The Animals
TM - Hi, this is Amelia and Elizabeth from Twinmusix and we are here with John Steel from The Animals, thank you for having this interview with us today we appreciate it.
JS - That's ok with me because I'm quite happy to please you.
TM - What can fans expect from your Australian tour?
JS - It is a cracking band, it is the best line-up since the original Animals, we have a great outfit and we get on together very well. We enjoy each other's company and have a lot of fun which wasn't always the case with the original Animals. We are looking forward to it, I love touring Australia, we have all been several times and it is one of our favorite countries.
TM - What can fans expect from your setlist?
JS - you are going to get some great hits that we recorded back in the 60s. We are talking about "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place , Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, It's My Life, Inside Looking Out, Bring It On Home To Me and of course House of the Rising Sun" and lots of other good songs from that time. Those songs still stand up so well that it seems like every generation that comes to see us can identify with the songs and get something emotionally back from them.
TM - Do you have a favourite song to play live?
JS - It depends on the night and the audience, some of these songs that we play are just off the B Side of the album. One of my favourites is "Ray Charles" song we did called "The Right Time" and that always goes down a storm, that is one of my favourites.
TM - What's your favourite memory with your fans, can you tell us a story?
JS - There has been a lot but generally is just the response we get from the crowd. The songs are so memorable that people who were not born yet when they were recorded have been listening to them all their lives. When we have a crowd singing "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place or Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" it's always a buzz.
TM - If you could have any band play one of your songs what band would it be, what song would it be and would it be in your style or their style?
JS - I have not seen them live, but I have been told very often on my visits to Australia that The Angels do a great job of some of The Animals songs. I would love to see them one day, maybe on this trip.
In the past 2 or 3 years Bruce Springsteen was doing a massive world tour and almost every night on stage he said you know what it is, there are three songs, "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, It's My Life and Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and all of those three songs are the base for all the songs i wrote, and the songs were peformed by "The Animals" and that's the best band as far as I'm concerned. I think Bruce Springsteen is fantastic and generous.
TM - That's really cool.
JS - I saw a couple of clips on TV on that tour and I thought that is really generous of the man, he doesn't need to say that but I was really pleased.
TM - Mabey you can tour with him.
JS - Put it out into the universe and it might happen.
TM - What's your favourite band or Artist you saw live and can you tell us a story?
JS - I have always been a Jazz fan as well. I have been a Rock and Roll and blues fan. The first time we played in New York in 1964 we were playing in the Paramount Theatre and we were doing a whole week there and it was a strange situation, back in those days it was a theatre and a cinema so you would do a show and there was a movie and you would do another show and there was a movie from ten in the morning to ten at night and that's what you did at that type of venue.
Right up the street, there was Birdland and it was probably one of the greatest jazz clubs in the world. The week we were playing at Paramount Theatre, "John Coltrane" was playing Birdland and he was one of my all time heroes and one of the greatest saxophone players in the world. What a band. The drummer was "Elvin Jones" and "McCoy Tyner" on the Keyboards and as soon as we finished at the Theatre, I went up there, and they played four sets a night and i use to get there after ten when they started work. That's the way the Jazz clubs worked. Every night I was there and "John Coltrane" played four sets, and he never replayed the same song. Once I was there for the whole week, and it was brilliant, it was very special for me.
TM - Is there anything else you want to say to your fans?
JS - We are looking forward to coming back to Australia and without any exaggeration it is one of our favourite countries to tour. We always enjoy ourselves and we are really looking forward to coming back.
TM - We are looking forward to having you here. Thank You for having this interview with us today we appreciate it.
JS - Your very welcome and it was my pleasure to talk to you.