest coliseum in the world.

And he had his own private army,
the bloke who did it.

We were locked
into this coliseum

by this promoter.

LUCY: He wanted to go and buy
a toothbrush and toothpaste.

And they had, like,
somebody with a machine gun,
I think, taking them.

HUGH: It turned out to be
a far bigger show
than we ever thought.

The place held 40,000 people.

We had
a ten-night residency there.

- (CROWD APPLAUDING
AND CHEERING)
-HUGH: It was full every night.

It was a fantastic time.
All these people were coming
to watch us, to our amazement.

But these guys must have spent
their week's wages
on going there.

The thought was that, "Well,
if they're spending that much,

"where's all this money going?"

So, we were getting
about �10 a night, if that.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

Now, you don't have
to be that bright

to work out that that's wrong.

ROD: And someone
was making a fortune.

It certainly wasn't us.

We would go to the States
and playing six shows a day

in the Murray the K show,
and not making any money.

Dick Clark Tour,
the following year,
just breaking even

with a number-one single.

I keep talking about money.

I'm not
a money-orientated person
at all.

I'm talking about
having enough money to eat.

It was embarrassing.

It was really embarrassing.

ROD: We were being paid
by honest publishers,

but it was Chris and me
as the writers that...

that earned the money.

Unfortunately, for the rest
of the guys...

COLIN: And the irony is,
with hindsight,

I knew...

what was happening.

I'd been talking
to one of the promoters

when we did a big show.

It was packed.
There could not be
more people there.

And I just casually said to him
at the end of the evening,

"Well, see you next time."

And he said,
"No, there won't be
a next time."

And I said, "Why? They loved it.
It couldn't have gone better."

He said, "I can't afford you."

I said, "Well, how much
did you pay for us?"

And it was three
and a half times
what we were getting.

In my innocent mind,
I thought he just made
a mistake.

But really, that was the key.

We were being double sold.

It was late at night.
Adrenaline was running.
We'd just come off stage.

It's not a good frame of mind

to be looking at accounts
and re-reading contracts.

Contracts are rarely written
in good faith.

The management relationship
just dissolved.

You know, he'd taken advantage
of us so much.

And in the early days,
he hadn't cared about image

and direction for us.

He just cared about us working
the whole time.

It was really unfortunate
what happened to us,

but it happened to so many
other bands in the '60s.

ROD: There was a feeling around

in a lot of the people
from the previous generation

who had gone
into management or agency,

that rock and roll
was only going to last
for three or four years,

so they'd better make
all the money they could
out of these cash cows.

We were being ripped off
to the tune of millions
of pounds,

and in those days,
that was an absolute fortune.

You know, my parents
were working-class
all their lives,

and I could have helped them.

ROD: I mean,
we were 18 years old.

We weren't man enough to handle

all the tricks
or whatever was going on.

(SINGING)
# Girl, I know you're
not coming back anymore#

# So why oh why
do I keep on watching
the door?#

# I talk to you as though
you can hear what I say#

# But I'll lose my mind
if I keep on acting this way#

# Got to get a hold of myself#

# Got to make believe
I don't care#

# Got to go someplace,
find a brand new place#

# Got to get out
and get somewhere#

(LAST FEW NOTES PLAYING)

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

ROD: The irony is this form

of popular music
has actually lasted longer
than any other.

He could have made
far more money

if he'd taken a long-term view
on his artists

and tried
to develop them properly.

CHRIS: We came back
and we had no manager, no money,

no record company
because Decca had dropped us.

-(INAUDIBLE)
-COLIN: Our last single
had been released,

but there was no interest.

We were just dejected, I think.

We went back
and we felt the whole situation
of how we were was wrong.

COLIN: Our old producer
was continually trying
to recreate She's Not There.

We wanted to be
a little bit more adventurous.

Do something exciting
and different.

ROD: Both Chris and I,
we shared a flat at that time.

CHRIS: We just kept feeding
off each other creatively,

encouraging each other,
to be quite honest.

ROD: I remember Chris saying,
"Do you know what?

"We've got to do
at least one album

"that we produced ourselves."

We didn't know
if we could produce an album.

It felt natural
because as a songwriter,

we wanted to get the song right.

We went to our publisher,
and so they said,

"Well, CBS have offered
a thousand pounds,

and I can get you
into Abbey Road."

COLIN: One of the most
expensive studios in the world

because they were probably
the best,

with engineers
like Geoff Emerick
and Peter Vince,

who worked on that album,
which became known
as Odessey and Oracle.

CHRIS: But it's funny not having
the controller on that side.

COLIN: Yeah,
it's unrecognizable...

-CHRIS: Yeah. Totally different.
-...isn't it? Really. Yeah.

CHRIS: You look
totally different, too.

-(CHUCKLES SOFTLY)
-Thanks.

(BOTH LAUGH)

ROD: When we first set up
in here, it felt like
a liberation, didn't it?

-CHRIS: Exactly.
-ROD: Because we were in control

-of everything.
-CHRIS: That's right.

And we could take our own time.

COLIN: And we rehearsed
really extensively

-because we had
such a small budget.
-CHRIS: Yeah.

So, when we recorded,

we knew exactly the songs
that we were going to play,

-the keys we were
going to play in...
-CHRIS: Yep.

-...and the arrangement.
-CHRIS: Yeah.

-All we were looking for
was the performance.
-Yeah.

ROD: Almost all the rehearsals
were done at my mum
and dad's house.

We used to do them
in the front room
with a small upright piano,

and usually with Hugh,
just with a snare drum.
And I found out later

that the guy next door
was on night work,
and he never complained.

But, uh, he became
a heavy drinker later,

-and I think it may
have been because of that.
-(SOFT LAUGHTER)

-But also, we did rehearse
in rehearsal rooms, too...
-CHRIS: Yes, we did.

when we,
when we had to rehearse
the full band.

(LIVELY PIANO MUSIC PLAYING)

ROD: This is the piano
that I used, I think,

possibly because I wanted
a harpsichordy sort of sound
on it.

It was just something
that we thought

would be a change, uh,
and it would fit the, the song.

So, we used to make decisions
very quickly in those days,

and we just, "Let's try this.
Yeah, that sounds all right."
(CLICKS TONGUE)

( MAYBE AFTER HE'S GONE PLAYING
ON RECORD PLAYER)
# But the light#

# That fell upon me#

# Turned to shadow
when he came#

-(SINGERS HARMONIZING)
-# Maybe after he's gone#

# She'll come back,
love me again
May...#

-(MUSIC STOPS)
-ROD: We walked in

just after the Beatles
had walked out,
having recorded Sgt. Pepper.

Some of the equipment
was still in the studio,

and it meant that I could use
the mellotron that was there,
for instance.

They asked for technology
where they could have
more than four tracks.

But what we actually did,

was do a first pass
on four tracks.

CHRIS: So, usually,
it was bass, drums,

guitar on one track.

Piano, keyboards on another one.

Lead vocals on one,
and then another one
for vocal harmonies.

ROD: And then mixed those down

onto one track
so that you get more tracks.

But that was all in mono,
because we were only asked

for a mono mix initially.

And then they said, "Well,
stereo seems to be interesting.
Can you remix it in stereo?"

And we said, "We don't know.
We've never done that."

