Hilton Valentine "The Real Animal With A Bite"Profile. 

Hilton was part of the original line ups and remained in the band until they split up in 1995, he played Rythem guitar along side George however the band chose not to replace him due to him residing in the USA since their re launch.

As with many young lads in 50's Britain, the skiffle craze hit him hard and so his mum bought him his first guitar in 1956 at the age of 13. He immediately taught himself some chords from a book called Teach Yourself a Thousand Chords and formed his own skiffle band called The Heppers. They played locally, with the newspaper calling them "a young but promising skiffle group”. The Heppers eventually evolved into the rock and roll band The Wildcats, which after some personnel changes had Tappy Wright on rhythm guitar. Tappy was Hilton's best friend and became the road manager for The Animals. The Wildcats were a very popular band in the Tyne & Wear area getting continuous work. They decided to take it to the next step and recorded a 10" acetate LP at Morton Sound studios titled “Sounds of the Wild Cats” [sic]. This makes the first and only pre-Animals record recorded by any of the original lineup.

In 1962 The Animals were starting to form. Chas Chandler heard about this wild guitar player from The Wildcats. Members of the Wildcats tell stories of Hilton ripping off his shirt and getting down on the ground wailing away on his guitar. Quite risqué in those days! Chas liked what he heard and asked him to join what was then called The Alan Price Combo. Sadly, the only evidence of this energetic guitar playing is the 1963 live “Club-a-go-go” recordings. These are the first recordings of The Animals before they signed with EMI. The sound quality of those recordings is less than desirable, but the energy is so intense you feel as if you are in the club yourself. Hilton played with The Animals until their breakup in September 1966. In 1967 he was managing his former Wildcat band mate Keith Shields who recorded a few 45's for DECCA. One of those songs, “Deep Inside Your Mind” which was penned by Hilton can still be found on the CD British Psychedelic Trip Vol. 2 (Volume 3 of the LP series). In 1970 he recorded a solo album titled “All In Your Head”. It is a record that he just as soon would forget.

Hilton has reunited with the original lineup of the Animals three times since their split. A one off benefit gig in Newcastle in 1968, in 1977 for the “Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted” LP and lastly 1983 for a studio LP “ARK”, a world tour and Greatest Hits Live LP also known as “Rip It to Shreds”.

In 1989 he joined the Alligators, as he was a friend of “the Dod”, playing rhythm guitar, he was also the last member to join the group in its original line-up, at that point. Hilton remained with the Alligators until the band split in 1995. However, he also joined, at the same time, the Animals 2, with Rob Kane. For a time the Animals 2 was the Alligators line-up, at that point with Joss Elliot on bass and without Bruce, as a six piece with an extension of a keyboardist, which later changed the line-up altogether, after the Alligators split in 1995. The line-up of the Animals 2 then was: Rob Kane (vocals), Hilton Valentine (guitar), Steve Dawson (guitar), Steve Hutchinson (keyboards) Martin Bland (bass) and John Steele (drums).

Since 2004 Hilton has been concentrating on acoustic material.  His latest CD comes under the name SKIFFLEDOG titled It's Folk 'n' Skiffle, Mate!.He also spent some time touring continuously with original Animals singer Eric Burdon from Feb '07 - Dec '08.  He  recently recorded a new CD due out in early Spring 2011 and will be back out on the road to promote it.

Hilton now resides in the United States of America and more info can be found on him See his website on the links page of this website.