Peter Asher is the London-born, Malibu-based musician, record producer, and manager who first broke out in the 1960s as one-half of the pop duo Peter and Gordon; Colin Blunstone is the voice of the British Invasion pioneers the Zombies, and a singer-songwriter who performs and records as a solo artist. Peter and Colin are going on the road this fall with The Fixx — the tour kicks off tomorrow in Somerville, MA — and ahead of it all, the two got on a Zoom call to catch up.
— Annie Fell, Editor-in-chief, Talkhouse Music
Peter Asher: I'm excited about this. I mean, we've met numerous times, I think, but we don't really know each other particularly well.
Colin Blunstone: That's very true. I can remember the first time we met was on the Dick Clark Caravan of Stars.
Peter: I thought it might be.
Colin: You were with Gordon and I was with the Zombies.
Peter: I think it might have been in Canada. Do you know who else was on the bill?
Colin: I think Tom Jones was on the bill.
Peter: I remember Tom Jones was on there, the Shirelles were on there. Brian Hyland.
Colin: Brian Hyland! Absolutely.
Peter: “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini.”
Colin: Yes. They don't write songs like that anymore, do they?
Peter: No, they don’t.
Colin: I remember we ended up in Montreal and Herman's Hermits were top of the bill. I think it's the only time I've been a bit nervous in a theater because they caused such a sensation. It was 10,000 people in this arena. I don't know if you were on this particular bill, but Herman's Hermits came on, the whole audience moved forward and I thought they were going to rush the stage, all 10,000 of them. I was a little bit apprehensive. But anyway, they didn't, and the evening ended well… And then, of course, we've done all these cruises, where you've done your wonderful talking show and showing slides.
Peter: Yeah, a mixture of talking and singing.
Colin: You're a wonderful raconteur. I thoroughly enjoyed your show. I came with Rod Argent and we thought it was wonderful.
Peter: Thank you. Of course, it must be disconcerting for you doing your first show as a Zombie, without the plural.
Colin: Well, I did a tour in the UK in May. I've done a few tours… We're probably going to do about half the Zombies and half solo things. Of course, I never had a solo hit in America, so for the solo songs, people will probably be quite quiet because they won't know them. [Laughs.] But I think it'll be fun. I'm looking forward to to hearing the Fixx play as well. I know them only by their records, so I'm a real fan.
Peter: I've never seen them live either. Where are you, by the way?
Colin: I'm in Surrey, at home. Do you come to London very often?
Peter: It varies. Not that often. I think I'm going to be there in October — we're doing this gig at Abbey Road Studios. We’ll be in studio two, which should be interesting.
Colin: There's so much history in Abbey Road, and in particular in studio two. It's funny, we filmed a video in there and I was talking to some of the younger members of the band and saying, “This is where this happened and this is where that happened,” and I think they were becoming a bit overwhelmed with the history of the place. But I realized that I was too. I've recorded a few albums in Abbey Road and all the memories were rushing back and I was thinking about all the wonderful music that's been recorded there, and it did make me feel a bit overwhelmed.
Peter: It's kind of extraordinary. You know, the first recording session there was Elgar.
Colin: I did know that. Fantastic. They do lots of classical and film music in the big studio, studio one. It’s like an aircraft hangar. Have you worked there?
Peter: Yes, I have, [with] my friend Hans Zimmer, who I work with a lot.
Colin: Oh, yes. You've produced so many wonderful artists, haven't you?
Peter: I have been lucky enough to produce a lot of people, yeah.
Colin: I think you must be one of the only people who've been a successful artist, a successful producer, a successful manager, and a successful record executive. It's quite unusual, I think.
Peter: Probably is, I think. But I've enjoyed every minute of it. I still like producing records the best. People sometimes ask me which I prefer, and the answer is I prefer the fact that I get into a bit of everything. But if I had to pick one thing, it would be being in the studio, producing a record with someone who really can sing, such as yourself. My favorite singers always seem to be the ones where they're extremely identifiable. The sound may or may not be technically perfectly perfect, but you absolutely know who it is the minute they start singing. Whether it's Cher or Diana Ross or Natalie Merchant, the one thing they have in common is it only takes a bar or two and you go, “Oh, I know who that is.”
Colin: Yeah, I know what you mean. I like that. But also, I very often like people who write their own music. Possibly I like them because they write their own music. But they can always sing it with such authority if they wrote the song. They will usually do the best interpretation of that song because they wrote it.
Peter: It's true. But, on the other hand, someone like Linda Ronstadt—
Colin: Oh, yes. There are always exceptions.
Peter: She never wrote a song in her life, but you listen to them and you'd swear that she wrote them. As Linda put it, “When I hear a great song, I feel like I have to sing it.” It's a compulsion. And then she tends to sing it much better than the demo.
