You are in the Special Features section - Hilton Valentine

The Animals - Alan Price, Eric Burdon, Chas Chandler,
Hilton Valentine ( centre ) and John Steel


The group passed through The British Invasion picking up hit
after hit as they went - Baby Let Me Take You Home, Don't Let
Me Be Misunderstood, We've Gotta Get Out Of This Place,
and evolved into psychedelia, personnel changes and new
directions and alliances. Hilton and Eric played together
and solo in various bands and manifestations while Alan
pursued a successful solo career as well as working with
people like Georgie Fame, writing music for stage and film
and even pursuing an acting career. Chas Chandler famously
'discovered' and managed Jimi Hendrix, and many other
British groups of the 70s, including Slade, until the big
man's untimely death. Hilton is still in the studio and on
the road and I managed to catch up with him. 

So here is the interview with one of the top guitarists
from the top bands of that glorious decade,
Hilton Valentine of The Animals:

The Animals - Alan Price, Chas Chandler, Eric Burdon,
John Steel and Hilton Valentine 

Digger: Hello, is that Hilton?

Hilton: Yes.

Digger: Hello, it's Digger.

Hilton: How ya doing?

Digger: How are you?

Hilton: I'm not too bad.

Digger: I hear you were up in Massachusetts.
What were you doing up there?

Hilton: We were up there to see a band called
The Soft Boys.

Digger: I can't say I've heard of them to be honest.

Hilton: They're excellent.

Digger: And what sort of music do they play?

Hilton: Pink Floyd type music.  Well, the singer
is influenced by Syd Barrett.  They've recorded
Astronomy Domine.  Their music is very 60's
influenced.  They do The Bells of Rhymney as well.
The rest is original stuff.

Digger: Are you in touch with members of the band?

Hilton: Oh no.

Digger: They didn't know they had rock 'royalty'
in the audience?

Hilton: No!

Digger: Have you had a look at the questions?

Hilton: Yeah, but I haven't got answers for all of them.

Digger: Don't worry about that, it's not a quiz!
Do you do a lot of these interviews?

Hilton: Not a great deal.

Digger: I'm glad to notice that the Geordie
accent's still there.

Hilton: Oh aye!

Digger: Excellent. Well done that man. I heard the American
-sounding voice on the ansaphone and I thought it was you
but your wife put me right. How long have you
been in the US for?

Hilton: Um, I was over here for several years
in the early to mid 70's and then went  back to England.
I have been back since December '99.

Digger: Well, you can definitely still tell where you come
from. Do you get many comments from people over
there asking what the accent is?

Hilton: They just ask if I'm English when they hear me
talking for the first time.  Sometimes people ask
me if I'm Scottish.  I've even had people
over here guess Irish.

Digger: Does your name get you into places
or free drinks?

Hilton: Yeah, sometimes...... into concerts and
things like that.

Digger: I'm interested in the origins of The Animals.
I understand that several groups merged - you were
with The Gamblers?.........

Hilton: No.

Digger: Oh!

Hilton: The Gamblers was a band who were around
and were friends of Eric and Chas.

Digger: So who were you with?

Hilton: I was with a band called The Wild Cats. Not Marty
Wilde's band. I think they were called The Wild Cats too.

Digger: 'Cos there was a lot of duplication of names, wasn't
there, 'cos there were two lots of Drifters for a while.
Somebody else from your neck of the woods was in
The Drifters for a while. ( Hank Marvin, former band name
of The Shadows ) So how did you all get together?

Hilton: We were all in different bands. Chas was in a band
called The Kontours and I was approached by Chas after
one of these Wild Cat gigs and he asked if I was serious
about playing. Would I go to London if I had the chance
and I said "Of course I would". So he arranged for me
to have a bit of an audition with what was then The Alan
Price Combo. At that point The Combo was Eric, Alan, Chas
and a drummer called Barry - can't remember his second
name. I had the audition, passed it and joined the band.
Then this Barry left the band and they got John Steel. I think
he'd been in for a while before, left but came back in
and that's how I remember it.

Digger: To create the classic line-up.

Hilton: Yeah.

Digger: Was it like what happened in Birmingham, where the
best of all the different bands all joined up
and formed The Move?

