After Red Guitars came... Undead Guitars

Back in 2022, I reported on this blog that I’d seen Red Guitars play at Birmingham’s O2 Institute. One of my favourite indie bands of the 1980s, I never imagined I’d have the chance to see them play live and I was hoping that the then recently-reformed band were due for a renaissance. But history repeated itself when lead singer Jeremy Kidd left the band for a second time in 2024.

The rest of the band’s solution was for guitarist Hallam Lewison to take on lead vocals, with the continued support of John Rowley (guitar), Lou Duffy-Howard (bass and backing vocals) and Matt Higgins (drums and percussion.) More radically, (and rather ingeniously,) they decided to rename themselves Undead Guitars – so it’s absolutely fitting that they should release a single in time for Halloween called Blazing Zombies.

Former Red Guitars fans won’t be disappointed as Blazing Zombies is, as you’d expect, a perfectly-crafted slice of guitar-driven rock, with intelligent, thought-provoking lyrics. Aren’t we all at risk, it seems to suggest, of becoming, metaphorically speaking,  the Blazing Zombies of the title?

While it’s all good end-of-October fun, the video is really rather terrifying (with band members and audience dressed in Halloween costumes and bassist Lou appearing to be gamely stabbing some nondescript thing towards the end of the song!) The record ends in a rather nice coda which hints at a more optimistic future or, at least, at survival after a zombie apocalypse.

I’m pleased to say Undead Guitars are working on an album and also planning a tour. Meanwhile, Blazing Zombies is available now on all the usual digital outlets and here, for your Halloween enjoyment, is the official video.