Colin: She was wonderful. And then you produced James Taylor, didn't you, as well?
Peter: I did indeed, yes. And he was somebody where as soon as I heard him, I admired him in every different respect at once. Which is to say, I loved how his songwriting was miraculous; his voice was incredible because he had a folky kind of voice, but his phrasing was like Sam Cooke and Ray Charles; and his guitar playing was unique because he was into Julian Bream as well as Woody Guthrie, which was a killer combination.
Colin: Absolutely.
Peter: Do you have any songs that you'd actually rather not play [on this tour] but feel obliged to play?
Colin: [Laughs.] I'm not sure if I should say… There's two songs that come to mind, one I'm not playing and one I am playing. There's a song written by Chris White of the Zombies called “I Love You,” which was a big hit by a band called People. I think it was a top three single, obviously a long time ago, but a lot of people are still familiar with it. It's got a very repetitious chorus — it's just, “I love you, I love you, I love you.” So I tend to drop that one if I get a chance. I can't remember if I put it in the set or not. And the other one is “Tell Her No,” which is, again, a very repetitious chorus.
Peter: You've got to do “Tell Her No.” I would protest if you don't do it.
Colin: I think we're doing that one, so you won't have to protest. I'm going to encourage everyone to sing that one, so I shall be watching you very carefully. I want to see lots of “no, no, no”s when we're doing that.
Peter: I promise to do it.
Colin: [Laughs.] Those two songs are just very repetitious choruses and I sometimes find them a little bit of a struggle. But I like most of the songs that the Zombies played. And my solo ones, the ones I'm going to play, I like all those. Most of the ones I don't like have been left to drift off into oblivion…
What about you? Are there some songs that you have to play that you're not very keen on?
Peter: Yes, there's one clunker — well, two clunkers, one I actually never do play because it's really revolting. That's a song called “Knight in Rusty Armour.” It was a hit in some places and it was horrible. And that was a follow up to a slightly less loathsome song called “Lady Godiva.” “Lady Godiva” was a huge hit, and it's the one that I absolutely have to do whether I want to or not. It starts to put us in the novelty, Herman's Hermits, “Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter,” “Winchester Cathedral” category of musical fluff. Which I suppose I could learn to love, but I haven't yet. But I will be doing it.
Colin: I'll listen out for that one.
Peter: Well, to emphasize its musical nonsensicalness, I play it on the banjolele, so it becomes amusing already. Banjolele is an inherently funny instrument. Like George Formby. Do you know George Formby?
Colin: Oh, absolutely.
Peter: Of course. Americans don't at all know. He had some hit movies here, but people don't seem to know him by name. “When I'm Cleaning Windows” was a monster hit.
Colin: Oh, yeah, that's a great song, isn't it? Absolutely fabulous. There were some really good songs years ago. I’m thinking about Vera Lynn.
Peter: She's the greatest.
Colin: All those wartime anthems that she sang. Very moving. Those songs bring back so many memories for the people that were alive in the World War. A little bit older than us, perhaps.
Peter: What year were you born?
Colin: 1945.
Peter: I'm ‘44. One of the things I talk about in the show is that people don't really realize how difficult Britain was at the time. It really was a depressed country both psychologically and metaphorically. We had rationing until 1956 — they took it off one thing at a time, and ‘56 was the last item that was rationed.
Colin: I remember.
Peter: You had your little ration book. You couldn't get sweets or anything.
Colin: Or petrol. Some people said that there was more austerity in the UK after the war than there was during the war.
Peter: I don't even understand rationing, to be quite honest. Why would everything be rationed? Did hens stop laying eggs? I don't think so. I mean, powdered eggs… All the women learned to cook without using certain key ingredients that they couldn't get. “We have no bananas,” and all that kind of stuff.
Colin: That's another great song, by the way. [Sings,] “We have no bananas today…”
So what's your latest project at the moment? Have you been producing anybody recently?
Peter: Yes, I'm going back in the studio — I'm doing a new album with Barbra Streisand.
Colin: Really? When is that starting?
Peter: Soon, actually. There's one track we might have to do ahead of time because it connects with a book that she's just written. We may be in the studio next week to do the first track. But mostly we're just getting together and choosing songs, trying to decide if it's all old songs or new songs. All bets are off, all avenues are open. She's still an amazing voice.
Colin: That's fantastic.
Peter: But needless to say, from a studio point of view, we shall be taking September off. I seem to have other engagements throughout September. [Laughs.]
Colin: [Laughs.] Absolutely, yes.
Lovely to talk to you, Peter!
Peter: Look forward to seeing you on the road. See you there.
Colin: Absolutely, see you there!
