Blue Cheer

Guitar work has been handled by Andrew "Duck" MacDonald since that time. He continues to record and tour on his own. Last tour was a club tour of England in 2004. Original members Dickie Peterson and Paul Whaley re-located to Germany in early 90's where they still live. Burdon reunited briefly with the other Animals in 1976 and 1983, but the band broke up again after both reunions. Last release was Live in Japan, 1999. Burdon quit the group in 1971 for a solo career, although War continued without him. Group still exists as of 2005. This incarnation lasted until 1970 when Burdon formed a new band, War.

After Leigh Stevens was replaced by Randy Holden, formerly of Los Angeles garage rock band The Other Half, in 1969, Blue Cheer's style changed to a more commercial hard rock sound a la Steppenwolf or Iron Butterfly. By 1966 the other members had left, and the band was reformed as Eric Burdon and the New Animals. 1970 saw the release of Human Being and then 1971's Oh! Pleasant Hope. He was a founding member of the Animals, a band originally formed in Newcastle in the early 1960s. The group underwent several personnel changes after the 1968 release of Outsideinside, and then through yet more changes during and after 1969's New! Improved! Blue Cheer (different guitarists on side 1 and 2), followed by Blue Cheer. Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941, Walker-on-Tyne, Northumberland) was the lead singer of The Animals and later of War. Julian Cope has written, "In 1968, nothing but nothing in America and Britain sounded as brutal as Blue Cheer except for the Velvet Underground." [1] (http://www.juliancope.com/unsung/features/index.php?id=4). ISBN 0571134920.

The band has been subsequently acclaimed as an influence on garage rock, punk music, heavy metal, and grunge. Faber and Faber. The group's sound was hard to categorize, but was definitely blues-based, psychedelic, and very loud. I Used to Be an Animal, but I'm All Right Now. (The single peaked at #14 on the Billboard pop charts, and the album peaked at #11.). Burdon, Eric (1986). Their first hit was a cover version of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" from their debut album Vincebus Eruptum (1968).

The band was named after a strain of LSD promoted by underground chemist and Grateful Dead backer Owsley Stanley; the drug had taken its name from a popular detergent. Original personnel were singer/bass guitarist Dick Peterson, guitarist Leigh Stevens and drummer Paul Whaley. Blue Cheer was a San Francisco based power trio of the late 1960s.