So… you’ve listened to (almost) all of the classic-line-up Zombies material? Namely,
- Are Missing (1964) – My Fan Creation
- Begin Here (1965) – YouTube, Spotify
- Feeling Something (1967) – My Fan Creation
- Odessey and Oracle (1968) – YouTube, Spotify
And now you want more material. Here’s a little compendium of other works by Zombies members. Those who want all five “classic Zombies”; Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone, Paul Atkinson, Hugh Grundy, and Chris White, together can go to three places. The first is the “R.I.P.” album. In 1968, Rod Argent and Chris White were asked to make another Zombies album after the band disbanded. They recruited Hugh Grundy, Rick Birkett on guitar, and Jim Rodford on bass. Argent sings lead vocals and White only writes and produces. Side A consists of six songs by this line-up. Side B consists of six songs from 1964 to 1966 by the classic line-up. They were enhanced with overdubs. I don’t know who performed on the overdubs. I suspect the line-up with Birkett and Rodford. Some dislike the shift halfway through from newer songs to older songs as they’re stylistically different. Some tried to remedy this with fan edits. Here’s two:
- Albums That Never Were’s version
- FuzzDandy’s version, which features relatively few R.I.P. songs and many solo-era songs – The album on Archive.org
For whatever reason, R.I.P. wasn’t released until 1997 on the Zombie Heaven compilation. Basically everything from the 60s with the classic-line-up is in that box set. Despite being closer to Rod Argent and Chris White’s next project, Argent, R.I.P. does deliver some material by Atkinson, Grundy, and White on bass all together. Fortunately, the original mid-60s versions are also easily accessible.
- R.I.P. (1969) – YouTube, Spotify
- The original mid-60s versions of the classic line-up songs – YouTube, Spotify
Tying off the 60s is another transitional work between the Zombies and the solo era, Into The Afterlife. Colin Blunstone and the collective of Rod Argent and Chris White continued to make music, basically little projects before everything came together. This set contains a double album’s worth of content. Into The Afterlife was released by the same company as Zombie Heaven. These two sets contain most or all of the content from the 60s, making them a great resource. I don’t know if Hugh or Paul feature on Into The Afterlife at all. They might a little, but nothing significant. Those two will be out of the picture for a while. Along with Chris White, the three of them released zero solo albums, with anything they did being secondary to other artists, like Rod Argent. I’m also unsure if Afterlife features anything from before or after 1969. It might span ‘68-’70, but probably just 1969.
- Into The Afterlife (1969) – Archive.org
Rod and Chris’ solo work (which was mostly one in the same), mingled a lot with Colin’s. Some of Colin’s solo albums feature Argent/White songwriting and production, Rod’s keyboard playing, and members of Argent. Here are the solo works of Rod Argent and Chris White from 1970 to 1990. I may fan edit these together to make makeshift Zombies albums in the future, who knows?
- Argent (1970) – Rod Argent, Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- Ring of Hands (1971) – Rod Argent, Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- One Year (1971) – Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent, Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- All Together Now (1972) – Rod Argent, Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- Ennismore (1972) – Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent, Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- In Deep (1973) – Rod Argent, Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- Nexus (1974) – Rod Argent, Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- Journey (1974) – Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent, Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- Circus (1975) – Rod Argent, Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- Counterpoints (1975) – Rod Argent, Chris White – YouTube
- Planes (1977) – Colin Blunstone
- Never Even Thought (1978) – Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent – YouTube
- Moving Home (1978) – Rod Argent – YouTube
- Late Nights in Soho (1979) – Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent
- Ghosts (1981) – Rod Argent – YouTube
- Metro (1983) – Rod Argent – YouTube, Spotify
- A New Age (1984) – Rod Argent – YouTube, Spotify
- Second Sight (1984) – Rod Argent – YouTube, Spotify
- Shadowshow (1985) – Rod Argent
- Wild Connections (1987) – Rod Argent
- Network Heroes (1987) – Rod Argent – YouTube, Spotify
- The Advance of Man (1988) – Rod Argent – YouTube, Spotify
- Red House (1988) – Rod Argent
- Rescue (1989) – Rod Argent – YouTube, Spotify
The second way to get more classic-line-up Zombies is in 1990. 1990 saw an almost reunion of the Zombies. Knowing that the line-up has three of the five members, one might expect the returning players to be Rod, Colin, and Chris. In fact, Rod was absent and Hugh is back. They’re back for a new album with guitarist/keyboardist Sebastian Santa Maria. Paul and Rod each appear on one song of the album, though not the same one. Paul is on “New World (My America)” and Rod is on “Time of the Season”. It’s a shame the classic line-up couldn’t have been on the full album. The album received a limited release as The Return Of The Zombies in 1990. It was then rereleased with three newly recorded tracks as New World. Also featured are two demos from 1978 featuring Rod, Colin, and Chris called “Hold My Hand a.k.a. Lula Lula” and “When My Boat Comes In”.
