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Perseverance & Resilience With JOHN STEEL From THE ANIMALS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm John Steel.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: I'm the original drummer with the Animals, and me and
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: my lovely band are going to be arriving in Australia
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: on the twentieth of October for several weeks, going home
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: on the twenty fifth of November. But in the meantime
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: we'll be having a great time because we always love
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: playing Australia. It's a great it's our favorite country to
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: attract to touring.
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Fantastic John, thanks for joining us side. And as you say,
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: the Animals return to Australia for the final time later
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: this month for the final Curtain Australian Tour. Kick it
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: off in Newcastle October twenty third, and you wind your
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: way around the whole country and finishing Freemanil on November
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: twenty second.
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: It's not long now where you have packed? You ready
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: to go? Or do you leave everything till the last minute?
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Well not quite last minute, but I haven't started backing yet,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: but I better get to move on.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: It did some extensive tour.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: I cover in seventeen cities and you got to some
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: out of the way places like it's a proper fare
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: well tour, like you're not just doing two or three
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: major city shows. You take yourself out there to the
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: fans and do it properly.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: So good on you.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think it's about twenty twenty one
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: shows all together. I think so as it's a probably
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: proper tour. We're looking forward to it, and people keep
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: telling me it's the final tour, but I think, you know,
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: it's such a good band. I enjoyed playing with him
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: so well, and I'm playing as well as I ever
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: did in my life. So let's wait and see. But
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: just for now, this is the final two So is.
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: It other people calling the final tour or here guys.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Other people are calling it the final.
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: That's a good rude bit presumptuous.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Of the well.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: As I said to at my age. Now I just
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: say I can only think one year ahead of the
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: time anyway. So maybe the last the last one. We'll
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: see what happens.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Did quite a few times in the past, and Australia
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: is like a second home to you. So did you
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: remember the first time we brought over here?
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: It was in the late It was in the nineties actually,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: because we never made it over in the sixties. The
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: band broke up and then Eric Burdon formed the New Animals,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: and I believe he toured in Australia in the late
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: sixties or early seventies, but yeah.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: I think with ninety ninety six.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: I think maybe when we first came over and we've
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: been coming over every year since.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: Johnny Howard tells me that you're a connoisseur of fine
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: wine and you like your Australian reds.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't stare mcconnaugh sewer, but I do like a
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: drop of red wine an Australian shureas is just about
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: the best you can get.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: Is indeed, new says over here made like with do
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: you respect?
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: Like none of us are gett any younger me, like,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: how do you go with shows these days? Like you
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: have to pull yourself back and turn yourself down so
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: you don't overdo it, or do you just do you
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: still just get out there and go.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Well, I just get out and do it because it's
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: one of those things, you know, it doesn't matter what
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: you feel like before on the day, but as soon
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: as you walk on and I just feel like I'm
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: twenty four again, and just as soon as I start
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: playing with the band, I feel twenty four and I'm
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: good good to do until till the last note.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Over the course of your career, bro, there have to
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: be a few times where you just won't feeling it.
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: You know, You're just like, nah, it's good to be.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: Bothered tonight, like you, How do you turn that around
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: and get positive again to go back on stage?
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: A couple of lashes that she has.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: Ha, there you go. You're a commis you are?
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's harder to it doesn't It doesn't matter what
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: you feel like, well personally I'm speaking personally, but doesn't
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: matter what I feel like and what kind of day
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: I've had. Just going out with the band on stage,
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: it's all the adrenaline need to get going. And it's
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: a great band.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: That's it.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: That's It's the best lineup I've had since the original Animals.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: You know, we're uh you know. Barney Williamson on keyboards
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: is every bit as good as the enterprise ever was.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: And Danny Handy is both guitarist and lead singer and
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: he does a great job of both both those things.
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: And Norm Hellmer recent member, great player, and we get
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: really tight and we get off on each other and
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: and we get on with each other off stage as well.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: There's no friction.
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: And how long is this version of the band beach to.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: Get this band? It's got to be.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Since Danny's been with us about fifteen years now and
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: Barney about ten, norm two or three years now?
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: Did it did it take a while? Like you say,
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: you've all joeld and you're all play off each other. Well,
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: but did it because because you've been there from the beginning,
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: you know, and you know how things are supposed to
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: go from the ground up, Like did it take a
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: while for you to gel with a new group of people?
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: That was me personally?
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: It's I've been very fortunate and being able to get
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: along with just about anybody, and I can usually size.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Somebody up, you know on an instant first meeting.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: You know, that's a typical British thing, that is, like
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: you British people who bloody good judges a character and
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: your head butt quicker than anyone else.
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: I know.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Let's not just be then.
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: That's so of course you.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: Play it all the hits like House of the Rise
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: and sun Day be misunderstood, Boom boom.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: We've got to get out of this place. Lift goes on.
