Music fans are in for a treat on Saturday when two legendary bands who achieved phenomenal success in the sixties appear live at the Corn Exchange in Haddington.
Community radio station East Coast FM has teamed up with The Animals and The Troggs as part of fund raising efforts to support the local broadcasting service and both bands will play with members of their original line up in a night that promises to bring back fond memories and create many more.
Earlier today, John Steel, the original drummer with The Animals kindly took time out of his busy schedule to tell the Edinburgh Reporter what fans can expect and also reminisce about the days when the band rivalled the Beatles and the Rolling Stones at the top the music charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
John said: ” I am really looking forward to coming back to Scotland and Haddington in particular. The Animals have played in Scotland many times and had some really good gigs in places such as Inverness and Elgin, but one gig I remember specifically was in Haddington on June 13th 1964, For the life of me I can’t remember the name of the venue, so if any Edinburgh Reporter readers can help me I would be really interested to know. My girlfriend at the time, who later became my wife, came up from Newcastle to watch us play that night so it was a significant show.
“That was an interesting time for The Animals as a couple of weeks later ‘House of the Rising Sun’ was released and of course went to number one in the charts in the UK and USA.
“The show on Saturday at the Corn Exchange will be great, The Troggs will open the show and play for 45 minutes then there will be an interval and we will play the second half. There will be Troggs’ hits such as ‘Wild Thing’, ‘Love Is All Around’ and ‘With a Girl Like You’ and Animals’ Hits such as ‘House of the Rising Sun’, ‘We Gotta Get Out Of This Place’, ‘It’s My Life’ and ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’.
“The fans never get tired of that music. Our hits are about real life which I think is why they still stand up. There is a dark edge that people identify with them but sometimes forget it was us that sung them.
” ‘We Gotta Get Out Of This Place’ actually became an anthem during the Vietnam War and was in the US Armed Forces Charts for about three years. Kids now sing it when they leave school and we have had squaddies who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq who tell us that it is still a favourite over there amongst the armed forces.”
It’s over 3,250 miles from Haddington to New York but that was the next port of call for the band 51 years ago when they were invited to appear on the world’s top talk show.
John recalled: “The ‘Ed Sullivan’ show was hugely important for us. We first went on in the Summer of 1964 when ‘House of the Rising Sun’ was number one on both sides of the Atlantic and his viewing figures were around 25 million Actually we appeared five times in total.
“When we arrived in New York, the publicity people arranged for ‘Triumph’ the car company to us get into open topped sports cars called ‘Tigers’. ‘Tigers/Animals’!!!! So we each sat in the back of a ‘Tiger’ alongside 6ft tall models wearing basques and fish net stockings. It was like a dream. In those days only rich businessmen and film stars went to America, but that day, five working class Geordie lads drove through Manhattan with a motor cycle convoy.
“America was unbelievable. we did a big open air show at a state fair somewhere down south and as we were playing the last song, ‘Talking About You’, from the corner of my eye I saw a huge black gorilla coming toward me. suddenly the gorilla lifted me up under his arm and run away. Thankfully it was a man in a costume, but that was the weird way the American’s used to think. ‘Animals/Gorillas’ It ruined our ending.”
Amazingly, considering the number of hits and the lasting legacy of the band, they split up two years later as John explained: ” Eric (Burdon) and I met at Art school and started a band in 1957 and there were different line ups until 1963 when we took off, so we only existed as The Animals for three years and split up in 1966. That was due to bad management. Our manager at the time worked us into the ground and we became disillusioned Of course by that time all the money was gone.”
Almost thirty years later however the music industry let the lads know that they had not been forgotten and they headed across the Atlantic once more for a prestigious and well-deserved award:”It was a real honour to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 at a ceremony in the Waldorf Astoria in New York. We had a dinner and were presented with a statuette. David Letterman’s house band were playing and after a few drinks the whole thing turned into a brilliant jamming session including Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton and Chuck Berry whom we had actually appeared with years before.
“Bruce (Springsteen) used to tell everyone that we were his inspiration which was very generous of him to say.”
So where now for John?
“I’m 74 now but have no plans to retire. My body will tell me when I’m ready to stop or if I start to make a fool of myself, but touch wood I’m still rocking.”
The Animals were the second British band to top the American charts after The Beatles with the now multi-million selling and legendary anthem, ‘House of the Rising Sun’. The band subsequently achieved over twenty global Top Ten hit records, many of which gained the Number One slot in various parts of the world. In Britain alone, the band had no less than twelve chart entries. The Animals were the first British band to tour Poland and Japan.
The Troggs also had a number of hits in the United Kingdom and the United States including the U.S. chart-topper “Wild Thing”, “With a Girl Like You” and “Love Is All Around”, all of which sold over 1 million copies.] “Wild Thing” is ranked #257 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Ian Robertson, Station Manager at ECFM said, “We are incredibly excited to have these two legendary bands coming to Haddington for one night only. There are people coming from all parts of Scotland for this, gigs like this don’t come along very often.”
This celebration of music from the 60s and beyond takes place over the Easter bank holiday weekend. Listeners of East Coast FM and supporters of the station are being encouraged to buy tickets earlier for the event before they sell out.
Tickets are £20 and available from Ticket Scotland, ECFM and Mike’s Bikes in Haddington.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
Tiger was a model of Sunbeam, not Triumph.
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