The Animals' founder member drummer John Steel is back touring - celebrating 50 years on the road!
The Animals' founder member drummer John Steel is back touring - celebrating 50 years on the road!
Posted: 12 Nov 2009
The Animals were the first North East supergroup and rivalled the Beatles and Stones in their Sixties heyday before breaking up empty-handed. They're back playing Whitby Sixties Festival on September 26, 2010. Founder member John Steel looks back without anger.
Interview by Michael Hamilton
It’s September 1964 and The House of the Rising Sun is sitting at No. 1 in the UK charts.
The Animals touch down at JFK airport in New York ready to conquer America.
Drummer John Steel’s eyes almost pop out when he witnesses the crazy circus that awaits five working class lads from Tyneside.
‘I remember landing at the airport and they had laid on five open-top, two-seater sports cars – they were Triumph Tigers, the American version of UK Spitfires – to drive us into Manhattan.
‘We had a car each and draped over each one was a six feet tall gorgeous model dressed only in a basque with a tiger’s tail.
‘We drove into Manhattan with a motor cycle police escort with the sirens blaring. I turned to Eric and said: “What a way to arrive in America!”
‘When we got to the hotel we were mobbed by hundreds of fans and bundled in with our clothes in tatters.
‘We were just five Geordie lads and America seemed like a different planet to us. We worshipped American culture, we idolised their music and their movies.
‘And here we were, we had conquered it. We were at the top of the charts with House of the Rising Sun. It was phenomenal, a dream come true.’
Joining John, from Gateshead, in that famous line-up was vocalist Eric Burdon, from Walker, Alan Price, from Fatfield, on keyboards, Bryan “Chas” Chandler, from Heaton, on bass, and Hilton Valentine, from North Shields, on guitar.
John, who went to Gateshead Grammar School, had met Eric while they were studying at Newcastle College of Art and Design.
Originally a trumpeter, he and Eric formed a jazz group in 1957 called the Pagan Jazzmen. In 1959 they met Alan at a church hop in Byker and joined forces.
The Animals were the second ever British band to top the American Billboard charts after the Beatles, with their multi-million selling anthem.
It got even more surreal. The legendary Bob Dylan arranged to meet the band at his manager’s New York apartment and – over a tossed shrimp salad and a few beers – told them that House of the Rising Sun was his inspiration to move from folk into electric music.
‘Here I was sitting next to one of my heroes and he was telling us that he loved our music. He had heard House of the Rising Sun while driving in his car, pulled over and decided to pick up an electric guitar.
‘We had taken the acoustic version of the traditional folk song House of the Rising Sun from Dylan’s first album and made an electric version and here he was now copying us. I couldn’t believe it.’
It was arranged by Alan Price, who had developed his self-taught musical talent at Jarrow Grammar School. The original recording was said to be six minutes long in the days when pop records lasting more than two and a half minutes didn't stand a chance of winning radio play.
Producer Mickie Most got it down to four and a half minutes and it was given its first major airing in June 1964, less than three months after the release of their debut single Baby Let Me Take You Home – another adaptation from Bob Dylan’s debut album track Baby Let Me Follow You Home.
When The Animals appeared on the top-rated Friday-night ITV pop show Ready, Steady, Go! the same month they triggered record-buying panic on the Saturday and by Sunday the record was top of the pops. Their raw and nervy blues struck a chord with youngsters fed a diet of sugary pop tunes.
As their global fame grew it began to look as though the sun would never set for The Animals.
Hit followed hit for two years, including Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, We've Gotta Get Out of This Place and Bring It on Home to Me.
The boys had the world at their feet. They were not however on their way to riches.
Alan Price didn't get on with Mickie Most so he quit at the peak of their popularity, in 1965, for a successful a solo career as a hit singer, songwriter, composer of stage and film scores and hit musicals.
Disillusioned with their low wages considering their global record sales John was the second to quit in February 1966.
He played his last show with the Animals – in the Sixties at any rate – on March 5 1966. He had also recently married childhood sweetheart Anne and become a father, and was increasingly fed up with the hectic schedule that left little time for a family life.
It wasn’t the end of The Animals, however.
From 1967 to 1969 Eric Burdon and The Animals were US-based. Burdon later founded War, a band with now almost mythical status in rock circles.
John meanwhile left music for a few years but started playing again in the early Seventies when he did some gigs with pub band Eggs Over Easy. He also worked in the office of fellow ex-Animal Chas Chandler, by then one of the most successful pop music managers in Britain, masterminding the career of guitar genius Jimi Hendrix.