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: But from from your personal experience, may like which which
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: are your song do you most proud of?
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: Still?
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Well, uh, I mean, how's the risen So as a
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: one of outstanding? I mean that's it's one of the
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: most well known songs in the in the world. Just
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: about everybody knows that song. But the other ones, I think,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: we got to get out of this Place, that's become
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: a kind of an anthem that you know, even school
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: kids leaving school to go to university or to go
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: to work, they sing, We've got to get out of
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: this place the last night. It's just become a bit
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: of an anthwerm so and you know, there's not one
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: song in our repertoire that that that I've ever thought
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: that is not good enough. I've always felt we've we've
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: got a great bunch of songs and was the same
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: ones every night we play. Obviously we played the big
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: hit singles every night, but we've got a good selection
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: of A sides, B sides rather and album tracks, so
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: pick and mix so it keeps it keeps it fresh.
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: You know, person, you would have heard of the version
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: of we Got to Get Out of This Place by
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: an Assie band called The Angels.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Yes, I have. Well, it's it's excellent.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: They really do a good job of a funny thing
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: is in There's so many times we've been in Australia.
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: I've never actually seen the band live, but I've been
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: told about them so many times. You know, they you know,
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: the Angels did a great job of some animal songs
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: and and I hear that quite often. I must try
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: and say.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: If I get out of them and I'll get them
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: to come down and give you a personal rendition going
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: back in time, right, like you were there at the
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: start of The Animals in the early sixties, mate, But
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: it's a time that a lot of people understand these days.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: But what was the musical climate like that actually gave
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: birth to you guys? And then where did you sort
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: of fit in back in those days?
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: It really started in the fifties, very very Burden and
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: me got first got together when we were fifteen years old,
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: and that was in nineteen fifties six and we formed
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: our first band then and that eventually morphed into what
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: became The Animals in the nineteen sixty three. But we
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: were we were immediately friends because we shared the same
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: taste in music and movies and in those days in
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: the fifties, everything seemed to be coming from America, you know,
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: and America's like a different planets, something you just saw
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: on movies and those days not now people just go
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: there for all to day, But in those days it
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: was like a trip to the moon, you know. But
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: but that's that's where it all came from. And we
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: were listening to Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Little Richard Well,
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: Elvis obviously, I mean Elvis with the Heartbreak Hotel was
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: the first single to break in the UK and it
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: knocked everybody back in the heels because nobody had heard
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: anything like it. You know, it's extraordinary. So all of
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: that was inspiration for us. And instead of just being
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: you know, fans listening to this stuff, we thought, we've
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: got to try and play this. And that's that's how
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: we got to be a band together. We we we
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: just we just felt we had to get amongst it.
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: You know, you are right, the same.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: That you guys produce, like it was fresh and exciting
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: for the time, Like you played the blues, R and
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: B and awkwhich these days is something done by everyone,
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: but back then there was many people doing it. Like
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: was there a staundy you deliberately set out to make
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: or did you sort of just stumble on it then
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: and go take it from there.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: It just came naturally. It just just felt whatever felt
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: right for us. And at that time I was the
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: saying and in the in the fifties, it wasn't like
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: now where everybody's in contact with you know, on online
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: and whatever. So we were in Newcastle and provincial town
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: in the northeast of England and we had no idea
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: that there was another band in this near London called
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: the Rolling Stones or Spencer, Davis and Birmingham all these,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: all of these guys suddenly appeared. When when the Beatles
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: kind of broke the door down in nineteen sixty two everywhere,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: he looked around and thought, bloody hell, we've all been
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: listening to the same stuff since we were kids, and
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: we're all playing bands. We became the you know, the English,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: the British Invasion.
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: It's fair to say that there will never be another
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: band as influential or as humbling as the Animals. So
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: one day when you do decide to retive, I like,
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: what do you hope people will primarily remember the band.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: For that's the repertoire you know, those songs just seem
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: to be they seem to appeal that every generation that's
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: somehow they can identify with. We got to get out
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: of this place. It's my life. Don't let me be misunderstood.
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: Every generation seems to pick up on those songs. And
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: that's the great thing. It's not like gone gone, you
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: know what pop song that goes up to twenty and
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: then forgotten. They just hang around and every every every
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: age group can recognize the song. Even singles songs will
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: get you know, we get such mixed mixed audiences. You know,
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: whole single words I don't know. I don't know all
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: the words of the song.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: What do you know? You know?
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: Joe, Well, thanks very much for your time, brother, it's been
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: a pleasure chat with you. The tour kicks off October
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: twenty three Newcastle and goes pretty much everywhere. But this
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: might be the last one. It might not be the
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: last one, but either way, get out there.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: And have a bier and we will do that. Thanks Christen,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: it's been read toming to you.