Steel met the future lead singer of The Animals, Eric Burdon, while they were studying together at the Newcastle College of Art and Industrial Design.
Originally a trumpeter, he replaced Barry Preston as the drummer of the Alan Price Rhythm and Blues Combo (later to become The Animals) in August 1963. He went on to play and record with them until 1966.
Steel was the main force behind putting together the big band that played with the Animals in the summer of 1965 at the Richmond Jazz Festival.
Steel had recently married and become a father, and was also fed up with a hectic schedule that left him little time to spend with his family.
Steel left music for a few years, but started playing again in the early '70s, when he did some gigs with the pub rock band Eggs Over Easy, and also worked in the office of fellow ex-Animal Chas Chandler, by then one of the most successful pop music managers in Britain.
JohnSteel (born February 4, 1941 in Gateshead) was the original drummer of the band The Animals.
Steel went to the Grammar School for Boys, Gateshead.
Subsequently Steel returned to Newcastle and became a successful businessman, while also working in former bandmate Chas Chandler's management and publishing organisations.
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