David Bianculli is Tired of Hearing About the Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal.

Show: FRESH AIR
Date: JANUARY 28, 1998
Time: 12:00
Tran: 012801NP.217
Type: FEATURE
Head: Colin Blunstone
Sect: News; International
Time: 12:06

TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP OF BROADCAST ANNOUNCER INTRODUCING "THE ZOMBIES")

ANNOUNCER: Now here's a group which has only experienced moderate success here in Britain, but which has had several big hits in the states. Singing for you, we present The Zombies.

THE ZOMBIES, BRITISH POP GROUP, SINGING:
For you my love,
I'd do most anything.

GROSS: Well, I think Americans were right about The Zombies. They were a great band and you can hear the evidence on a new 4-CD box set that includes all their recordings, as well as outtakes and BBC broadcasts.

The Zombies were one of the British invasion bands that followed in the wake of the Beatles. Their first record, "She Not There," made it to number two on the Billboard pop chart here. The next year, they made it to number four will "Tell Her No." Ironically, the band had already broken up in 1969 when "Time of the Season" became their biggest hit.

My guest Colin Blunstone was the lead singer of The Zombies. Before he tells us what it was like to be part of the '60s British invasion, let's hear The Zombies' first single.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP OF THE ZOMBIES PERFORMING "SHE'S NOT THERE")

THE ZOMBIES, SINGING:
Well no one told me about her
The way she lied.
Well no one told me about her
How many people cried.

But it's too late to say to say you're sorry
How would I know?
Why should I care?
Please don't bother trying to find her
She's not there.

Well let me tell you 'bout the way she looks
The way she acts and the color of her hair
Her voice was soft and cool
Her eyes were clear and bright
But she's not there.

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 trying to find her
She's not there.

Well let me tell you 'bout the way the looks
The way she acts and the color of her hair
Her voice was soft and cool
Her eyes were clear and bright
But she's not there.

GROSS: Colin Blunstone, welcome to FRESH AIR.

COLIN BLUNSTONE, FORMER LEAD SINGER, THE ZOMBIES: Terry, thank you very much.

GROSS: You got to record this song after The Zombies won a contest in, I guess, St. Albans where you were from. And you won first prize, and the first prize was an audition with Decca Records.

Tell me about the contest.

BLUNSTONE: The competition was held in Watfordtown (ph) Hall, which was about eight miles away from St. Albans where we all went to school. And Watfordtown was quite a big venue for us. It held about 2,000 people, and because there were 10 bands on every night, they all had their supporters. And it was absolutely packed.

And it was a bit like a football crowd, you know. Everybody had banners and bells and rattles and it was quite a sort of a wild place to play. And we won our heat. I think there were sort of 10 weeks of 10 bands. And the winner got through to the final. And then we won the final. It was a magical evening. I'll never forget it.

GROSS: What did you sing in the final competition?

BLUNSTONE: Oh, I was certain you weren't going to ask me that. We sang a Zombie -- sorry, a Beatles song, "You Can't Do That."

GROSS: Oh.

BLUNSTONE: You know?

BLUNSTONE, SINGING: "There are some things to say that might cause you pain."

BLUNSTONE: Do you remember that one?

GROSS: Absolutely. I like that song a lot.

BLUNSTONE: Yeah, I do too. And we sang "Summertime," which went on our first album. And we did it as a sort of a jazz waltz. It was very jazzy. And we sang a couple of other songs, and I can't remember what they were.

GROSS: Well, I'm going to stop you here. Now, one of the good things about The Zombies' new box set that's come out is that there's a lot of unreleased sessions on it, as well as all the released sessions.

BLUNSTONE: Yes.

GROSS: And there's demos on it, too, and in fact ...

BLUNSTONE: Yep.

GROSS: ... there's a demo of Summertime -- the demo that you made before you even started your recording career.

BLUNSTONE: That's right.

GROSS: And I thought we might listen to that. Any comments you have on this demo of Summertime? Tell us why it was in the repertoire in the first place.

BLUNSTONE: I -- well, Chris Wright (ph), the bass player -- see, everybody tells a different story, but I think this is probably true. Chris always played in rock bands, but he also played in a dance band. And they used to do Summertime in this sort of jazz-waltz way. And I think he introduced it to the band. And it always went down very well when we played. Often, with the young kids we were playing to, you know, at the end of the evening they would want to have a close dance, so they could have a little bit of a kiss and a cuddle. And so this would be the song we would play.

GROSS: And here it is -- Summertime -- a demo recording, the very first demo recorded by The Zombies.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP OF THE ZOMBIES PERFORMING "SUMMERTIME")

THE ZOMBIES, SINGING:
It's summertime
And the livin' is easy
The fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

You're daddy's rich
And your mama's good looking
Won't you hush pretty baby
Don't you cry.