Hilton: I think so, yes. 'Cos there were a lot of local bands
around playing all over the place. A lot were in bands
'cos they had an amplifier or to get a bit of pocket
money. But the ones that were serious about playing -
the bands got melted down and ended-up in
bands that did make it.

Digger: When and how did you get your first guitar?

Hilton: When? I must have been about eleven or twelve.
It was an advert in a paper and you sent away for it and
it arrived in a cardboard box. I can't recall what I paid
for it. My mum gave me the money.

Digger: There were some very forward thinking
parents around weren't there?

Hilton: Aye. It was probably to shut me up 'cos
I went on and on about it.

Digger: I suppose your mum was glad it wasn't the drums.

Hilton: Aye.

Digger: So, what was your inspiration there, do you think?

Hilton: Um. I don't know. I was always wanting to do
something on the stage. I was always holding concerts
in the back yard. Um, that was before we ever
heard of rock and roll.

Digger: Did you have any lessons or did you teach yourself?

Hilton: When I got the guitar I had three or four lessons
and then I realised I was paying half a crown for learning
three chords a lesson and I saw this book
with a thousand chords.......

Digger: Was it a Bert Wheedon type book?

Hilton: No. I did see that one - 'Play In A Day' -  but this was
like a thousand chords and that was half a crown. A bargain.

Digger: Juvenile logic, but it worked.

Hilton: Yeah.

Digger: So you followed The Beatles and Peter & Gordon
in topping the American charts in '64. Can you recall
where you were and how you felt when the news broke?

Hilton: I believe that we were actually
starting a huge tour in the USA.

Digger: Was that a huge culture shock for you lot?

Hilton: Yeah, yeah. We started, I think it was seven days,
at the Paramount in Times Square in New York doing
five shows a day, starting in the afternoon.

Digger: Five shows?! How long did each one last for?

Hilton: Each one lasted about an hour and a half
but we only played for fifteen minutes.

Digger: Oh, right.

Hilton: And I think it was Don Arden who told us when
we had just arrived in New York that House Of The
Rising Sun had just gone to number one in America.

Digger: It must have been euphoric.

Hilton: It was like a big party. Like a roller coaster
had started and swept us away really.

Digger: What was it like playing to tens of
millions on the Ed Sullivan show?

Hilton: It was good, but the idea of playing in front of
tens of millions didn't really enter my head. We were
doing a television show and we didn't, well I didn't realise
the importance of the Ed Sullivan show until it happened.

Digger: You'd done Ready Steady Go over here.

Hilton: Yeah. We did Baby Let Me Take You Home on there
and that charted in England and we did other TV.

Digger: I remember I'm Crying was used as the intro
on one of the Ready Steady Go's.

Hilton: It was the b-side of Rising Sun, Talking About You.
Or maybe I'm Crying was as well.

Digger: I do remember it being the intro on one of them.

Hilton: I think you're right.

Digger: Has your Geordie accent ever produced any
misunderstandings abroad?

Hilton: Er. Sometimes! You get sick of having to repeat
yourself. You tend to try to use words they'll understand.
Um, you know like, it's not just being a Geordie but being
English. Words like fag ( cigarette ).

Digger: And bum ( rear end )!

Hilton: Yeah. I mean, I could do with
a fag! ( Digger laughs )

Digger: If you talked about a fag butt ( cigarette end )
over here it means something totally different over there.

Hilton: Yeah. You just have to be careful.

Digger: I've noticed that the Americans aren't as
geared up to hearing English accents or phrases as we
are to hearing American as we're bombarded with it all the
time.  So when you talk to them they have to make an
adjustment and it takes a while for them to 'tune-in'.

Hilton: That's right, yeah.

Digger: So who were your influences then. I've guessed
at Hank Marvin and Duane Eddie?

Hilton: Certainly, yeah and also Chuck Berry. Lonnie Donegan
was a HUGE influence on me, not necessarily the guitar
playing but wanting to get involved.

Digger: I'm glad about that - on my site I do say in the
How It All Began section that Lonnie and Hank must be
responsible for 90% of the lads.......

Hilton: Absolutely, absolutely.

Digger: Over here there should be more recognition of
them in some way. Plaques and statues and all that
sort of thing, shouldn't there?

