THE Zombies are coming back to life in Bewdley when the hugely influential Sixties band opens the 25th anniversary Bewdley Festival.

The band. formed in 1960, will be performing at the Mercure Hotel on Friday, October 5.

The band’s founder, singer and keyboard player, Rod Argent had only composed one song before She’s Not There, the song he wrote for a recording session with Decca that The Zombies had won in a talent competition.

For almost 50 years, it has been a global standard with more than million radio plays and many covers.

The Zombies only stayed together for four years, splitting 18 months before Time Of The Season would become their second massive US hit.

Their second album, Odyssey and Oracle, is credited as an all-time favourite of Foo Fighters leader, Dave Grohl, Paul Weller, The Vaccines and even the Beach Boys troubled genius, Brian Wilson.

Rolling Stone magazine rated it as 80 in the 500 most important albums of all time.

After the Zombies split, Rod Argent went on to start his own band, Argent, with his cousin, Jim Rodford, having more global hits with Hold Your Head Up and God Gave Rock and Roll To You.

Rod and Colin Blunstone, The Zombies singer, started working together again 12 years ago.

“Johnny Dankworth persuaded me to organise a charity concert in Milton Keynes,” Rod told The Shuttle in an exclusive interview.

“We played some jazz and classical music and I’d put most of Argent together to play a 40 minute set at the end. Colin was there and he spontaneously got up and sang She’s Not There and Time Of The Season with us.”

The involvement of ex-Kinks bassist, Jim Rodford, took things right back to the beginning.

“It’s all come full circle,” said Rod.

“Jim was the first person I asked when I put the Zombies together back in 1960 and although he had his own band, he drove us to our first rehearsal.”

Last year, The Zombies released a new studio album Breathe Out, Breathe In.

Despite most of The Zombies being well into their sixties, they’ve continued a gruelling tour schedule, including the US and Japan so it’s a great coup for Bewdley Festival to have them.

“We love playing together,” said Rod. “We want people to know we’re not a nostalgia band.”