Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Still Rockin' It - Cheryl Lee
Was has John Steel from The Animals been up to lately? OR Still touring and drumming like a 21 year old at 81, what's his secret to the fountain of youth?
Join Cheryl Lee - That Radio Chick on STILL ROCKIN' IT for news, reviews, music and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians.
Today we hear from a founding member of legendary UK band The Animals, drummer John Steel.
Britannia ruled the airwaves back in 1964 and The Animals became the second British band to top the American charts after The Beatles.
After over 50 years, the legend still grows and the band that shook the world back in ’64 have reinvented themselves, but with the quality and distinct sound that was, and still is, The Animals
AND they’re headed our way very soon.
Includes Songs:
The Animals - We Gotta Get Out Of This Place
The Animals - House of the Rising Sun
Chuck Berry - Around & Around
The Animals - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood
What have The Animals been up to lately … let’s find out
Get out when you can, support local music and I'll see you down the front!!
Visit: ThatRadioChick.com.au
That Radio Chick, cheryl Lee, here with you. Welcome to the Still Rocking it podcast, where we'll have music news, reviews and interviews with some of our favourite Australian musicians and artists. Today we hear from a founding member of legendary UK band, the Animals drummer, john Steele. Britannia ruled the airwaves back in 1964 and the Animals became the second British band to top the American charts after the Beatles. After over 50 years, the legend still grows and the band that shook the world back in 64 have reinvented themselves, but with the quality and distinct sound that was and still is the Animals, and they're headed our way.
Speaker 1:Very soon, john, still drumming like a 21 year old at 81, will share his secret key to the fountain of youth. What are the animals up to lately? Let's find out. You're with cheryl lee that radio chick, and I'm so pleased to have in the studio with me via the twitterverse, john steel, who you may know as the drummer of the Animals. John, thank you so much for your time. I'm sure you're a very busy man. You guys are coming to Australia very soon on your Greatest Hits tour.
Speaker 2:We're leaving this Sunday to fly out there and start our first show on the 18th, I think it is.
Speaker 1:In Newcastle at one of our great Aussie venues, lizot's. Your first hit came out the year before I was born. Your songs have just been the soundtrack to my life, but please excuse my ignorance. Have you guys been to Australia before?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we've been quite a few times before, and the last time was 2019, about this time of year, november 2019. And we were originally going to be back again the following year, but that evil pandemic happened and the lockdown, so we've had this tour cancelled two or three times, I think, but we finally got it nailed and we're on our way, so we're really looking forward to it.
Speaker 1:So, having been here quite a few times, then, over the years have you got a favourite place in Australia.
Speaker 2:There's a few, actually, because we all love playing in Australia, because there's just such a good vibe about the place. And you know, when we tour in Australia it's usually this time, you know, november, october, november, and it's getting into your summertime, just when the dark, gloomy days of winter are coming in in England and the UK. So yeah, we're always happy to get over there because the hospitality's great, everybody's friendly and the food's terrific, the wine's lovely, the beer's lovely and the weather's lovely. What's not to like?
Speaker 1:Exactly right. Well, why don't you live here?
Speaker 2:You know what, cheryl? I think if I'd been over there when I was a lot younger I think the first time I came over was in the mid-90s, but I think if I'd been a lot younger I might very easily have settled in Australia, because I loved it from the very start. From the first day I thought this is a great place.
Speaker 1:It is a fabulous place and you're being very, very diplomatic. I guess what you really mean to say is South Australia is the best place Because we have the best wine, you know.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, it's Adelaide, isn't it? One of our favourite drinks is it's calledelaide, isn't it? We're in one of our favourite jingles days. It's called the Gov.
Speaker 1:That's probably one of Adelaide's most iconic venues. It's going to be great to see you there. You are here at the end of the month, on Sunday, october the 30th, at the Gov, so get onto the Google-o-meter and catch these guys Legends in their own lunch times. You were the second band to top the american charts after the beatles and have had such amazing longevity with these songs that just stand the test of time and go on and on and on. We got to get out of this place and don't let me be misunderstood and spell on you and, of course, your huge worldwide hit, house of the Rising Sun. Do you have a favorite one to play, or is that like asking you, you know, to pick a favorite child or something?
Speaker 2:I play, I love playing them all. You know, you're right, the songs are so strong and have stood up so well over all these decades that, um, they appeal to every generation. Everybody can identify, I think, with some of our songs. You know, like I mean, we've got to get out of this place. It's just become an anthem for people, you know, moving on somewhere else, you know leaving school, leaving university or a job or whatever the occasion is. There are people all over the world. There's somebody singing we've got to get out of this place, and it's one of my favourites.
