Canny lad, Alan Price. While the rest of The Animals went into management, early retirement, ladies' hairdressing or (in Eric Burdon's case) a premature solo career, the band's one genuinely talented member polished his craft and blossomed as a first-class songwriter and performer.

Saturday's 60-year-old party-giver looked as trim as ever. From Row S it was hard to know whether his black mop would pass the stringent dye-test posed to Messrs Blair and Schroeder, but between songs his Geordie wit was as dark as ever. "I was living with Miss X in the Profumo case in a Belgravia mews house when I wrote this one," he remarked at one point, "but I was only renting it because I had style, but no substance."

Old friends, including Zoot Money on keyboards and guitarist Bobby Tench ("We first met in 1963 when he was five") opened briskly with Let the Good Times Roll, and Russell Gilroy's over-exuberant drumming drove a few female fans, hoping for an intimate ballad or two, home early.

They should have stayed. The sensitive stuff followed a roll-call of hits, including We Gotta Get Out of This Place and House of the Rising Sun - "at least we've got that one out of the way" - and dynamic duets with special guest Georgie Fame. Then came O Lucky Man and a strange story about the late Lindsay Anderson.

"Will you be cremated too?" Price recalled asking the film director, who kept two urns containing the ashes of actresses Jill Bennett and Rachel Roberts on his mantlepiece. "No, buried," replied Anderson. "At least that way you know where you are."

Finally, came lyrical gems such as Just For You (I'll Reach Out and Shake the Money Tree) and What's My Life For? Whadda swell party it was.