One of these mornings
You're gonna wake up singing
Then you're gonna spread your wings
And take to the sky

But 'til that morning
Ain't nothin' -- nothin' gonna harm you
With your mommy and daddy
There standing by.

GROSS: That's a demo by The Zombies included on the new Zombies box set, which is called "Zombie Heaven." My guest Colin Blunstone was the lead singer of The Zombies -- one of the British invasion groups of the '60s. British invasion to us Americans, anyways.

LAUGHTER

BLUNSTONE: That's right.

GROSS: Why was the group named The Zombies?

BLUNSTONE: Well quite simply because we'd been for the first few weeks of our career together -- this was just when we were at school. I think to start off with, we were "The Mustangs" and we found that there are a million bands called The Mustangs. And then we were "The Sundowners" and we had the same problem.

And Paul Arnold (ph), who was our original bass player -- there was only one change in the band and this is while we were still at school -- he came up with the idea of The Zombies, and I think we all thought that no one else would be crazy enough to call a band The Zombies. And it -- so it really -- I think that in a way, it was an act of desperation. We were just trying to find something that no one else would have thought of. So we ended up as The Zombies.

GROSS: What do you think defined The Zombies' sound?

BLUNSTONE: Well, I think a lot of the sound really comes from the writers. We had two unique writers in the band, and very prolific writers as well. And I think possibly -- especially Rod Argent (ph) -- his writing -- his songs were, I think, well truly wonderful. I think they were brilliant songs. And he also was a brilliant keyboard player.

So you got these great keyboard breaks he would -- he would keep putting into songs. Also he was a very accomplished musician, even at an early age. He understood a lot about music, which certainly he was in a different league to me. So a lot of our chord progressions and the bass notes we put on the bottom of chords were quite unusual.

And he also understood vocal harmonies because he was in the cathedral choir until he was about 17 or 18. And if we played a gig on a Sunday night, we'd have to go and pick him up at the back of the cathedral where he'd been singing in whatever the thing had been at the cathedral. And he'd have to be taking off all his church clothes and getting into his rock and roll gear, and then we'd go off to the rock and roll gig.

So I think our harmonies helped to make things a bit different as well. I think there were lots of things that contributed towards it. But the songwriting and the vocal harmonies -- and then maybe there's a little bit of the interplay between Rod's writing and my voice. I mean, both of them -- Chris White (ph) and Rod Argent -- used to write songs for my voice.

GROSS: What were the qualities of your voice that you think they wrote for?

BLUNSTONE: Well, especially for those days, I sang in quite a high key, you know, considering -- compared with lots of other singers. Nowadays, lots of people do that. But I think that was one of the things. I think I tend to sing sad songs better than happy-go-lucky songs, so that often songs would have a sort of a haunting quality about them. "She's Not There" is probably a good example. I think they would look for that. Songs in minor keys would perhaps would be another thing they would look for.

So lots of little things all added up to The Zombie sound.

GROSS: Yeah, a lot of the songs you sang had more to do with vulnerability than showing how strong you were.

LAUGHTER

BLUNSTONE: Yeah, that's right. Well, that's me.

LAUGHTER

GROSS: Let's hear another one of The Zombies' big hits, and this is Tell Her No. Tell us something about the song or the session.

BLUNSTONE: I think, as I remember we'd been touring with Dionne Warwick and who you would call Dionne Warwick -- and through that we got very interested in Burt Bacharach songs. And I have a feeling that Rod Argent, who wrote this song, was going through a period of being influenced a lot by Burt Bacharach.

With regard to the session, we would record probably three or four, maybe five backing tracks in an evening at Decca recording studios. And then we would put vocals on. And it would probably be 12 o'clock or one o'clock at night before I got 'round to singing. And I always remember this session because I was fast asleep when they finished. And they woke me up to sing Tell Her No. And in fact, there's a mumbled line in the middle of Tell Her No because I was half asleep when I was singing it. And I said: "Hey listen guys, I better just do that again because there's this mumbled line." And they said: "Oh, no, no. That was fine. Don't worry about that."

And I've heard stories of people who -- in bands who have been trying to copy our version of Tell Her No, and they've been desperately trying to work out what the lyric is. And I have to -- after 15 or 30 years of whatever it is, I have to tell them: "Well, you shouldn't have bothered because it's just a mumble." So there is no lyric there, really.

GROSS: Where is the mumble in the song?

BLUNSTONE: I'll leave it to you to find out because I can't remember off the top of my head.

GROSS: Oh, come on.

LAUGHTER

BLUNSTONE: No really, I can't remember. It's something like -- you play the song and then I'll have a think about it while you're playing.

GROSS: OK, why don't we play it, you listen in, and then you tell us which the line was.

BLUNSTONE: OK.

