History of THE ANIMALS

The original Animals who were famous for their hits in the 1960’s were formed in the North East of England city of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1963 and were known for their distinctive gritty rhythm and blues sound derived from a mix of British pop and American blues.

 They were also known in the USA as part of the ‘British Invasion’. The Animals were Eric Burdon on vocals, Hilton Valentine on guitar, Chas Chandler on bass, Alan Price on keyboards, and John Steel on drums. 

The band shot to fame Worldwide with their No1 signature song ‘House Of The Rising Sun’, as well as having many other successful hits including ‘We’ve Gotta Get Out Of This Place’, ‘I’ts My Life’, ‘I’m Crying’, 'Bring It On Home To Me', and 'Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’.

Following the success of House of The Rising Sun in 1965 Alan Price left the band to follow a solo career and was replaced by Dave Rowberry on keyboards. In February 1966 John Steel left the band and was replaced by Barry Jenkins on drums until the band split in late 1966. Eric Burdon then moved to the USA and along with Jenkins formed the 'psychedelic' band 'Eric Burdon and the New Animals'.

In the UK in 1993, when Hilton Valentine was a member of Tyneside based Rhythm & Blues band The Alligators, he was approached by Peter Barton, an agent from Lancashire in the UK, to see if he would be interested in performing some shows in Germany as The Animals. Hilton liked the idea and quickly set about augmenting the Alligators band with a keyboard player to recreate the original 1960’s Animals sound. Auditions were held at the Pheasant pub in Tynemouth where Hilton, original Animals bass player Chas Chandler and original drummer John Steel were also present. Following a comprehensive trial run of the Animals songs Chas Chandler decided that local keyboard player Steve Hutchinson (aka Stevie Hutch) was in his words “The man for the job”. Chas Chandler however declined to become a member of the new band due to health problems, but did offer instead to become the manager for the band.

Using the remaining members from Hilton's Alligators band, the line-up of his new reincarnated Animals band was complete, and with all of the band members living within 10 miles of Newcastle the birth place of the original Animals band. The line-up comprised of original Animals guitarist Hilton Valentine and original Animals drummer John Steel, along with Robert Kane (aka Robert Robinson) on Vocals, Steve Hutchinson on keyboards, George Fearon on 2nd guitar, and Joss Elliott on bass guitar.

 John Steel, who at that time kept in regular contact with Eric Burdon in the USA, contacted Eric Burdon to ask if he would mind if this new band could use 'The Animals' name. Eric allegedly replied stating that Hilton and John were both Animals as much as he was, and he did not mind so long as there would not be any confusion with his own band that regularly performed in the USA and Germany under the name of Eric Burdon and The Animals. To solve this problem George Fearon suggested that the psuedo name 'Animals II' could be used in those two countries. So with the acceptance of all the original members of the band Hilton now had 'THE ANIMALS' back on the road again.

This new 2nd generation of The Animals performed its first 'dress rehearsal' show under the name of 'Hilton Valentine’s Animals' on 14^th March 1994 at The Pheasant pub in Tynemouth, followed by another show at Bultins in Ayr Scotland. Much larger shows then followed shortly afterwards in the UK and Scandinavia and with both Chas Chandler and Eric Burdon’s blessing these shows were billed under the the band's original name of 'The Animals'.

Hilton's unmistakable guitar playing and John's unique drumming style, coupled with Robert Kane's uncanny vocal resemblance to Eric Burdon and Steve Hutchinson's ability to play the keyboard in the very distinctive style of Alan Price undoubtedly made for a truly authentic re-creation of The Animals sound, leaving fans in no doubt that THE ANIMALS were well and truly back on the road.

In the summer of 1995 after two years of extensive touring as The Animals in Europe and Scandinavia unrest had unfortunately grown within the band, said in part to be due to the strong Alligators influence within the band. Hilton and John's determination to continue to promote their band's identity as 'The Animals' resulted in them looking for replacement dedicated band members. Robert Kane and Steve Hutchinson were retained in their exacting roles however Joss Elliott and George Fearon having heard of the impending split immediately left the band. 

The Animals at this point had a full diary of shows to fulfill so on 28th July 1995 Hilton and John recruited bass player Graham (Fred) Hill, and guitarist Dave Whiffen who would go on to perform many shows touring with the band in the UK and Scandinavia.

In August 1995 local guitarist Tony Ions was brought in for the recording of the Northern Ireland TV Show "It's only Telly" which was broadcast on 23rd August 1995. This TV show lineup featured Hilton Valentine, John Steel, Robert Kane, Steve Hutchinson, Graham Hill and Tony Ions.

Due to personal commitments Dave Whiffen and Graham Hill left the Animals line up in 1995 and local guitarist Steve Dawson and local bass player Martin Bland joined the band as the new replacement members alongside the long established band members Hilton Valentine, John Steel, Steve Hutchinson and Robert Kane. This would turn out to be the longest stable line-up in the history of The Animals.

The band with this new line up line up successfully toured and performed throughout the World under the name of The Animals playing concerts as far a field as Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Middle East, Far East, Japan, Europe, and Scandinavia, as well as performing successful tours of the USA and Germany cataloging a total of more than 600 shows Worldwide. 

The 1995 - 1999 line up of The Animals also recorded and released many CD's which included new versions of their old hits that featured new piano arrangements by Steve Hutchinson along with new band compositions. One of these CD's was the extremely rare official CD released in 1997 by A2 Records as 'THE ANIMALS - INTERESTING LIFE', which was recorded in October 1996 with many of these CD's being sold at their live concerts around the world. This particular first release has now become a collector’s item.

On 21st November 1996 The Animals appeared live on the British breakfast TV show "GMTV" to promote the release of THE ANIMALS new album.

This CD was also later commercially released again by A2 Records in 2000 under the name of THE ANIMALS but it has incorrect liner notes about the band.

Many further compilation albums have subsequently been released around the world using the 1996 recordings but under many different album titles and covers.

As The Animals were in high demand by the end of 1999 and were attracting much higher profile shows and revenues, Hilton and John reluctantly agreed with the band's management to replace the existing long standing North East line-up of the band with higher profile ex-60's musicians. 

Long standing keyboard player Steve Hutchinson was replaced by London keyboardist Dave Rowberry who had been a member of The Animals in the 1960's for 18 months after Alan Price left the band. Bass player Martin Bland was replaced by London musician Jim Rodford from 60/70's band The Kinks. Long standing guitarist Steve Dawson was not included in the new line-up, and the job of new front-man strangely went to rock singer Tony Liddle (previously the vocalist for Saxon and The Tygers of Pan Tang). 

This was a change that took Hilton and John's reincarnation of The Animals into a different direction and was unfortunately relatively short lived, resulting in Hilton Valentine, who was unhappy about the new changes, leaving the band in April 2001 to live in the USA which brought an end to their very sucessful reincarnation of The Animals band.