Argent

Welcome to Rock and Roll Flashback!  I'm Bill Price, and in this episode I will review the history of the British band Argent, who emerged in the late 1960's after the disbandment of The Zombies.

All podcasts on the Rock and Roll Flashback Podcast are produced by brothers-in-law Bill Price and "Jumpin' John" McDermott.  The Podcast Theme Song, "You Essay", was written by John.  It was initially recorded by Bill and John on April 1, 2004 with several revisions since then. 
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Transcript

In this episode of Rock and Roll Flashback, I will review the history of the British band Argent, who emerged in the late 1960's after the disbandment of The Zombies.

Rodney Terence Argent was born on June 14th, 1945 in St Albans, Hertfordshire. When Rod was eight years old, he decided to become a musician. While attending St Albans School, he sang in the choir and met Paul Atkinson and Hugh Grundy. The trio first performed at a jam in St Albans in 1961. Rod intended to form a band and initially asked his cousin Jim to join, however he was already in a local band called the Bluetones. Colin Blunstone and Paul Arnold joined the band in early 1961. However, Arnold did not last long and was replaced by Chris White. When the band won a local contest, they recorded a demo of Rod’s composition titled “She’s Not There” as their prize. This led to a contract with Decca records and a successful career as The Zombies. However, by December 1967 the group disbanded. Interestingly their last single titled “Time of the Season”, was becoming a worldwide hit in 1969, right after The Zombies disbanded. 

After the breakup, Rod formed a new band called Argent in 1969. The band consisted of keyboardist Rod Argent, guitarist and vocalist Russ Ballard, bassist Jim Rodford, and drummer Bob Henrit. Their first released album titled Argent contained a song written by Russ Ballard titled “Liar”, which interestingly did not even chart in the UK and US. In 1971, Three Dog Night recorded a cover version of “Liar”, which rose to #7 in the US.  Also in 1971, the second Argent album titled Ring of Hands, produced a minor hit titled “Sweet Mary”, that only charted in the US at #102.

Here Argent’s recording of “Liar”. 

The third album released in 1972 titled All Together Now, contained the single titled “ Hold Your Head Up”, which became a #5 hit in the US and UK, selling over one million copies and was awarded a gold disc. The following album titled In Deep produced two minor hits  “God Gave Rock and Roll to You”, which peaked at #114 in the US and #18 in the UK and  “It’s Only Money” peaking at #53 in the UK. In 1991, Kiss recorded a cover of  “ God Gave Rock and Roll to You”, with the title changed to “ God Gave Rock ‘n’ Roll to You II”

Here is Argent and their recording of “God Gave Rock and Roll to You”.

In 1974, the album titled Nexus was released, which featured the single “The Coming of Kohoutek”, which was inspired by the appearance of the comet of the same name. After the album’s release, Ballard left the band to pursue a solo career. The band then regrouped by adding guitarist John Grimaldi and John Verity who served as guitarist and vocalist. The next two albums titled Circus and Counterpoint failed to sell well and turned out to be their final releases. However, their final concert tours still attracted large audiences. In 1975 Grimaldi left the band, which led Rod to consider whether to continue with the band.

In 1976 Agent broke up and in 1978, Rod launched his solo career with the debut album titled Moving Home, which involved several well known musicians that included Gary Moore, Phil Collins and Alphonso Johnson. In 1982 he released his second solo album titled Red House. In addition to his solo work, Rod played keyboards for several musicians. This included The Who’s album Who Are You and on the Variations album with Gary Moore, Julian Lloyd Weber and Andrew Lloyd Weber. 

In 2004 Rod resumed touring with Colin Blunstone as The Zombies. The last surviving original members performed on three reunion concerts in March 2008. On July 25th, 2010 the original lineup of Argent reunited for a performance at the High Voltage Festival in Victoria Park in London. In January and February 2012, Argent also reunited for a five performance tour. In July 2024 Rod Argent suffered a stroke and on July 11th, he announced his retirement from touring.

Argent’s discography encompasses seven studio albums, four live albums, seven compilation albums and fourteen singles. 

I’ll conclude this Rock and Roll Flashback episode with Argent’s biggest hit from 1972, “Hold Your Head Up”.

This has been a review of the history behind the band Argent. And until next, I’m your host Bill Price.