Here are more solo works from Colin and Rod, from 1990 to 2021.
- Sings His Greatest Hits (1991) – Colin Blunstone, Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- Echo Bridge (1995) – Colin Blunstone – YouTube, Spotify
- Classically Speaking (1998) – Rod Argent – YouTube, Spotify
- The Light Inside (1998) – Colin Blunstone, Rod Argent – YouTube, Spotify
- The Ghost of You and Me (2009) – Colin Blunstone – YouTube, Spotify
- On the Air Tonight (2012) – Colin Blunstone – YouTube, Spotify
In 2001, Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone reunited for an album credited to them, not the Zombies, but the personnel is similar to their 2004 and onward effort, so it’s counted as part of it. In 2004, they reunited as the Zombies with minimal participation from other members. Zombies albums with only Rod and Colin are considered collaborative solo projects by me. Other members of the new Zombies are Argent and R.I.P. member Jim Rodford.
- Out of the Shadows (2001) – Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone – YouTube, Spotify
- As Far as I Can See… (2004) – Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone, with Chris White on backing vocals and Paul Atkinson on A&R – Archive.org
- Breathe Out, Breathe In (2011) – Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone, with Chris White writing a few songs – YouTube, Spotify
- Still Got That Hunger (2015) – Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone – YouTube, Spotify
Beyond studio albums, there have been some notable compilation and/or live albums. The works of Chris White, some before unreleased, have been compiled, making them the closest thing to White solo work. Rod and Colin also have their own efforts.
- Encore: Live in Concert (1974) – Rod Argent – YouTube, Spotify
- In Concert (1995) – Rod Argent
- Live at the BBC (1996) – Colin Blunstone – YouTube, Spotify
- The Complete BBC Sessions (1997) – Rod Argent
- Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London (2005) – Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone – YouTube, Spotify
- On The BBC Radio (2007) – Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone – Possibly a bootleg, was hard to find – Archive.org
- High Voltage Festival (2010) – Rod Argent
- Live In Concert At Metropolis Studios (2012) – Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone – YouTube, Spotify
- Live in the UK (2013) – Rod Argent, Colin Blunstone – YouTube, Spotify
- The Chris White Experience Vol. 1 (2019) – Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- The Chris White Experience Vol. 2 (2019) – Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- The Chris White Experience Vol. 3 (2019) – Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- The Chris White Experience Vol. 4: Production Sessions (2020) – Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- The Chris White Experience Presents Sparrow (2020) – Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
- The Chris White Experience Vol. 5: Production Sessions (2020) – Chris White – YouTube, Spotify
Anyone that wants works with minimal involvement from one of the five Zombies can look at each individual’s page on Wikipedia, AllMusic, RateYourMusic, Discogs, and various other sites. And last, but certainly not least, are live albums featuring the classic line-up. First are compilations of the BBC sessions from the 60s, which have been released multiple times, sometimes without all the material. The best way to get them is on one of these releases:
- Zombie Heaven (1997) – Also contains alternate versions of Zombies songs by the Zombies in the 60s
- Live at the BBC (2003)
- The BBC Radio Sessions (2016)
Some of these releases are annoying as it can be hard to find a quality, inexpensive set. Sets might be missing tracks or the audio quality is lesser. Here’s a link to the BBC Sessions on Archive.org. Hopefully an all-encompassing set will be released on Spotify, such as Zombie Heaven. Secondly, Chris White and Hugh Grundy sometimes would participate in modern day Zombies shows. Them, with Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone, would perform their famous album, Odessey and Oracle, in its entirety. Sadly, Paul died and thus can’t participate. Here is an official release of one of their shows:
Fortunately, there is plenty of Zombies content around, even if at first glance, there’s only two albums; Begin Here and Odessey and Oracle. It might take a little digging, but there’s more around, 58 albums to be exact. It’d be nice to go to the alternate universe where the main five stayed together and kept on going. It’s hard to beat Rod’s keyboard playing or Hugh’s drumming, which is missed on projects without them. Still, us fans are very fortunate to have the content we do have.
The Filme Diary 