Legendary St Albans band The Zombies have announced a Hertfordshire homecoming concert to celebrate their long-awaited induction into the prestigious Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8TPElc7uT8

The She's Not There group will play Harpenden Public Halls next year as part of their The Invaders Return Tour - Celebrating the Hall of Fame on Our Side of the Pond May/June tour.

They will appear at the Southdown Road venue on Friday, May 15, 2020, with tickets on sale now.

It will be The Zombies' first Herts gig since their Alban Arena tribute concert earlier this year in memory of bass player Jim Rodford.

The hugely influential band played a key part in the soundtrack to the 1960s 'British Invasion' with hits including She's Not There, Tell Her No and Time of the Season - selling millions of records worldwide.

The group's journey started in April 1961 in St Albans when all five original members of the group - Rod Argent, Paul Atkinson, Hugh Grundy, Chris White and Colin Blunstone - met at The Blacksmiths Arms pub and went onto the Pioneer Club where they had their very first rehearsal.

They later won a local music competition, where the prize was to record a song.

That track, the classic She's Not There, changed their lives forever.

Led by founding members, vocalist Colin Blunstone, from Hatfield, and keyboardist Rod Argent, alongside Steve Rodford on drums, guitarist Tom Toomey, and Søren Koch on bass, The Zombies are in the studio recording the follow-up to their 2015 Billboard-charting album Still Got That Hunger.

With over 330,000 votes in the public Hall of Fame poll, The Zombies joined Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks, Radiohead, The Cure, Def Leppard, Janet Jackson, and Roxy Music as the Hall of Fame's Class of 2019.

That ceremony took place exactly 50 years to the day after their classic single Time of the Season first hit number one in the US CashBox charts in America.

Speaking to this paper earlier in the year, lead singer Colin Blunstone said: "It's incredible. I think we've been nominated for this for the fourth time, and you start to think that it is never really going happen.

"But I'm absolutely thrilled for everyone in The Zombies, in both incarnations of the band, because, of course, originally we were based in and around St Albans and all the guys were local."

The Zombies borrowed equipment from fellow St Albans band the Bluetones for that first rehearsal at the Pioneer Club - thanks to Jim Rodford, Rod Argent's cousin.

Colin continued: "It took us a year of rehearsals and saving very hard to manage to get a couple of amplifiers and a drum kit.

"And, after a year of rehearsals and saving, we played our first gig ever and it was in a youth club in Lemsford.

"I can remember it vividly. Then, gradually, from '61 to '64 we built up a local fan base."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFOp6u_0IBw&feature=emb_logo

The group ended up playing at Watford Town Hall, where they won a rock competition.

That led to the band signing a recording deal with Decca.

"We recorded She's Not There in that first recording session," said Colin.

"And that was the beginning of The Zombies as professional musicians."

The band's live performances, described by Rolling Stone as "absolutely triumphant", take fans on a journey from their early 1960s singles She's Not There and Tell Her No, their masterpiece 1968 album Odessey & Oracle, and favourites from the post-Zombies careers of Colin Blunstone and Argent, right to today with new songs from their forthcoming album.

Tickets for The Zombies in Harpenden cost £27.50. This performance is seated.

For tickets, book online at www.harpendenpublichalls.co.uk or call the box office on 01582 767525.