DON’T TREAT HIM LIKE AN ANIMAL

Eric Burdon isn’t one to spend time doting on the old days, even though his old days as leader of the Animals resulted in some of the most powerful records of the mid-1960s British Invasion.

So Burdon was more than a little dismayed to learn that his 2-month-old solo tour of the United States and Canada, which reaches the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano tonight, also stops off at a ‘60s nostalgia festival in San Bernardino on Sunday.

That “Summerfest--Return of the ‘60s” show represents “the kind of gig I’ve been trying to stay away from all my life,” Burdon, 45, said Wednesday by phone from Scottsdale, Ariz., shortly before he and his new band were to play at a concert club there.

“I had no idea it was this kind of festival,” Burdon said. “I’ve tried my best to stay away from ‘60s-oriented shows. I don’t like looking backward.”

Because he’s been trying to reignite his solo career, Burdon is more interested in performing his new songs than 20-year-old Animals hits such as “House of the Rising Sun” and “San Franciscan Nights,” or his 1970 hit with War, “Spill the Wine.”

Even though audiences frequently clamor for the old hits, Burdon said adamantly: “I don’t give a damn what people expect. People expect to hear all the old stuff, but you can never satisfy them. I just try to get on with it.”

When Burdon consented to a second Animals reunion tour in 1983--they’d also reunited briefly in 1977--he did so hoping that the attention the tour was sure to generate would prove to the music industry that his skills as a songwriter and performer were as strong as ever. Before that reunion he’d demonstrated his vitality in a series of explosive club performances that were even more impressive than the Animals shows, which were generally well-received.

Now, however, he says that the group’s worldwide tour “didn’t do much except add to my tax bills. The aftermath is that people in the Animals who were friends ended up in altercations. My immediate feeling was that I didn’t want to do it, but I felt forced into it. In a way, what happened proved that my feeling was right.

“The only positive thing I can say about it was that I was amazed at the warmth of our reception in America. The American part of the tour almost made it work.”

The few Animals songs he still enjoys playing are those with timeless messages, such as “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” and “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” In recent years, however, he has drastically reworked even those songs in new arrangements much the way Bob Dylan keeps his ‘60s classics fresh by constantly reinterpreting them.

Yet Burdon wants to do even more new material than he’s currently performing. “Once again this is a tour without any product on the shelves to promote. I’ve been writing a lot and I’ve got two dozen new songs, some of which we’re playing. But if you haven’t got a disc to plug into people’s ears, it’s harder to get the new material across. So that’s the reason I’m not doing as much as I’d like,” he said.

On his own again, Burdon says his prospects for doing a solo album are “better than they’ve been in a long time,” thanks to a German record distributor who wants to finance the project. Burdon hopes to have the new record ready by next spring to coincide with the U.S. release of his recently completed autobiography, “I Used to Be an Animal, but I’m All Right Now.”

That book was edited by another British musician-turned-author, former Who leader Pete Townshend, who now works for the same British publishing house that is handling Burdon’s book.

“I really enjoyed the (book) project. I spent a lot of time researching it,” he said. The book covers his life from childhood in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, to the formation of the Animals and their breakup in the late ‘60s, when Burdon moved from Britain to California.

“I was originally asked to write it up to the present time. Then they said, ‘Let’s just do it up to the end of the ‘60s.’ I had to fight real hard to get a part of my experiences in California in there. But if it gets a good reaction, there will be another one.”

In addition to his music and writing, Burdon wants to continue pursuing an acting career that began with several movies he did in Europe in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

“I’d like to do more if I can. It’s just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. I haven’t been in the right place. If I had been in L.A. last year, I was scheduled to have a part in a movie. But I didn’t do it because I wasn’t there,” he said.

“I’m trying to do it all,” he said. “But I must admit I’m getting a little tired of road work. Sometimes it can be a thrill and sometimes it’s just another gig. I really want to do something new. I don’t like to get the same reaction every night, although I shouldn’t complain because the reaction we’ve been getting has been good.

Burdon added: “That’s the reason I like writing: because it’s a challenge and it’s something to learn.”

LIVE ACTION: Tickets go on sale Monday for Lou Reed’s Aug. 19 show at the Pacific Amphitheatre. . . . INXS will play Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre on Sept. 6. Tickets will be available Sunday. . . . Steve Earle’s performance at the Coach House in San Juan Capistrano has been moved to July 27, when he’ll play a double bill with the Long Ryders. Jerry Jeff Walker’s show at the Coach House has been rescheduled for Aug. 3. . . . Tupelo Chain Sex returns to Safari Sam’s in Huntington Beach on Aug. 1.