-And our budget had run out,
so we weren't paid.
-Yeah. That's it.

-(CHUCKLES)
-(MUTTERS SOFTLY)

That sounds like the story
of our lives

-at that time, you know, but...
-(LAUGHTER)

( CHANGES PLAYING)
# I knew her#

# When summer was her crown#

# And autumn sad,
how brown her eyes#

-(DRUM BEATS SOUNDING
ON RECORDING)
-Oh, that is the basics,

-right? Isn't it?
The percussion.
-Yeah... yeah. (CHUCKLES)

-(DRUM BEATS CONTINUE SOUNDING)
-It sounds like
a marching band,

-doesn't it?
-Yeah.

ROD: Our sessions
were generally three hours,

-weren't they, Colin?
-COLIN: Well, they had to be.

You know, they had
these very strict protocols
in Abbey Road.

There was a song
we did called Changes,

and it's the only song
where all five of us
were singing harmonies.

And we were around the piano

because we needed
to get our notes.

We're in the middle
of recording,

but we were coming up
to 1:00 when we had to stop.

And at 1:00,

two of these guys came in
and they moved the piano away

while we were singing.

But Abbey Road
was a little bit like that.
It was very regimented.

ROD: We'd mess around

and... and get a tempo,

and then...
then he would just go,

-"One, two, three, four."
-VOICE ON RECORDING:
One, two, three, four.

-(PIANO MUSIC PLAYS, STOPS)
-VOICE ON RECORDING: Sorry.

(CHUCKLES) "Sorry."

-(LAUGHS)
-VOICE ON RECORDING:
One, two...

-That still happens.
-Yeah.

A ROSE FOR EMILY PLAYING)
# The summer is here at last#

# The sky is overcast#

# And no one brings
a rose for Emily#

# Her roses are fading...#

-That's a cello.
-There's the cello.

-(CELLO PLAYING)
-# She keeps
her pride somehow...#

ROD: Occasionally, on the album,

we would try
just spontaneous ideas
and moments,

and sometimes
they came off beautifully.

-Mmm.
-Sometimes they didn't.

And I think this is one
of the cases

where the...
the cello didn't give it

the magical effect
that we hoped it would.

-It, it made it sound
a little bit like a hotel...
-Yeah.

-...foyer, so we ditched it.
-Yeah.

( THIS WILL BE OUR YEAR PLAYING
ON RECORDING)
# The cold and the dark#

-Different words.
-It's you singing,

-yeah?
-Yeah, yeah.

# This will be our year,
took a long time to come#

-# And I won't forget#
-(ROD CHUCKLES)

-# The way you held me up#
- (CHRIS LAUGHS)

# "Darling, I love you,
you gave me faith to go on"#

# Now we're there
and we've only just begun#

# This will be our year,
took a long time to come#

-(SONG CONTINUES PLAYING)
-We didn't stop.

-Yeah, yeah.
-(LAUGHS)

How do you end this thing?

(PIANO PLAYING FINAL NOTES)

-Oh, like that?
-(CHUCKLES)

(CHRIS LAUGHS)

-And that?
-That was just
a songwriting demo.

ROD: We were writing as we went.

I'd come up with a song,
and then Chris would write
a song,

and both of us together
would often have ideas

about how we should change
in the... the original concept,

you know, where it was going.

( BRIEF CANDLES PLAYING)
# Better off this way#

# Brief candles in her mind#

# Bright and tiny gems of memory
Brief candles... #

Each session we had to put
our songs forward, didn't we?

-Yeah. And, and the thing is...
-And rehearse.

if we played it to each other
and we didn't like

-the idea, it wouldn't
get finished, would it...
-Yeah. Yeah, that's right.

-Absolutely. Yeah. Mmm.
-...basically.

ROD: And of course,
it mixed with emotions

that we were feeling
on growing up,

and a feeling of rebelliousness

against some of the norms
of society and the way

that the older people
were thinking about things.

( BEECHWOOD PARK PLAYING)
# And the breeze
would touch your hair#

# Kiss your face
and make you care#

# About your world#

# Your summer world#

-CHRIS: Put it down. Yeah.
-This was your...

-your organ in the...
-My... This is my... yeah.

CHRIS: I had this pump organ
which we bought

in a secondhand store
for the flat.

It was one of the big things
where, you know, there was tops
on it and everything.

(ORGAN MUSIC PLAYS ON RECORDING)

-What's that?
-MAN: That's your sample track.

-Ah.
-MAN: That's your intro,
and if you...

Wait, I don't know
if you remember,

you used the desk tone
to create an instrument.

-Yeah, yeah.
-Oh, right.

It was like our way
of using the, uh...

-(VOCALIZES RISING TONE)
-...What was the thing
the Beach Boys used?

-CHRIS: Theremin.
-ROD: Theremin.

-CHRIS: Yeah, there.
-ROD: Recreating the theremin.

-ROD: We had to use
what we could.
- ( BUTCHER'S TALE PLAYING)

-(THEREMIN SOUNDING)
-# My arms won't
stop shaking... #

CHRIS:
During the First World War,

my 16-year-old uncle signed up,

lied about his age, and he died
in the Battle of the Somme.

And my mother,
we used to talk about
when he did come home on leave,

to have to iron
the lice out of his clothes
and everything.

And then I read that book,
I think it was called
The Donkeys,

about the First World War
and how...
what a slaughter it was.

And it moved me so much

that I wrote that song about it,
and played it to Rod.

It wasn't...
wasn't rock 'n roll at all...

-Oh, and I loved it.
-...but... Yeah, yeah.

CHRIS: But that's
what the song was about,

the horror of the thing.

# Wouldn't preach
for the sound of guns#

-ROD: And then
we bring in the tone...
-CHRIS: Yeah.

# And I...#

ROD: Not too loud. (CHUCKLES)

I actually wanted Colin
to sing it,

but both Rod and Colin said,
"No, you've got a nice
little weak voice.

"Sound like
you're worried about..."
-No, we didn't say that.

-(LAUGHS MISCHIEVOUSLY)
-But we said
it sounded more touching

-when you're singing it.
-Yeah, he did.

(SONG CONTINUES ON RECORDING)
# Please let me go home#

Sounds like more
than what we used.

# Go home#

( TIME OF THE SEASON PLAYING)

ROD: When I wrote Time
of the Season,

I remember saying this to Chris
when I first played it to him,

"I think this could be a hit."

But nobody else thought so.

It was written very quickly.

-I mean, my memory of that...
-Yeah. It was the last one.

-...that was the last song.
-I think so.

ROD: And I remember
Geoff Emerick was the engineer,

and I absolutely loved the bass

-and tom-tom sound
he got together.
-It was great there.

And, and I don't know
quite what he did,

but it sounded
really quite special.

And that was the reason
why I actually said
to... to Hugh,

"Do you know what?
I can hear a...

-"just before the backbeat...
-CHRIS: Yeah.

"...and a...
(MIMICS EXHALE) afterwards."

And he said,
"Well, go and do it."

And we did, and we didn't
think anything of it.

-But that became
a signature moment of the...
-Yeah.

of the, of the song.