Hilton: I mean Lonnie Donegan was even more influential
in the beginning, having an acoustic guitar - there weren't
any electric guitars. My first electric guitar was attaching
a pick-up to a guitar and playing through an old radio.

Digger: You seem to have developed a distinctive playing
style. Did playing come naturally to you?

Hilton: I guess it did come naturally.

Digger: Would you say that you've played every
day of your life?

Hilton: Yes, from the day I started I playing until the time
of success with The Animals.

Digger: What sort of input did you have
into the arrangements?

Hilton: Most of the arrangements were done by ourselves.
There wasn't anyone saying what we should play.
I'd learn the chords and play what I wanted.

Digger: Improvise?

Hilton: Yes, that's how we got the sound of The Animals.

Digger: Did you adopt that on Baby Let Me Take You Home?

Hilton: On that particular one that intro was originally on
a record  by a guy names Hoagy Lands.

Digger: Haven't they all got great names?!!!

Hilton: His record was called Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand.
That intro was actually Hoagy's from that record.
It was acoustic guitar originally.

Digger: Can you describe the buzz that was in Britain and
America at the time of the British Invasion?

Hilton: The what?

Digger: The buzz. Ha ha, you can't understand my accent.
I mean the vibe, the buzz.

Hilton: An AMAZING buzz, it was magic. All of a
sudden things just exploded and it was full of music
and American rock and roll and English bands were just
playing the stuff that we all liked. Not trying to copy it
but liking it so much that we wanted to play it - maybe
not well enough as the American versions, but that's
how the English sound came about.

Digger: I've asked loads of people this. Why were white
Londoners and Geordies and so on able to replicate this
black American sound so well? It seems odd.

Hilton: It is isn't it!!!!

Digger: I've seen several TV appearances of yours and
there always seems to be a big smile on your face.
In Pop Gear you actually have a fit of the giggles.
Are you generally a happy guy? What makes you laugh?

Hilton: I was always grinning?

Digger: Yes, do you think it was just because you were
having such a great time and you were so
pleased to be there?




Hilton and Chas


Hilton: Y.....eah. Like going to somebody's birthday party
with a great big grin on their face. I don't know, it was
a great time in my life and living a dream and not many
people get a chance to do that. And it was happening to
me at a young age and I was just lapping it all up.  Actually,
I just saw that Pop Gear video that you mentioned.  As I
recall I think Tappy (our road manager) was on the side
doing something to make me laugh.

Digger: I think a lot of youngsters were
living it through you guys.

Hilton: Yes.

Digger: So what makes you laugh now, what makes you
sad and what makes you angry?

Hilton: God! Well a good funny movie like "Waking Ned
something" you know, that movie about someone
winning the lottery in that small village in Ireland. 
That was a great movie...........really funny.

Digger: Not 'Get Carter!'

Hilton: No, no, no. There's a comedian over here called
Chris Rock and he makes me laugh.

Digger: Do you get much of the British comedy over there?

Hilton: We get BBC America.

Digger: I wonder what they show on that?

Hilton: Alan Partridge, Knowing Me Knowing You
and also I'm Alan Partridge.

Digger: Do you get The Royle Family?

Hilton: We have seen it, yes.

Digger: Gimme Gimme Gimme?

Hilton: No.

Digger: What makes you sad?

Hilton: Well, injustices in the world.

Digger: And what about angry?

Hilton: When I see people being beaten on telly
or things like that.

Digger: Having lived with the others in The Animals for
so long, can you now describe what the others
in the band were like?

Hilton: Very simply. Chas - BIG, loud. Eric - cheeky,
a bit of a trouble-maker.

Digger: Moody?

Hilton: No. I reserve that one for Alan Price......
One other thing about Eric is that he
is very, very talented.

Digger: Alan?

Hilton: Alan Price - moody.

Digger: Talented?

Hilton: Yeah, a talented keyboard player. I don't like his
music much. John Steel - good clean drummer.

Digger: How would you describe yourself?

Hilton: I'm just a lucky lad that happened to join a band
at the right time and was in the right place at the right time.

Digger: Nice and humble! What about these famous frictions
there were in the band - about Alan and Eric arguing over
musical directions and this thing about Alan having a
fear of flying. It seems that, like The Beatles, The Animals
was greater than the sum of its parts. Did Alan's replacement
weaken the group do you think and where could they
have got to if they had kept the original line-up?

