Vic Briggs

Victor Harvey Briggs III (14 February 1945 – 30 June 2021) was a British blues and rock musician, best known as the lead guitarist with Eric Burdon and The Animals from 1966 to 1968. Briggs, a convert to Sikhism, later played classical Indian and Hawaiian music, and adopted the name Antion Vikram Singh Meredith.

Vic Briggs was born in Twickenham, Middlesex, England. He was named after his father, an American army captain who was killed in action in France in November 1944, shortly before Briggs' birth. His British mother ensured that Briggs' American citizenship was recognized, through obtaining a U.S. passport for him at an early age. She raised him with her parents in the town of Feltham, near London. Briggs attended Hampton Grammar School, where his contemporaries included Paul Samwell-Smith and Jim McCarty, later of The Yardbirds, Brian May, later of Queen and singer-actor Murray Head. In 1961, at the age of 16, Briggs met well-known British session guitarist Big Jim Sullivan, who became a mentor.

Through Sullivan, Briggs was introduced to members of The Echoes, a band that Briggs ultimately joined for three weeks in 1961, as his first engagement as a professional musician, before returning to school. During this brief period, Briggs met Rory Storm, Ringo Starr and Gerry and the Pacemakers, among other musicians, and played with The Echoes at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. Briggs continued playing with semi-professional bands upon his return to school, and also was asked to rejoin The Echoes in 1962 for an engagement as the backing band for Jerry Lee Lewis. In the summer of 1962, Briggs was playing with a band called Peter Nelson and The Travelers, members of whom would later form The Flower Pot Men and White Plains, and which briefly included Mitch Mitchell as the drummer.

Briggs' experiences as a musician conflicted with his studies and Briggs was asked not to return to Hampton Grammar School as of the commencement of the 1962–1963 academic year. During the 1962-1963 period, Briggs played throughout England, Scotland and Germany as a member of the Shel Carson Combo, which later became The Rokes upon the band's relocation to Italy, which Briggs did not participate in. A bandmate was John Weider, who would later join Briggs in Eric Burdon and The Animals, and remains a lifelong friend. While in Germany, the band had a residency at the Top Ten Club. Briggs then played in England and Germany with a number of bands throughout 1964, until being asked to rejoin The Echoes in early 1965. At that time, The Echoes had become the backup band to Dusty Springfield. As a member of The Echoes, Briggs toured with Springfield and contributed to her 1965 album Ev'rything's Coming Up Dusty, as well as performing with her at the New Musical Express 1965 awards ceremony at Wembley Arena, where Springfield won the award for World Female Singer. Briggs and the rest of The Echoes also backed Springfield on her Top 10 hit single "In The Middle of Nowhere", released in June 1965, but which was not included on the album.

During this period, Briggs befriended keyboardist Brian Auger. Later in 1965 when, with the encouragement of producer and manager Giorgio Gomelsky, Auger co-founded Steampacket, with Long John Baldry, he asked Briggs to join. Other members were Rod Stewart and Julie Driscoll on vocals, Micky Waller on drums and Richard Brown on bass. The band never formally recorded a studio or live album. Demo recordings were released in multiple versions, commencing in 1972, following Rod Stewart's later success. When Rod Stewart was fired from Steampacket and then Long John Baldry left Steampacket in 1966, the band continued as Brian Auger's Trinity, initially based in France. Briggs and Auger also participated in the recording of a Johnny Hallyday album during this period, La Génération Perdue, which resulted in a French hit single version of "Black is Black". Briggs' participation in the recording of the album is uncredited.

In September 1966, Briggs met Jimi Hendrix, shortly after Hendrix had arrived in England. Hendrix, at the suggestion and request of Chas Chandler to Brian Auger, had sat in with Brian Auger and The Trinity, including Briggs and using Briggs' equipment, at The Scotch of St. James club in London. This was one of Hendrix' first public performances in England. Later that autumn, Auger and The Trinity were backing Johnny Hallyday at an engagement at the Paris Olympia, to which Hendrix had been added as the opening act. Mike Jeffery, who managed Eric Burdon and, with Chas Chandler, co-managed Jimi Hendrix, approached Briggs at the engagement with an offer to join Burdon's new band. Briggs agreed. Briggs had been suggested to Eric Burdon and Mike Jeffery by John Weider, Briggs' former bandmate in the Shel Carson Combo, after Weider had joined Burdon's new band.

Briggs joined Eric Burdon's reconstituted Animals, known as Eric Burdon and The Animals, in November 1966. Briggs is described by one biographer as being "the most musically adept musician ever to pass through the ranks of the Animals in either of that group's major incarnations". Between 1967 and 1968, Briggs recorded three albums with Eric Burdon and The Animals, two of which involved song co-writing credit for all members of the band. As a consequence, Briggs is credited as a co-writer of most of the hit singles of the band during this period, as well as being formally credited as the arranger of most of the singles. Briggs, who could read music, was able to develop music charts and consequently arranged much of the band's music during this period, adding horn and other instrumental parts to the songs.

In January 1967, barely a month after the band commenced performing, manager Mike Jeffrey arranged for Eric Burdon to record a song being included in the soundtrack for the Casino Royale movie, which was being written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Briggs had arranged the music, to the satisfaction of Bacharach and David. It was the first written arrangement by Briggs to have been recorded. Eric Burdon's lack of interest in the project, demonstrated by his lack of preparation in relation to Hal David's lyrics, caused the opportunity to be scrapped, to Briggs' significant regret. Later in 1967, "Ain't That So", co-written by Briggs and John Scott, was included in the soundtrack to the movie Stranger in the House.