-# What's your name?#
-# What's your name?#

-# Who's your daddy?#
-# Who's your daddy?#

-# He rich?#
-# Is he rich like me?#

-# Has he taken#
-# Has he taken#

-# Any time#
-# Any time#

-# To show#
-# To show you
what you need to live?#

# Tell it to me slowly#

# Tell you what?#

# I really want to know#

# It's the time of the season#

# For loving#

ROD: I mean, the whole place

was spun around the other way,
but Colin was abusing me

-from... from, you know,
(CHUCKLING) just in there...
-(LAUGHING)

-(LAUGHTER)
-...while we were recording
the final thing.

COLIN: Rod very kindly
was coaching me
from the control room.

I was in the live room,

and Rod was just saying
to me, "You know, Colin,

"that phrase is on the beat,
and this bit is pushed.

"And it's not quite
coming together."

And I was aware that
we were running out of money

and at the same time,
unfortunately,

I had a big clock
right in front of me

with a red light
showing we're recording.

The clock's ticking,
and Rod's going,
"Not... Not quite."

So things started to get
a bit more heated.

It's not his fault.
It was right what he was doing.

But I was starting to panic,

-and the language
just got worse.
-He was saying to me,

"If you're so fucking good,
you come in and do it."

I said, "Oh, come on, Colin."
You know? "We're nearly there."
(LAUGHS)

I do apologize
for all this language.

ROD: And he said to me,
"You're the fucking lead singer.

"You stand there
till you get it fucking right."

I think some of that
was in your head, actually.

-I... I think I was
much more supportive than that.
-(LAUGHS)

But anyway,
it always intrigues me

that at the same time
we're singing,

-"It's the time
of the season..."
-BOTH: "...for loving."

And this language is going
backwards and forwards.

But anyway, we managed,
probably with about
five seconds to go

before the money ran out
and they pulled the plug.

ROD: Everyone really
gave everything
they got to the album.

And the input
that we got from
the technical side of things,

including the engineers,
was exactly how we were thinking
and what we needed.

And so we were,
you know, like kids...

-In a sweet shop. (LAUGHS)
-In a sweet shop, yeah.

Terry Quirk, who was
our other flatmate...

He came up with the original
album cover design.

TERRY:
You haven't seen this yet.
Color disc.

I think we've got
about six versions
of Odessey and Oracle now.

It was always known
from the moment

that they were going
to do an album,
that I would do the artwork.

# There's nothing on my mind #

# And life seems kind
Now, I want her, she wants me #

TERRY:
I was sitting on the steps
of Abbey Road, Studio 3.

I drew around
an old record sleeve,

and up comes the word "Odessey,"
chatter, chatter, and "Oracle."

And I thought, "Ah, that works.
Obviously Oracle."

And I said, "How about this?"
and held it up to them.

And they said,
"Oh, exactly like that.

"But you know
what it's all about.

"Put some figures in,
put some pictures in like that."

CHRIS: Nice flowery thing.

We hadn't noticed
that it was "E" instead of "Y"

until the record
was ready to be released.

TERRY: So the whole thing
was done in about
two and a half weeks,

and they were on tour.
They'd gone off somewhere,
so no one could see it.

No one could vet it.

And then, of course,
it went off,
and it had the, um...

spelling mistake. (LAUGHS)

One of the best spelling
mistakes I ever made.
(CHUCKLES)

ROD: So I made up this story
that it was a play on words.

On the word "ode"
and the word "odyssey"
meaning "journey."

And it was like
a journey in song,
you know?

And everybody believed it
until one day in the 90s
on an interview.

I was there with Colin
and I told the real story,
and Colin looked at me.

He said, "What?"
He's saying,
"Of all these years,

"you know, I believed
this was intentional."

And when we finished the album,
we played at CBS,
and they loved it.

# Good morning to you
I hope you're feeling better
Baby #

# Thinking of me
While you are far away #

# Counting the days
Until they set you free again #

# Writing this letter
Hoping you're okay #

COLIN:
We released the first single.

It was "Care of Cell 44,"
which personally to my ears

is probably the most
commercial track.

'Cause it was upbeat,
it was snappy,

and it was different
about somebody being in prison.

THE ZOMBIES:
#...about your prison stay #

It seemed that our work
had become

much more sophisticated
with Odessey and Oracle.

We lied to him.
We thought it was the best thing
we could do at the time.

(RADIO STATIC)

KENNY EVERETT:
You can't beat
The Zombies, kids.

That's from their new LP,
which is the album
of the century.

-Hello, Zombies.
-THE ZOMBIES: Hello.

KENNY:
Hang on. I'll turn
your microphone on.

There you go, say it again.

-THE ZOMBIES: Hello, Ken.
-KENNY: (LAUGHS) That's better.

I hear you've
all split up, then.

COLIN: Yeah. Well, you know,
we've been slogging away

-for three and a half years...
-KENNY: Yeah?

COLIN: ...and we thought
we'd give this a go,

producing all our
own records and things.

And in fact,
we've produced an LP,
which is coming out soon.

The last record was
from the LP, and nothing
happened to it. So, uh...

KENNY:
How long has the LP been out?

COLIN: No, it's out on...
on the 19th, in actual fact.

KENNY: Well,
wouldn't it be better to wait

until the LP is maybe
a huge success,

and then decide whether to go?

COLIN: Well, if the LP
is a huge success,

-then maybe we come back again.
-KENNY: Come back
in again? Okay.

At the time, it wasn't
something which automatically
appealed to people.

Supporters like that
were few and far between.

COLIN: We got one very
good review in Disc magazine
from Penny Valentine.

I remember this.
But in general,
the single was ignored.

And at that time,
singles were all-important.

It was at the time
you put records out,

if they don't go,
then that's that.
We try something else.

COLIN: Rod called a meeting
in his flat that he shared
with Chris White.

Paul Atkinson, our guitarist,
had just got married.

He'd been approached to join
a computer company
with really good money.

He's in a very
difficult position.

He started the meeting off
by saying, "Guys, look,

"I've just got married,
I've got no money,
I have to leave the band."

And then, uh, Rod said,
"Well, if Paul's leaving,
you know,

"this is the time that
maybe we should think about
finishing the band."

ROD: Chris and I certainly felt
that it might be in the air

that we would be splitting up
because of everything

that had been going on,
and we were feeling a little bit

embattled and...
and sort of put down.

It seemed our luck had run out.

Some of the band
felt more strongly
that Odessey and Oracle

was probably going to be
our last album.

I... I wasn't thinking like that.

I knew things
weren't going so well.

But I still thought
that there was
a possibility of a future.

HUGH: Personally, I would
have loved to have carried on
in the sense that

maybe we could have
weathered the storm,
as some other bands...

I think I would
have done as well.

-But at the same time,
I understood the situation.
-We... Absolutely.

You know,
Paul definitely had to leave.

-That's how he felt.
-CHRIS: Yeah.

COLIN: And so the band ended.

But I certainly would have liked
the band to have kept going.

I could have weathered
the storm financially.

I didn't have any money.

-But as a musician,
you learn... You always...
-You get by.

It's one of the things
you learn early on,
is how to survive.

-Yeah, sure.
-I... I would have been
really interested

to know what we would
have done next.

-Would have been fascinating,
wouldn't it? I agree.
-COLIN: Yeah.

I remember leaving Rod's flat
after this discussion,

and feeling a bit numb, really.

Partly because it was
saying goodbye to everything
that we had done.

And also partly,
maybe because... um...

