The Zombies Announce New Album, Map Spring Tour

have announced a 2020 spring tour — and confirmed that they’re working on a new album, their first since 2015’s Still Got That Hunger.

“It’s now 51 years since ‘Time of the Season’ reached Number one on the U.S. single charts,” keyboardist Rod Argent tells Rolling Stone. The clip above shows the band performing the Sixties anthem in Los Angeles last year. “Unbelievably, it’s a song that feels just as much a joy to play now as it did all those years ago!”

Argent recalls recording “Time of the Season” at Abbey Road’s Studio Three in 1967, linking that experience to the band’s new music. “In a lovely coincidence, just two days ago we were excited to finish the first three newly written tracks for our upcoming album in my just completed studio,” he says. “Which sounds great and happens to be designed by the same guy responsible for the acoustic design of all the Abbey Road studios — including Studio Three!”

The will hit the Caribbean with two cruises in the spring — the Flower Power Cruise in March alongside the Hollies and Arlo Guthrie and On the Blues Cruise in April with Art Garfunkel, Poco and others. They’ll embark on a tour on April 9th in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, stopping in Birmingham, Alabama, and Biloxi, Mississippi, before heading to Canada.

The band’s current lineup consists of Argent, singer Colin Blunstone, drummer Steve Rodford, guitarist Tom Toomey and bassist Søren Koch — who replaced Jim Rodford after his death in 2018. It’s unclear if original bassist Chris White will join the tour to perform his prog-rock track “Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914)” from Odessey and Oracle.

After 29 years and four ballots, the Zombies were finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, along with the Cure, Radiohead, Stevie Nicks, Janet Jackson, Def Leppard and Roxy Music. “I’ve loved the Zombies for as long as I can remember,” Bangles singer Susanna Hoffs said in her induction speech. “I first heard them when I was a very little girl in the Sixties — in the backseat of my Mom’s station wagon — and although their music played through a tinny car radio, its elegance, soulfulness, tonal textures and foggy London intrigue found me on the sunny palm-lined streets of Los Angeles. It was love at first listen.”

The Zombies Tour Dates

March 28-31 — Flower Power Cruise
April 1-8 — On The Blue Cruise
April 9 — Baton Rouge, LA @ Manship Theatre
April 10 — Birmingham, AL @ Iron City
April 11 — Biloxi, MS @ Hard Rock
April 15 — Winnipeg, MB @ Club Regent Event Centre
April 17 — St. Albert, AB @ Arden Theatre
April 18 — Calgary, AB @ Deerfoot Inn & Casino
April 20 — Camrose, AB @ Lougheed Centre
April 21 — Medicine Hat, AB @ Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre
April 22 — Cranbrook, BC @ Key City Theatre
April 24 — Vancouver, BC @ Commodore Ballroom
April 25 — Victoria, BC @ Alix Goolden Performance Hall