Zombies (the band!) book *PRICEDROP* £18 Bournemouth

[Mickeyboro]

The review says it all: comprehensive, US published and hard to find. Price is UK posted, unread condition. Now £16.
 

Times And Seasons - The Rise and Fall and Rise of the Zombies

Robin Platts

HoZac Books, $31.99

356 pages

 

Classic British pop, expertly chronicled

 

Few books on the Zombies exist, but theirs is a story worth telling. And it's predictable that, given their Stateside star status, this quintessentially English quintet of She's Not There and Tell He No fame should be chronicled on an American imprint. The band only hung up its touring shoes last year after leader/keyboardist Rod Argent's stroke, but the work he and singer Colin Blunstone created after their reunion in 2001 - the years since 1968 being silent, in a Zombies sense - are also covered in detail by author Platts.

The band always had a youthful camaraderie, having come together at high school, and that comes over faithfully in this account of their heyday - plus a long tail that details their subsequent musical careers. While Blunstone went solo and Argent created an eponymous prog band (of God Gave Rock And Roll To You fame), guitarist Paul Atkinson went behind the scenes and signed Abba to CBS - a feather in anyone's cap. 

Detail is forensic without being stifling. If the layout is a trifle fanzine-y, the integration of illustrative material like press cuttings and photos with the text helps make this an easy read. And the urge to play the music, always the sign of a good book, is irresistible.  
 

Edited 14 hours ago by Mickeyboro