26 Oct 2024
Fans of seminal sixties rock band The Zombies are coming from all over the world to celebrate their St Albans roots.
The second Begin Here Festival is taking place across the district from Friday November 8 until Sunday November 9, and promises a host of up close and personal moments with the group at a varierty of venues.
It was outside The Blacksmiths Arms that the band first met in 1961, and the festival celebrates their contributions to popular music – together and as solo artists – over seven decades.
The atmospheric setting of the Lady Chapel at St Albans Cathedral provides the setting for original band member Chris White, now 81, reminiscing on a lifetime of music on the Friday afternoon at 2pm.
His famous song ‘This Will be Our Year’, from the classic album Odessey and Oracle will be performed by Cathedral acting assistant director of music Ben Collyer.
“It’s very exciting,” said Ben. “I am thrilled to be performing a song by the legendary Chris White. It is a real honour to be invited to bring the Zombies music back into the Cathedral.”
Elsewhere on the Friday, the Mad Squirrel Tap will be holding Zombies karaoke, and original Zombies singer Colin Blunstone will be performing his acclaimed 1971 debut solo album One Year at the Eric Morecambe Centre in Harpenden, joined by a full band and string quartet, from 8.30pm.
Speaking to the St Albans Times ahead of the festival, Colin said he did not expect to be coming back so soon after last year’s success.
“There was talk of making it an annual festival, but I think, in a way, I was pleasantly surprised at how well the festival went last year. It was really, really good fun. You know, I mean, I was involved in it, but I went to many of the exhibits and talks that were given as a member of the public, and I really enjoyed it. It was great”
He still comes across as delightfully modest despite the band’s worldwide fame over more than 60 years: “When Rod Argent and I put the band back together again in 1999 we didn’t think that people would remember the Zombies in the way that they have. But it’s been a wonderful surprise.
“There is worldwide interest in the band, and that makes it especially interesting for us to come back to St Albans – where the band was formed – and have this festival, as people come from America, from Japan and from Europe to compare stories and to learn more about the Zombies.”
Does he ever wonder what would have happened if the band had not originally parted ways in December 1967?
“It’s an interesting thought, isn’t it? I’ve often thought along those lines. I know most of the guys, they try to concentrate on the future and what comes next, but I do sometimes wonder what we might have done next. But it wasn’t to be. But certainly we were amongst the first wave of the British invasion of America, which obviously started with the Beatles.
“We were there with all the bands that followed them, and we’ve always been a bit better known in America, because we have more hits and bigger hits there.
“We’ve been able to reawaken that interest in America with this new version of the Zombies.”
Flashing back to St Albans 1961, what was the music scene like at the time the band got together? “There was a lot of live music. Jazz at the Market Hall on a Wednesday night, a rock gig at the Bellito on a Saturday night, I think it was their social club, they’re the two main gigs that I remember…
“I think there was music at the Pioneer Club, because Jim Rodford, who was a member of this incarnation of the Zombies, was also a member of the Bluetones, so year there was plenty of live music to go to.
“Remember in 1961 I was only 15, so I was just a starstruck young teenager when I went to these gigs. I just thought it was phenomenal when I saw live music for the first time.”
The band members were split across several local schools: 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.
“Rod recruited the guys from St Albans School. Hugh was in the Army Cadet Corps, and he played a side drum, and Rod thought he was the best one in the marching band, so he approached him. Paul Atkinson was playing guitar in a folk club at school, and Rod thought he was really good.
“Rod lived in the next road to a guy called Paul Arnold, who was the very original bass player in the band. He left after about a year. He wanted to be a doctor, and was studying hard, so he really didn’t have the time to rehearse with the band.
“Rod went to the next street to Paul Arnold, who was making a bass guitar in woodwork. He’d never played one but that got him in the band.
“And I sat behind Paul at school, so I didn’t really know the other guys. It was quite a strict school, the grammar school, and you had to sit in alphabetical order. He just said to me one day, ‘You’ve got a guitar, haven’t you?’ That’s sort of a loaded question. I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, what have I got myself into here?’ I said, ‘Yes’, and he said’ ‘Well do you want to be in a band?’ That how we got together for our first rehearsal. After about a year Paul left and Chris White took his place.”
Having been living in Guildford for many years, what’s it like for him to come back to St Albans?
“It is a little bit strange. When we reformed the Zombies in 1999 we used to have rehearsals at Jim Rodford’s house in St Albans, so I would come back fairly regularly, so I got used to it. But when I first came back to the area it actually felt quite emotional.
“St Albans actually looks more beautiful now than I remember it. It was always a lovely place, but time has served it well.
“When we did the festival last year I stayed for about two or three days and spent a lot of time walking around. I went to the Cathedral, I went around the lake, and Fishpool Street and the town hall and the market, and I really enjoyed being there.”
This time round the festival features two major concerts at the Eric Morecambe Centre in Harpenden, with double decker buses laid on to take people over there from St Albans.
“The Friday night concert is going to feature my first solo album, One Year, and this will be the first time ever that I’ve performed it in its entirety, which I think is going to be really interesting.
“On the second night we’re going to celebrate Rod Argent’s career because sadly he was unwell in the summer and it transpires that he had a stroke. He’s recovering really well but he’s decided not to tour anymore so we’re going to celebrate his 60-years touring career with a Zombies concert.”
Former St Albans Cathedral chorister and lay clerk Rod, now 79, would run from Cathedral choir rehearsals to band rehearsals in the early days of The Zombies.
Rod said: “When I look back at my own time in the choir in the fifties and sixties I realise just how much it gave me. A daily natural familiarity with more than 400 years of some of the best music ever written.”
Other events taking place across the weekend include a Zombies panel made up of original and current members looking back at the journey of their music over the decades, their induction in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and where it all began in the heart of St Albans. The panel is in The Alban Room at the Cathedral at 2.30pm on the Saturday.
The band will also be attending a signing at Empire Records in Heritage Close at 1pm on the Saturday afternoon.
At The Farmer’s Boy in London Road will be a drums workshop on the Sunday at 3pm, featuring original Zombies drummer Hugh Grundy and current drummer Steve Rodford, a St Albans native whose dad was the late Jim and played with the Zombies.
The Horn will be hosting a Battle of the Bands to inspire local unsigned talent to follow in the footsteps of the Zombies, who took home £250 after winning the Herts Beat competition at Watford Town Hall, allowing them to record their first single.
This time round the prize money is £1,000, and the finals take place at the pub on November 10 from 5.10pm.
Throughout the weekend, Collective Gallery & Art Project Space at 18 Holywell Hill will be serving as Zombies HQ, selling merchandise including art by Vivienne Boucherat, wife of Chris White, and jewellery by Cara Rodford-King.
For further information and tickets, visit www.thezombiesmusic.com/beginherefestival2024
