FRIDAY 23 NOVEMBER - SATURDAY 24 NOVEMBER

ERIC BURDON & THE NEW ANIMALS

Eric Burdon's life has been a musical journey matched by few other performers in rock-music history. He has gone from the driving force of the grittiest British Invasion band of the '60s, to pioneering the San Francisco psychedelic rock scene, to fronting WAR - the biggest funk band of the 1970's, to cutting an LP with the legendary Jimmy Witherspoon. He has come full-circle, reuniting his original band, The Animals, for a series of projects and a world-wide tour, to forming a new group of "Animals" and releasing a series of live CD's and a recent DVD concert!

In the mid '60s 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. In short fare 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 Didley, Bring It On Home to Me, and See See Rider. 

Throughout the mid 1990's Burdon toured as "Eric Burdon's I-Band", which featured drummer Mark Craney, guitarists Larry Wilkins & Dean Restum, and bassist Dave Meros. After Craney was forced to retire and await kidney-transplant, the band regrouped around legendary percussionist Aynsley Dunbar. 

It was at this time that the band's sound took final form and the plans were laid for live recordings, done primarily to compete with the ever-growing bootleg industry. The result was two "Official Live Bootleg" CD's, issued under the Flying Eye Records label. This incarnation of the band toured relentlessly throughout the mid-to-late1990's. Then, in May, 1997 Wilkins passed away following a battle with cancer. Neal Morse stepped in on both guitars and keyboards, and the I-Band was eventually back on tour. 

In short fare, the band was again ready to record another live project, Official Live Bootleg #2 - which includes an excellent version of Paint It Black. The addition of Morse, and his work on Paint It Black, reminded many fans of the keyboard significance of any Burdon-based project. By 1999 Morse had retired to pursue other projects, but not before assisting Burdon on the charity-based project, The British Rock Symphony. 

Morse was replaced by keyboardist and violinist Martin Gerschwitz, who with Dunbar, Restum, and Meros form the New Animals, and back Burdon on his current tours and forthcoming CD release. 

Don't miss this legendary performer, with his classic rock hits, at Twin Towns.