Alan Price & His Band November 14, 2005

Forty Years on from " The House Of The Rising Sun"

Alan Price is now in the "Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame".
Alan brings his piano full of memories, songs and stories of his musical life obtained by being a major part of The Animals
.
He will also discuss and play songs from Alan Price & Georgie Fame; Bob Dylan & Alan Price; the Lindsay Anderson films O Lucky Man & The Whales Of August, and the musicals Andy Capp and Who's a Lucky Boy?

An anecdotal trek across the British Rock 'n' Roll and Blues landscape from the late 1950's to the present day with occasional voyages across the Atlantic and beyond.

Alan was elected to the "American Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame" in 1994, and was awarded "The Gold Badge Of Merit" by the British Academy of Film & Television Arts.

His career began before The Animals days in the shape of his own band in 1961, which he named, "The Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo". Initially the personnel was fairly fluid, but within 12 months they had established a settled line-up of Alan Price on keyboards, Eric Burdon as vocalist and front man, Hilton Valentine on guitar, Chas Chandler playing the bass and John Steel completing the line-up on drums.

The band themselves never cared for their debut single, a commercial arrangement of a traditional folk song taken off Bob Dylan's first LP, nonetheless "Baby Let Me Take You Home" charted to give them their first hit record. The song was boosted by a couple of memorable appearances on that famous, Ready, Steady, Go! - Television show.

Their second single really established The Animals on the map. Alan Price's hypnotic arrangement of the band's epic version of "The House Of The Rising Sun" was released in June 1964 and went on to become a worldwide smash hit, topping both the UK and US charts. Selling several million copies, the record propelled the group after The Beatles to chart a Number One single in America. "I'm Crying" (written by Alan Price) and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", plus "Bring It On Home To Me" followed in short order, and by the spring of 1965 they were established as one of the biggest, most popular R&B bands in the world. Most radio stations still play these classic songs fairly regularly to this day.

Alan Price publicly announced that he had left The Animals on May 5, 1965. The official line given for his abrupt departure was fear of flying, which was (and still is) essentially true: tours of the US, Australia and the Far East had finally taken their toll on him - he was totally exhausted.

He then formed The Alan Price Combo and gradually assembled a new band, "The Alan Price Set". The Alan Price Set subsequently debuted in September 1965 with a punchy revival of the old Chuck Jackson US R&B hit "Any Day Now".

Six months would pass before their next single, but then it came, Alan's compelling yet highly-commercial arrangement of Screaming Jay Hawkins "I Put A Spell On You". Hot on its heels in 1966 was a romping revival of the old show tune "Hi Lili, Hi Lo", Alan had another 3 chart topping hits with "Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear", "The House That Jack Built" and "Shame". The next year, "Don't Stop The Carnival" was released.

Alan began a partnership with fellow blues keyboardist and old chum, Georgie Fame, which gave birth to a big hit single, "Rosetta", a highly-rated album (Price And Fame Together), their own television series (The Price Of Fame), and regular appearances on many other television shows.

Alan continues to write and record, and he is readily acknowledged as one of the most talented and enduring musical artists to have emerged from the 1960's. He is still hard at work, performing his well-received show 'An Evening With Alan Price' around the UK and still continues to appear regularly throughout Europe.

Just for you, the Alan Price Story - in his own words...and music with his own band.

Live on stage at the Robin 2 8.45pm