John Steel (drummer)

John Steel (born 4 February 1941) is an English musician who is the drummer for The Animals. Having served as the band's drummer at its inception in 1963, he is the only original bandmember playing in the current incarnation of The Animals. He was inducted with the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994.

Early life

John Steel was the youngest of four children. He attended Gateshead Grammar School. As a child, he and his siblings took piano lessons, though only Steel would go on to have a career in music. Growing up, Steel was exposed to records from Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, Fats Waller and Sid Phillips.

Career

1957–1966

Steel started his career as a musician while still in school around 1957. He met the future lead singer of the Animals, Eric Burdon, while they were studying together at the Newcastle College of Art and Industrial Design. After the college and before forming the band, he obtained a job in the drawing office of an aircraft company, which he later labelled "awful".

His main instrument at this time was the trumpet, which was the instrument he played in the first group that he and Burdon were in together. Steel's musical influences initially came from traditional jazz, but he later drew influence from modern jazz. When he transitioned to drums, Steel admired jazz drummers such as Elvin Jones and Art Blakey. They switched from jazz to embrace the new rock 'n' roll explosion.

In March 1959, Steel met Alan Price at a church hop in Byker, Newcastle, and with Hilton Valentine (guitar) and Chas Chandler (bass) formed a band; by 1960 the Alan Price Combo had acquired a reputation in Newcastle. Burdon joined in 1962 from a band called the Pagans, and the Animals were born.

Steel went on to play and record with them until February 1966. His last charted single with the group was " Inside Looking Out".

1966–present

Subsequently, Steel returned to Newcastle and became a businessman, while also working in former bandmate Chas Chandler's management and publishing organisations. In 1971, Chandler introduced him to the band Eggs over Easy, with whom he played as they started the pub rock music genre. Over the years Steel has remained active as a part-time local drummer and has joined several Animals' reunion incarnations.

Steel has toured since 1993 as the drummer with variations of the Animals line-up including Hilton Valentine, Dave Rowberry, Zoot Money and Mick Gallagher. In 1993, Hilton Valentine formed "Animals II", which was joined by John Steel in 1994 and Dave Rowberry in 1999. Other members of this version of the band include Steve Hutchinson, Steve Dawson and Martin Bland. From 1999 until Valentine's departure in 2001, the band toured as the Animals. After Valentine left this Animals incarnation in 2001, Steel and Rowberry continued as "Animals and Friends", with Peter Barton, Jim Rodford and John Williamson, joined on occasion by ex-"New Animals" bassist Danny McCulloch. When Rowberry died in 2003, he was replaced by Mickey Gallagher (who had briefly replaced Alan Price in 1965). Animals and Friends continues to perform today, and frequently plays engagements on a Color Line ship that travels between Scandinavia and (Germany).

In 2003, Steel provided an invited review of ''Sick of Being Me'', a novel by Sean Egan, a novelist and journalist with a number of publications relating to the music industry. The novel concerned the challenges to a struggling musician in the 1990s.

Ownership of Animals name

In 2008, an adjudicator determined that John Steel owned ''"The Animals"'' name in Britain, by virtue of a trademark registration Steel had made in relation to the name. Eric Burdon had objected to the trademark registration, arguing that Burdon personally embodied any goodwill associated with ''the Animals'' name. Burdon's argument was rejected, in part based on the fact that he had billed himself as ''"Eric Burdon and the Animals"'' as early as 1967, thus separating the goodwill associated with his own name from that of the band.

In 2013 Eric Burdon won an appeal, making him the owner of the Animals name.

Discography

The Animals

References

External links

*
* John Steel biographyat Allmusic website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steel, John
1941 births
Living people
English rock drummers
The Animals members
People from Gateshead
Musicians from Tyne and Wear
British rhythm and blues boom musicians
English blues musicians