Colin Blunstone on The Zombies’ ‘Main Regret’ in Their Career

Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary has had an onscreen life since its premiere at the 2023 South By Southwest Film Festival — including its official release to theaters this past May. But director-producer Robert Schwartzman and the Zombies frontman Colin Blunstone will be putting the hard press on in the coming weeks in person.

The two will be joined by surviving Zombies members Rod Argent, Chris White and Hugh Grundy for screenings and Q&A sessions on June 24 and 26 and July 5 in England; the former, in London on Blunstone’s 80th birthday, will be hosted by EGOT winner Tim Rice. After that, Blunstone and Schwartzman come across the pond for seven more screenings — starting July 9 in New York City — that, in addition to the Q&As, will also feature performances of Zombies songs by Blunstone backed by Schwartzman’s band Rooney, which has opened for the Zombies in the past.

“I’m a big believer in trying to create events so that people feel excited to be part of it and leave their homes and go see a film,” Schwartzman tells Billboard from Los Angeles during a joint Zoom call with Blunstone, who is in England. “People are used to, culturally, waiting for movies to hit their doorstep or come to their TV without lifting a finger. I think it’s important that we emphasize the importance of seeing movies within a community. Colin was really gracious with his time and supportive of this idea of screening the film on the road, and I think for any fans out there it’s a great way to see the film in an environment that’s unconventional.”

Blunstone predicts that the shows “will be really exciting,” and Schwartzman says that while some song choices seem obvious — particularly hits such as “She’s Not There,” “Tell Her No” and “Time of the Season” — a great deal of care will be taken in curating the performances.

“We’ve been just shouting out the songs, the crowd pleasers, the ones that everyone wants to hear and make sure we support the evening, musically, in a way that’s good for everybody,” Schwartzman explains. “Doing a set every night as a singer, I’m sensitive to that. I want to make sure we do our part in laying out the foundation of songs that Colin feels really good about.”

Hung Up On a Dream — titled after a track on the Zombies’ revered 1968 album Odessey and Oracle — offers a comprehensive and authorized telling of the Zombies’ story. Loaded with vintage footage, home movies, photographs and contemporary interviews, it tracks from the group’s 1961 formation in St. Albans to its early successes in Great Britain and in the U.S., through its initial break-up in 1968 (before Odessey and Oracle’s release) and subsequent reunions as the group’s reputation grew in its absence, leading up to a 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

“Odessey and Oracle is one of the slowest burners there ever was,” Blunstone notes. “It took about 30 years for it to start getting some kind of acknowledgement, but it got there in the end. I’d rather get a late acknowledgement than none at all — but sometimes I think what would have happened if we’d got that acknowledgement when we were younger. One of the main disappointments is we never got to know what we could’ve done next. That’s our main regret, I think.”

The Zombies did get that opportunity, much later. After Argent went on to form the band that bore his name, hitting big with “Hold Your Head Up,” and Blunstone pursued a solo career, the Zombies got back together in 1989 and recorded five more studio albums up to Different Game in 2023, along with Blunstone and Argent’s Out of the Shadows in 2001. The group is currently dormant after Argent suffered a stroke last year that forced him to retire from touring, while White and Grundy have appeared only as special guests since 1997. (Guitarist Paul Atkinson passed away during 2004 after, like White and Grundy, a career on the executive side of the music industry, signing acts such as ABBA, Elton John, Bruce Hornsby, Mr. Mister and more.)

While Blunstone is “trying to put a solo album together very much at the moment,” he’s not ruling out the possibility of some additional Zombies music. “Rod has just started writing,” he reports, “and I’m due to go down there. I’m not sure I can get there before I got to the States to promote the film in America with Robert, but Rod and I definitely will be working on tracks.”

Schwartzman, meanwhile, has worked on Hung Up on a Dream during the past couple of years, cutting out about 20 minutes from the initial version for a tidy 98-minute edition. “I think it runs a lot better now,” Blunstone says, while Schwartzman says the changes became evident once the film — which features guest appearances by Dave Grohl, Paul Weller, Hayley Williams of Paramore and Finneas — was being screened for audiences.

“Editing is like being a sculptor; you have a big piece of rock and you have to create an image in it and you sit there every day chipping away, a little bit at a time,” he explains. “So when you look at the movie, I’m chipping away at a big piece of stone, and after South By there were pieces of stone I still needed to (remove) to help the image come into focus a little better, so that’s what we did.”

Hung Up on a Dream nevertheless retains the heart of the Zombies’ story — which, beyond the factual narrative, is a sweetness best exhibited in the band members’ continuing friendships, caught in scenes of the four remaining Zombies gathering together at Abbey Road Studios, where they made Odessey and Oracle, and in Argent’s childhood home. Schwartzman even encouraged Argent and Blunstone to start a friendly thumb war while sitting on a couch together during the end credits.

“I guess it’s just our nature to be relatively easygoing — I haven’t really known anything else,” Blunstone says. “I know those blokes really well. I met them when I was 15. I knew their parents, their girlfriends before they got married. I don’t think there are any secrets. As a band we just try to get on with it…I don’t know what the politics of other bands are, but people do remark on the difference between our band and other bands.”

Schwartzman agrees that the friendship gives the film a palpable warmth. “They feel hopeful,” he says. “They feel lifted. They see the road ahead as shiny and bright. I think that’s a wonderful thing. It’s them. The guys are that. We were just there to help capture that. You can’t fake the emotion. It’s there. It’s authentic, and I’m happy it translated to the screen.

Schwartzman says the U.S. screenings will be followed by a digital, on-demand rollout and then a subscription streaming deal, along with a Blu-ray release later in the year. “We’re still talking to partners to find the right one for the film,” he says. A livestream may take place from one of the events, and his film crew will also be capturing footage from the shows.

“We’re still in the theatrical cycle right now,” Schwartzman says. “I’m still always encouraging people, ‘Don’t order in. Let’s put our shoes on and let’s go over to the music venue.’ I don’t want anyone to wait for a movie to hit Netflix or assume it’s going to hit one of these streaming platforms. There won’t be another night like this, so I feel like it’s not something to be missed.”

Events for Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary (which you can find out more about here) include:

June 24 — Picturehouse London, Finsbury Park

June 26 — Picturehouse London, Hackney

July 5 — Odyssey Cinema, St. Albans, England

July 9 — Grammercy Theatre, New York City

July 11 — Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre, Somerville, Mass.

July 13 — State Theatre, Falls Church, Va.

July 15 — Thalia Hall, Chicago

July 16 — Majestic Theatre, Detroit

July 18 — Great American Music Hall, San Francisco

July 19 — The Bellwether, Los Angeles