Photo credit: Alex Lake
Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
I have spent many years travelling in desperately old and decrepit tour buses and I wouldn’t recommend it!! Nowadays we usually rent a modern Sprinter van with captain’s seats for each specific tour and usually travel in trouble free comfort.
Unusually, on our last tour of The States we did have a bit of a problem when the bus caught fire on the way to Tucson. We had to stop in the middle of the desert in a temperature of 107 degrees. Luckily we have a really good tour manager who managed to get us back on the road after about five or six hours. The cover of our new album Different Game shows the band standing in the desert as the recovery truck tows away our Sprinter.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
It’s really important to eat healthily on tour, especially as you get older!!! I eat a hearty breakfast always with as much fruit as possible. We rarely eat lunch as we’re travelling. I only ever eat lightly in the evening, probably fruit and vegetables, as I can’t eat a big meal too close to a performance. It’s also very important to stay hydrated and we always have plenty of water on the tour bus.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I mostly play a classical gut string guitar. Changing strings can be a bit challenging as the gut strings keep stretching so I only change the strings when I absolutely have to.
I think strings cost between £20-£30 pounds.
Where do you rehearse?
I mostly rehearse and write at home. I use a big room with large windows that looks out on our garden. Unfortunately it has large bookshelves on all its walls that absorb sound and makes playing a bit of a challenge. When I rehearse with The Zombies, we use a rehearsal studio about a mile away from where I live. It’s fairly basic but it has a good sound and we feel relaxed there.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
The first song I ever wrote was called “How We Were Before” and it was recorded by The Zombies…….
The parties over
Dawn breaking
Gradually through on us
Find us
How we were before.
Describe your first gig.
The Zombies first gig was in a small youth club in a village called Lemsford in Hertfordshire. We had very little in the way of amplifiers and my mike was continually giving off feedback. For the last dance it was traditional to lower the lights for a romantic “slow” dance. We played a Shadows instrumental called “Nivram”. It features a bass guitar solo though, because of the low lights, our bass guitarist Paul Arnold got stuck on the wrong fret and was therefore playing in a different key to the rest of the band (very modern!!). Luckily everyone was concentrating too much on the slow dance to worry about the slight panic on the stage!!
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
When the original Zombies finished in 1967 I worked for a short while in an office in London. It was a bit of a low ebb but I remember that working in a really busy office helped me forget the sadness of the band finishing. My wages were so appalling low that when I added up my travel and other expenses I realised I was actually working at a loss.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
There has been a huge resurgence of interest in The Zombies in the last few years, including the band’s induction into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. This has resulted in some excellent record sales especially with regard to recordings of the original band. That was my first and only day job.
The current incarnation of the band have also enjoyed many successes over the last few years and we now regularly tour at major venues all over the world.
I hope record royalties and touring revenue go on growing over the next 5 to 10 years though one of the exciting (and scary) aspects of the music business is that you never really quite know what the future holds. It’s probably best to concentrate on the quality of your work and hope (and pray) the financial side of your career takes care of itself.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
In 1964 when The Zombies made their first record it seemed to be generally accepted that a band had a “shelf life” of about 3 to 4 years after which their career faded and they got on with the rest of their lives. I wish I’d know it would be possible to have a lifetime career as a performer in the music business as I think I could have taken certain aspects of the business side of music a bit more seriously.