29 Oct 2026
For The Zombies’ keyboard wizard Rod Argent, there was never any doubt in his mind that he would end up back on the stage – despite the shock stroke which brought an end to his touring career back in July 2024.
“Apart from the first couple of months, I always felt that I would perform live again. It’s a smaller appearance than I might have done in the past, but then I haven’t actually played live for two and a half years.”
A founding member and the erstwhile leader of the 1960s British Invasion rock band, which formed at The Blacksmith’s Arms in 1961, Rod will be joining fellow Zombie Colin Blunstone for three songs at his candlelight concert in the Cathedral this Saturday night.
It forms part of the fourth Begin Here Festival, a celebration of all-things Zombies in their hometown, which takes place over the weekend.
The group was formed of five local schoolboys – Chris White and Colin went to St Albans Grammar School for Boys (now Verulam) and Rod Argent, Hugh Grundy and Paul Atkinson were at St Albans School, and their first gig took place at The Pioneer Club in Heathlands Drive.
Talking to Rod ahead of the gig, he explains how the stroke has affected him: “I’ve been playing here at home and I’m gradually getting better, although I do get tired easily. If I’m just thinking about things, I feel absolutely normal in my mind, but when I’m actually speaking, sometimes things go missing and I have to go a bit more slowly, which is driving me up the wall actually!
“But I’ve just got to take the time to get better. The brain’s plasticity means that when you have a stroke, a little bit of the brain dies, and it has to recruit another part to take over.”
Rod, who is now 81, has been performing with the band in recent weeks, mainly on the 9ft Steinway Grand which he has at home: “It’s a wonderful piano and it just feels terrific to play that. I got everyone round to record some stuff, and it went brilliantly well, it felt really, really great to be playing, and at my best, it feels absolutely the same.
“When Colin’s been doing his solo tours he’s been using a particular pianist, and I’m going to have to use his piano, which will be the first time I’ve played that, so it will be a bit of a baptism of fire, but it should be fine. We have the same person we always have to do the sound, and he knows what I like, so although it’s going to be a little bit of an adventure, it should be exactly as it used to be!”
He’s careful not to give anything away about what songs he’ll be performing with Colin, having accidentally revealed a couple of the numbers in a previous interview: “I’ve been told off for saying what two of the songs were, but the last one will be a complete surprise.”
Now living in Petersfield in Hampshire, Rod only tends to return to St Albans for events like the festival, but has fond memories of his time in the city.
“I did love St Albans, but it was a very different vibe in the 1960s. It was a wonderful time because we had no idea about any of the pitfalls you could be facing when you recorded a song, I just thought I could write something that was just as good as The Beatles, Colin could sing it and we’d have a great time. Unbelievably, our first record She’s Not There went to number one in the US charts!
“I phoned to my parents’ house when we were over in America, which was a major event in those days to actually get through, and my mother said, ‘Oh you’ve just been on the nine o’clock news!’, and I thought, ‘Oh my God, what have I done?’
“Much later, in the ‘90s, we found out that Elvis – who completely changed my world when I heard Hound Dog in the early days – had three of our records on his jukebox, which was absolutely extraordinary, you know. It was all a magical time.”
The continued love for The Zombies brings fans from across the world to St Albans for the Begin Here Festival, testament to the ongoing fascination with the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers.
“It is extraordinary. I was thinking about coming last year, but in the end I really couldn’t face it from a practical point of view. But, you know, it feels like a bit of a milestone coming back. I really hope I’m still going to feel like this when we’ve finished doing the concert.”
During the early days of the band, Rod was a chorister in St Albans Cathedral Choir, performing under organiser Peter Hurford.
“It was my exposure to 400 years of some of the best music ever written, it really opened my eyes and it gave me a continued love of classical music which has never left me really.
“But the same time I was absolutely in love with the rawest rock and roll that I could find, and I couldn’t bring myself to tell Peter Hurford. So I used to get changed after choir, dart out of the Cathedral at full speed, get in the car and go off to a gig on a Sunday evening, which felt wonderful at the time as absolutely nobody I the choir knew what I was doing!
“When they did get to know, it was actually looked on remarkably kindly. I’m sure one or two people didn’t understand or like the music at all, but they stayed quiet, but the others were thrilled, and that was a bit of an awakening for me.”
During a career spanning more than 60 years, Rod has worked with the likes of Gary Moore, Phil Collins, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ringo Starr, but there’s one band he would have loved to appear with.
“My wife Cathy and I had gone to see Janis Joplin, and Yes were supporting her… [This would have been her only solo British performance, at the Royal Albert Hall in April 1969.] and when they came on they really blew our socks off!
“When they changed their keyboard player they called me up, and although they didn’t actually call me up, they said, ‘We’d love you to come along and have a blow with us’.
“At the time we were just forming Argent [Rod’s post-Zombies group whose line-up included his St Albans-based cousin Jim Rodford] and I’d invested quite a lot in that band. Russ Ballard and Bob Henrit had left their relevant bands and I just felt faithful to them really, even though I absolutely adored Yes at the time.
“Who knows what might have happened if I’d joined Yes, as this was before Rick Wakeman came along, but I’ve always I’ve always wanted to do my own thing and be a sort of leader, and I think I was always happier carving my own path, in a way.”
Surprisingly, one of his favourite contemporary acts is probably not at all who you would expect: “The person I absolutely adore at the moment is Jacob Collier. I think he’s had the most wonderful success, both in America and pretty much everywhere.
“When I first saw him he was just posting on YouTube from his room and it was absolutely extraordinary.
“Then Herbie Hancock and Quincy Jones said, ‘We have to visit England and see this guy!’ I’m not sure exactly what age he was, but he was an absolute genius.
“I also love Yuja Wang, who is an incredible classical pianist – I’ve never heard her ever play a wrong note, and she plays some stuff that no one else attempts, but she’s so sensitive as well. She absolutely blows me away.”
Passes for the Begin Here Festival – including Rod’s appearance with Colin Blunstone on Saturday (October 31) – are still available here.
