Supporting
the siteColin Blunstone Discography
Welcome to my Colin Blunstone discography. This page initially concentrated on his solo works and was commended for its accuracy in an e-mail newsletter from the official Colin Blunstone appreciation society (though unfortunately it was probably on an obsolete URL). As Colin and Rod Argent are now recording and touring as The Zombies again I have added the earlier releases by the group though I haven't considered all the various compilations that are out there. As I have included The Zombies I have also included Keats for consistency.
You will find that some of the album cover art images are also external links to Amazon UK and there may also be text links if I don't have the cover art or there are multiple versions available with with the same artwork. I use availability from Amazon UK itself (i.e. not the 'sellers' they also list for) as a good benchmark for current availability to UK buyers. From time to time I test the links and if they no longer refer to available product I remove them. I also like to add new links if I come across them but obviously I have to go looking for them so I am more likely to miss them. Please feel free to let me know about broken links or suggest ones I might like to add, and of course to let me know if there are any inaccuracies or omissions in the discography itself. There is a 'mailto:' link at the bottom of the page.
If you are creating a bookmark for this page or wish to quote the name to others then I encourage you to use the URL http://recollection.co.uk/colinblunstone/ as it looks neater. However if you are creating or suggesting a link that will appear on another web page then please use the underlying URL http://anidea.co.uk/recollection/colinblunstone/ as it will help the visibility of the site to search engines.
I've ordered the information in a way that makes sense to me, even if it might seem a bit odd or inconsistent to others. The rough idea is that you should be able to flow through Colin's career from the The Zombies to his current releases, but it gets a little more fluid with compilations!
Colin Blunstone first came to attention as the lead singer with The Zombies in the 1960s. BEGIN HERE was released in 1965 and there have been several versions of it on CD. One I can recommend is the 1999 release as Big Beat CDWIKD 191 (this includes four bonus unreleased tracks and is sometimes listed as BEGIN HERE PLUS). The superb ODESSEY AND ORACLE was released in 1968. Again there have been several CD releases and again I can recommend the 1998 one on Big Beat CDWIKD 181 (although there are later releases I would probably go for if was buying now). This is subtitled as the 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION and includes stereo and mono mixes plus three bonus unreleased tracks.
A "mini-LP" release of ODESSEY AND ORACLE on Big Beat CDHP 025 (available from Amazon UK) was released in June 2007. That is to say a CD release in a scaled down replica of the original sleeve. It has just the original twelve tracks. Also in June 2007 there was a digipak release with sixteen bonus tracks as REP4940 (available from Amazon UK).
The 40TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION was released on Repertoire REP5089 in March 2008 and is illustrated and linked above. It is a two CD set in a slip case with a colour booklet. It has the full album in stereo and mono mixes plus six bonus singles.
The album was performed live for the first time in 2008 and a CD of the concerts was released in March 2008 on Absolute as ODESSEY AND ORACLE {REVISITED}.
Staying with The Zombies, there have been many compilations released over the years, many featuring material that was previously not available. I haven't attempted to identify all those for this discography. Big Beat and Repertoire have reissued some of them so I may include those here at a future date. However one release that simply must be mentioned is ZOMBIE HEAVEN (1997) which is a 4 CD box. This contains every recording made by The Zombies up to 1968 (apart from one demo that couldn't be found), with the tracks sourced from the original masters and the correct mixes used.
Colin made a few singles as Neil MacArthur in 1969. These recordings were collected together with demo recordings made by Rod Argent and Chris White after The Zombies split for a July 2007 release on Big Beat called INTO THE AFTERLIFE.
In May 2008 Universal released a compilation album called THE ZOMBIES AND BEYOND with recordings by The Zombies, Colin solo, and Argent.
