There was great camaraderie between the bands in a genuinely-exciting time to be alive.

And John and his fellow Animals were very much in the thick of it.

The great news for John is that those days are still fresh in the minds of many and longed for by those unlucky enough not to have lived them – a fact which accounts for The Animals' continuing success so many decades later.

The legendary 60s rhythm and blues pioneers will be live in concert on Sunday, June 21, at Shoreham's Ropetackle Centre.

Original Animals John Steel and Micky Gallagher are joined by John E Williamson and Peter Barton (original member of Boomtown Rats).

John said: "It's great. We are not just playing to the grey-haired! We get all ages.

"And I can definitely say I have never lost my enthusiasm for it. We just love playing the music. There is nothing pre-recorded – and that comes across."

But then the point is that there was – and always will be – something very special about the music of The Animals.

"We get such a good emotional reaction. That's one of the things about The Animals. When we did those recordings back in the 60s, we thought records just go in the charts and drop out and then that's that."

It all started in the 1950s for The Animals.

John said: "We were all teenagers in the 50s when rock and roll first came on the scenes. In 1956, Lonnie Donegan released Rock Island Line, and that was that. We realised that we could do it, too.

"I met Eric Burdon when we were first-year students at Newcastle College of Art and we discovered that we had very similar tastes.

"Within a very short time of being friends, we decided to be in a band.

"In those days, rock and roll was just finding its way to the fore."

First, though, John and Eric were in a jazz band – though Eric was hopeless on trombone, John laughs.

It wasn't long before they discovered that Eric "had a voice" and John moved to drums.

Early success in Newcastle followed – and then came the shift to London and stardom, travelling down to a new life and celebrity in a Dormobile.

"We got there in early January and within a matter of weeks we had a record deal and an agency deal."

So many of the stars of the 1960s paid the ultimate price, succumbing to their rock and roll lifestyle. John, however, rode the waves.

"We just thought it was great fun, give it a couple of years and then go back to a normal life. We never thought that it be a life-time.

"We were just five working-class Geordie lads, but within a few weeks we were flying off to play in New York!"

For tickets, call 01273 464440.

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