I always loved Hilton Valentine - was a Gretch Tenessean he used to ply. A bit like the one George Harrison sometimes played.

I wrote to him a few years back and he wrote back - he was living in Connecticut at the time. Even now his name on a guitar magazine will get me buying it. I've seen The Animals with every line up since Alan Price left. Chas Chandler died of course, and I believe Dave Rowberry. Eric Burdon fronts his own band.

It wasn't until Hilt left that it stopped sounding like The Animals. He was the real soul of the band. You could replace everything else.