It's a rugged winter's day at John Steel's home, 50 kilometres north of Newcastle-on-Tyne, as he looks out on the North Sea to his east and the Cheviot Hills to his west. But he's called it home since 1977, confessing to becoming "a country boy" long ago.
Steel, age 82, will leave the cold north for the sunny climate of Australia in February, to play the drums for The Animals on their final "greatest hits" tour of Australia.
The tour opens with two dates, February 19 and 20, at Lizotte's in Newcastle, with shows in Wollongong, Sydney (two), Adelaide, Tweed Heads, Albury and Doncaster.
Despite the fact some of his choice quotes in our conversation are repeated in other publications, Steel has a firm grasp on his place in rock 'n' roll history. It was 1964 when The Animals hit the radio airwaves with their version of The House of the Rising Sun, only the band's second single. The song quickly reached number one on the charts in the UK and only months later, number one in the US.
"It always surprises me that we're still on the go, that's for sure," Steel says, when I ask what motivates old rockers like Jagger and McCartney and himself. "I never thought I'd be doing what I do and enjoying it so much, as I do at this age. Hell, more power to us. We came from a good generation, and we made some damned good music, and it still stands up today. We must be doing something right."
'IT'S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY'
Steel doesn't seem to yearn for any more creature comforts, or recognition (The members of The Animals were inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame in 1994).
"It's not about money or anything like that," Steel says. "It's not about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll. The thing for me is being out with a live gig and a live audience and enjoying myself, with a good band."
Steel is the only original member of The Animals in the band, although lead signer and guitarist Danny Handley has been on board since 2009 and bass player Bobby Ruiz since 2012. Keyboard player Barney Williams joined in 2022.
The band's repertoire covers the hits, like We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, It's My Life, Don't Bring Me Down, and Boom Boom.
HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN
The show always closes with House of the Rising Sun as the encore, still played in The Animals' original arrangement that ran to four minutes and 29 seconds, an unheard of length at the time.
"At that time the longest single was two-and-a-half, three minutes at the most," Steel says. "But that was old school. The original record was a 10-inch shellac RPM disc, so physically you couldn't get more than three minutes on that anyway. And that became the norm in the industry. But we broke that record, and, as I say, we made the first electric folk rock song and changed Bob Dylan's direction."
The Animals were Geordie boys who were heavily influenced by American blues music. Their first single was a version of the traditional song Baby Let Me Follow You Down (covered by Bob Dylan on his first album). Then came House of the Rising Sun, also a traditional song whose author is unknown.
"We worked out the arrangement," Steel says. "We were house band at a great club in Newcastle called the Club a'Gogo. That's where we rehearsed the song. We nicked it from Bob Dylan's first album. It was an acoustic solo song, a folk song. That's where we took the idea.
"We had to rearrange the lyrics as well, because the song was about a prostitute, because there was no way you were going to get played on the BBC Radio in those days. So we turned it into a gambler.
"We didn't realise how influential it was going to be. We met Bob Dylan the next year in New York because we were big fans of his, and he had just been in the studio recording his first electric folk songs - Like A Rolling Stone. He played us some of the rough mixes. He said he was driving in his car one day, and he had the radio on, and he heard our version of House of the Rising Sun, and he said it was like an electric lightbulb moment. He said, that's the way to go. So we actually influenced Bob Dylan. That was a jaw dropper for us, but it was fantastic."
The power of the song remains. Steel says people remember where they were when they first heard it, or they tell him it's the first song they learned to play on a guitar.
"It's just a song that everybody's waiting for," at the band's shows, he says. "You can't follow that up. We always get a standing ovation everywhere we play that song. That's the way to end the show, with everybody on their feet."
The song had a huge impact on the band.
"It was a life changer, really," Steel says. "It was our second commercial single, and you know, we went from being a bunch of guys from a provincial city to suddenly, we were in a Boeing 707 flying towards the first gigs in New York at the Paramount Theatre in Times Square. It was like being in a movie..."