GROSS: OK.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP OF THE ZOMBIES PERFORMING "TELL HER NO")

THE ZOMBIES, SINGING:
And if she should tell you
Come closer
And if she tells you
With her charm

Tell her 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.

And if she should tell you
I love you, oh, oh, oh
And if she tempts you with her charms

Tell her no, no, no, no
No, no, no, no, no, no,
Oh, oh, (unintelligible)

BLUNSTONE: That's it.

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

BLUNSTONE: Did you hear it?

GROSS: So it was the part I always sort of ...

BLUNSTONE: It's sort of ...

GROSS: Yeah, go ahead.

BLUNSTONE: It sort of sounds like "don't love her love from your arms" or something. But really it's...

BLUNSTONE, SINGING: ... la, da, da, da, arms.

GROSS: I always heard it as "don't hurt me now from her arms." And I figured I don't know what that means, but it's all right. I get the gist of it.

BLUNSTONE: Yes. Well what it means is it's a rather sleepy Zombie who was trying to do his best, but was a little bit not with it. He amongst those not present.

GROSS: I always loved your -- your chorus of, you know, the "tell her nos" with your "woe,, woes" in it.

BLUNSTONE: Yes.

GROSS: Did you -- did you sing it the same way for each take? Or did it always come out different?

BLUNSTONE: Well it wasn't something that was specifically written. It was "OK, Colin, now do a little bit of something here." And it probably would have been similar, but it wouldn't have been exactly the same.

GROSS: Colin Blunstone is my guest, and he was the lead singer of The Zombies, one of the British invasion groups of the '60s. And there's a new Zombies box set that has their complete issued recordings, most of their unissued recordings, alternative takes, demos, and so on. It's a four CD box set called Zombie Heaven.

Let's take a short break and then we'll talk some more.

This is FRESH AIR.

Back with Colin Blunstone, the lead singer of The Zombies. And they have a -- there's a new box set of the complete Zombies recordings, outtakes, demos, BBC recordings from the '60s. It's called Zombie Heaven.

What was it like to be in the United States and, you know, billed as a British invasion band? What did that mean to you?
BLUNSTONE: Well, the surprise to me was the reaction. I mean, I wasn't particularly aware of the fact that we were part of the British invasion. I'm not sure if that term was used, certainly to me, at the time. I mean, I know the expression now. But so I can't really say I reacted to that -- to that phrase when I was there.

But what was interesting to me was the enthusiasm and the huge numbers of the fans in America, for all music. I mean, things were a little bit more basic back here in the UK. We would be traveling in the back of an old van. There were very few freeways in this country. We call them motorways. So we would be traveling on country lanes, vast distances in a broken-down old van. It wasn't terribly glamorous, really, except we were -- we were having fun. We were 18 years old. What did we care?

But then when we went to America, we were playing to huge audiences and very, very enthusiastic audiences that were screaming and screaming and rushing the stage and tearing our clothes off. And it was all pretty exciting stuff, really very exciting.

GROSS: Now, do your best to be honest with me about this: What's it like when you're 19 -- you're a young man. You're just getting started, you know, as a man in the world, and sexually and all that. And here there's like, you go from city ...

BLUNSTONE: This sounds very interesting.

GROSS: ... yeah, that's right -- you go from city to city, and women are screaming and screaming over you. I mean, this must really give you a sense of being something else, you know.

BLUNSTONE: Very lucky is the expression I was thinking of.

GROSS: Right.

BLUNSTONE: Well, I enjoyed it very much, definitely. It was wonderful.

GROSS: Well, I mean, how much did it go to your head? And how much -- sometimes that type of stuff really deforms people's personalities.

BLUNSTONE: Yeah, well I don't think it too much in our band. But again, it would probably be better if someone else judged it because we sort of had periods of success. And we had periods of -- of not being so successful. And we were brought down to Earth with a big bump. And also in the band, no one was allowed to get too carried away. I mean, we'd grown up together and anybody who got too carried away would be slapped into place pretty quickly.

It was -- it was very exciting and it was great fun. But we all still lived at home with our parents. We still lived in the little area that we'd grown up in. And we weren't really allowed to get too carried away.

GROSS: When you started performing, particularly when you came over to the states and started performing, did you get a lot of advice or guidance on what to wear, what kind of haircuts you should have, what kind of eyeglasses the guys in the band should wear -- all that image type of stuff.

BLUNSTONE: No we didn't, actually, and I think that image-wise, I think it was a weakness in the band. I think, you know, we were together professionally for three years, although we were together for four years at school. Towards the end of the three years, I think we were getting the image thing a bit more sorted out, but it had just been a natural progression for us.

And I think that we probably -- we did -- we needed help, I think, earlier on. How could it be any different? Our first record had been a huge hit record around the world. And some of the guys had just left school. And we -- I don't know how much other bands thought about image, but we certainly didn't. And I wish that some shrewd character had given us a bit of help there.

