Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent of The Zombies Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London
August 2007 Reviewed by: Joseph Taylor Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

The Zombies had already split by the time their greatest LP, Odessey and Oracle, was released in 1968. That album was only the band’s second, and their first for Columbia Records. Here in the US, Epic Records only released it because Al Kooper, then an A&R man for the label, pushed for it. "Time of the Season," a single from Odessey and Oracle (misspelled by the cover’s designer, to the band’s dismay), was a monster hit, by far the band’s biggest. After the Zombies broke up, keyboard player and co-leader Rod Argent formed Argent, which enjoyed a measure of popularity in the ‘70s. Colin Blunstone, the Zombies’ distinctive singer, went on to a moderately successful solo career in England.

In 2000, Rod Argent was playing at a fundraiser in England and spotted Blunstone in the audience. He asked the singer to join him up on stage, and seven years later they’re still touring together. The band in this DVD performance is not the Zombies; it’s Blunstone and Argent, even though the DVD cover of Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London lists the Zombies in big letters. The 16 songs include selections from both artists’ post-Zombies careers, as well as tracks from the two discs they’ve recorded together since 2002. A two-CD set of the same concert is available and includes nine additional tracks.

Blunstone’s voice lacks some of the clarity and flexibility it had when he as younger, but his range and enthusiasm are intact. Rod Argent’s keyboard playing is as fluid as ever, and his solos are frequently dazzling. The best tunes on the DVD are, as might be expected, those made famous by the Zombies. The selections from Odessey and Oracle come off surprisingly well, considering that the album itself was such a recording-studio creation. As Argent points out more than once, the original band never got to play any of that classic album live, since the members went their separate ways soon after it was completed.

The songs from Colin Blunstone’s solo career also hold up well, as do three songs from the two recent Blunstone/Argent discs, Out of the Shadows (2002) and As Far As I Can See (2004). "Hold Your Head Up" and "God Gave Rock‘n’Roll to You," both hits for Argent’s eponymous band in the ‘70s, show their age. The Zombies material is, of course, timeless, and I wish the leaders had stuck with that songbook. Overall, however, the performances are sharp and the band is tight. The principals avoid rock-star posturing, beyond the occasional fist pumped in the air, and let the music speak.

The camerawork in Live at the Bloomsbury Theatre, London is consistently good, mixing video, film and split screen. The Dolby Digital 5.1 adds some hall ambiance to the rear speakers, but at the expense of detail in the instruments, especially the drums. The two-channel mix is more spacious and has far greater presence.

This DVD is enjoyable, but it merely increases my hope that someone is on hand to film the full band when it reunites next year.

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