I didn't have a plan B.

I didn't know
what I was going to do.

I had... I had no idea.

And so, yeah,
I... I felt pretty
devastated by it.

( SHE'S NOT THERE PLAYS, ENDS)

COLIN: Somebody thought
I was depressed.

I had a wonderful
six week session
with a psychiatrist.

One of the first things
she said to me was that
I'm a people pleaser.

I want... I want
people to like me.

And I think one of the reasons

was that it was a slightly
strange family background.

I don't think they knew
how to react to me, really.

I was adopted,

and my mother was the sister
of my birth mother.

In the 40s,
it was a very difficult time
to have a child

and not be married,
so we had to kind of
patch things up at home.

My grandfather was very strict,
and so it was a big
family secret.

But I think it
gradually seeped out.

'Cause he was very cold.

I don't remember him
ever speaking to me,

and I spent a lot
of time in his house.

So, it was probably
a bit confusing
for a young boy,

so, sort of,
desperate to be liked.

My birth mother came to live
with my adoptive mother

for, sort of,
six or seven months

so that her family didn't know.

And then as soon as I was born,

she put on her baggy jumper
and got on the bus
and went back

to see her parents,
and... and didn't say anything.

And although I was told
from a very early age
that I was adopted,

I didn't know who
my birth mother was

until probably I was
about 28 or 30.

The really sad thing
was she phoned me
as she was getting older

and said, "Look, I want...
I want you to come down
and have a talk."

But by now, she was married
to someone else,

and he kept filling up
these really strong drinks,

and eventually he got tired
and went to bed...

thank heavens...
and we had our talk.

But in the morning
when I woke up,

I couldn't remember very much.

I remembered
bits and pieces of...

She told me about
how everything happened.

They were strange times.

They didn't know if they were
going to live or die.

She met a very charming
American serviceman,

and they had an affair
just before
he went into France.

He got injured
and he eventually went back,

and he just drifted out
of everyone's life after that.

And she said, "You know,

"he could get fresh eggs,"
and I thought... (LAUGHS)

"Wow, well..." (LAUGHS)

"So that's how I came about.
Half a dozen fresh eggs."
(LAUGHING) You know?

I'm only joking. I mean,
I'm sure they were in love.

So, we had this talk.

But what she didn't tell me
was that she was dying,

and a few weeks later, she died.

So I just remembered
a few of the things she said.
That he could get fresh eggs.

And, uh...

So that was that.

(MUSIC STARTS)

PRESENTER:
Welcome to the future
of rock and roll.

Once, long ago,
Rod Argent and Chris White

formed the nucleus
of the Zombies.

Then they formed Argent.

Their latest album
went to the top five, and their
single from it was a monster.

Now, their success
has crossed the Atlantic.

ROD: Chris and I definitely
wanted to carry on
and stay in the business.

We decided to form
a production company
called "Nexus,"

and with the others
falling away,

we put the next band,
Argent, together.

Chris was a silent member
of Argent.
He didn't want to play,

but he wanted to be
involved in writing.

It was a time
of great experimentation.

I, sort of, grew up learning
to write songs with Colin's
voice and range in mind,

and it was just that feeling
of wanting to stretch boundaries
and try things.

The drive was just to keep
playing and keep writing.

CHRIS: The nice thing
about working with Rod
is he's open to ideas

and challenges you
and suggests things.

There was a symbiotic,
creative atmosphere, really.

Rod did a thing,
which was incredible.

He basically said, "Look, we..."
He's got separate
writing contracts.

"Why don't we put
our joint names
on all the songs we write

because one song
can keep us going?"

He did that after he'd had
three hits in America,

and then the next song
we wrote together

was "Hold Your Head Up,"
which was the next big hit.

HOLD YOUR HEAD UP PLAYING)

ROD:
Chris hadn't been married long.

He said, "My wife's going
through a very hard time,

"and I've written this song."
And he played me
the verses into the chorus.

# And if it's bad
Don't let it get you down #

# You can take it #

# And if it hurts
Don't let them see you cry #

# You can make it #

# Hold your head up, woman #

# Hold your head up, woman #

# Hold your head up #

ROD: I loved it. I loved
the sentiment of it.

If the world's on your back,
if you feel that
you can't take it,

hold your head up.
You can get it. You can
get through it, you know?

CHRIS: The first album
was the freedom of doing
what you wanted to do.

Yeah. It felt, in some ways,
like a natural successor
to Odessey.

Yeah, progressing it. Yeah.

I sort of switched off
a bit from all that stuff.

I did various jobs.

COLIN:
When Hugh left the band,
he was selling cars.

Like me,
he had to take the first job
he was offered.

My first interview,
my friend drove me
and we were early.

So we thought,
"We'll just go
to the pub first."

It would be relaxing for me.

MAN: The importance
of first impressions.

COLIN:
So I went into this interview
for a sales manager.

Firstly, I was probably
a bit tipsy,

smelling of beer,
determined to make eye contact.

I could tell, I was starting
to freak him out because
I was doing the stare-y eyes.

(LAUGHS)

I had no idea
about these things,
and I remember him saying,

"And how will you feel
about selling ladies underwear
into retail outlets?"

(CHUCKLING) I didn't know
that's what the job was.

I'd had a couple of beers,
so I probably said,
"Yeah, it was fine."

I didn't get the job.

I eventually got one working
for this insurance company

in the burglary department.

I go, "Burglary department?"

I mean, don't ask me.

The first couple of days

when I went in there,
yeah, there was
a little bit of pointing and...

and looking at me.
They knew who I was,

and I think they really thought
it was a little bit strange.

But that first day I went in,
I had to answer the phone

the same as everyone else,
and someone would ring up
with a question about...

(LAUGHS) Oh, God.

I really... I just had to bluff.

So, I imagine adding up
these millions... I can't count,

not really.

I can count up to 10.
And each time
it was millions out.

So I just took something
in the middle.

It was a really,
really busy, big office

on four or five levels,
phones ringing all the time.

And I think that was really good
for me because I was really
devastated when the band ended,

but I didn't have time
to dwell on it

because I was working
in this crazy office.

ROD: A year after
Odessey and Oracle came out,

Al Kooper, who was a really,
really hot producer at the time,
had just joined CBS.

Before I started my job.

I came to England
for the first time...

I had never been... to shop.

And I bought about
40 LPs that you could not
get in America.

And so I listened
to all these LPs

and the Zombies album
really stuck out.

So, I took it with me
my first day of work,

and I made an appointment
with my boss.

ROD:
He went back to Clive Davis
and said, "There's one album

"that you have to buy."

He said,
"I don't care who's got it,

"and I don't care
how much money it costs."

And Clive Davis said,
"Well, we actually own it,

"but we've passed on it
because we don't think
it's commercial."

I said, "Well,
I think that would be
a dreadful mistake."

He says, "Well,
what do you think
is the single?"

I said "I think
Time of the Season

"would be the best choice
for the first one."

-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDS)
-They put out
Time of the Season,

and they didn't really
do anything for it.

And it... it made it on its own.

BROADCASTER 1:
It's 19 minutes before 3:00
KY Cash got...

BROADCASTER 2:
This is Tony Taylor.

Time of the Season
started taking off in America.

One guy in Boise, Idaho,
a DJ, started playing it.

