[Jimmy Witherspoon - Obituary] [George Suranovich - Obituary]
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This BANDOGRAPHY has been based on many and varied sources with a significant amount coming from (or checked against) the wealth of information contained in Dionisio Castello's 1991 book "Good Times". Original Animal John Steel has also confirmed some relevant dates and details from his memory, his knowledge of events and his contemporary records. | |
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| ERIC BURDON - BANDOGRAPHY | ||||
| 1970's | ||||
| January 1970 to February 1971 - Eric Burdon & WAR | ||||
| Eric Burdon (vocal/percussion), Papa Dee Allen (conga/bongos/percussion/vocals), Harold Brown (drums/percussion/vocals), B. B. Dickerson (bass/vocals), Lonnie Jordan (organ/piano/vocals), Charles Miller (tenor, baritone and alto saxes/percussion/vocals/flute), Lee Oskar (harmonica/percussion/vocals) and Howard Scott (guitars/vocals). | ||||
| After a gig in London on 05-Feb-71, due to illness, Burdon left WAR to continue the English tour without him. During Burdon's lengthy convalescence, WAR embarked on a very successful solo career. | ||||
| July1971 - Eric Burdon & Jimmy Witherspoon - Eric Burdon & Uncle Tom - Eric Burdon & Tovarich | ||||
| Eric Burdon (vocals), Jimmy Witherspoon (vocals), Bob Morcereau, George Suranovich, John Sterling, Terry Ryan and Kim Kesterson. | ||||
| This line-up recorded the "Guilty!" album during July 1971 (the album was re-released in 1976 as the "Black & White Blues" album). | ||||
| Dionisio Castello (in his book "Goodtimes") notes that the band was provisionally named Uncle Tom but had by the beginning of August 1971 had taken the name Tovarich (translates from Russian as Comrade) with a red star over the "i". | ||||
[Jimmy Witherspoon - Obituary] [George Suranovich - Obituary] |
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| August 1971 - Eric Burdon & Tovarich | ||||
| Eric Burdon (vocals), Bob Morcereau, George Suranovich, John Sterling, Terry Ryan and Kim Kesterson. | ||||
| The band did a college tour in the USA with Jimmy Witherspoon in the autumn at which time they also played at some prisons (including Soledad). On 01-Aug-71 some of the tracks for the "STOP" album (not released until 1975, and then under the name of The Eric Burdon Band) were recorded at the Far Out Studios in Los Angeles, USA. | ||||
| 1972 - Eric Burdon | ||||
| Castello records 1972 as a "lost year" for Burdon with a band being formed in the spring (musicians names unknown apart from guitarist John Ussery). | ||||
| April 1973 - The Eric Burdon Band | ||||
| Eric Burdon (vocals), Aalon Butler (guitar), Alvin Taylor (drums/percussion) and Randy Rice (bass guitar). | ||||
| The first in a series of line-ups of The Eric Burdon Band, this band was assembled for a promotional live tour and studio recording. In May/June, recording sessions included tracks that would appear on the "STOP" album released in 1974. On 13-July-73 a European tour commenced in Hamburg, Germany. In August the band appeared with Jimmy Witherspoon at the Marquee Club in London, England. Jimmy Witherspoon also appeared with the band for some gigs in Germany at this time.. | ||||
| September 1973 - The Eric Burdon Band | ||||
| Eric Burdon (vocals), Snuffy Walden (guitar), Aalon Butler (guitar), Alvin Taylor (drums/percussion) and Randy Rice (bass guitar). | ||||
| Upon returning to the USA, Snuffy Walden was added to the band and some preliminary recordings were made for the "Mirage" project. The tracks that appeared on the 1975 released "Sun Secrets" album were recorded in March 1974 at the RecPlant Studio (San Francisco, USA). Sastello records that, also at this time, a national USA comenced and many hous were spent in the studio working on tracks for the unreleased "Mirage" double album (it was at that stage scheduled for release by Atlantic in June 1974). | ||||
| January 1975 - The Eric Burdon Band | ||||
| Eric Burdon (vocals), Snuffy Walden (guitar), Aalon Butler (guitar), Alvin Taylor (drums/percussion), Greg Brown (bass guitar) and John "Rabbit" Bundrick (keyboards). | ||||
| At the beginning of 1975, Randy Rice was replaced by Greg Brown on bass guitar and John "Rabbit" Bundrick was added on keyboards for a 3-month USA tour. This line-up played the gig at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles that was released on CD as "Live At The Roxy" (Magnum/Thunderbolt UK 1997) and "Roxy Live" (One Way Records USA 1999). | ||||
| December 1975 - The Original Animals | ||||
| Eric Burdon (vocals), Hilton Valentine (lead guitar), Chas Chandler (bass guitar), John Steel (drums), Alan Price (keyboards). | ||||
| The "Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted" re-union album was recorded by the original members of The Animals at Gould's Farm, Lingfield, England (Chas XChandler's hoem) in December 1975 using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio run by Ian "Stu" Stewart. However, due to Burdon's ongoing legal problems with Gold & Goldstein the album was not released until 1977 (some 18 months later). | ||||
| April 1976 - Eric Burdon Band | ||||
| Eric Burdon (vocals), Robert Ahwai (guitar), Mike Carr (keyboards) and Bobby Gien (drums). | ||||