Speaker 1:I don't know if you've heard of the Angels, an Australian band. Yeah, yeah, they covered that.
Speaker 2:They had a big hit with it, didn't they?
Speaker 1:They sure did. It was a great hit.
Speaker 2:You are listening to Still Rocking it. The podcast with Cheryl Lee.
Speaker 1:We'll be back shortly to speak more with John Steele, drummer and founding member of the Animals. First, I think we need a song how about we Gotta Get Out of this Place In this dirty old part of the city? They are timeless songs. After 50 years your legend's still growing. You shook the world back in 1964 when you formed. You've sort of reinvented, but the quality and the distinct sound is still distinctly the animals because you're a founding member. How did you boys originally find each other and get together and become the Animals?
Speaker 2:We well, eric Burden and me, are the founders of the Animals. When we met in 1956, and it was our first year class at Newcastle College of Art and we were school dropouts, we were only about 15 or 16 at the time, you know, I think we went to art school to avoid having to get a job, you know, and we ended up, you didn't ever really have a plan B.
Speaker 1:you guys? Did you always know that? You know music was your destiny? Or were you going to be a teacher or a pilot if you had to get a haircut and a real job?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, back in the day all our parents you know, we were playing in bands from early teens and we hoped it would go on to something else, but we didn't really. We were green as grass. We just had to do what we did and hope for the best. But all of our parents came out with the same old song Well, that's all very well, but get a proper job first.
Speaker 1:That's right. Good advice, mum and Dad. Yeah, and did you? Did you get a trade?
Speaker 2:Yeah, all except Eric. Eric managed to avoid, you know honest with me, but he got a job. Well, he worked digging trenches for the electricity company as a holiday job.
Speaker 1:That's the only hard work he's ever done in his life. And what was your trade, John?
Speaker 2:My first job was illustrating maintenance manuals for a De Havilland aircraft company. I was a technical illustrator, which is what I learned at art school, but that lasted exactly four months and I thought oh the hell with this.
Speaker 1:Was it because you weren't very good at it, or was it because you were better at music?
Speaker 2:I think I had no real enthusiasm for the job and I headed back to. This was away from home, it was just north of London, but I headed back to Newcastle after a few months and hooked up with Eric again and we picked up where we'd left off, formed a new band and just from then on it just morphed into what became the Animals in 1963. And everything happened so fast after that To London. We got a record deal, got an agency and the next thing you knew, in May of 64, we were touring as support to one of our all-time heroes it was Chuck Berry on his first visit to the UK. So we had a three-week tour, two shows, a night sellout everywhere. Carl Perkins, who wrote Blue Suede Shoes, was also on the tour, another one of our idols. So it was a package tour. You know several bands. That was our first really proper gig, you know.
Speaker 1:And then in the middle of that tour, we went into a studio Because the song we were playing which got the biggest reaction was an old folk song that we kind of messed about with and electrified, and you know it's called House of the Rising Sun, still rocking the podcast with that radio chick, cheryl Lee. We'll be back to speak to John more about the recording of that little folk song straight after we hear it House of the Rising Sun.
Speaker 2:We discovered on that tour that the audience reaction was so intensive, you know. So in the middle of the tour we ducked into a little studio where we recorded our first and only single. At that time it was a little mono studio in a basement in Holborn in London, you know no frills, no, nothing, you know, in between Liverpool and Southampton. We just ducked in there, set up at two or three o'clock in the morning, and because there was no, you know no cruise, it was just like play it here on the desk and we played through it, and we played one single take and that was it. It was in the cab.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Yeah, it was phenomenal really because we didn't really think about things like that. We just sort of got on and done it.
Speaker 2:And the engineer on the desk when, uh, mickey said, you know, micky said come in and listen to this. And so he took me to the control room and, uh, he played it back and then he said that's a hit, that's a single, that. And uh, the guy called dave siddle the engineer on the desk. He turned around, he said micky, it's four minutes 35 seconds long. You'll never get a plane on the BBC, you just won't. Mickey said how the hell was that? He said we're in the final age. Now I'm going to go with it, you know. So not only did we sort of record the first folk rock crossover, we also broke the old industry limit of two and a half minutes to three minutes on a single. And next thing, you knew it was number one and so everybody had a play lucky you broke the mold and the rest, as they say, is history.
Speaker 1:And what a long history it has been. You're 81 that's right. Yeah, 81, uh and uh last february you're proof of my theory that rock and roll is the fountain of youth. I reckon.
