---
title: That Time An Animal Gigged With The Blue Meanies
description: Hilton Valentine.
image: https://garyowenmusician.com/hubfs/IMG_5143.jpeg
---

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# That Time An Animal Gigged With The Blue Meanies

[Gary Owen](https://garyowenmusician.com/en/blog/author/gary-owen)

 August 13 2023

During the summer of 2015, we Blue Meanies performed at an outdoor Beatles convention in Connecticut. One of the main guests was the now-late Hilton Valentine (1943-2021) who was the lead guitarist for the 1960s British band, the Animals. He joined us on stage to perform a batch of songs. Prior to the show, he rehearsed with us and he used my Guild F512-12 acoustic.

 

Here are a few photos from that fun day!

 

Rehearsal.....inside.

![IMG_5143](https://garyowenmusician.com/hs-fs/hubfs/IMG_5143.jpeg?width=831&height=806&name=IMG_5143.jpeg)  

 

Rehearsal....outside.

Also pictured is the Blue Meanies' drummer, the late, great JT (1949-2019).

![IMG_5144](https://garyowenmusician.com/hs-fs/hubfs/IMG_5144.jpeg?width=830&height=623&name=IMG_5144.jpeg)

 

For the performance, I opted for the David Jones tambourine whilst Hilton Valentine wound up with Damian's Epiphone Casino. Our hapless lead-guitarist wound up playing my said Guild 12-string acoustic, and, as we can see, was a bit out of his element.

In the end, we all had a great time jamming with the Animal!

![IMG_5145](https://garyowenmusician.com/hs-fs/hubfs/IMG_5145.jpeg?width=828&height=1104&name=IMG_5145.jpeg)

 

After the show.

![IMG_5146](https://garyowenmusician.com/hs-fs/hubfs/IMG_5146.jpeg?width=827&height=620&name=IMG_5146.jpeg)

 

Here's Hilton Valentine with the Animals playing a vintage Gretsch Tennessean.

This performance was featured in the 1965 film "Pop Gear".

![Animals](https://garyowenmusician.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Animals.webp?width=825&height=353&name=Animals.webp)

 

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