" Don't you know people, Sonny Boy is the king of the blues? "
That was the clarion cry of Eric Burdon, one of the more hopelessly romantic and macho characters to illuminate the British blues movement of the sixties.
Eric was the Voice of the Animals, a Geordie in love with Black American music and its mythologies. Thus it was a great honour, that night long ago in Newcastle, when Sonny Boy Williamson, one of his heroes, arrived in the city to jam with The Animals.
Those were exciting times. American blues was being rediscovered - just in time for many of its elderly exponents had not many playing years left. And British fans, not content with digging out the records that gave them a better idea of the origins of rock and roll, were banding together all over the country to make music. In the South, Alexis Korner, The Yardbirds and The Rolling Stones held sway. In Liverpool there was a plethora of groups as well as the Beatles, delving into various aspects of blues and soul. And on Tyneside one the toughest, most authentic of blues bands had developed, first as the Kansas City Five, the Alan Price Combo and finally The Animals - a name bestowed by the late Graham Bond after he had seen these scowling youths in action.
There Animals were Eric Burdon (vocals), Hilton Valentine (lead guitar), Alan Price (organ and piano), John Steel (drums) and Chas Chandler (bass). Just a few months after this "live" recording session, the band would enjoy their first smash hits that would bring them international fame, "Baby Let Me Take You Home" and "House Of The Rising Sun".
These were the tunes the band played during their first set at the Club A Go-Go, Newcastle That Night in December 1963, when Sonny Boy arrived to play a gig with them. The harp player and singer was accompanied by Giorgio Gomelsky, who managed the Yardbirds, Brian Auger and several other Southern acts. Giorgio was so excited at hearing the Animals at rehearsals, he decided to record the night's work and tracked down an Ampex machine.
The results were never intended for release, but simply as a souvenir of a unique occasion. They stayed in Giorgio's archives for years until the first set of the evening was issued by Charly in 1976. Other selections from the session had found their way onton various sides of the "Rock Generation" series of archive material issued by BYG Records.
Giorgio, remembering the session says:
"According to tradition, the evening had been divided into two sets. An earlier one was for the younger, non-drinking audience and the later set was for the almost grown ups, who didn't shy away from the bar at one end of the club. You can almost feel the haze of alchohol coming out of the grooves. Sonny Boy - a faithful Johnny Walker Man, was generously toasted by everyone present, and unfortunately, with every brand of Scotch available, which didn't help matters. "
At the end of the Animals' first set, Sonny Boy decided to joint in on drums for a performance of "C Jam Blues" a riff which bore no resemblance to the Duke Ellington tune. This can be heard on the Oxford release, and just as Sonny Boy's curious sense of time floored Brian Auger when they recorded together in London, so Eric Burdon found himself baffled by the strange, ill-timed thuds and bangs that Sonny Boy unleashed behind his vocals. Fortunately on this album, we are spared this ordeal and Sonny Boy stocks to singing, blowing his harmonica and taking the odd swig at the bottle kept at all times in the capacious pocket of his ancient frock coat.
It must have seemed strange to Sonny Boy, singing his blues with a bunch of white boys, in an English industrial town far away from his home in the Deep South. He died only a couple of years later, in 1965, but in the meantime he enjoyed the attention and acclaim unnexpectedly heaped upon him by his disciples, as they gathered round him in the Indian summer of his career.
There Animals were Eric Burdon (vocals), Hilton Valentine (lead guitar), Alan Price (organ and piano), John Steel (drums) and Chas Chandler (bass). Just a few months after this "live" recording session, the band would enjoy their first smash hits that would bring them international fame, "Baby Let Me Take You Home" and "House Of The Rising Sun".
These were the tunes the band played during their first set at the Club A Go-Go, Newcastle That Night in December 1963, when Sonny Boy arrived to play a gig with them. The harp player and singer was accompanied by Giorgio Gomelsky, who managed the Yardbirds, Brian Auger and several other Southern acts. Giorgio was so excited at hearing the Animals at rehearsals, he decided to record the night's work and tracked down an Ampex machine.
The results were never intended for release, but simply as a souvenir of a unique occasion. They stayed in Giorgio's archives for years until the first set of the evening was issued by Charly in 1976. Other selections from the session had found their way onton various sides of the "Rock Generation" series of archive material issued by BYG Records.
Giorgio, remembering the session says:
"According to tradition, the evening had been divided into two sets. An earlier one was for the younger, non-drinking audience and the later set was for the almost grown ups, who didn't shy away from the bar at one end of the club. You can almost feel the haze of alchohol coming out of the grooves. Sonny Boy - a faithful Johnny Walker Man, was generously toasted by everyone present, and unfortunately, with every brand of Scotch available, which didn't help matters. "
At the end of the Animals' first set, Sonny Boy decided to joint in on drums for a performance of "C Jam Blues" a riff which bore no resemblance to the Duke Ellington tune. This can be heard on the Oxford release, and just as Sonny Boy's curious sense of time floored Brian Auger when they recorded together in London, so Eric Burdon found himself baffled by the strange, ill-timed thuds and bangs that Sonny Boy unleashed behind his vocals. Fortunately on this album, we are spared this ordeal and Sonny Boy stocks to singing, blowing his harmonica and taking the odd swig at the bottle kept at all times in the capacious pocket of his ancient frock coat.
It must have seemed strange to Sonny Boy, singing his blues with a bunch of white boys, in an English industrial town far away from his home in the Deep South. He died only a couple of years later, in 1965, but in the meantime he enjoyed the attention and acclaim unnexpectedly heaped upon him by his disciples, as they gathered round him in the Indian summer of his career.