Speaker 2:People tell me that you know. Because you know, people say you're Peter Pan or something. I'm still the same weight I was when I was 21 and I'm still fitting well and I still enjoy playing and I'm playing as well as I've ever done. I feel, you know, I feel that I'm really keeping on top of my game. I mean, when the day comes that I don't feel I'm on top of it, that's when I'll pack it in, but right now I feel I'm in charge of everything. It's good.
Speaker 1:It must be all the drumming that keeps you fit, is it?
Speaker 2:Well, it's like a good workout, you know, when you get up on stage and do you know, 90 minutes, two hours or something, playing drums, you're really working all your joints and limbs and it's as good as going to the gym for a couple of hours, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you mentioned that you guys looked up to Chuck Berry. Have you got a favourite Chuck Berry song? I might get you to introduce your favourite Chuck Berry song and then we'll come back.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, there's so many of them. Round and Round was a number we'll come back. Okay, well, there's so many of them. Round and Round was a number we used to do. We did two or three Chuck Berry numbers in our repertoire, but we recorded Round and Round. So, yeah, you can try that one.
Speaker 1:We're back here with cheryl lee, that radio chick. We have john steel on the phone all the way from the uk, from the animals who are headed our way to our little town of adelaide at the gov. Sunday the 30th, get onto the google, I'm a turn Of all these years of touring John. Have you got any secrets that you can share with us that won't get you killed, oh dear. Any stories from the road?
Speaker 2:Well, I learned very early on. I mean, I like a glass of beer or a glass of wine. As I get older I prefer wine to beer now. But I learned very early on never, never go on stage drunk. Never do that. It's bad. It's bad for everybody. You know. You can have one drink, maybe two drinks just to kind of lubricate you, but that's all you're allowed in my book. That goes to all the rest of the band.
Speaker 1:Did you learn that the hard way?
Speaker 2:I learned it, yeah, kind of the hard way. I've never been, you know, incapable on stage before, but I very quickly realised that two drinks I'm okay, One drink over the top, and I'm not in complete control of what I'm doing, you know. So I very quickly learned to stop at two drinks. And that's my general rule to the band as well Nobody goes on stage. The worst for wear.
Speaker 1:Pretty good advice and you know that may have something to do with your longevity not overindulging, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everything in moderation, Cheryl. It's a good piece of advice in all kinds of ways.
Speaker 1:That's right for all aspects of life, not just your working and your musical life. Just wanted to say congratulations on the induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame way back in 1994 now, but well deserved Congratulations.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I don't know if you have blue plaques in Australia. Do you know about this tradition in the UK? Well, it started off in London a long time ago, when, if you walk around London, you see these plaques on the wall of certain buildings and it'll say Charles Dickens lived here between so-and-so and so-and-so, and Winston Churchill was here. Oh, yes and yeah. So just this month ago there was one put up in Newcastle on the site of the Club of Go-Go, where we that was our home stomping ground, and it's called the Home of the Animals, the Club of Go-Go. You know this nice blue plaque with the dates on oh, how nice Congratulations.
Speaker 1:Your last date here in Australia is Airlie Beach Festival. You lucky buggers. Do you need a secretary or an assistant? You do, don't you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I checked that out. I went on the website and that looks like a really cool gig. I'm looking forward to that one. It looks like a good ending to the tour.
Speaker 1:It's a beautiful spot and the line-up is. You're in great company there and the other artists, I think, are going to be so blessed to be in your company as well. If you find that you need a tambourinist, I'm your woman. Just call me.
Speaker 2:I'll be there. I'll keep that in mind.
Speaker 1:I look forward to seeing you in person at the gov on the 30th. I'll see you down the front. I'll give you a wave Again. Thank you so much for your generous time today. It's been great having a chat.
Speaker 2:It's been a pleasure to meet you and I've really enjoyed chatting with you, Cheryl, and I'm really looking forward to the Gov on the 30th. It's one of our favourite gigs in Australia.
Speaker 1:You've got a few dates before then Enjoy the tour like it's your first.
Speaker 2:I always try. It always feels like it to me.
Speaker 1:Good on you. You've been with Cheryl Lee and John Steele from the Animals. We'll see you next time. Great stuff, thanks, cheryl. Thank you, ta-da.
Speaker 2:Okay, bye for now. Bye, you are listening to Still Rocking it the podcast with Cheryl.
Speaker 1:Lee, let's go out with another great animals hit. Don't let me be misunderstood You're with Cheryl Lee, that radio chick. Thank you so much for joining me on the Still Rocking it podcast. Hope to catch you again next time. Get out when you can support Aussie music and I'll see you down the front.