Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
More than fifty years after they became one of the first British Invasion groups to top the U.S. singles charts, and approaching the 50th anniversary of their album, Odessey and Oracle, the Zombies continue their remarkable 21st-century resurgence returning to North America by popular demand for the final full-album live performances of Odessey and Oracle.
The Spring 2017 trek across the U.S. and Canada that makes only one stop in our area at Town Hall on March 25, reunites all four surviving members of the group, Colin Blunstone on lead vocals, Rod Argent on keyboards/vocals, Chris White on bass/vocals, and Hugh Grundy on drums. The tour will also feature the current Zombies’ line-up bassist Jim Rodford, guitarist Tom Toomey and Steve Rodford (Jim’s son) on drums.
Following the breakthrough with their first single “She’s Not There” in 1964 (a record just last year inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame), the Zombies continued to make music whose impact and influence resonate to this day, on songs like “Tell Her No,” “Whenever You’re Ready,” “Just Out of Reach,” “I Want You Back Again,” and on Odessey and Oracle, released in 1968, which concluded with their biggest hit, “Time of the Season,” a track that has become a generational touchstone. In a strange turn of events, by the time that song was going up the charts, the Zombies had disbanded. 50 years later, it brings the four surviving members back together on stage to perform the album in its entirety for the final time.
The past three years have marked a major resurgence for the band, with tours of the U.S., U.K, Europe and Japan, the release of two studio albums (2013’sBreathe Out, Breathe In and 2015’s Still Got That Hunger, released by The End Records, the debut on RollingStone.com & VEVO of their first-ever music video for “Any Other Way,” Eminem’s sample/cover version of “Time of the Season,” an appearance on Austin City Limits and their first Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame nomination.
In conjunction with the golden anniversary of Odessey and Oracle, a lavish coffee table book will will be published by BMG in March 2017. It will be an album-sized (12” X 12”) volume of the lyrics of Odessey and Oracle, as well as many of their other popular songs, handwritten by the authors with original artwork – from Terry Quirk who created the iconic cover artwork for Odessey and Oracle.
In 2015, original members White and Grundy re-joined their former bandmates for select performances of Odessey and Oracle – the first time the album had ever been performed in its entirety in the U.S. – including at a sold-out show at The Concert Hall in New York City.
Writing about that evening, David Fricke of Rolling Stone called it “absolutely triumphant,” and said, “either half of this night would have been exhilarating in its own right. Together, they were a story still busy being told — in classic-pop history, psychedelic monument, continuing aspiration and enduring friendship.” The magic of that evening and the few other O&O shows was too undeniable to not continue to share it, so the band decided to bring it back one more time.
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