The Animals

In the early 1960s, Newcastle-upon-Tyne in the north of England was a gritty industrial town. So it is no surprise the band formed there by Eric Burdon and keyboard player Alan Price played a tough, aggressive electric blues. With his commanding stage presence and deep growling voice, Burdon fronted The Animals until 1968 (then again in the mid-1970s and briefly in the 1980s) and helped the band become a major force in what is called the British Invasion of America. With iconic singles such as “The House Of The Rising Sun”—a number 1 in both the UK and the USA—and “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place”, The Animals demonstrated that the blues could be rebellious and relevant; the phrase “taking coals to Newcastle” could aptly be applied to their success in America, home of the blues.

Later Sixties albums embraced aspects of psychedelia (eg: the hit “San Franciscan Nights”) that fans enjoyed, but which yielded more modest chart success.