All five reunited as The Original Animals in 1975 and in 1977 released an album Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted. In 1983 they did a reunion world tour.
In 1994 The Animals were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the band members all flew to New York to receive rock music’s most prestigious award.
2007 marked 50 years as a performing musician for John who, remarkably, is still touring at the age of 68 with the band now called The Animals & Friends.
For the past 15 years the band has toured extensively in Europe. The current line-up has guitarist Mick Gallagher, who played with the Blockheads and Paul McCartney, John Williamson, and Peter Barton, formerly with Wayne Fontana’s Mindbenders
John has just finished a new album Prehistoric featuring many of the songs that he and Burdon performed as members of pre-Animals groups at legendary Newcastle clubs like the Downbeat and Club a Go Go on Percy Street.
‘I don’t see any reason to stop as long as I enjoy it. I’ve got no plans for retirement.
People tell me I still look young and I put it down to enjoying what I do, getting out there and playing. It’s a labour of love,’ he says.
It’s common knowledge that The Animals were ripped off left, right and centre with royalties and that sparked the internal problems which led to the band splitting in the first place in the Sixties.
But John isn’t bitter. He is still pals with Eric and went over to Los Angeles for his 60th birthday celebration in 2001.
‘My wife and I have known him since we were kids. His fan club threw a big party for him and everyone who had been in various incarnations of the band over the years went over and we had a big jam.
‘The last time I saw him was at the Opera House in Newcastle. He did a tour in 2002 and I was the MC for the show there.’
Alan Price meanwhile still tours regularly with another Sixties hit group – Manfred Mann – and has a monthly residency at the Bull’s Head in Barnes, near his London home.
‘Alan actually had a heart bypass operation a few years ago. He’s fully recovered but he’s taking life a bit easier these days. He can afford to. He should be OK with all the royalties from the House of the Rising Sun rolling in. It’s always been a little bit of an open sore with me, that one.
‘I wouldn’t even hazard a guess at how much money we should have all had. It must be millions.
‘It’s all water under the bridge to me. It’s best not to think about it. Hilton still eats his heart out about it though,’ he laughs. ‘I’ve just let it go.’
‘I live near Rothbury, it’s beautiful and peaceful here, and I love pottering around in the garden when I’m not touring.’
Band History
1938: December 18, Bryan "Chas" Chandler born in Heaton, Newcastle.
1941: May 1, Eric Burdon born in Walker, Newcastle.
1942: April 19, Alan Price born in Fatfield, County Durham.
1941: February 4, 1941, John Steel born in Gateshead.
1943: May 2, Hilton Valentine born in North Shields.
1961: Alan Price Combo formed.
1962: Eric Burdon joins the band and the name changes to The Animals – allegedlly because of their loutish stage behaviour
1964: Baby Let Me Take You Home, in March, registers as their first hit, reaching 21 in the UK and 57 in the US. House of the Rising Sun is a global chart topper in June. First LP, The Animals, appears in October.
1965: In January their version of Nina Simone's Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood gets to number three in the UK and 15 in America. Club A Go Go, a tribute to the Newcastle club they started out in, is on the B-side.
In March a cover of Sam Cooke's Bring It On Home To Me makes number seven in the UK and 32 in America. In July, Animal Tracks LP and, the same month, the single We've Gotta Get Out of This Place charts in the UK at number two and 13 in the US.
In October It's My Life reaches seven in the UK chart and 23 is the US.
Alan Price quits the band. Subsequent solo hits include I Put a Spell On You, Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear, Don't Stop the Carnival and The Jarrow Song.
1966: The Animals' hits include Inside Looking Out, a February number 12 in the UK and 34 in America. In May, Don't Bring Me Down reaches six here and number 12 in the US. In June, Animalisms LP. In September, See See Rider is the last hit before the original band splits.
1967: The Animals go their separate ways, Eric Burdon to the States, Chas Chandler discovers Jimi Hendrix in a New York club then becomes manager, promoter and businessman. He opens Newcastle Arena in 1995.
Hilton Valentine and John Steel both launched their own bands.
1975: All five got together for a reunion album, Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted.
1983: The original members make a reunion tour of the UK.
1994: Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
1996: July 17, Chas Chandler dies, aged 57, in Newcastle.
2003: Record producer Mickie Most and Dave Rowberry, who replaced Alan Price in The Animals die within 10 days of each other, in June.
2007: John Steel celebrates 50 years as a performing musician.
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