The Animals and Friends will be making two New Zealand concert appearances in March this year.
Red Raven had a chat with John Steel, the original drummer for the Animals which officially formed in 1962 in Newcastle, England.
They were one of the seminal British Invasion bands which redefined Rock’n’roll in America, after Beatlemania conquered the country in February 1964.
The Kennedy assassination was still raw and indecipherable when this happened.
Both events changed the world in all ways, from deep inside the consciousness of everyone. One way of piecing together what happened is to examine the fragments of the Big Bang and what elements went into it.
The origin story of the Animals stretches back to the Fifties, and the flashpoint was Elvis releasing Heartbreak Hotel and Hound Dog in 1956.
Art at the highest level seeks to change the world in an instant. When it does that it destroys what came before.
I know the roots of Rock’n’roll stretch back a long way and people get triggered easily when you say Elvis created it (he stole it from the Black artists!). But you can use this litmus test.
You can recognise when a true genius arises amongst you. The dunces will all be in confederacy against him. Paraphrasing Jonathan Swift.
The Beatles made it a point to search out their Black American musical heroes and had to educate the American press about it. They also refused to play in segregated concerts in the South. Although they had been informally integrated by then with artists like James Brown and his Famous Flames.
I was interested in looking at the elements which went into that incendiary Art Bomb, and how John Steel and his friends became an integral part of that.
A first love was Jazz. Traditional at first and not the genre-busting Be-Bop and beyond of Charlie Parker and company.
He learned the trumpet to a proficient level. Good enough to perform publicly and get some payment.
So many of the original British future Rockarollas’ gravitated to Art School, and with the laws of quantum physics and the Higgs boson field, coalesced into recognisable masses like the Rolling Stones, Yardbirds, Pretty Things, Kinks, Searchers and eventually the Animals.
Steel met Eric Burdon at Art School in Newcastle. Both mad keen just to perform and they played trad Jazz with Burdon playing trombone.
The movement prior to British Rock’n’roll was Skiffle. An amalgamation of Jazz, Blues, Country, and Bluegrass. Importantly it had swing. The Beatles always retained an essential component of this from their Quarrymen days.
Steel tells me you can start with Lonnie Donegan and his hit version of Rock Island Line. That will explain everything.
I did get to see Donegan once. At Wembley Arena in 1991 at a Van Morrison concert. I was already in heaven (Jackie Wilson Said) when Van brought him on, unannounced, to perform the encore. He did six songs including Worried Man Blues and Rock Island Line. Many things did fall in place.
Of course, at a much later time both artists recorded a Skiffle Sessions album.
Both Eric and John recruited Alan Price, who was a hot keyboard player. The skirling melody lines he came up with for House of The Rising Sun laid the foundation for the distinctive sound which later turned up everywhere. Dylan 1966, The Faces with Rod Stewart and more.
Then followed a period of intense wife-swapping as players mixed and matched into different combos.
With Price, they called themselves the Hot Five, and maybe even the Hot Seven.
Steel left still trying to find his feet. He did end up playing a regular gig for an income. Covers and what was requested by punters in a lounge or café setting.
But that was not where his heart was at for him.
The machinations are much more convoluted so I will paraphrase here.
Chas Chandler joined Price and Burdon in Steel’s absence. They changed their name to the Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo.
Steel also met Hilton Valentine playing in another band and noted he was more than a useful guitarist.
And so it came to pass Chas thought Steel should come back to the new-named Alan Price R’n’B Combo, as he was just the glue they needed to bring it together.
The Combo had a drummer who got on everyone’s tits so, thou shalt be the new drummer.
Graham Bond, one of the best and most influential musicians floating around at the time, liked them and ordained, that name is too clumsy. You are now the Animals!
And that is how it came to pass. Just like that.
This story is worthy of a book, and it may have already been written.
We chatted briefly about the legendary American artist that came through England at the time, and which he experienced and some he played with.
A story for another time, but it included Sonny Boy Williamson, Chuck Chook Berry, Howlin’ Wolf, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Jerry Lee Lewis, Everly Brothers Phil, and Don.
Watching Sister Rosetta play electric guitar was a revelation.
One of my favourite songs from the Animals is the epic Story of Bo Diddley. Listen to it and you will get the picture. I had an extended live version of it on a budget Marble Arch album many years ago. Sadly, it is long gone.
In the song, they meet Bo in a bar after they have played his tune. Eric asks what he thinks of their version. Bo replies That is the greatest… pile of shit I have ever heard in my life!
That means he loved it. One of Steel’s favourite artists.
The Animals and Friends play at the Tuning Fork on 20th March 2024.
Danny Handley is lead guitar and extraordinary singer. Norman Helm bass, Barney Williams keyboards and of course John Steel the original drummer.
Rev. Orange Peel