Fact #193699
When:
Short story:
At the start of a nine-day tour, The Animals play at Sala Kongresowa, Warsaw, Poland, Europe. Full article:
John Steel (drummer, The Animals] : Katowice is a beautiful old town which didn't get damaged in the war, and we had a great audience that night. They were absolutely raving. Quite a few chairs got smashed and the officials got very alarmed and clamped down on them. After the gig we were told that as a result of what had happened they'd banned rock shows there for the next three years. (censorship)
After the gig we talked to some local kids who'd travelled miles to get to the gig, and they told us they'd formed a band but they'd had to build their own instruments because you couldn't buy electric guitars in Poland at that time.
Chas Chandler (bassist, The Animals] : We loved Poland and we loved playing to the people but we couldn't wait to get away. We were there for about two weeks and it seemed like two years. It was like living in a cell.
I've never seen such suppression of audiences as we saw there. Astonishingly brutal. They used to smash people's heads in if they stood up during a concert.
Eric Burdon (vocals, The Animals] : Poland was a revelation. It really cleared my opinion of the Communist bloc. I'd been raised in Newcastle, exposed to heavy left-wing views, so I had this working class ideology, but when I arrived in Poland I saw first hand what it meant to live in a Communist country. It woke me up, to see how hungry the people were, not just for culture but for food. It looked like Britain immediately after the war. We'd pulled out of it, but Poland still looked as if it had just been smashed. Lines of people outside soup kitchens. No heating at the gigs. We had to go on stage in overcoats. Chas played bass with gloves on.
John Steel : We knew it would be cold, so Mike had fixed us up with some Carnaby Street gear, silvery grey synthetic fur coats, very lightweight, but by god we were glad of them. We got strange looks, walking around like that. It was still a Warsaw Pact country, so these five English guys in Cuban heeled boots and silver-grey fur coats was pretty strange.
The audiences weren't allowed to get out of their seats. If they did, a uniformed guy would come down with a truncheon and get them back in their seats. But the kids went absolutely potty. Every show was packed and it was very exciting. Apart from the shows though, it was pretty miserable. The food was awful, it was freezing, and we were followed around by the secret police.
I remember being stuck in the same hotel, a brand new hotel it was but they hadn't finished the kitchens, so the only meal they could provide was ham and eggs in little stainless steel dishes and after three days you go right off it.
Eric Burdon : There was nothing to do but drink vodka. John Steel and I used to carry gas guns and the only way to get out of student parties ... you would be force-fed vodka at high speed in these places ... you would shoot off a couple of rounds of CS gas and crawl on your hands and knees out the front door. We were running into people who were wilder than we were. We couldn't take it. You just had to drink one shot of vodka after the other until you were absolutely blind drunk, because there was nothing else to do.
Chas Chandler : Hilton, he's a strange one. I've never seen such a change of character in my life. He used to be a nasty bugger. He always got on my goat. We were the best of enemies really. He tried to hit me over the head with a bottle of vodka once, when we were in Poland, Europe.
(Sources : not known)
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After the gig we talked to some local kids who'd travelled miles to get to the gig, and they told us they'd formed a band but they'd had to build their own instruments because you couldn't buy electric guitars in Poland at that time.
Chas Chandler (bassist, The Animals] : We loved Poland and we loved playing to the people but we couldn't wait to get away. We were there for about two weeks and it seemed like two years. It was like living in a cell.
I've never seen such suppression of audiences as we saw there. Astonishingly brutal. They used to smash people's heads in if they stood up during a concert.
Eric Burdon (vocals, The Animals] : Poland was a revelation. It really cleared my opinion of the Communist bloc. I'd been raised in Newcastle, exposed to heavy left-wing views, so I had this working class ideology, but when I arrived in Poland I saw first hand what it meant to live in a Communist country. It woke me up, to see how hungry the people were, not just for culture but for food. It looked like Britain immediately after the war. We'd pulled out of it, but Poland still looked as if it had just been smashed. Lines of people outside soup kitchens. No heating at the gigs. We had to go on stage in overcoats. Chas played bass with gloves on.
John Steel : We knew it would be cold, so Mike had fixed us up with some Carnaby Street gear, silvery grey synthetic fur coats, very lightweight, but by god we were glad of them. We got strange looks, walking around like that. It was still a Warsaw Pact country, so these five English guys in Cuban heeled boots and silver-grey fur coats was pretty strange.
The audiences weren't allowed to get out of their seats. If they did, a uniformed guy would come down with a truncheon and get them back in their seats. But the kids went absolutely potty. Every show was packed and it was very exciting. Apart from the shows though, it was pretty miserable. The food was awful, it was freezing, and we were followed around by the secret police.
I remember being stuck in the same hotel, a brand new hotel it was but they hadn't finished the kitchens, so the only meal they could provide was ham and eggs in little stainless steel dishes and after three days you go right off it.
Eric Burdon : There was nothing to do but drink vodka. John Steel and I used to carry gas guns and the only way to get out of student parties ... you would be force-fed vodka at high speed in these places ... you would shoot off a couple of rounds of CS gas and crawl on your hands and knees out the front door. We were running into people who were wilder than we were. We couldn't take it. You just had to drink one shot of vodka after the other until you were absolutely blind drunk, because there was nothing else to do.
Chas Chandler : Hilton, he's a strange one. I've never seen such a change of character in my life. He used to be a nasty bugger. He always got on my goat. We were the best of enemies really. He tried to hit me over the head with a bottle of vodka once, when we were in Poland, Europe.
(Sources : not known)