The Zombies celebrate career in St Albans festival

Colin Blunstone (far right) said the band's strong local following had played a key role in their success

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees The Zombies are celebrating their career with a hometown festival.

The Begin Here Festival is taking place in St Albans, Hertfordshire, where the band formed in 1961.

The band's four surviving original members are taking part in a weekend of events, including a screening of a new documentary and live gigs.

Singer Colin Blunstone said he had "wonderful memories playing with The Zombies as a teenager in St Albans."

Ahead of the band's return to the city, he said: "Every weekend was taken up playing with The Zombies."

The band's single Time of the Season was a chart-topper in the United States in 1969

In 1961 three schoolboys from St Albans School and two from what is now Verulam School joined forces to create The Zombies.

"We all met through going to school in St Albans and all our early gigs were in and around St Albans," said Blunstone, now 78.

He said the band's early gigs often took place at the Verulamium Rugby Club in Cotlandswick on the edge of the city.

"We built up this following to the point where the clubhouse was packed out and they had to put a marquee outside."

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Only a few years later the band joined The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Who as a key part of the British Invasion, a cultural phenomenon in which British bands found huge success on both sides of the Atlantic.

"It's all based on us building up a local following in St Albans which gradually got bigger and bigger," said Blunstone.

The Zombies' 1964 single She's Not There spent 11 weeks in the UK singles chart

The Begin Here Festival is billed as the band's first "annual" festival in their hometown and runs until Sunday.

Later the band will show a new documentary about themselves called Hung Up On A Dream.

The screening takes place at The Odyssey Cinema, a venue Blunstone remembers visiting as a schoolboy when it was the Odeon.

"The film is a document of our career. We will leave it behind and it will show our contribution to popular music," he said.

The vocalist said new fans continued to discover the band when their music was used in TV shows like Friends or 2021 film Cruella.

"Our concerts are remarkable, particular in America, for having a complete cross-section of ages," he said.

"There are only very few 60s bands that are still playing and writing or recording new material. That puts The Zombies in a unique position."