| This line-up appeared on Rockpalast ... WDR Studio-L (Köln, Germany) on 21-Apr-76. The Rockpalast archive has "unsure" under the heading "Musicians" and records the band members incorrectly as ... Eric Burdon (vocals), Aalon Butler (guitar), Alvin Taylor (drums), Randy Rice (bass) and Terry Ryan (keyboards). Kojak thanks Randy Jones for pointing out this error ... the line-up shown above has now also been cross referenced to Dionisio Castello's book "Good Times". John Steel, who was working as Chandler's personal assistant at the time recalls that, after the recording of "Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted" album, Eric did not have much going on and between Chandler/Steel/Burdon "the idea of Eric getting together with our old frind Mike Carr came about". | ||||
| May 1976 - Eric Burdon Band | ||||
| Eric Burdon (vocals), Hilton Valentine (guitar), Mike Carr (keyboards) and Bobby Gien (drums). | ||||
| Hilton Valentine from the original line-up of the Animals replaced Robert Ahwai for some of the gigs in France (when Ahwai was unavailable due to prior commitments). | ||||
| June 1976 - Eric Burdon Band | ||||
| Eric Burdon (vocals), Dave Dover (guitar), Kenny Parry (guitar) Mike Carr (keyboards), Terry McCurker (drums). | ||||
| Before the band's debut in England, Terry McCurker replaced Bobby Gien on drums and guitarists Dave Dover and Kenny Parry were added. | ||||
| October 1976 - Eric Burdon & Barrel | ||||
| Eric Burdon, Kenny Parry, Dave Dover, Brian Paris and Leslie Binks. | ||||
| Another live band was formed for gigs in England (including Newcastle, Birmingham and London). John Steel confirms that ... "Chas Chandler had been tinkering with a band called "Bunny" with a female lead singer (nick-named Bunny) backed by Parry, Dover, and McCurker". This was the basis of the band that became Eric Burdon & Barrel. The only gig that Steel can recall was a Rock Festival at a sports stadium in Cardiff with Bob Marley, Country Joe & The Fish and The Beach Boys. | ||||
| December 1976 - No Band Name | ||||
| Eric Burdon, Hilton Valentine, John Steel, Zoot Money, Dave Dover and Kenny Parry. | ||||
| Some demo tapes were recorded by this interesting band line-up that included Eric Burdon, Hilton Valentine and John Steel from the original 1963 line-up of The Animals as well as Zoot Money from the Eric Burdon & The Animals line-up of the late 1960's. | ||||
| December 1976 - No Band Name | ||||
| Eric Burdon, Tim Hinkley, Roger Chapman, Mitch Mitchell, Boz Burrell, Brian Robertson, Henry McCulloch and Mike Patto. | ||||
| This line-up performed in jam sessions at the Marquee Club in London - also in December 1976. | ||||
| February 1977 - Eric Burdon | ||||
| Eric Burdon (vocals), Alexis Korner (guitar), Zoot Money (keyboards/vocals), Maggie Bell (vocals), Jeff Whitehorn (guitar), P. P. Arnold (vocals), Vicki Brown (vocals), John "Rabbit" Bundrick (keyboards), Frank Dietz (guitar), Dave Dover (bass/vocals), Hans Juergen Fritz (keyboards), Ken Parry (guitar/vocals), Colin Pincott (guitar), Steffi Stephan (bass), and Alvin "Red" Taylor (drums). | ||||
| This group of musicians was assembled by Burdon for the "Survivor" album - produced by Chas Chandler and recorded at Advision Studios (London, England) in February and March 1977 (released February 1978). | ||||
| March 1977 to February 1978 - Eric Burdon | ||||
| Dionisio Castello (in his book "Goodtimes") refers to this 12 month period as a lost year for Burdon, with the only two live performances being jam sessions at the Speakeasy Club in London (with Dr. John, Mick Ronson and Van Morrison) and when he appeared as guest star during the Rory Gallagher gig at the Open Air Festival at Nürnberg, Germany in September 1977. | ||||
| March 1978 - Eric Burdon Band | ||||
| Eric Burdon, Bob Tench, Derek Austin, Lyle Harp and Glenn Peniston. | ||||
| Another line-up emerged for a tour commencing in March 1979 (mainly touring in Germany) | ||||
| May 1978 - Eric Burdon Band | ||||
| Eric Burdon, Brian Robertson, Bob Tench, Henry McCullough, Chris Stewart, Mick Weaver, Glenn Peniston and Mel Collins. | ||||
| This line-up was assembled for the recording of tracks for the "Darkness-Darkness" album at Roundwood House in County Leix, Ireland (the album was not released until March 1980). The musicians actually credited on the album cover are ... Brian Robertson / Bobby Tench / Henry McCulloch (guitars), Chris Stewart (bass guitar), Mick Weaver (keyboards), Glenn Penniston (drums/percussion), Mel Collins (horns), Eric Burdon (vocals), John Perry and Friends (backing vocals). | ||||
| January 1979 - Eric Burdon | ||||
| Eric Burdon, Bernt Schultz (piano), Nippy Noya (percussion), Rosa King (saxophone), Ingeburg Thomsen (female vocals). | ||||
| This line-up performed at a gig in Holland at a time when Burdon was mainly jamming with German musicians in Hamburg night clubs. | ||||
| February 1979 - Eric Burdon Band | ||||
| Eric Burdon, Thomas Kretschner, Paul Vincent, Steffi Stephan, Jean-Jaques Kravetz, Bertram Engel, Cepard Cloning and Nippy Noya. | ||||
| This line-up performed at the Sporthalle concert in Köln, Germany on 04-Feb-79. | ||||
| August 1979 - Euro Mann | ||||
| Eric Burdon, Thomas Kretschner, Paul Vincent, Steffi Stephan, Jean-Jaques Kravetz, Bertram Engel, Cepard Cloning and Nippy Noya. | ||||
| This band line-up (with the provisional name Euro Mann) performed at the Open Air Festival at Lorelei, Germany on 12-Aug-79. The name of the band had changed to Eric Burdon's Fire Dept by early 1980. | ||||
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| EricBurdonAlbums.com | ||||