SINGER:
# Dick Stott, Radio KYME #

Part of my job
was to collect the 45s
that I got in the mail,

and I had to go through them

and see if any of them
were worth airplay.

So I picked up this record
and put it on.

I didn't even play 16 bars,
and I knew it was a hit.

ROD: Over a couple of months,

it gradually, like a rock
being thrown into a pool,

the ripples sort of went out.

People started picking up
the size of it, and it suddenly
caught fire in the U.S.

COLIN: While I was working
at the insurance company,

Time of the Season
started to go up
the charts in America.

It took us all
completely by surprise.

HUGH: Time of the Season
came to number one,

but sort of too late
to do much about it,
sadly.

(SCOFFS) We should have
stayed together, but everybody
was doing different things then.

In amongst these phone calls
that were about insurance,
I was getting this,

you know, "You fancy
making records anymore?"

One of the guys who phoned
was a guy called Mike Hurst,

and he'd just produced
the early Cat Stevens records.

And they were
really good songs
and good productions.

I wasn't sure
if I wanted to get back
into the music business,

but this chap
was very persuasive.

What we agreed to do
was I would leave the office

at 17:30 and go to
this recording studio.

He would have finished
tracks there, and I would
just sing over them.

And he had
some interesting ideas.

One was to rerecord
She's Not There, which I was
not too sure about, but...

(SIGHS)...at the time,
it was all very experimental.

I didn't know if this
was really getting back
into the business or not.

For me, it was more seeing
if I could still sing.

# How would I know?
Why should I care? #

COLIN: So, we rerecorded
She's Not There

and it was someone's idea
to change my name.

So I ended up
being Neil MacArthur.

# Well, let me tell you 'bout
The way she looked #

# The way she acted
The color of her hair #

# Her voice was soft and cool
Her eyes were clear and bright #

# But she's not there #

To make it sound a bit fresh,
and that version
of She's Not There

by my close friend
was a chart record.

It got in the charts,
so it sort of took us all
a bit by surprise

that suddenly
I'm Neil Bloody MacArthur.

(LAUGHS)
Bloody meeting people
and calling me Neil.

And I didn't know
if it was a noun or a verb.

They said, "Neil,"
and I'm on my knees, you know.
(LAUGHS)

So I spent a year
being Neil MacArthur,
and there were three singles.

I'm afraid She's Not There
was the only one
that was a success.

When Time of the Season
had a huge response...

It was number one
in many places in the world...

Contractually, CBS said,
"We want another album."

But when you start a project,
you don't abandon them.

You do what you can.

And we found some old tracks
which were never completed
of the Zombies.

And then we did some new songs
with Rod's group Argent.

It didn't come out.

It came out years later
as an RIP album.

We all went our separate ways,
and it wasn't until
Time of the Season

that I thought,
"I've got to get back
into the music business,"

and I applied to join
CBS Records at the time.

PRESENTER: The world's largest
recorded music company.

I had a connection with CBS
because Rod and I
were working with them,

and got him a job there.

PRESENTER: Bringing the world
the music it wants to hear

takes a team effort
by thousands of CBS people.

So I became A&R man,
and found quite a few acts
that had hit records.

My job then was to listen
to tapes that were sent in

for budding groups,
singers, et cetera,

and present whoever I thought
might be successful
to the higher management.

So I'm listening to them
all every day,

and you can listen
to the first 10, 20 seconds
and go, "No."

But one tape,
I played the whole thing,
and I thought,

"This is... This is something
really special."

And I went down
to see the group play,

and they just knocked
my socks off, and I thought,
"This is going to be huge."

So I had all the guys
sat there in the office,

and I said, "These guys,
they were unbelievable,

"and I've been to see them play.

"They're looking for
an advance of this or..."

and blah de blah,
and their management
and so on.

And they said,
"No, we can't afford that."

And I said, "You watch,

"in the next year or so,
Queen..." and that's who it was,
"...will be huge."

And sure enough, they were.
So they missed out.

Paul went into computers
and then, same thing,

basically, I said,
"Why don't you
work at CBS in London?"

COLIN:
He never lost his love of music.

He had an amazing ear,
and went on to work
as an A&R man.

ROD: Then became a big
record company executive,
and I think he joined RCA later.

COLIN: He was finding artists
and helping them
in their careers.

What they went through
certainly impacted how
he related with all the artists

that he approached to sign.

ROD: He found ABBA.

No one wanted
to sign them at first.

CHRIS: He signed Bruce Hornsby.

COLIN: Mr. Mister.

He signed many great artists,
and he worked a lot
with the Beach Boys.

He tried to give new life
to some of these
catalog artists.

He did spend three weeks
on Nirvana's tour bus
in Seattle,

brought them back
to his record label.

It didn't work out eventually,
but there was a lot of
people's paths that he crossed.

-# What's your name? #
-# What's your name? #

-# Who's your daddy? #
-# Who's your daddy? #

-# He rich? #
-# Is he rich like me? #

So there were phony,
fake Zombies, yes.

You can understand why,
because there was a big gap.

If there's a vacuum,
the music business will fill it,
you know?

-Well, particularly if there's
a lot of income to be made.
-Exactly.

-Which we never made. (LAUGHS)
-Exactly.

CHRIS: I was in America,
and CBS... Paul Atkinson

sent me a tape over,
and he knew they were fake.

The bass player
was called Hugh Grundy, you see.

How many people in the group
are actually from England?

Just yourself or anybody else?

-Only one.
-Only one?

Well, we got, uh,
Gary, our lead singer.

COLIN: There were two
fake Zombies, and they suggested
that Chris White

ring the manager of one
of the fake Zombies
and try and get the story.

"What's happening?"
Chris rings them up...

I said, "Look,
they're not the real Zombies.

"I'm one of
the original Zombies,

"and they're not
the real Zombies."

He said, "How do I know?"

He said, "All we know
is that Colin Blunstone

"died in a car crash,
and someone else has taken over.

"And these are
the real Zombies."

-I didn't know you were
killed in a car crash.
-Well, I keep it quiet.

This was published
in Rolling Stone, this guy
explaining that I abruptly died.

One of them had two guys
from ZZ Top.

CHRIS:
Yeah, so that was a problem.

We couldn't stop them
because we weren't
in existence anymore.

And under American law,
you can't sue somebody
pretending to be you.

Everyone said,
"We're going out as a fake
ZZ Top when they finish."

COLIN: I was coming home
from a party with Chris White,

and he said,
"Listen, why don't you forget

"this Neil MacArthur stuff,
and Rod and I have got
a production company

"and we'd really like to record
a solo album with you."

CHRIS: It was just that
he was such a good singer,

and like what he was
trying to do, it wasn't
as good as the original.

COLIN: I was just dipping
my toe into the water
of the music business

to see if I wanted
to start again.

CHRIS: The thing about Colin,
he didn't think
he was a great singer,

basically, at heart,
which was ridiculous.

COLIN:
I just think I should have
learned more about my craft.

I never had the confidence
of most lead singers.

I just fell into that position.

CHRIS:
Rod and I encouraged him
to say, "We can do an album."

We wanted to make an album
that was fairly avant-garde
and forward looking.

It was quite adventurous,
really,

because we wanted to include
a string quartet arrangement.

Rod and I both liked Bartok.