And then -- you just mentioned spectacles. Two of the guys wore very heavy-rim spectacles. And at a time when -- if you're in a teenage band, of course you want to look fairly attractive for people. And it wasn't very fashionable at the time for young men in rock bands to wear glasses. And towards the middle or the end of our professional career, Paul Atkinson (ph) stopped wearing those heavy-rim glasses and wore contact lenses, and he was a very good looking lad. And I think it might have helped us a little bit if he'd wore contact lenses from the beginning.

Just little things like that, I think, we could have looked into. And I think also She's Not There is a very charismatic song. It's eerie, almost could be a little bit sinister. And I think we could have worked on that.

GROSS: Right.

BLUNSTONE: Instead of which we came with a very jolly little Tell Her No number for our second record, which was -- didn't seem to me to follow She's Not There very well, really.

GROSS: In -- in one article that I think was written in an American newspaper or magazine -- an article that's quoted in the liner notes to the new Zombies box set -- the band was described as clean-cut, quiet, well-mannered, intelligent. "They behave like gentlemen." Was that considered good or a liability at the time ...

BLUNSTONE: Well, its funny, when you ...

GROSS: ... to be so clean cut in your image. Yeah.

BLUNSTONE: ... when you met people in the media, I think they quite liked it because we turned up on time and ...

GROSS: You didn't insult them.

BLUNSTONE: ... we didn't insult them. We didn't spit. And you know, but when you actually put that into an article, I think it can put people off.

GROSS: Mmm-hm.

BLUNSTONE: People want rascals and rogues and naughty boys, you know. "Then do you know what he did?" "Do you know what this guy did?" -- people love that, you know. But then they're not having to face it first-hand. So in a way, I think that it went against us bit.

Mind you I'm saying all this with hindsight. I didn't realize it at the time. We were just making it up as we went along.

GROSS: Well, I think it's time to play another record. I'm going to ask you ...

BLUNSTONE: OK.

GROSS: ... to choose one this time around. Choose -- choose something you'd like to play that we haven't heard yet. Maybe -- why don't you choose here one of your favorite recordings on the box set? Maybe something that hasn't been issued before.

BLUNSTONE: Something that hasn't been issued before.

GROSS: Yeah.

BLUNSTONE: How about "Walking in the Sun"?

GROSS: Good. And tell us why you're choosing this.

BLUNSTONE: Well, I'm choosing it because I haven't heard it in a long time.

LAUGHTER

I remember recording it, you know, in the early sessions, sort of 1964. And I -- so the best of my knowledge, I don't think it was ever released. And I think it's a pretty good track. And I can't explain why it wasn't released. I don't remember the thinking behind that. I wish it had been released at the time.

GROSS: OK. And this is Walking in the Sun, The Zombies -- featured on the new Zombies box set, Zombie Heaven.

Here we go.

And Colin Blunstone, the lead singer of the British invasion band The Zombies will be back with us in the second half of the show.

I'm Terry Gross and this is FRESH AIR.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP OF THE ZOMBIES PERFORMING "WALKING IN THE SUN")

THE ZOMBIES, SINGING:
We'll be walking in the sun
Share our joy with every one
Oh, (unintelligible)
(unintelligible) the joy I share with you

We'll we walking in the sun
We'll be walking in the sun
We'll be walking in the sun

You will laugh and walk with me
And we will share our ecstasy
'Round the world that laugh and say
Lovers are to be that way.

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross, back with Colin Blunstone. He was the lead singer of the '60s British invasion band The Zombies. Their hits were She's Not There, Tell Her No, and Time of the Season. Their records, outtakes, and BBC broadcasts are collected in a new four CD box set called Zombie Heaven.

When you first came to the United States on the first Zombies tour, you performed with the "Murray the K Show" in Brooklyn and Murray the K was ...

BLUNSTONE: That's right.

GROSS: ... like the great New York disc jockey. And he'd have these great rock and roll shows in which a lot of, like you know, rhythm and blues acts and rock and roll acts performed. Who did you share the bill with? Do you remember?

BLUNSTONE: Yes, Chuck Jackson was top of the bill, "The Shirelles," Benny King, "Shangri-Las," "Patty LaBelle and the Bluebelles" (ph) as they
were then. And we had to follow them, and they were wonderful. And they used to bring the house down.

LAUGHTER

And we had to go on next. "The Nashville Teens" (ph) -- there was another English band on there. There were probably some other acts as well, but I don't remember any more.

But it was a great experience. You know, we did five or six shows a day, but of course we only -- we sang one or two songs. It wasn't as if you went on and did an hour. But you had to be there from early in the morning 'til late at night, and just go on and do your one song.

