Rod was born in 1945 in St.
Albans. His early musical education consisted of a couple of years
piano lessons and several years as a member of St.Albans Cathedral
Choir.
In 1956, he heard Elvis sing 'Hound Dog', and
in that moment fell in love with rock 'n' roll.
He soon went to his first live gig -
featuring his older cousin Jim Rodford (later to play bass with
'Argent', and now playing with 'The Kinks') on tea chest bass.
Starstruck, he knew that he somehow had to be part of what was going
on, and immediately vowed that one day he would have his own group.
Three years later, at the age of 16, he formed 'The Zombies'.
During the whole of this period, however,
although he was totally immersed in the rock 'n' roll and pop music
explosion of the '50's and early '60's, he was still avidly drinking
in all the other great music he could find, particularly exploring
areas of jazz typified by the Mile Davis/Bill Evans groups of the
period, along with the whole landscape of European classical music -
his especial enthusiasms in this area being Bach, Stravinsky, Ravel
and Bartok.
Between 1961 and 1963, 'The Zombies'
quickly built a reputation as one of the best groups in and around
St.Albans, and in a 1963 they secured a record deal with Decca after
winning the 'Herts Beat' contest. Rod wrote 'She's Not There'
especially for the first recording session (only his second ever
song), and the subsequent record was a hit all over the world, going
to Number 1 in the US 'Cash Box' charts (No 3 in 'Billboard').
Rod was to write all the other major hits for
'The Zombies', including 'Time Of The Season', (also a US number 1)
and 'Tell Her No'. 'The Zombies' were only together professionally
for three years, and although much acclaimed now, only had one hit
in the UK - in spite of enjoying much more considerable success in
the rest of the world. The lack of success contributed to their
breaking up in 1967, although not before recording and producing a
final album - 'Odessey and Oracle' which has come to be regarded as
one of the finest albums of the '60's (see Reviews page).
After 'The Zombies', Rod formed his second
band, 'Argent', which between 1970 and 1975 also gained worldwide
success, both in live performance and with such records as 'Hold
Your Head Up' (Top 5 in US and UK), while Rod continued to enjoy a
reputation as one of the finest keyboard players of the genre.
After 'Argent' split, Rod appeared as a
keyboard player on countless records, with artists as diverse as
'The who', John Dankworth, Cleo Laine, Colin Blunstone, Gary Moore
and Andrew Lloyd Webber. This was a time during which he
deliberately was trying to broaden his base musically, and as well
as continuing to record and play his own music, became involved in
writing in other areas. In 1977, he was commissioned to write music
for the Royal Academy's Laser Exhibition 9Light Fantastic' and in
1981, he wrote the musical 'Masquerade', which was produced at 'The
Young Vic' in 1982 under the direction of Frank Dunlop.
'Moving Home' album cover
In 1978, Rod's album 'Moving Home' was recorded, with Phil Collins
on drums and Alphonso Johnson on bass, and it's release coincided
with some live concerts in London and St.Albans with a fantastic
band - Alfonso on bass, Chester Thompson on drums, Peter Robinson
and Robin Lumley on second and third keyboards, a horn section
featuring Gary Barnacle, John Goodsall on guitar and Morris Pert on
percussion.
Since 1982, Rod has been involved in many
areas of music. He has written many themes and scores for UK
television - including two ITV soccer world cup themes (one a Top 50
record). The 10 years from 1987 to 1997 have seen him (with his
colleague Peter Van Hooke) produce and perform on several highly
successful albums for other artists. Tanita Tikaram's 'Ancient
Heart' and 'The Sweetkeeper' and Joshua Kadison's 'Painted Desert
Serenade' have all acheived multi million sales, while Nanci
Griffith's 'Late Nite Grande Hotel' was the first of her albums to
make the UK Top 50. Rod's most recent production 'On Nights Like
This', the debut album of Colombian born singer 'Soraya' is now
approaching world wide sales of 1 million.
The last two years have also seen Rod
seriously applying himself to his love of the piano and exploration
of the classical repertoire, and while his album 'Rod Argent ---
Classically Speaking' includes three of his own compositions, in the
main, it is a balance of solo piano music that he particularly
loves, covering compositions by Chopin, Bach, Ravel, Elgar and Greig.