We wanted something weird.

(MISTY ROSES PLAYING)

(SINGING)
# You look to me
Like misty roses#

# Too soft to touch#

# But too lovely
To leave alone#

COLIN: And because The Zombies
had always recorded
really quickly,

it really struck me as strange

that we actually took a year
to complete this album.

Firstly, I think,
because we were looking
for a musical direction,

and then also because
Rod was working
a lot with Argent.

And so, he often
would be traveling,
and he wouldn't be available.

And hence,
the album was called One Year.

ROD: We moved away
from the really avant-garde,

but we still did quite a lot
with, uh, small string sections.

And we got a huge hit in Europe

with Say You Don't Mind,
the Denny Laine song.

We used to play it
in the Zombies,

but then thought
we'd do it differently.

(PLAYING SAY YOU DON'T MIND)

# I realize that I've been#

# In your eye
Some kind of fool...#

COLIN: I did play live
quite a lot,
but especially on that album.

I did the first ELO tour.

Because there's bands
on some of the tracks

and strings on some
of the other tracks,

it got quite expensive.

You know, there's so many
players on the stage.

# ...you don't mind
You'll let me off this time#

But I just remember one show.

ELO had a lot of gear.

We had a lot of gear.

As they moved
their amps into position,

they made a complete semicircle.

And I couldn't get on the stage,

physically, couldn't get
on the stage.

I had to climb up the amps.

The first sight
that the managers
and the executives of CBS

had of me as a solo artist,

(LAUGHING) with my bum
coming down
the other side of the amps.

And at the end of the tour,

I'd been carrying
nine musicians and crew,

and there was
a real rogue promoter,

and he just said,
"I'm not paying you."

It's the same as The Zombies.

I've just realized this is...
it's the same story.

Luckily, thank heavens,
CBS paid the bills.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING)

I stopped playing live
in about 1974,

and I just made records,
and then,
eventually, commercials.

This jukebox was
a present for my wife.

It's a 1960 Rock-Ola.

-(CLINKS)
-(JUKEBOX WHIRRING)

It just brings back
memories for me

of when I first went
to cafes and played,

you know, Elvis.

(SOFT WHIRRING)

(GOD GAVE ROCK & ROLL TO YOU
PLAYING)

ROD: With Argent in the '70s,

I always wanted
to push boundaries

and to try out new things
and see where they went,

which caused a bit
of creative tension,

I think, and in the end
it worked against us.

It was getting too progressive
for my writing,
so I said to Rod,

"Look, why don't
we just go
our different ways," and...

that's when it...
that's when it ended.

ROD: After Argent,
I came off the road.

I've got the great joy
of having a loving wife.

She would never
stop me doing anything.

But I had a young family,

I'd been on the road
for over 12 years,
and I thought,

I should've been...

there earlier with them.

It is hard to balance that.

And I... it is something I...

I regret it all my life,
actually, that I wasn't... there

when they were really little.

In those days, the only way
to stay in touch with each other

was to write a letter.
(CHUCKLING) And we...

we time it for two weeks

in the future, you know.

And I used to go
to the Holiday Inn
or whatever it was

and, uh, pick up my mail.

It... it was very hard

particularly
with the young kids.

HUGH: Having moved
into CBS and worked there,
I thought,

"I'm okay,
I'm back in the business,

and I'm doing
something I like doing,"

but it came to a bit
of a sad ending.

They had a reshuffle
of, uh, management,

and they said,
"We don't need you anymore."

"Oh. Okay."

That came tough.

From that point on,

I really didn't
have any direction
in life, particularly.

And I was doing
all sorts of various jobs,

driving jobs or whatever
I could, sort of, get, really.

For the fun, I was playing
two or three nights a week
in a little trio,

in and around the pubs
and clubs of North London.

And, one point
the organist left.

And she came along.

And I said, "All right,
we'll give her a try."

I said to the singer,
John, afterwards,

"She's rubbish. We need to get
a proper keyboard player,
one who can play."

He said,
"Oh, give her a chance.
Give her a chance."

Over the next few years,

she did get better
and better and better.

A bond started forming

until... we married.

And we've been married
39 years ever since.

And we live very happily now

in a place called Minorca,

which is one
of the Balearic Islands
in the Mediterranean.

And I've lived there now
for ten, 12 years,

and couldn't be happier.

ROD: I thought, I'm not
gonna do anything of my own.

Just see if anything
interesting happens.

COLIN: It led in all sorts
of directions,

playing on other
people's albums,

and writing music
for various things
on television.

We went out and produced
several other people.

And we... we're still
always in contact.

You know, we always asked
what we thought
about things we were doing,

gave an honest opinion,

which was... didn't always
go down well. (CHUCKLES)

But, uh, you have to be honest.

Otherwise, there's no point
in saying anything, is there?

ROD: If someone comes in
for you to produce their album,

it's the most important...
say, six weeks of their life,

and they want you there
for 24 hours, giving everything,

and quite rightly, in a way.

But then, at the end of that,
you move on to the next project,

and you've got that again
and again and again.

And in the end,
that drove me crazy

because it... it wasn't
that I didn't enjoy it at all.

I thought, "I want to do
some of my own stuff again now."

COLIN: Then a guy
called Don Airey

started calling me and saying,

"You should be out
playing live."

And I think the last time,

I'd had one too many
Stella Artois

when he... when he called,

and I said, "Okay.
All right, I'll do it."

And he put a wonderful
band together.

One by one,
those guys all got pinched.

They all went off and played
with these big bands.

And I had quite
a high pressure gig

in London
with no keyboard player.

I thought I was gonna
have a heart attack.

And it was
at that point, in 1999,

I rang Rod up.

ROD: Well, this is my fab studio
that I love working in.

And we stayed friends,

but not in... terribly
close contact, you know.

COLIN: I didn't think Rod
would wanna play life again.

He was very successful
as a producer.

He'd had a lot of hits.

And I phoned him,
and it wasn't easy
for me to do this.

He said, "I'm doing
a half dozen solo gigs.
Do you fancy joining me?"

And I said, "No. I can't
get involved in all that again.
I can't bear it."

Because my memories were
of all the practical horrors

that had happened touring
at that time.

And it was only
that my cousin Jim said,

"It's very different to that.
It's nothing like that now."

And I said, "Well, all right,
I'll do half a dozen gigs.

"...but I don't wanna
do any more.

"You know, I'm committed
to the studio and everything."

And I had such a ball doing it

that quite naturally it led us
into working together again.

It was 2004, I think.

CHRIS: We all met up
in House of Blues
in Los Angeles.

There was a charity thing
for Paul.

(PHONE RINGING)

ROD: He phoned up and said,

"I want to prove to my kids

that I actually
did play in the band."

-Well, he had
a very successful life...
-Yeah.

-...as a record executive.
-ROD: Yeah.

And I think he was very proud

-with what the Zombies
had achieved.
-CHRIS: Absolutely.

COLIN: And one of the most
important things to him was

that he got up on stage
and played with us

in front of his family
before he died.

LUCY: Some of, like, my fondest
memories of my dad were when

him and I would
listen to music together.

He is the person
that played me, like,
the Prodigy for the first time,

and even artists like Ludacris.
Like, he just...

he would play me artists
from across tons of genres,

and that's really shaped

why I work in music
and where my passion lies.

