CityLife

The Zombies: Odessey & Oracle

CLASSIC album tours are fast becoming a cliché, but The Zombies’s Oddessey & Oracle show was not only perfectly justified but perfectly performed, too.

The St Alban’s-based group released the psychedelic classic in 1968, by which point the band had effectively broken up.

The album, therefore, was never performed live. Forty years later, its cult status cemented, the four surviving Zombies reunited to debut it in Shepherd’s Bush.

A year on, this concert is one of four farewell shows for the reformed group.

Odds and sods

The show took two halves, and involved two line-ups of The Zombies.

The first, performed by the current touring band fronted by Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent, was comprised of odds and sods from Blunstone’s solo material (or which the desolate Misty Roses was particularly special), some covers, and an energetic Hold Your Head Up, a hit for Argent’s post-Zombies band.

The egregious guitar soloing throughout was irritating, but Blunstone’s voice still sounds gorgeous – flute-like in soft moments, powerful and dramatic in others.

After an interval, the full, original Zombies (confused yet?) took to the stage for the main event. From opener Care Of Cell 44 to the blissful Time Of The Season, it was an absolute joy.

Utterly sublime

Every note and harmony on the album was replicated precisely, but with heart too. An encore of Tell Her No and She’s Not There ended in a standing ovation, and the band returned to play their cover of Summertime.

It, like the whole second half, was utterly sublime.
 

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