GROSS: So everybody probably knew everybody else's song by the time ...

BLUNSTONE: I think they did, yeah.

GROSS: ... the tour (unintelligible) Yeah.

BLUNSTONE: One of the things that -- one of the things that intrigued me was we couldn't go out of the theater because there were huge crowds out there. And Paul Atkinson, our lead guitarist, he left the theater once and this crowd sort of -- they didn't mean to do him any harm, but just because they were so big, they backed him up against a plate glass window and the police came in and got him out. He -- he -- when he came out, he had no shirt on. He was just about to go through a plate glass window.

And they said to him, they said: "Well listen, we've got you out the once, but if you come out again, you're on your own." So that as enough for us. We just had to stay backstage all day. But then when everyone had gone home, we came out, and normally we'd go and have a quick beer in the bar next door.

And then we'd get on the subway, 'cause we didn't really have any money even in those days. We were -- I think we were number one nationally, but we still didn't have any money. So we'd get on the subway and people would say: "You're going on the subway late at night?" -- from Brooklyn to wherever it was, which I think was a fairly tough area. And people were just amazed.

But if people -- if the fans had just waited a little big longer, they could have come on the subway with us and probably helped us to find our hotel. I'm sure we were getting lost all the time.

GROSS: But that's very funny, though to go from, you know, in just a couple of hours, from completely stardom at the theater to complete invisibility on the subway.

BLUNSTONE: I know, but I mean it's a crazy business, isn't it?

GROSS: Yeah, right.

BLUNSTONE: And I think you have to learn to switch on and, more importantly, to switch off. Because if you try and live the rock and roll life, I think you'll be in trouble in a -- you'll probably be dead.

GROSS: Let's pause here and play something from the new Zombies box set. And this is a previously unissued recording that you made, I think, at the BBC. And it's a cover of Burt Bacharach's "The Look of Love."

BLUNSTONE: Right.

GROSS: You had mentioned before that the band had -- what? -- toured with Dionne Warwick?

BLUNSTONE: That's right. The very first tour we ever did, and we were fantastic Burt Bacharach fans. I think still -- I still am a big Burt Bacharach fan. He just writes the most wonderful songs.

GROSS: Were you thinking of Dionne Warwick when you sang this yourself?

BLUNSTONE: No because the version I'd heard was by Dusty Springfield, and I think she had a hit in America with that version. But she didn't have a hit in the UK. It's funny how -- how that happens. You know, people can have hits with a wonderful version of a song in one country, and it doesn't mean anything in another country. Very strange.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP OF THE ZOMBIES PERFORMING "THE LOOK OF LOVE")

BBC BROADCAST ANNOUNCER: And now you're hearing the sweetened swinging sound of The Zombies one more time in The Look of Love written by Burt Bacharach.

THE ZOMBIES, SINGING:
The look of love
Is in your eyes
A look your heart can't disguise

The look of love
Is saying so much more
Than just words could ever say
And what my heart has heard
Well, it takes my breath away

I can hardly wait to hold you
Feel my arms around you
How long I have waited
Waited just to love you
Now that I have found you

You've got the look of love
It's on your face
A look that time can't erase

Be mine tonight
Could this be just the start
Of so many nights like this
Let's make a lover's vow
And then seal it with a kiss

I can hardly wait to hold you
Feel my arms around you
How long I have waited
Waited just to love you
Now that I have found you
Don't ever go
Don't ever go
I love you so.

GROSS: The Look of Love as performed by The Zombies on the BBC in October of 1967. It's included on their new four-CD retrospective, Zombie Heaven. We'll talk more with lead singer Colin Blunstone after a break.

This is FRESH AIR.

Back with Colin Blunstone, lead singer of the '60s British invasion band, The Zombies.

The very last hit that The Zombies had, Time of the Season ...

BLUNSTONE: Mmm-hm.

GROSS: ... was from an album called "Odyssey and Oracle." It's an album that didn't sell well at all in the United States. And the hit single Time of the Season I think was released long after the album had already kind of bombed.

BLUNSTONE: I know.

GROSS: What is the story behind why this record came out in the way that it did?

BLUNSTONE: Well it's -- I mean, it really intrigues me because I sometimes think that records have a life of their own, because everything was against this record. We recorded it for CBS Records in London. They'd only just started up. They were quite a small company in London. And they gave us a very limited budget. I think it was 1,000 pounds, which even in those days was a very small budget for doing an album.

And there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm. We'd had quite a few flop singles. We'd just come back from a disastrous tour of the Far East. And we went into the studio, recorded this album, and there really wasn't a great response in the UK. I don't think -- in America they didn't want to release it at all.

