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Fact #132968

When:

Short story:

The Animals Big Band makes its only live appearance, a headline slot on the closing night of The 5th Annual Jazz And Blues Festival, Richmond, England, UK. Also appearing on the same day are Chris Barber, Kenny Ball, Ottilie Patterson, Ken Colyer, Spencer Davis, Jimmy James And The Vagabonds, The Alex Welsh Band and The Steam Packet, including Brian Auger, Julie Driscoll, Rod Stewart and Long John Baldry. George Harrison and John Lennon of The Beatles attend the event.

Full article:

John Steel [The Animals] : Our singer, Eric Burdon, had always wanted to do a big band thing. He'd loved the Ray Charles stuff and wanted to reproduce that sound as an experiment at the Richmond Festival. Eric had the idea, but I helped put it into practice. I went to Ian Carr, a jazz man who we knew from Newcastle days, and asked him if he could put a horn section together for us, and basically it was Ian who did that. He got in touch with all these London musos on the jazz and session scene, and I co-ordinated between him and The Animals.

It was quite an exciting thing to do. Really, we just nicked the Ray Charles arrangements, but it was a nice treat for the people at the festival, to get something different from The Animals. It was intended purely as a one-off thing though. We'd never think of taking it on the road. Richmond Festival then was still a combination of jazz and r'n'b, I mean Chris Barber was on the same night, so it was in context. George Melly was the MC, looking very exotic in paisley trousers.
(Source : not known)

Alf Bicknell (The Beatles' chauffeur) : Quiet for a Sunday, just a secretive trip out with John, Cyn, George and Pattie to the Richmond Jazz Festival.  They wanted particularly to see The Animals perform.   Their singer, Eric Burdon, I think, had asked them to come.  It think he would have liked them to get up and play along with all the other singers and players.   Now that would have been something.   Anyway, we really didn't have a chance to stay too long, because as soon as the fans recognised the two boys, we had to get away. 
(Source : not known)