Heritage of The Animals on show at Discovery Museum

Dec 6 2008 by Paul Loraine, The Journal

A RARE piece of North East pop memorabilia will be going on display at some of the region’s museums. The vinyl was recorded in the early 1960s by the band that went on to become The Animals, part of the Tyneside rock hall of fame.

It is one of only six copies of the album by the Kon Tors, which was recorded at the Mortonsound music studio, in Newcastle and will be displayed at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle, South Shields Museum and Art Gallery and Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens. The band used to play around eight gigs a week at the Downbeat and Club A-Go-Go in Newcastle, as well as Wetheralls nightclub in Sunderland.

Guitarist Bernie McGuigan, who played in the band, said it was great the record was staying in the North East.

Bernie, now 69, of Sydney Court, Gateshead, said he met Gordon Cleghorn and Chas Chandler in a music shop in Newcastle’s Grainger Market.

“I was having an argument with a shop owner over an amplifier I had bought which wasn’t working,” he said. “Gordon and Chas happened to be in the shop, joined in and then asked if I would play with them.

“Alan Price left his band and used to come and listen to us when we practised in the Living Rooms in Byker and things went on and on from there. The group was expanding fast in the area and we were well backed.”

The Kon Tors, who included keyboard player Alan Price, the late Chas Chandler, and drummer John Steel were the little-known predecessors of rhythm and blues outfit The Animals.

The band became the Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo before Eric Burdon returned to Newcastle and, with the addition of guitarist Hilton Valentine, they became The Animals.

The new band was to become one of the biggest groups in the world in the 1960s heyday, topping the charts here and in America with House of the Rising Sun.

The record was thought to be the only surviving copy in circulation and Tyne and Wear Museums bought it for £600.

Kylea Little, keeper of history at Tyne and Wear Museums, said: “We are thrilled to have acquired the Kon Tors record for the exhibition.”