But Al Cooper from "Blood, Sweat, and Tears" was in London and he just bought a lot of albums and took them back to America. And he wrote the sleeve notes on this album in America. And he just felt that this album stood out from everything that he brought back from the UK. So he alone is responsible for what happened with Time of the Season because I think CBS had given up on this album. But he said: "Listen, this is a wonderful album. You must release it." Even then, there were two singles released from this album that did nothing, and the third single was Time of the Season.

So everything was against it. It had no right to be a hit. When you think of how major record companies get behind some records or some acts and they put lots of money into promotion and marketing, and probably the band has just come off a huge hit as well. And so you know that something's going to happen with this record.

Time of the Season had no right to be a hit, but I'm very, very glad that it was a hit. And even in the studio -- I tell this as a story against myself -- I didn't really like the song. And I didn't want to sing it. And it had been written more or less in the morning before we recorded it, and I wasn't too sure of the exact melody. And it's a Rod Argent song, and he's very emphatic than when he writes a melody, he wants it exactly as he wrote it. And quite so. I mean, I agree with him. It should be like that.

And Rod and I had a set-to in the studio. It was in studio 3 at Abbey Road. And he wanted the song absolutely as he wrote it, and I kept -- I kept making little mistakes. And I said to him: "Rod, listen, if you know how to sing it, you come in here and you sing it." And he said to me -- mind you the language is a little bit richer, I hasten to add -- he said to me: "Colin, you're the singer. You sing it." And it went on from there.

It was quite a fiery moment. But I mean, I'm really glad that I -- he made me stand there and sing it. I would be very upset if I hadn't done it.

GROSS: Well let's hear it. This is The Zombies' Time of the Season.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP OF THE ZOMBIES PERFORMING "TIME OF THE SEASON")

THE ZOMBIES, SINGING:
It's the time of the season
When love runs high
In this time give it to me easy
And let me try with pleasured hands
To take you in the sun to
Promised lands
To show you every one
It's the time of the season for loving.

What's your name?
Who's your daddy?
Is he rich like me?
Has he taken any time
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.

What's your name?
Who's your daddy?
Is he rich like me?
Has he taken any time
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.

GROSS: That's The Zombies' Time of the Season. There's a new Zombies box set, and my guest Colin Blunstone was the lead singer of the group.

So what was the condition of the band by the time this record became a big hit?

BLUNSTONE: Well, Rod Argent and Chris White had been very successful as songwriters for The Zombies and for other artists as well. And I think that had fired their enthusiasm, and they knew they wanted to stay in the music business. And if The Zombies were going to fold, they had no doubts that they were going to stay as writers, producers and artists.

But for the other three, I mean, we were really struggling just financially because concerts were few and far between, our records weren't selling, and we were -- we were quite frankly going broke. And so it was getting more and more difficult for us.

On top of that, we had worked absolutely solidly for three years. There were no sort of three weeks touring here and then six months off or something like that. We worked solidly. And just speaking personally, I think I was very, very tired, and just a little bit disappointed with the way things had gone; remembering that we started off with a number one hit record -- a gold record She's Not There. And from there on in, we seem to have gradually slipped down the hill of success, or however one explains it.

And so I think personally I was feeling very disappointed. And I remember we were having a rehearsal, Rod Argent and Chris White were sharing a flat, and we were having a rehearsal there. And Paul Atkinson said: "I -- listen guys, I just think that's enough for me. You know, I think I need to move on and do something else." And Rod said: "Well listen, if one guy's going to leave, I think we should all perhaps get out and try new things."

And I said -- I said nothing. I just kept my head down and thought "oh my God, what's happening." And I just went out for a long walk.

GROSS: When Time of the Season came out, did everybody in the band think well, maybe we should actually stick together after all?

BLUNSTONE: Well, unfortunately the band had finished at least an hour -- at least an hour? -- at least a year before Time of the Season was a hit. And in that time, everybody was doing very different things, and in particular Rod had started his band "Argent" (ph) and they'd been in Germany trying to get the band together. And they'd started recording and they were writing. And I'd started a little recording career of my own as well.

And really, it -- at the time it felt impractical for us to get back together again. Again, with the benefit of hindsight, I think it could have been done if everybody had wanted to do it.

GROSS: Now, this was in the late '60s that the band broke up.

BLUNSTONE: Yes.

GROSS: Fill us in just a little bit -- like a capsule resume of what you've done in the intervening years.

BLUNSTONE: Me personally?

GROSS: Yeah.

BLUNSTONE: Well, I went back -- I got a regular job after The Zombies. I think I just needed a break from the music business. And I -- people are often quite intrigued that I worked in a nine-to-five job in central London wearing a collar and tie and suit and everything, in an underwriting department of an insurance company. But towards the end of a year doing that, Time of the Season became a hit and suddenly record companies and producers were ringing up and saying: "Listen, you've got to record, you know. This is ridiculous. You can't be working in an office."