Hilton: I don't think it weakened the group when Dave
Rowberry came in. He is an excellent musician. Then Barry
Jenkins took over from John Steel and that didn't weaken
the group either. I think if that line-up had kept going it would
have developed into something but as it happened Eric moved
on and developed something himself.

Digger: Can you tell us some of the antics
you got up to on tour?

Hilton: We were on a tour with Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins
and with The Nashville Teens as well. The last night of
the tour the Teens and Carl brought a step-ladder and
put it in the middle of the stage and Carl climbed up
the ladder and somebody got him a fire extinguisher
and he was spraying it all over the place while we were
still trying to play. Someone got taken out in a cardboard
box that day too as I remember.

Digger: Did you get up to things in the hotels as well?

Hilton: Er. Yeah.

Digger: But nothing you can say with your wife listening?

Hilton: Well, a roadie of ours, Tappy Wright, was a big
prankster who played in The Wild Cats with me before.
When we first came over to the States we were in a posh
hotel in New York and he had this crazy foam and he went
into the elevators ( lifts ) and there were sensors to switch
on the lights and take the elevator to other floors. He
sprayed the inside with foam and so these elevators
were just going up and down continuously.

Digger: He must have been a bit of a scientist.
Is touring and recording as fun as ever?

Hilton: It's still fun but it's harder work.

Digger: You don't do fifteen minutes any more.
Now you're doing an hour and a half?

Hilton: That's right. And as you get older you slow down.

Digger: Are you having to cover a lot of miles
- the tour bus and motels?

Hilton: Yup.

Digger: Must be quite exhausting. Typically how
many gigs would you do?

Hilton: We do ten day stints or three weeks sometimes.
America, Poland, Australia, New Zealand and south-east
Asia. Getting back in between countries for eighteen hours.
Then off again. And you say "This is crazy, I'm not going to
do this again". But then you find yourself out on the road again.

Digger: What are the pressures that make you need to do that?
Is it because you feel you need to keep in touch with
the fans? Or is it itchy feet?

Hilton: Money.   I've got to keep a roof over my head
and food in my mouth. The hectic schedule though is
not brought on by us. It's the promoters. They just
say "It's a long schlep, a ten-hour drive but
if you get up early enough, you'll make it......"
They forget that you're going to bed late. You
didn't go on until one in the morning or something.

Digger: They don't allow for the traffic either.

Hilton: That's right.

Digger: If you could create a British sixties supergroup,
made up of anyone, living or dead, who would be in it?

Hilton: Oh dear me!!!!! ............ English?

Digger: British, but you can put a couple of Americans
in there if you like!!!! I don't think the British scene
would have happened without them.

Hilton: God, no, it would have been impossible. Um,
                 Stevie Winwood, get him up there on vocals and guitar.
  Rick Danko (from The Band) on bass.  Gary Brooker on
keyboards and vocals.  Charlie Watts on drums.

Digger: They could really gel!!!..........
What are your happiest memories from the sixties?

Hilton: I guess the overall music scene.

Digger: Meeting anyone special?

Hilton: Yes, The Beatles and some of my heroes.
Chuck Berry. Meeting the people I had admired.

Digger: Which other group would you have liked to
have been in if you hadn't been in The Animals?

Hilton: Oooh!......... The Spencer Davis Group.

Digger: He's over there, in California isn't he?
Have you met up with him?

Hilton: Um. I did when I was living there in the 70s but
not recently......... except on the phone.  I had a
chat with him a few months ago.

Digger: What do you think of these musical websites?

Hilton: They're great if they're done right. A good
idea and a fast way to communicate information to people.

Digger: Can I just talk about Jimi Hendrix? Chas and
Eric befriended him, and I guess you did too?

Hilton: I just met him once in New York.

Digger: Oh? Just once?

Hilton: Yeah. I mean before he made it.

Digger: Oh, I see. But after that you saw him regularly?

