Legendary The Zombies frontman Colin Blunstone was forced to go and work in insurance when the band first broke up as he had "no plan B". The star, now 80, enjoyed huge success as a member of the chart topping group, formed in St Albans in 1962 when they were teenagers. By the mid sixties they had really taken off and were the second British band after The Beatles to crack the US charts. Their seminal 1968 album Odessey and Oracle has been hugely influential and features one of their most enduring hits Time of the Season. They also had massive success with songs such as 1964's She's Not There and  1965's Tell Her No. But they split in 1968 amidst commercial decline and management issues.

Having joined the group while still at school Colin was briefly left adrift and spent 10 months working as an Insurance Clerk.  Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk he reflected on that period. "Hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn't it? We'd been through a very difficult period where things had not gone well on the road. We weren't really managed very astutely. And of course, we were incredibly young and naive, and the combination of things...just led us to believe that maybe the band had run its course. 

"And at the time it seemed just a natural conclusion. It was just time to move on and try another project. Looking back I completely agree it seems a little bit strange [to have broken up]. And I must admit, even at the time, I was one of the more reluctant ones to end it as I didn't have a plan B.

"It wasn't I'm going to do the Zombies or else I'm going to go and do something else. We had a get together and decided that probably was the end of the Zombies.

"And I remember vividly leaving that meeting and getting in my car and thinking, what am I going to do with the rest of my life? I had no idea."

He was left with no income due to the mismanagement of the band and the fact he wasn't one of the group's songwriters.  "The three non-songwriters in the band—and I was one of them—were in a poor space financially after the Zombies disbanded. I got a number out of a phone book, and suddenly I was in the insurance business."

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He admits he never felt insurance was "his vocation" and just 10 months later music would come calling again when Time Of The Season became a hit in the US.

A career as a solo artist followed before The Zombies reformed in various incarnations. The full original line up last  reunited in 2004 when guitarist Paul Atkinson received the President's Merit Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences at a benefit concert at the House of Blues in Los Angeles, California.This would be his last performance with them as he died later that year. 

Colin is now the only original member of the band, who were inducted into the Rock and roll Hall of Fame in 2019, and while they remain massively in demand he is aware there will come a point when he can no longer hit the road.

"Logic tells me I can't tour forever, so it's a new journey for me really. My old touring mate is not with me anymore, and so I have to start again. It's very exciting, perhaps a little bit scary as well, and I have to see what kind of market is out there for me. I'd like to tour for as long as I'm physically able but you can only deal with one day at a time, can't you," he ponders.

Colin Blunston is touring his solo show across the UK from May 7-28. Full details and tickets are available on his website.