Jim Rodford

Bass guitarist who played with the Kinks and the Zombies

JIM RODFORD, the bassist, who has died aged 76, was one of the unsung heroes of the rhythm section of several bands, most notably the Kinks from 1978 to 1996; at the time of his death he was a member of the Zombies.

Formerly a founder member of the band Argent, which had top 20 hits in the early 1970s with Hold Your Head Up and God Gave Rock and Roll To You, Rodford joined the Kinks long after their 1960s heyday.

The original band – Ray Davies, his younger brother Dave, bassist Pete Quaife and drummer Mick Avory – had shot to fame in 1964 with You Really Got Me, the first of a run of hit singles, but by the end of the decade growth was being hampered by Ray Davies’s famous drinking bouts and by fraternal spats between the Confusion (1983) and Phobia (1993), as well as on the Kinks’ 1983 single Come Dancing, which reached No 12 in the British charts. He remained with the band until its break-up in 1996 and was awarded a Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Services to British Music.

James Walter Rodford was born in St Albans on July 7 1941 and began playing bass in the late Fifties with a local skiffle band, the Bluetones.

In 1958 he was instrumental in helping his cousin Rod Argent to form the Zombies, coaching them through rehearsals, but declined an invitation to join the group. Before breaking up in 1968, the Zombies enjoyed chart hits in the 1960s with She’s Not There and Time of the Season, while their psychedelic-pop