Alan Price

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Alan Price (born April 19, 1942, Fatfield, Sunderland, County Durham) is a British musician, best known as the original keyboardist for the English band The Animals and his solo work.

Price is a self-taught musician and was educated at Jarrow Grammar School, South Tyneside and was a founding member of the Tyneside group The Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo, which was later renamed The Animals. His organ playing on "House of the Rising Sun", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" and "Bring It On Home To Me" was a key element in success of the group.

After leaving the Animals Price went onto to have solo success on his own and with Georgie Fame. He introduced the songs of Randy Newman to a wider audience. Later he appeared on his own television show and made television guest appearances. He also had success with film scores and acting parts.

More recently Price performed and recorded with The Electric Blues Company and has made other appearances with other artists such as a line derived from Manfred Mann known as The Manfreds.

Career

Price formed The Animals in 1962 and left the band in 1965 to form The Alan Price Set, in a line of Price on keyboards and vocals, Clive Burrows baritone saxophone, Steve Gregory tenor saxophone, John Walters trumpet, Peter Kirtley guitar, Rod "Boots" Slade on bass guitar and "Little" Roy Mills drums. In the same year, he appeared in the film Dont Look Back, which followed Bob Dylan on tour.

During 1966 he enjoyed singles success with "I Put A Spell On You", the Randy Newman song "Simon Smith and His Amazing Dancing Bear", and the original "The House That Jack Built", following it up in 1968 with the jazzy "Don't Stop The Carnival". A partnership with Georgie Fame resulted in "Rosetta", which became a top 20 single in 1971. Two albums followed, Fame and Price and Price and Fame Together. Price and Fame secured a regular slot in one series of The Two Ronnies on BBC television. He then went on to host shows such as the musical Price To Play in the late '60s, which featured Price explaining and performing the music of some famous guests such as Fleetwood Mac and Jimi Hendrix. His second album, A Price On His Head (1967) features seven songs by Randy Newman, who was virtually unknown at that time. Price produced the autobiographical album Between Today and Yesterday (1974) and the track "Jarrow Song" returned him to the singles chart.

He participated in three reunions of the The Animals in 1968, 1977 also 1983. In July 1983 The Animals started a successful world tour, playing over twenty songs at each concert. Price also performed a solo, the song "O Lucky Man". In 1984 the band split again and the album Rip It To Shreds - Greatest Hits Live was released, comprising recordings from their concert at Wembley Stadium in London.

In 1994 Price's backing band The Electric Blues Company had a line up of guitarist and vocalist Bobby Tench, Keyboardist Zoot Money, bassist Peter Grant and drummer Martin Wilde. They recorded two albums the first of which wasCovers (1994). Their second album A Gigster's Life for Me (1996) was recorded between July and August 1995 at Olympic Studios London^[1], after he had played over 2,250 shows with his band.

A Gigster's Life for me
Studio album by Alan Price and the Electric Blues Company
Released	January 1 1996
Recorded	July-August 1995
Genre	Rock, blues rock
Label	Indigo/Sanctuary Masters of Blues series
Producer	Alan Price and The Electric Blues Company
Professional reviews
Allmusic by Thom Jurek
Alan Price and the Electric Blues Company chronology
Covers (1994) A Gigster's Life for me (1995)

The album was released as part of Sanctuary's Blues Masters Series. In his review for Allmusic Tom Jurek^[2] wrote:

"The recording captures the atmosphere of a live show and most of the album was recorded in single takes. The album consists of interpretations of R&B songs by others including Boz Scaggs, Eric Clapton and Jackson Browne. There is also a reggae-blues of the title trick, which swings out of a jazzy backbeat into a rootsier Inner Circle-type groove and a radical reworking of Screamin' Jay Hawkins's 'I Put a Spell on You'".

The album was released in 1996 as part of Sanctuary's Blues Masters Series. In his review at Allmusic Tom Jurek^[2] wrote: "The recording captures the atmosphere of a live show and most of the album was recorded in single takes. The album consists of interpretations of R&B songs by others including Boz Scaggs, Eric Clapton and Jackson Browne. There is also a reggae-blues of the title trick, which swings out of a jazzy backbeat into a rootsier Inner Circle-type groove and a radical reworking of Screamin' Jay Hawkins's 'I Put a Spell on You'".

Price still tours the UK with his own band and The Manfreds, The Searchers and The Hollies.

Film and TV

In 1973 he wrote the music for the Lindsay Anderson film O Lucky Man!, which he performs on screen in the film and appears as himself in one part of the storyline. He acted in Alfie Darling, a sequel to the film Alfie, during the course of which he became romantically involved with his co-star, Jill Townsend. He has written music for stage plays and films, including The Whales of August. In 1992 Lindsay Anderson included a touching episode in his autobiographical BBC film Is That All There Is?, with a boat trip down the River Thames to scatter Jill Bennett's funeral ashes on the waters while Price accompanied himself and sang the song "Is That All There Is?". He also composed and sung the theme tune to the 1982 film adaptation of The Plague Dogs, "Time and Tide".

Film appearances

• Britannia Hospital, Soundtrack
• Alfie Darling (1975), Alfie Elkins, Soundtrack
• O Lucky Man! (1973), Alan, Soundtrack
• Don't Look Back (1967), Himself

TV appearances

• The Dangerous Christmas of Red Riding Hood TV film(1965), Wolf
• Ready, Steady, Go! - in the episode dated 9 December 1966 (as Alan Price Set)
• Behind The Music - Himself ( (1999)
• Disco (TV series) - in Episode #1.5 (as Price and Fame) (1971)
• Heartbeat (TV series) - Frankie Rio (a "shifty" musician) - in the episode "In the Bleak Midwinter" (2004)
• The Two Ronnies - Himself (1972) 8 Episodes

Awards

• 1974: Golden Globe for O Lucky Man! - Nomination
• 1974: Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music for O Lucky Man

Notes

References

• Burdon, Eric. I Used to Be an Animal, but I'm All Right Now. Faber and Faber, 1986. ISBN 9 780 571134
• Burdon, Eric (with J. Marshall Craig). Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood: A Memoir. Thunder's Mouth Press, 2001. ISBN 1 560 253304

External links

• Alan Price at Allmusic
• Making Time. "Alan Price and the Animals". Making Time.com. http://www.makingtime.co.uk/animals.html. Retrieved 2009-01-20. 
• Absolute Elsewhere. "Alan Price (WIP)". Web Works Unlimited. http://alanprice.absoluteelsewhere.net/biography.html. Retrieved 2009-01-21. 
• Dawn Eden. "Alan Price interview". Goldmine 1995-12-01. http://www.dawneden.com/price.html. Retrieved 2009-01-20. 
• Allmusic. "Alan Price". Allmusic.com. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:g9fyxq85ldte~T0. Retrieved 2009-02-20. 
• Allmusic. "Alan Price selected discography". Alan priceshop.com. http://alanpriceshop.com. Retrieved 2009-02-20. 
• A live version of "Rosetta" with Price and Fame
• Alan Price at the Internet Movie Database
• Alan Price at TV.com