Hilton: Oh yeah.   Oh, that reminds me....... I've read in the
liner notes of a Les Fleur De Lys CD (a Brit Psych band
66-68) that I produced two of their songs with Jimi. 
I remember the session but I can't for the life of me
remember that Jimi was there.  If anyone out there has
any more details on this or has copies of those tracks
I'd love to hear them.  They are not included on this CD
but it is mentioned that a band member, Pete Sears has
personal copies of his own.  Pete, if you are reading
this............................

Digger: How would you describe him as a man, a guitarist
and a performer? What do you think we lost when he died?

Hilton: I think as a man he was very quiet,
almost a humble type of person.

Digger: Sounds like you!

Hilton: Yeah! And as a guitar player he was quite unique.
He did things with a guitar that nobody had ever done before.

Digger: He was number 1 in a recent poll of the
top ten guitarists over here.

Hilton: I'm not surprised. His song-writing ability too,
some of the songs he wrote were incredible.

Digger: What do you think we lost?

Hilton: We lost a great deal. We really did. God knows
what he would have been doing now.

Digger: I suppose possibly the only good thing
is that he went out on top.

Hilton: Yes.

Digger: Did Chas Chandler's production abilities become
evident when he was with The Animals?

Hilton: No.

Digger: How would you rate him as a producer?

Hilton: Very good. I mean, he made Jimi Hendrix a star.
Those records still sound great today - Hey Joe and so on.

Digger: He did a lot of 70s stuff as well, didn't he?

Hilton: Hmm.

Digger: What about Mickie Most as a producer?

Hilton: I always thought of Mickie Most as good at getting
a performance out of an artist and also good at choosing
the material. He knew what a hit song was as well.

Digger: Who would you say are your heroes?

Hilton: Bob Dylan, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, all of the
late 50s rock and rollers - Bill  Haley, Gene Vincent, etc.
Also I would include The Band, Van Morrison, and two
guitarists called Leo Kottke and his mentor John Fahey -
a lot of finger picking type guitar that I really like.

Digger: Film stars?

Hilton: Rod Steiger, Paul Newman.

Digger: Lots of American names. You're not into any
British ones then?! Peter O'Toole,
Michael Caine, Sean Connery?

Hilton: Peter O'Toole, Michael Caine,
Sean Connery, oh yes yes.

Digger: I'll just throw the names at you!!!!!!......
( Laughs ) and you just say yes!

Hilton: Yes ( chuckles ) thanks for that.

Digger: No problem!

Hilton: No, I do like those guys too!

Digger: If you were stranded on Richard Branson's island
alone, which CDs and which movies would you want with you?

Hilton: The Beatles - Revolver, Sergeant Pepper, Donovan's
Fairy Tale, Bob Dylan's Freewheelin', S. F. Sorrow
by The Pretty Things.

Digger: What movies?......

Hilton: Slingblade.

Digger: What's that then?

Hilton: Billy Bob Thornton. Goodwill Hunting too.

Digger: What luxuries would you also have?

Hilton: Me wife........ and me daughter.

Digger: That's the correct answer, especially as she's sitting
there by you. I think you'll get out alive now.......... Along with
many other British Invasion stars you settled in the States.
What is life like for you ex-pats out there?

Hilton: I like it. I don't see many of the other English people
out here 'cos I live in a small town. I won't say where.

Digger: Do they know who you are?

Hilton: Some people do, but on the whole no. But people in
the music scene are starting to realise I'm here now and
ringing me up wanting interviews, local papers and such like.
Um, but what I like about it is, the weather. It's blue skies
nine days out of ten. It can get cold but it's not
overcast and grey all of the time.

Digger: You don't get that six or seven months of the year
where you look out and it's just grey.

Hilton: That's it.

Digger: It can change your mood, can't it?

Hilton: It certainly can.

Digger: Does this encourage you to write stuff?

Hilton: I must admit I haven't been writing. I have been doing
a few guitar riffs and I've also been taking up where I
left off on writing some stuff for acoustic guitar.
Getting back to that again.

Digger: What are your current projects?

Hilton: The Animals, with John Steel and Dave Rowberry
and Jim Rodford, we've just got a new singer -
an American who lives in New York.

Digger: What's his name?

Hilton: Eamon Cronin. I just recorded a few songs with
a guy called Roger..... 'shut up Dudley'.

Digger: Do what?

