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.
History
Family and early career 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.Vic Briggs Biography, Antion - The Rock Star, Part 1 ; antionmusic, 2014. Retrieved 23 March 2017. 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.Robert von Bernewitz , Interview with Antion-Vic Briggs , 2 April 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2017.Sullivan was also a mentor to guitarist Richie Blackmore during the same period. See Michalis Limnios, Antion: Vic Briggs' Rock n' Roll Echos ; blues.gr, 15 October 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
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.Vic Briggs Biography, Antion - The Rock Star, Part 2; antionmusic, 2014 Retrieved 3 April 2017. 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.New Musical Express Awards 1965 ; nme.com. Retrieved 15 May 2017.Other performers in the three and one half hour show included Cilla Black, Donovan, Freddie and the Dreamers, Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames, Herman's Hermits, Sounds Incorporated, The Animals, The Beatles, The Ivy League, The Kinks, The Moody Blues, The Rolling Stones, The Searchers, The Seekers, Them and Wayne Fontana and The Mindbenders. See New Musical Express 1965 Winners Setlists ; setlist.fm. Retrieved 15 May 2017. Dusty Springfield's set included a cover of "Dancing in the Street", plus "Mockingbird" and "I Can't Hear You"; Dusty Springfield 1965 setlist at Wembley ; setlist.fm. Retrieved 2017-05-15. Briggs and the rest of The Echoes also backed Springfield on her Top 10 hit single "In The Middle of Nowhere",The song reached No. 8 in the UK: Official Charts - Dusty Springfield . Retrieved 13 April 2017. released in June 1965, but which was not included on the album.With "Baby Don't You Know" as the B-side, also 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.George Varga, Animals reuniting onstage in Moscow . San Diego Union, 27 May 1992, via antionmusic.com. Retrieved 16 March 2017. 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.See Rock Generation Volume 6 - The Steampacket (BYG Records, 1972); The Steampacket - The First Supergroup (Charly Records, 1977). 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".Mick Jones, later of Spooky Tooth and Foreigner, also played on the Hallyday album. Jones was a longtime guitarist and songwriter with Hallyday, commencing as of the mid-1960s, and a member of Hallyday's backing band, Les Blackburds. See The Vic Briggs Interview ; Jimi Hendrix Record Guide, March 2011, with updates. Retrieved 13 April 2017. Briggs' participation in the recording of the album is uncredited.Allmusic, Credits - La Génération Perdue . Retrieved 27 April 2017.
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.Uncredited, The Vic Briggs Interview ; Jimi Hendrix Record Guide, March 2011, with updates. Retrieved 13 April 2017. 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.Bruce Eder, Biography of Danny McCulloch ; Allmusic. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
Eric Burdon and The Animals 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".Bruce Eder, Biography of Vic Briggs ; Allmusic. Retrieved 17 March 2017. Between 1967 and 1968, Briggs recorded three albums with Eric Burdon and The Animals,Winds of Change (1967), The Twain Shall Meet (1968) and Every One of Us (1968). 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.Biography of Vic Briggs. Invincible Music, via the Wayback Machine Internet Archive. 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.
Briggs considered the appearance of the band at the Monterey Pop Festival, in June 1967, as one of his most significant experiences as a musician. He regarded one of his most exciting performances as being when The Animals played at the Hollywood Bowl, in November 1967.This was the second of two concerts sponsored by White Front stores. People who purchased an album issued by either MGM or Warner Bros. received a ticket to the event. In addition to Eric Burdon and The Animals, other performers on the bill were The Who, the Everly Brothers, The Association, Sopwith Camel and The Sunshine Company. The Hollywood Bowl performance was on 18 November 1967. The previous day, the same performers had appeared, under the same arrangement, at the Cow Palace in Daly City. See 18-19 November 1967, Cow Palace-Hollywood Bowl: Free Concerts ; Rock Prosopography 101, 17 October 2009. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
Briggs, along with bandmate Danny McCulloch, was fired from the band in the summer of 1968, prior to the release of Every One of Us, in August 1968.Despite the successful single "White Houses", released in November 1968, the album had a limited release in North America and was not released in England. Briggs would see Eric Burdon for the last time approximately 1969.
In 1992, to the consternation of Eric Burdon, Briggs registered a U.S. trademark of "The Animals" band name, and performed under that name with former band members Danny McCulloch and Barry Jenkins. The band's most notable performance, with Phil Ryan instead of Eric Burdon on lead vocals, was a 1992 performance in Moscow's Red Square, as part of a benefit concert for victims of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster.
Later career