They created some of the most iconic songs in popular music history including We’ve Gotta Get Out Of This Place, The House of The Rising Sun, Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, It’s My Life, Don’t Bring Me Down, and Boom Boom and they’re set to play the Central Coast on their last ever tour of Australia.
The Animals’ 60th Anniversary We Gotta Get Out of This Place tour will play Doyalson RSL on March 9.
The Animals became the second British band to top the American charts after The Beatles.
Featuring original member John Steel alongside Danny Handley, Bobby Ruiz and Barney “Boogie” Williams, music fans can expect a fantastic concert of the band’s best hits.
John Steel first formed The Animals when he and Eric Burden met as art-school dropouts.
“We started off as the Pagan Jazzmen and we morphed into the Pagans, a slightly R&B rock outfit,” he said.
“We played a church hall in Byker and this kid from another band who was a rhythm guitar player came over and said, ‘Can I sit in?’ and there was an old upright piano, so we said, ‘Sure’.
“He hammered this piano with a left-hand boogie style.
“We went, ‘Oh come on, you’re in the wrong band, you should be playing piano, not guitar’.
“This was Alan Price and that’s how we became a keyboard-driven band.”
When the band found a 1956 album by Joe Turner called Boss of the Blues, the guys lifted a couple of numbers off the album and called themselves the Kansas City Five and after many incarnations and members coming and going, finally settled on calling themselves the Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo – later changing their name to The Animals when they moved to London.
The Animals performed fiery versions of the staple rhythm-and-blues repertoire, covering songs by artists such as Jimmy Reed, John Lee Hooker and Nina Simone.
In June 1964, the transatlantic number-one hit The House of the Rising Sun was released, creating perhaps the first folk-rock hit.
It topped the charts in the UK, US and Canada and tells a cautionary tale of a person’s life gone wrong in New Orleans.
“To be honest, the first time I ever heard the song was on Bob Dylan’s first album, all acoustic,” Steel said.
“Then I learned that it had been around for donkey’s years and nobody knew who originally wrote it.
“I’m pretty sure regardless of all the stories, it was the first time any of us had heard it.
“Since then, it’s been sung by Led Zeppelin, Josh White, all sorts of people around the world.”
The track was reportedly recorded in just one take with producer Mickie Most and it remains one of Steel’s favourite songs today.
“One minute we were five working-class Geordie lads just having a nibble at the charts with Baby Let Me Take You Home and the next minute we’re jetting off to America with a number one,” he said.
“It had an enormous effect on us and apart from that, it’s a bloody good song.
“I still think it’s the definitive version, in electric terms anyway.
“When we play, it’s a mixed audience, we get people of our own generation – but there’s a lot of young people coming to see us.
“We’re a real band – there are no backing tracks.
“It’s just us onstage with our instruments, playing.”
The Animals will be at Doyalson RSL Club at 8pm on March 9.
Book at http://doyalsonrsl.com.au/