And so just for fun I started recording again, and I had a small hit. And after that, Rod Argent and Chris White said to me: "Well, why don't you start recording with us again." And I thought that was a really good idea, and I started -- I started properly then as a solo artist. And I had quite a lot of success, but I never managed to have success in America. It's difficult to explain why. If you knew why you weren't having success, then you would hopefully be able to correct the problem. And then you would have success. But I never had success in America.

But in fact, I've had more hit records in England than The Zombies ever had.

GROSS: Really?

BLUNSTONE: People might find that difficult to understand. I find it quite difficult to understand myself, but I've had seven or eight hit records in the UK over the years. I did three albums with Rod and Chris producing me on CBS Records. Then I went to Rocket Records, Elton John's label, and I did three albums for them, which were critically quite well received, but there were no hits on there, which is a shame because Rocket Records was a great idea.

They just -- they gave you all the finance you needed. This is the opposite to Time of the Season. Time of the Season, you know, nothing was going for that. But when I was with Rocket Records, I had unlimited budget and great players and I could go anywhere to record. And I had no chart success.

GROSS: So what are you up to musically now?

BLUNSTONE: I'm -- well, I've gone through lots of other phases since then, but at the moment I'm recording a solo album as we speak. I've signed to a small label called Mystic Records. And I'm working principally with a band that I toured with last year. I played a lot of live gigs last year -- a lot of live concerts last year, in England and Europe -- not America. And basically I'm using that band to record an album of mostly my own songs.

GROSS: Colin Blunstone, it's really just been a pleasure to talk with you. I thank you very much ...

BLUNSTONE: Well thank you, Terry.

GROSS: ... for being with us.

BLUNSTONE: Yeah, it's been fun.

GROSS: Colin Blunstone was the lead singer of the band The Zombies. Their four CD box set retrospective is called Zombie Heaven. It includes their recordings, outtakes, and BBC broadcasts.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP OF BBC BROADCAST OF THE ZOMBIES)

BBC ANNOUNCER: Hello, Zombies.

THE ZOMBIES, IN UNISON: Hello.

ANNOUNCER: Hang on. I'll turn your microphone one. There you go. Say it again.

THE ZOMBIES, IN UNISON: Hello, Ken (ph).

ANNOUNCER: That's better. I hear you've all split up then?

UNIDENTIFIED MEMBER OF THE ZOMBIES: Yeah.

ANNOUNCER: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED ZOMBIE: Well, you know, we've been slogging away for 3 1/2 years and we got a new record deal, you know, a little while ago where we producing all our own records and things. And I thought we'd give this a go. And in fact, we've produced an LP, you know, which is coming out soon and done all the cover and everything on it.

ANNOUNCER: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED ZOMBIE: And this hasn't -- you know, the last record was from the LP and nothing happened to it.

ANNOUNCER: How long's the LP been out?

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

ANNOUNCER: Well wouldn't it be better to wait until the LP is maybe a huge success and then decide whether to go?

UNIDENTIFIED ZOMBIE: Well if the LP is a huge success, then maybe we'll come back again.

ANNOUNCER: Oh, come back in together, OK. Oh well, here's the single folks -- bye, bye, bye -- keep 'em in. We can't afford to lose lovely groups, you know. Ah, those fingers -- fingers of Rod Argent there. Hello, Rodney.

ROD ARGENT, SONGWRITER AND MEMBER OF THE ZOMBIES: Hello, Ken.

ANNOUNCER: Well, what are you going to do now? You just going to go into bakery or brick-building or something?

ARGENT: Well no, actually we've got plans for, you know, for another group.

ANNOUNCER: Yeah?

ARGENT: Well I have, anyway, you know.

ANNOUNCER: Well, are you going to form a group?

ARGENT: Yes, from other musicians working around at the moment, and in a couple of months they should be, you know, going.

ANNOUNCER: And you're -- you're still going to stay bubbling in the business?

ARGENT: Oh, yeah. Chris and myself are going to record producing ...

ANNOUNCER: Yeah?

ARGENT: ... as well. And writing.

ANNOUNCER: Oh, wonderful.

UNIDENTIFIED: Everything's happening.

ANNOUNCER: Yeah.

LAUGHTER

OK, well come back again when you're fantastically successful and then I can appear on your show. OK?

ARGENT: OK, Kenny.

ANNOUNCER: Bye-bye.

THE ZOMBIES, IN UNISON: Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye. Good-bye.

GROSS: Coming up, our TV critic David Bianculli tunes each of his 10 TVs to coverage of the Clinton-Lewinsky story.

This is FRESH AIR.

