Hilton Valentine

Animals guitarist BORN 1943

Born in North Shields, skiffle convert Hilton Valentine played with The Heppers and The Wildcats – where he was known for ripping his shirt off and rolling about on the floor while “wailing away” on guitar – before joining The Animals in 1963. An early adopter of the Echoplex effects unit, his moment of immortality came with the dramatic arpeggio that ran through the group’s 1964 transatlantic smash version of The House Of The Rising Sun (The Animals adapted their version from Bob Dylan’s 1962 cover; Dylan was reputedly so struck by it he was inspired to go electric himself). Further hits, including Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood and We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, followed before the original group’s split in 1966. Valentine, who released the LSD-informed solo album All In

Your Head in 1969, reunited with The Animals several times over the years, forming The Animals II in the ’90s. During that same decade he emigrated to Connecticut, and since then he returned to where it all began with Skiffledog, played with The Yardbirds and toured with The Animals’ singer Eric Burdon in 2007 and 2008.