Hilton: No, I was just shouting at the dog. ( both laugh )
Roger C.  Reale. Buddy Guy and Johnny Lang had a hit with
one of his songs last year called Midnight Train
and now Johnny Winters is going to be recording some of
his tunes as well.  A nice guy and I've just done a couple of
tracks   with him. I'm also trying to put a little local
band together. Do stuff that I like.

Digger: What do you think of the music today?

Hilton: Well, I don't really like rap music, hip-hop.

Digger: Same here. And boy bands.

Hilton: Yup.

Digger: So are you, like the rest of us, waiting for the
next good phase to come along?

Hilton: Yeah. I have been helping produce a band from
England. At the moment called Stella State, I guess named
after a certain drink and the condition it can get you into.
They're a couple of cousins of mine. My wife, Germaine,
actually is highly involved with it, it's her project and I
just help now and again and we brought them over here
last year and recorded a few songs. And we're trying to get
a deal for them. That's the sort of thing I liked
getting involved in.

Digger: Does your name pull any strings?

Hilton: Yes.

Digger: Good. So it should.

Hilton: It's got us in to see one or two people.

Digger: What are the differences between audiences
in the UK and the US?

Hilton: I think the audiences in the States are much
more aware of the music. They're not so trendy over here.
They like rock and roll, they know their music. You get
the feeling, when you're playing in England, a lot of people
do know their music but a lot don't and they're just coming
in, depending on the venue, just to get drunk.

Digger: I've noticed that when you go into these on-line
forums about music the Americans really seem to know
all the minutiae - how knowledgeable they are. So what studios
and concert venues would you rate as the best?

Hilton: It's hard to remember them.

Digger: ( Laughs ) Why is that, Hilton?

Hilton: ( Laughs ) Well, you're in so many of them. I've been
travelling in Europe and I'll say to Dave Rowberry "I'm sure
I've been here before" but I can't remember for sure!

Digger: What's your relationship with Eric like these days?

Hilton: Alright. I think, anyway.

Digger: And he's doing his own thing.

Hilton: Yes, but it's his big '60' next month. And John, Dave
Rowberry and myself are going out to California to celebrate
it. We'll get up and play a few songs.

Digger: It's not supposed to be a surprise for him, is it?

Hilton: I don't think so.

Digger: Just checking! I didn't want it on a web page and
for him to find out about it that way.

Hilton: It's on the Eric Burdon website - the Eric Burdon
connection and ericburdon.com already. But I don't know
how much Eric knows about it.

Digger: What ambitions have you still got left?

Hilton: Let me think. To die in peace.

Digger: Not playing on stage, then?

Hilton: Oh yes, if it was, like,  quick. A bolt of lightning
and boom. I want to continue playing for as long as I can,
before the arthritis sets in. And also I would like to
get the recording deal for me cousins.

Digger: Are they from 'Geordieland'? 

Hilton: Yes, they are.

Digger: Are they at all known in England?

Hilton: No, they're just local. But they're a fantastic
band and I want to see them do well.

Digger: Do you think it's in the blood?

Hilton: I don't know.

Digger: Maybe they've heard all of your stuff and have
decided that's the way they want to go as well.

Hilton: I really don't know!

Digger: Do you get a lot of youngsters still
interested in your music?

Hilton: Yes, and I was really pleased that they were and
that they played this kind of music and were actually
playing instruments rather than the electronic stuff.

Digger: Thanks for that Hilton.

Hilton: If you think of anything else, just give us a ring.

Digger: Alright, thank you. If you want any of your projects
or products mentioned on the site then let me know.
I get a few thousand hits now.

Hilton: If I think of anything, I'll give you a quick bell. 
Oh, you can put in www.StellaState.com so people
can have a listen to the boys.  Some of their stuff is
60's influenced........like Splendid.....maybe
they'll like it.

Digger: It's much appreciated and thanks for your time.
And thanks to your wife Germaine for organising it.
She's great, she is.

Hilton: She is.

Digger: And enjoy your Spring and Summer.

Hilton: You too.

Digger:  Thanks for that Hilton. Keep in touch.

Hilton: Alright Dave.

The Animals - John Steel, Eric Burdon, Hilton Valentine,
  Chas Chandler and Alan Price

Many thanks to Hilton for the interview.

www.hiltonvalentine.com