ROD: He said,
"Will you come over
and do a concert for me?"

And it was sort of understood

that it was gonna be
a final concert.

He was very ill
when it was happening,

so, you know, I think just

to be able to do that
one last time

was just, like, something
that made him feel whole.

With characteristic humility,
Paul has never
assumed too much,

"Would people care?"

(CHUCKLES) And I guess,
as you can see tonight,
a lot of people do.

ROD: We did She's Not There,

and we did Time of the Season.

And he went on stage,

I think it was morphine
that was being fed into his arm
while he was playing.

Very brave.

LUCY: When I was a teenager,
I remember him

preparing for this big moment.

And to see him get up there,

I was just so proud.

I sort of realized then
that it was a bigger deal
than what... I thought it was.

Over the years, Paul has been
many things to many people.

A gifted musician,
as you know,

a fearless executive,

a patient mentor,

a trusted and true friend
and, frankly,

a gutsy and determined
pioneer in the business
who dared to face the unknown

without flinching
or turning away,
no matter what.

-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
-SHADOE: But on top of that

is the fact that Paul...
was a Zombie.

Whatever highlights
and struggles they share,

the members of the Zombies
have never really
broken up as friends.

And a few years back,

when Rod Argent
and Colin Blunstone

decided to re-team
and bring the Zombies' legacy
back alive,

-Paul was there to help them
with an American deal.
-(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

I often meet up
with people now

who want to talk about Paul

and how important
he was in their life,

and how much
they respected him

as a record man.

You know, someone who
really knew the business

and really knew music.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING)

ROD: And he got some
great people to play with him,

including Brian Wilson.

Brian Wilson said to him,

"What would you like me
to play at your concert?
I'll play anything."

And he said, "Can you play
Don't Worry Baby?"

He said, "Well, I don't
do that on stage."

He said,
"But I'll do it for you."

God, when Brian
played it that night.

-(PLAYING DON'T WORRY BABY)
-(CHORUS SINGING)
# Don't worry baby#

# Don't worry baby#

(CHORUS SINGING)
# Don't worry baby#

- # Everything will
Turn out all right#
- # Don't worry baby #

COLIN: The tears were just
streaming down my cheeks

because I knew Brian
was playing that for Paul,

and I knew Paul was not gonna
live very much longer.

He died
about three weeks later.

I... I don't go a day
without thinking about him
and his impact that he had.

I look back
at my father's legacy
with the most beaming pride.

And I just have, like,
the utmost respect for him,

and it grows more every day.

The song Time of the Season
has that lyric,
"Who's your daddy?"

which (CHUCKLES) resonates
for me a lot, you know.

And it's, uh...
is kind of crazy
to have these songs.

Just being able
to listen to his music

helped me
connect with him, still.

(STRUMMING GUITAR)

CHRIS: Then I suddenly realized

it's 40 years
since Odessey and Oracle
was out.

So we said, "Why don't we
do some things together?"

ROD: "...a reunion gig.

"And actually play
Odessey and Oracle

"because we've never,
ever played it."

Paying service
what it meant to people.

COLIN: Playing it in the studio
and playing it live's
a different thing

because you have
to relearn these songs.

HUGH: When that happened,

quite a... a light
switched on really,
I've gotta be honest.

"Really?" I thought,
"Can we do this?"

(AUDIENCE CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING)

Here we are, 40 years later,

and for the first time
this weekend ever,

we're playing these songs,
so I hope you enjoy. (CHUCKLES)

(AUDIENCE CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING)

(PLAYING HUNG UP ON A DREAM)

(SINGING)
# Well, I remember yesterday#

# Just drifting slowly
Through a crowded street#

# With neon darkness
Shimmering through the haze#

# At men with flowers
Resting in their hair#

COLIN: There was huge interest
in the 40th anniversary
of Odessey and Oracle.

We originally got together
to play one night in London.

Incidentally, grew
to three nights.

And then we had to get together
the next year
to do it around the country.

And then we've done it
across the States,
and we've done it in Europe.

CHRIS: It was an experience
capping up the end

of my creative life
from that period.

I mean, it was fantastic
getting the recognition

which we didn't get
at the time.

HUGH: Little did I know
how fantastic it would be

playing that album on stage
in the way that we did
for all those tours.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING)

(EDGE OF THE RAINBOW PLAYING)

COLIN: I always think of this
as the second incarnation
of The Zombies.

It's Rod Argent
on keyboards and harmonies,

myself on lead vocals,

Soren Koch on bass
and harmonies,

Tom Toomey on guitars
and harmonies,

and Steve Rodford on drums.

ROD: Chris came along
and saw us on a few concerts.

He said, "You know what?
I'm all for this

"because you're revitalizing
the legacy."

COLIN: With the music business
and, in particular,
with The Zombies,

I am definitely
still having fun.

(COLIN SINGING)
...light coming through#

ROD: Creatively,
I want to keep going

for as long as I can,
as long as I'm able.

That gives
my life satisfaction,

and to some degree,
is necessary for me.

And I'm still buying loads
of new equipment

for my studio,
(LAUGHS) and I'm still...

We're still thinking
about moving on
and recording.

And we've only just
finished an album,

but we're thinking
about how great it would be
to record some more.

COLIN: These songs are
written from the heart,

and the performances
are performed from the heart.

We give everything we've got
when we go on stage,

and I think we're
rewarded for that

because you get out of life
what you put in.

And it's certainly been
the most exciting
thing in my life,

the way we've managed
to give this

a pretty wide fan base.

They've grown up listening
to British amazing music
since they were babies.

This will be my third time
seeing them.

I'm a musician myself,
so I'm probably
more aware than most.

MAN: Dad loved it.
Mom loved it.

Carried on from me.

WOMAN: I always knew
Time of the Season

and just kept listening
and finding new songs.

ROD: When you think
(CHUCKLES) of how old
we are now,

I find that extraordinary,

that you can relate
to a present generation

is one of the most exciting
things about touring.

So nice to meet you.

How are you, brother?

Yeah, nice to meet you.

This is fucking awesome.

JOHN GOURLEY: All the bands
we hang out with,

everybody references
the Zombies.

I can't even speak right now.

JOHN: ...which is, I mean,
it's rare that you have
these, like, crossroads.

They could be hip hop.

They could be anybody,
and they all kind of go to it.

It may be my favorite album
of all fucking time.

I've listened to it
so much over the years

that it has to be
burned into my mind.

One of our favorite
songs ever

is The Way I Feel Inside.

Your writing and your songs
were a big influence on us.

Colin, your voice is like

one of the sexiest voices
in rock and roll.

HARRY STYLES: The melodies
are incredible.

This Will Be Our Year
is one of my favorite songs.

TOM PETTY: You guys
are on tour again,
and it's a great show.

I've seen it a few times.

RICHARD PARRY: The thing
that occurred to me
in seeing them tonight

that's super crazy
is that they've, like,

lived through the history
of live sound.

COLIN: If a fellow musician
says to you,

"You know, you really
influenced me when I was young."

It's incredible.

It's so...

invigorating.
It's so energizing.

- (PLAYING TIME OF THE SEASON)
-(EXHALES)

(SINGING)
# What's your name?

-(CHORUS SINGING)
# What's your name?
-# Who's your daddy?