Dateline: Terry Gross, Philadelphia
Guest: Colin Blunstone
High: Former lead singer for the '60s British pop group "The Zombies" Colin Blunstone. The group's hits include "She's Not There," "You've Really Got a Hold On Me" and "Time of the Season." There's a new anthology of the group's recordings "The Zombies: Zombie Heaven.
Spec: Music Industry; The Zombies; History
Please note, this is not the final feed of record
Copy: Content and programming copyright 1998 WHYY, Inc. All rights reserved. Transcribed by FDCH, Inc. under license from WHYY, Inc. Formatting copyright 1998 FDCH, Inc. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to WHYY, Inc. This transcript may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission.
End-Story: Colin Blunstone
Show: FRESH AIR
Date: JANUARY 28, 1998
Time: 12:00
Tran: 012802NP.217
Type: FEATURE
Head: Clinton Scandal
Sect: News; Domestic
Time: 12:52

TERRY GROSS, HOST: Coverage of the allegations about the president's sex life has so taken over the media, our TV critic David Bianculli has been keeping all 10 of his TVs tuned to related programs. Here's his report.

DAVID BIANCULLI, TV CRITIC: Even with 10 TV sets running at the same time, I can't say I've seen it all. But I can tell you this much for sure. When it comes to the Monica Lewinsky story, I've certainly seen enough.

I saw or heard last week's initial Clinton interviews on public broadcasting and most of the late-night comedy monologues and the weekend public affairs shows and the various network evening newscasts. I watched a lot of CNN and MS-NBC and the Fox News Channel.

And once the various players and dividing lines became clear, I watched these news operations in more ways than one chasing their own tails. No matter how many anchors and reporters interview how many pundits or experts, there are only a handful of people whose comments about this matter really count for anything.

There's Lewinsky, the intern, who isn't talking until and unless she gets immunity. There are Bill Clinton and his trusted friend Vernon Jordan who aren't talking about the subject any more until Lewinsky does. Last night's State of the Union address by Clinton doesn't count -- not if you believe all the commentators who instantly dismissed it.

And finally, there's Hillary Clinton, the First Lady, who showed up yesterday on NBC's Today Show, honoring a previous commitment, to dismiss the whole thing as a right-wing conspiracy.

Today on ABC's Good Morning America, the First Lady showed up on national TV again -- this time to talk about, among other things, why no one else was talking. Lisa McCree (ph) conducted the interview.

LISA MCCREE, INTERVIEWER, GOOD MORNING AMERICA PROGRAM: Just a few seconds left and you can see even in this interview, and I'm sure every interview you do in the near future, it's going to be hard to focus on your political agenda. When will the president come out and give a detailed explanation -- sit down and talk about this matter and be able to put it behind us? When can that happen?

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, FIRST LADY: Lisa, because there's an investigation going on, nobody can expect the president to say anything more publicly because -- if there weren't an investigation, he could -- but because there is an investigation, he can't. And I hope every American understands that. And I know that that must be very frustrating for people, but that is the way the system works. And you won't hear any more from Vernon Jordan. You won't hear any more from my husband because they have to abide by the rules that they operate under when they have these investigations.

But again, I'm going to say, everybody take a deep breath. Just wait. These things take time and when the truth comes out, this, like all the other accusations that have been made against us for so many years, will fade into oblivion and the work that the president's done will stand the test of time.

MCCREE: All right. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton ...

BIANCULLI: Urging patience may work with the American public, but it's not going to hold any water -- Whitewater or otherwise -- with the American news media. The news cycles are just too fast now, and the competitiveness of the 24-hour cable news networks and of all those profitable prime time news magazines means the story just won't go away. They won't let it.

It used to be that no news was good news. Now, with TV news anchors filing lengthy reports on why there's nothing new to report, the rules have changed. No news is news after all. And right now, according to just about everybody, it's going to be no news all the time for quite a while.

Even so, CNN and Dateline NBC and the evening newscasts will continue to feed us stories, hoping to sustain interest and viewership levels even though the story itself isn't advancing. Here's a tip: When the TV cameras start pointing at each other and doing stories on how the media are covering things, the trail of actual news is pretty much cold.

These mega-million-dollar TV news operations -- network and cable -- will continue to feed us the stories. Just don't expect for a while to get anything very filling.

GROSS: David Bianculli is TV critic for the "New York Daily News."

I'm Terry Gross.

Dateline: David Bianculli; Terry Gross, Philadelphia
Guest:
High: TV critic David Bianculli comments on coverage of the Clinton scandal.
Spec: Bill Clinton; Government; Politics; Television and Radio; Media
Please note, this is not the final feed of record
Copy: Content and programming copyright 1998 WHYY, Inc. All rights reserved. Transcribed by FDCH, Inc. under license from WHYY, Inc. Formatting copyright 1998 FDCH, Inc. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to WHYY, Inc. This transcript may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written permission.
End-Story: Clinton Scandal
Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.