CHICKEN ON A UNICYCLE - Key Persons
This was billed as a jam between members of the Animals and Soft Machine. Money and Summers had returned to London, and Soft Machine (for reasons too complicated to address here) was planning to resuscitate itself after Kevin Ayers had departed. With Ayers gone, Wyatt was free to re-invite Andy Summers to play with him again. However, Summers, Money and Eric Burdon had all returned to California by January 1969.
Mike Jeffery did his duty as a manager and got Eric Burdon and The Animals on the bill at Monterey Pop, as well as in the movie. The Animals finished up the dates in Italy and flew into Monterey for the show.
According to Ace of Cups bassist Mary Gannon, Eric Burdon and the Animals appeared on one of the days. Briggs recalls the event as well, and thinks the band played on Saturday July 1.
The November 24 issue of Go magazine carried an article about Eric Burdon buying a property on the West Coast (Briggs reports that it was in Laurel Canyon).
Billed as Eric Burdon and The New Animals. The Zurich show was somewhat of a madhouse, with stern Swiss police battling the fans, but by all accounts it was quite a spectacular event. Each band played both days.
Briggs recalls the sequence of cities for his final stint with Eric Burdon and The Animals, but the venues are uncertain and some of the dates may be a day earlier or later. In Portland Briggs recalled playing "some kind of basketball arena," so I have assumed it was the Memorial Coliseum.
In October, 1968 Eric Burdon and The Animals recorded the double album Love Is, not released until December. The album was a single LP in the UK and a double in the US. (it was re-released on CD on Repertoire in 2004, with excellent liner notes by veteran British journalist Chris Welch). With Zoot Money firmly in control, the album was an interesting mixture of soul music and British psychedelia, but it was a change from the bluesy acid rock of the previous albums.
According to Burdon's autobiography, he told the crowd that Mexico was famous for beautiful women and great pot, and this did not go over well with the local police forces. This was a very confusing event that received a lot of police interference, and the Animals may not have actually played.
Attending "in person" Eric Burdon at the grand opening of The Rock - instrument retailers. A number of local acts played and maybe Eric sang a song or two. This weekend event in Carbondale suggest that there were some dates in Illinois around this time.
In November, 1968 Eric Burdon and The Animals toured Japan. According to Eric Burdon's autobiography, after a few successful shows at major venues, the group was expected to put on two shows a night for Japanese gangsters for two weeks. Eric and the band rebelled, and had to bribe their way out, so they abruptly left Japan without their equipment. Burdon, Egan and Summers's books all understandably vary slightly on the details (although there are no conflicts), but the basic outline of the scary adventure remains pretty clear, and seems to have done in what enthusiasm was left for keeping the Animals together. A complaint was made to the Japanese consulate.
Job Titles:
- Elvin Bishop, Barry Melton, Tim Davis, Lonnie Turner, Steve Miller, Fred Walk, Dino, Marcus "Magnificent" Malone, Others ( Tuesday Night Jam / Benefit )
Mike Jeffery managed Hendrix and The Animals, although Kevin Deverich handled the day-to-day affairs of the Animals. The Anaheim show was the only American bill shared by Hendrix and the Animals. Jeffery used his headliners to promote his other bands. Usually the Soft Machine played with Hendrix, and Eire Apparent (formerly and Irish band called The People) played with the Animals.
Pete Murray, then in his forties and one of the housewives favorites, hosted Pete's People on Radio 1.
Vic Briggs recalls Burdon doing Ready Steady Go! without the band around this time, and this seems like the most likely event, so despite the billing it probably wasn't Eric Burdon and The Animals per se. Briggs had already appeared on RSG with three other bands (Peter's Faces, The Echoes with Dusty Springfield, and Brian Auger & The Trinity) and he had been hoping to perform on the show with yet another band, but it was not to be.
Vic Briggs comments (in Egan's book) that he played as well, and suggests that a number of the Animals joined the jamming. However, Briggs doubts that Burdon would have actually sung Rising Sun at a jam session, so the Burdon/Townshend story may have been apocryphal. Briggs also recalls that the band spent much of the weekend watching the other performers, so how much jamming the Animals actually did seems lost in the mists of time.
Vic Briggs recalls this show. The Cheetah, later The Aragon, was at 1106 W. Lawrence. Possibly the band played October 14 instead (which would have been Saturday night). From this point forward, the Animals shows are booked through Kevin Deverich, who effectively graduated from tour manager to manager, although Mike Jeffery retained a critical portion of the band's revenues. According to Briggs, when Deverich discovered that the group had only been getting around $2500 a show, he was shocked. Deverich recognized the power of the band's new hits and started getting closer to $10,000 a show, befitting the Animals stature at the time.
Briggs recalls a variety of shows throughout the West up through a December return to the UK, but he can't recall many details, so there are quite a number of shows we have yet to uncover from this period.