Colin
IE: You have a
solo gig coming up at City
Winery in Chicago on May 15th. How
will it be different from your shows with
The Zombies?
CB: I've tried to make it as different as
possible. I'll only be playing two songs by
The Zombies. There will be 22 songs in the
show, so there will be a lot of my material.
That's different from performing with The
IE: How do you think American audiences
will respond to your solo material?
CB:It's going to be interesting. I don't
know how much of my material American
audiences will be familiar with.
Sometimes, people surprise me at shows
by saying they have my solo albums. I've
never had a hit in America, so I'm going to
have to keep explaining that I had six or
seven hits in the UK. I had a huge hit in
the UK with the Denny Laine song "Say
you Don't Mind" from my first solo
album. It was just me and the strings with
no rhythm section. We'll be playing that in
my solo show.
IE: Critics have said The Zombies were
ahead of your time, considering the way
you incorporated blues and jazz.
CB: I think we did draw influences from a
variety of sources, like jazz and blues. It
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Zombies where we do a lot of Rod Argent
and Chris White songs. In New York, I'm
going to be performing with a string quintet. I wish I could have a string quintet for
the whole tour, but it's just budget
restraints, really.
IE: Who are the musicians you'll be using
for your solo show?
CB: Guitarist Tom Toomey has been performing with me for about 15 years. He's
now also a member of The Zombies, and
he came to them through me. Pete
Billington has been playing keyboards
with me for years. We're using drummer
Steve Rodford from The Zombies because
my regular drummer's wife just had a
baby. This band has been together for 5
years but we've never played in the States.
It's a big thrill for British musicians to play
in America.
IE: Are you familiar with your opening
act, Edward Rogers?
CB: Edward Rogers will be the opening
act for my entire tour. He's a very good
singer-songwriter. I've known him as a
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