If there’s a decade of pop music which is shrouded in almost unquestioning nostalgia and viewed through lenses of a rosy hue, then it can only be the 1960s. It was a supposed golden era of pop, although how anybody knows this remains uncertain, because we’re told that “if you can remember anything about the Sixties, you weren’t really there”.

A dose of 1960s revisionism is hardly the most essential of tasks, but for these two bands it presented a chance to set the record straight. Both at the spearhead of the British invasion of America, the Zombies and the Yardbirds took very different paths, both stylistically and in their career trajectory.

The Yardbirds, once the springboard for not one but three guitar legends in Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck, proved that they can still function as an effective blues-rock combo, a searing groove propelled by crunching rhythms and dirty lead guitar parts.

The real story here, though, was the return of the Zombies. In their current guise, led by Argent and original lead singer Colin Blunstone, they launched into a career retrospective, also picking songs from their post-Zombies careers.

Surprisingly, they played just two tracks from their 1968 masterpiece Odessey and Oracle – released shortly after the band split - which they had been playing in full earlier this year; the poignant A Rose For Emily soared and Time of the Season remained undimmed despite cider advert exposure.

Blunstone’s voice was still in fine shape, as was Argent’s peerless way with a Hammond organ, and the pair’s harmonies are still their main strength, but their hour-long set too often shunned these staples and veered towards self-parody, with a lack of subtlety akin to receiving an anvil to the head. A disappointing black mark on a deservedly celebrated career.

Simon Harper

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