Eric Burdon & The Animals
August 25th 2010 - B-Lessines, Centre Culturel --- August 26 th 2010 - Trier, Exhaus Sommerbühne
Eric Burdon´s life has been a musical journey matched by few other performers in rock and
roll music history. He has gone from the driving force of the grittiest British Invasion
band, to pioneering the San Francisco psychedelic rock scene. Thereafter, he fronted
WAR - the biggest funk band of the 1970´s, cut an LP with an early influence, jazz-blues
great Jimmy Witherspoon, then coming full-circle and reuniting his original band, The
Animals, for a series of projects and world-wide tours, to forming new groups of
“Animals” and releasing a series of studio CDs, live CD´s, a DVD. To date he has written
two autobiographies, which has been translated into several languages.
Eric took a part in many movies, one example is semi-autobiographical film Comeback,
directed by Christel Bushmann, which featured Eric´s performance as well as Eric scoring
the entire film. His numerous other acting forays include everything from television
appearances on shows such as China Beach, to made-for-television movies like The
Eleventh Victim. Burdon´s ongoing interest in film has also resulted in roles in major
motion pictures such as Gibbi West Germany and The Doors. He can be found in two very
well received film-festival outings, the 1999 Greek film “My Brother and I” by Antonis
Kokkinos - which was singled out at the Cannes and Karlovy Vary Film Festivals- and the
2000-release by Thorsten Schmidt, Snow Fall on New Year´s Eve. Burdon´s soundtrack
work has appeared in more than two-dozen projects ranging from the television´s The
Wonder Years, to documentary films such as The London Scene & The Big Pink, to cult
films Going to War & The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart. Major motion picture
production credit include Joe vs. The Volcano, American Me, Hamburger Hill, Casino, and
Boogie Nights.
Burdon´s lengthy recording career began in Newcastle, England, where he first covered
songs by his idols such as Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Josh White, Brownie McGhee, John
Lee Hooker and Jimmie Reed. Eric and The Animals quickly gained notoriety as
England´s best R&B band when they were selected by the pirate radio station Radio
Caroline as the feature for the first broadcast to the U.S. They were a part of the first live
R&B recording in the U.K. when they joined Sonny Boy Williamson for the now famous
1963 New Year´s Eve concerts. This raw performance was followed by a more polished
outing when The Animals appeared with Jerry Lee Lewis & Gene Vincent on renegade
Granada TV in 1964, for the Whole Lotta Shakin´ concert feature (released on film as
Don’t Knock the Rock); the film showcased their rendition of Talkin´ Bout You. Shortly
thereafter, The Animals took the music world by storm when they recorded and released an
electrified version of the traditional folk number, The House of the Rising Sun.
Afterwards they followed with such classics as Don´t Let Me Be Misunderstood, We Gotta
Get Out of This Place, It´s My Life, I´m Crying, Inside Looking Out, The Story of Bo
Diddley, Bring It On Home to Me and See See Rider.