Colin launched his solo career proper in the 1970s. His first two albums ONE YEAR (1971) and ENNISMORE (1972) are truly superb. ONE YEAR is freely available on CD in the UK and there have been U.S. and Japanese releases too, including one in a Digipak. There is a 2006 release available in Japan (Sony MHCP-985) that sounds like it is probably in "mini-LP" format and has been listed as ONE YEAR + 1 in places, reflecting that it has the bonus track I hope I didn't say too much last night tacked on the end. There was apparently going to be a U.S. reissue of the album in January 2007. I don't know if this happened but as of March 2008 Amazon list two import versions (one illustrated with a black and white cover rather than the slightly tinted one). I have come across evidence of three covers for ENNISMORE. The original UK one was certainly the monochrome one but I don't know about the other two. It has been available from Japan for some time and Amazon UK have had it listed in imports versions (though as of March 2008 the imports are not available). I have seen mention on eBay of *UK* releases of *both* these albums in Digipak form but whether that is true or not is another matter, it is eBay after all.
Colin's third solo release was JOURNEY (1974) and this was just as good as the first two. It had a different cover in the U.S. and indeed two tracks were different. Skivhugget in Sweden once listed something something they called JOURNEY + 1 with a release date of 20th March 2002 and this is a title I have seen elsewhere though I haven't ever actually seen a copy or a track listing. In Japan in 2002 Sony/EPIC (EICP-7035) rereleased JOURNEY with the UK running order plus the two tracks that were only on the US release (It's magical and You who are lonely) and elsewhere this is referred to as JOURNEY + 2. As of March 2008, Amazon UK are listing an import release of JOURNEY with the UK tracklisting.
Various distributors are listing ENNISMORE/JOURNEY for release on 22nd February 2008 as SOULGEL 8187 on Evangeline records (Amazon UK have it as 3rd March 2008 on Arcadia). This release combines the two releases onto one CD and uses the US tracklisting of JOURNEY.
Colin followed the above albums with PLANES (1976), NEVER EVEN THOUGHT (1978) and LATE NIGHTS IN SOHO (1979). The first two are good but I never got into the last one. As far as I know these never made it to CD and any CDs of PLANES on eBay are really CD-R transfers.
A compilation of the first three albums called I DON'T BELIEVE IN MIRACLES (1979) was released in 1979. This is NOT the same as the CD compilations (plural!) of that name. As far as I am aware there has not been a CD release of this album though I do note a seller on Amazon.com claiming to be selling one.
Colin featured on many Alan Parsons Project albums and that was the catalyst for the group KEATS who released a self-titled album in 1984. This album doesn't seem to be in print at the moment but Amazon UK list three versions of it with two covers. There was a reunion album called NEW WORLD with The Zombies released in 1990 though this only had a minimal contribution from Rod Argent. There has been more than one issue of it and it seems to be freely available.
Over a decade on from his last solo release Colin released new recordings of ten of his best known works and two new tracks as SINGS HIS GREATEST HITS (1991) on Castle and they later rereleased it on Essential where it seems to get listed just as SINGS (I don't know if the cover is different). The two new tracks were Still burning bright and Don't feel no pain no more. Mystic Records rereleased the album as as GREATEST HITS (1998) with the last two tracks replaced with later new recordings (Walking in the rain and She's not there '98) and this version is also available as SAY YOU DON'T MIND (2000). More recently still ANTHOLOGY (2002) has been released which has added the two replaced tracks from the original album on to the end to make it a fourteen track album. I have seen this listed as "with three bonus tracks" as if there was originally an eleven track version (i.e. GREATEST HITS without She's not there '98 on it). Anyway as if that wasn't enough there is also COLIN BLUNSTONE (2002?) at a budget price which is the GREATEST HITS version again. As will be revealed below, that isn't the end of the story…
The release MIRACLES (1993) seems to be a compilation of the first five albums and has just about vanished from all the listings now. I have actually seen this listed in other discographies with dates including 1979 and 1983 which seems improbable unless there was an earlier vinyl version.
There is also a compilation of live sessions featuring material from his first three albums originally called LIVE AT THE BBC (1995) and then later reissued as just ON AIR (1998). This also gets listed as ON AIR: LIVE AT THE BBC.
