The Gonzo Daily: Burdon of fame weighs heavily on The Animals

Friday, 8 November 2013

Burdon of fame weighs heavily on The Animals

PIC 1: Eric Burdon. Picture: flickr-mitchd50.
PIC 2: The front man: Eric Burdon with fellow 1960s band members John Steel, Alan Price, Chas Chandler, and Hilton Valentine.

Published: 8 November, 2013
by RICHARD OSLEY

IN more convivial times, mod rockers The Animals enjoyed a coveted residency amid the hedonistic surrounds of the Flamingo Club in Soho, playing all-nighters and drinking up everything 1960s London has to offer.

Life was good. But as they wowed crowds at that legendary basement venue in Wardour Street with renditions of their haunting hit House Of The Rising Sun, once named the 14th greatest single in history and attaining the slightly more dubious honour of being named as Tony Blair’s favourite all time song, the musicians could not have foretold that decades later two of their members would be spending more time than they would like at the Intellectual Property Office.

West End Extra can reveal the latest development in a long-running row over who can and who cannot call themselves The Animals has resulted in lead singer Eric Burdon successfully challenging drummer John Steel’s trademarking of the band’s name five years ago.

A judgment from IPO adjudicator Geoffrey Hobbs QC rules that Burdon’s initial objection had not been considered properly and upholds his appeal. The ruling, seen by the Extra, confirms: “The objection to the registration is upheld.”

Steel, a founding member of the band touring and recording without Burdon, had sought to record and perform under the name, The Animals. Burdon has performed as “Eric Burdon and the Animals” on some occasions since the band’s split in 1967.

Steel, however, won that trademark after adjudicator George Salthouse noted that Burdon was not using it extensively and that the “goodwill accrued by the band” in the 1960s – essentially meaning the popularity and reputation that keeps the public buying their records and tickets for shows – had “long dissipated”.

He added: “[Steel] has been using the name sporadically for 11 years and no one else has made much use of the mark in the UK.”

It was a crushing blow for the singer, who would have read in the no-nonsense judgment: “The opponent [Burdon] seems to contend that he is, at least in his own mind, a rock’n’roll legend whose mere existence serves to keep the goodwill in the original band alive. He is I am afraid mistaken. His counsel described him as ‘the charismatic lead singer and songwriter who has captivated the hearts and imagination of generations upon generations of teenagers the world over’ and also stated that ‘no one remembers the drummer’. As to the former, this was not borne out by the evidence provided and with regard to the latter I trust that she does not encounter Ringo.”

But, as Mr Hobbs QC’s fresh ruling reveals, wrangling has continued and documents posted online by the IPO last month show that a second look at the case, triggered by Burdon’s appeal against the trademark, has resulted in the overturned decision.

The adjudicator noted that one venue, the Spotted Dog in Willesden, had once cancelled a show after finding out that although it had booked The Animals, Burdon would not be appearing.

The promoter, who had thought he was getting the original front man, had said: “it was clear that had the event gone ahead without Eric we would have quite literally had a riot on our hands”, Mr Hobbs QC heard.

The adjudicator added that Steel’s band, rarely with more than two original members, could not be “entitled to hold itself out as being the full successor in line of title to the business of The Animals.”

The legal row has put a dampener on the keenness among fans to celebrate the band’s five decades.

“Why would I want to celebrate a band that has given me so much pain and anguish?,” Burdon said earlier this year. “And the fact that in Britain it’s been ruled by a High Court judge that I cannot enter Britain as an Animal any more.” In another interview, he said the row had meant he had been “excommunicated from The Animals”.

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