(CHORUS SINGING)
# Who's your daddy
Is he rich...#

FINNEAS: If you're a creator,
you hope that you
make a piece of work

that feels prescient
and somehow also feels timeless.

# To show you what...#

I don't know how
Time of the Season

felt to listen to in the '60s,
but it sure holds up.

...slowly tell you what#

It's such a great song.

# It's the time

# Of the season for loving#

(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)

So, Colin, Rod,

Chris, Hugh and Paul,

thank you for the music
and the inspiration.

This will be your year.

-It took a long time to come.
-(AUDIENCE CHEERING)

And it's my great honor,

a highlight of my life,
to induct the Zombies into

-the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
-(AUDIENCE CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING)

COLIN: We were inducted
in a wonderful ceremony
in front of 17,000 people

alongside Stevie Nicks,
Janet Jackson,

Def Leppard, Roxy Music,
Radiohead, and the Cure.

It was a fantastic night.

I'll never ever forget it.

LUCY: I sat there
next to Questlove, Harry Styles,
(CHUCKLES)

Janelle Monae.
I could see them all, and...

when they called
my dad's name to get inducted,

I was just, like,
so overcome with emotion.

COLIN: It's a feeling,
when finally we were called.

It's very hard
to describe... the euphoria.

Absolute deep joy
and happiness.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING)

Thank you for such really,
really gorgeous words.

I can say that we're
absolutely thrilled

to have been elected
to the Rock & Roll
Hall of Fame.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING)

And what a joy to have been
managed perfectly,

for the first time in our lives
over the last six years or so,

by Chris Tuthill,

Cindy da Silva,
and all the team
at the Rocks Management.

The story goes on.
Thank you very much.

(AUDIENCE CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING)

It's actually 50 years ago,
to this very day,

the 29th of March, 1969,

that Time of the Season
reached the number one
position in America.

- (PLAYING TIME OF THE SEASON)
-(AUDIENCE CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING)

It took 50 years,
but we suddenly got accepted.

COLIN: I didn't feel nervous.

When it's 17,000 people,

they lift you.

-COLIN: # ...name? #
-(CHORUS SINGING)
# What's your name?

-# Who's your daddy?#
-# Who's your daddy?#

CHRIS: Four of the original five
still there
and playing on stage.

I mean, that is fantastic.

HUGH: This is something
I would've never expected.

It was the pinnacle
of success.

It was the pinnacle
of achievement.

CHRIS: And when I looked
along the stage,

it looked like
everybody's 25 still.

COLIN: We knew Paul and Jim
were looking down at us

and hopefully with their
guitars in hand, playing along.

# ...the season for loving#

CHRIS: While we were backstage
doing interviews,

Brian May popped
his head around and said,

"Oh, I don't want to interrupt.

I'd just like to say
how much you influenced Queen."

We never knew.

We'd suddenly realized
that we'd influenced people.

And that's a fantastic feeling.

Didn't realize in your 70s

that you were successful
in your 20s.

COLIN: And at this time
in our lives, in our 70s,
our career's growing.

All is not lost.

If things start
to get a bit difficult
in your 30s and your 40s,

-look at us.
-(CHUCKLES)

(CHUCKLES) That's 77
and going strong.

ROD: So, it... it's a legacy
left behind.

And it's a legacy
that will go on.

# ...of the season#

# For loving#

(AUDIENCE CHEERING
AND APPLAUDING)

COLIN: That some...

groups of people just click.

ROD: There was
a symbiosis of friendship

which just grows.

-And you... you can't put
your finger on it, really...
-COLIN: Yeah.

...but the five of us had that.

ROD: Shared history
is part of it, wasn't it?

COLIN: I think so, and I...
and I think it's...

We got together
at a really young age,

-so we went through our
formative years together.
-ROD: Hmm.

COLIN: We knew
one another's families,

and we come
from the same area of England.

And all those things

helped create a bond, I think.

(WRONG WAY
BY ROBERT SCHWARTZMAN PLAYING)

ROD: Well, I think
success is fulfilling

creatively what you hope to do.

If you can move
one or two people
with what you do creatively,

and it actually
makes a difference,

then how wonderful is that?

HUGH: I don't think I've thought
of myself as a rock star.

And you know what?
I don't think of myself
that now either.

I'm just somebody
who's been lucky enough

to have been in a great band
that's had a second coming.

And from that little acorn
did a great tree grow.

COLIN: Of course,
there were times,
when we were younger,

when things could've
gone better for us.

But I'm really happy
where I am in my life now,

so I would say,
No, I don't wanna
change anything.

CHRIS: It was luck, really.

Just luck that you
met these five people...

and we got on.

And we're still friends
to this day.

That's the real success.

(MUSIC CRESCENDOS AND ENDS)

(PLAYING HUNG UP ON A DREAM)

(SINGING)
# Well, I remember yesterday#

# Just drifting slowly
Through a crowded street#

# With neon darkness
Shimmering through the haze#

INTERVIEWER: And my
last question is,

have you ever
challenged each other
to a thumb war?

(COLIN AND ROD LAUGH)

I don't know what
a thumb war is.

INTERVIEWER: Where you
have to... you have to pin
the thumb down like that?

-You have to pin
the on down? No.
-No.

Yeah. So, I'm not quite sure
how you do it.

-What do you do?
-INTERVIEWER: Put your hands
together like this.

-COLIN: Like...
-Like that?

INTERVIEWER: Yes, sir.
And then you
have to battle each other...

-(COLIN AND ROD CHUCKLE)
-...until you hold it down

because whoever
can hold it wins.

Oh, good God.
What do you mean, like...

COLIN AND ROD:
One, two, three, four.

I declare a thumb war.

-(COLIN EXCLAIMING)
-(ROD LAUGHING)

(BOTH LAUGHING)

I think that was a draw.

INTERVIEWER: Will you be
able to play
a little guitar for us?

Um, I... absolutely
don't want to, but I will.

And I have no idea
if it'll work or not.

-Can I have a practice?
-INTERVIEWER: Of course.

(STRUMMING GUITAR)

Do you know what?
I said to Rod,

"I know you all
will ask me to play this."

INTERVIEWER: Yeah,
I really wanted to...

And Rod said, "Well, get him
to play guitar." (SNICKERS)

MAN: One, two, three,
and a four.

(PLAYING CAROLINE GOODBYE)

(SINGING)
# Saw your picture in a paper#

# My, you're looking
pretty good#

# Looks like you're gonna
Make it in a big way#

# Well, I always knew
you would#

# But I should've
Known better, yeah#

# And I should've seen sooner#

(VOCALIZES)

It's no use pretending#

# I've known for a long time#

# Your love is ending#

# Caroline goodbye#

# Caroline goodbye#

INTERVIEWER: All right.

Do you know
what I was thinking?

You know what I was thinking?

You haven't warmed up.
You haven't warmed up.

And then halfway
through the song,
I was thinking,

"Okay. Breathe.

(CHUCKLES) Lift from your
pelvic floor."

-(LAUGHING)
-INTERVIEWER: (CLAPPING)
Sing through your ass.

Sing through your ass. (LAUGHS)

It's hard to have
those thoughts

and sing a romantic song
at the same time.

-(LAUGHING)
-(INTERVIEWER SNICKERS)