A must have is the superb compilation album of the first three called SOME YEARS: IT'S THE TIME OF COLIN BLUNSTONE (1995). The only two relatively weak sounding tracks on the album come from the U.S. version of JOURNEY (it is a U.S. produced compilation). These sound somewhat unusual for his sound at the time but have grown on me and I think it is really lack of familiarity that has counted against them. It has been rereleased as I DON'T BELIEVE IN MIRACLES - THE VERY BEST OF COLIN BLUNSTONE (2000 ?) and indeed when I saw a copy it was only the insert that had changed and the rest of the packaging was still from SOME YEARS. At one stage Amazon even had the cover of one with the title of the other.
In 1995 Colin released an excellent new solo album ECHO BRIDGE (1995) (originally on Permanent, then in 1998 on Indelible and now a little elusive with the original cover). The album was reissued with a new cover in February 2004 on Big Beat. This was followed three years later by the even better THE LIGHT INSIDE (1998) and then another three years later he teamed up with Rod Argent for OUT OF THE SHADOWS (2001). There is a Japanese version (2000) of the latter with two extra acoustic tracks.
Sony/Epic in Japan also released another album called I DON'T BELIEVE IN MIRACLES - THE BEST OF COLIN BLUNSTONE (2002), often just listed as BEST OF, which seems to be a compilation of the first three albums plus Losing your way in the rain which comes from Mike Batt's TAROT SUITE album released in 1979. So that seems to be three compilation albums with the same name now! You can get it from HMV Japan and no doubt elsewhere (at least you could, as I haven't checked lately).
In early 2003 a budget priced 2-CD set called OLD & WISE (2003) was released (March 31st 2003 being the consensus). I came across a track listing for this and the first CD is clearly ANTHOLOGY and the second CD no less than the whole of THE LIGHT INSIDE. There is another budget priced album called SUPER HITS released by Sony on 1st September 2003 and contains ten tracks compiled from the first three albums. I haven't compared the listing with any others.
Colin and Rod Argent recorded another album which was intended to be launched in mid-2003 to coincide with a performance at the Bloomsbury Theatre being recorded for a DVD release. However it wasn't quite finished in time and indeed the release date turned out to be 26th April 2004 with the album called AS FAR AS I CAN SEE..... (it would have been better to have used an ellipsis which only has three dots, not five!). It was apparently available earlier than that from tour merchandising. They have released the album as The Zombies though also with both their names on it. At the time this page was last reviewed Amazon UK no longer seem to be able to offer the original release on Redhouse but they do have an import version on Rhino Handmade.
Colin was said to be planning to record a new solo album in September 2003 but I never heard any more of this. A double live CD of the Bloomsbury Theatre recording finally emerged on February 6th 2005 titled LIVE AT THE BLOOMSBURY THEATRE, LONDON. The DVD of this concert did get a limited release in Holland in 2004 but didn't get a full release in the UK until November 2005 when it was released by Stax Entertainment (STX2099). Frankly the packaging of this is a mess. The DVD is generally listed as THE ZOMBIES but also mentions AS FAR AS I CAN SEE.... (just the four dots this time!) and LIVE AT THE BLOOMSBURY THEATRE on the front to cover all the bases. In the credits section they spell Rod Argent's name wrong and the string section not only has two names spelt wrong but is also listed as a brass section! Compared to the CD (which I think is the whole concert), the DVD is missing What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted (despite it being mentioned on the back cover), In My Mind A Miracle, I Don't Believe In Miracles and Care Of Cell 44. So they have removed one of the string quartet's performances which is one of the key selling points of the concert. Just to really mess things up She's Not There has been taken from the end of the second half of the concert and placed at the very end of the "encores" as if it was the big finish.
In January 2006 Recall released GREATEST HITS/THE LIGHT INSIDE as a two CD pack. This is the GREATEST HITS version again. I was going to say it was the Mystic version again but that is now ambiguous as incredibly Mystic are releasing yet another version of GREATEST HITS, with the subtitle PLUS, in November 2006. This time they have returned to the twelve tracks from the original SINGS release and added two brand new recordings by Colin and Rod Argent featuring just voice and piano (Miles away, a track from a 1983 concept album called EXILE that Colin released as a single, and How we were before, an early track by The Zombies written by Colin). So I now make that two versions of the original twelve track release, three versions of a different twelve track release, and two different fourteen track releases. So that is seven versions with ten tracks common to all.
© Copyright 2003–2008 Graham Johnson