Music Monday - Best of British - The Animals

For this weeks trip down memory lane to find the best British Groups of all time I'm going back to the sixties. This was a period when so many fantastic groups appeared on the scene, a time of the Brit invasion of the US, a time when British groups became the front runners around the World.

When you think of groups of that time many think of the Mersey Sound such as the "Beatles", "Gerry & the Pacemakers", they may even think of the fantastic groups coming out of London such as "Rolling Stones", "The Who", "The Kinks", "Small Faces", "DC5", etc. they may even think of Birmingham with "The Moody Blues" or "Spencer Davis Group". However the group we are going to look at today came from the Land of the "Geordie" in the North East of England the City of Newcastle and of course that group was The Animals.

Of course one song sticks out in everyones mind when you think of "The Animals" it was the song that gave then their only UK No1 and became the first British act other than the Beatles to have a US chart topper. The year 1964 and arguably one of the best songs of all time "House of the Rising Sun (of course I've posted the Karaoke version cos I knew you'll all want to sing along):-


The group were not a one trick pony though and had many chart hits with no fewer than 7 songs reaching the top ten between 1964 & 1967.So who were "The Animals" that made that fantastic Bluesy/Rock type sound well we will start with that man with the unbelievable vocals and that is Eric Burdon I just believe he has one of them voices that you can listen to all day. He is still signing today and check out my friends on MySpace. Here he is with the group back in the sixties with a superb version of "Tobacco Road" :-

Lead Guitar and that is Hilton Valentine who played them classic opening notes on House of the Rising Sun. In 1966 he left the Animals and moved to California forming his own Skiffle group. He did return to England at a later date and played with a Animals reunion group but eventually moved back Stateside where he now resides in Conneticut (take note Jenny). He released a non succesfull solo album in 2004 called "Its Folk 'n' Skiffle Mate".

So on to Keyboards and that is Alan Price who as gone on to have a good solo career with four top ten hits and a number of other compositions reaching the charts. His most famous hit was in 1974 with "Jarrow Song", this is a tribute to the Jarrow Marchers of 1936. This was a time when the country was in recession and there was no work in the North of England, the North/South divide was greater than ever. In desperation the men of the Mining town of Jarrow marched the length of the country to protest to the government of the day in London. Don't miss this video (some things never change) :-


I'll do the Bass Guitarist and that is Bryan "Chas" Chandler, now can anyone tell me his claim to music fame other than been with The Animals. Well he went on to be a music Promoter and manager and his the man who discovered and guided non other than "Jimi Hendrix" through his career. On top of that he was significant in the Glam Rock era as manager of one of my favorite groups "Slade".

Finally on to the Drummer and thats John Steel, Originally a trumpeter, he and Burdon formed a Jazz group in 1957 called "The Pagan Jazzmen". They soon switched instruments and embraced the new rock 'n' roll explosion, when they became The Pagans. In 1959 they met Alan Price and joined forces. The band went through many name changes and different personnel before eventually forming the Animals in 1963. Following the Animals Steel became a buisness man but still occasionally works as a part time drummer.
Over the years the Animals have been reformed with different personnel but never achieving the same success as the origional line up.

So here is a couple of Classics to finish with :-
1. Dont let me be Missunderstood :-


2. We Gotta get out of this Place :-