MUSICIAN Peter Barton landed the biggest gig of his career - singing full time with the rock 'n' roll legends The Animals.

The 40-year-old has been offered the job of lead vocalist with the 60s band, famous for the chart smashes House of the Rising Sun and We Gotta Get Out of This Place.

The former pupil of John Rigby School, Blackburn, and St Augustine's, Billington, has been fronting a UK-wide tour with the band which ended this weekend after 45 sell out concerts.

The band have offered him a full-time position saying he sounds like original singer Eric Burdon.

Peter, of Henthorn Road, Clitheroe, said: "This is a really major thing for me. To become a rock star with undoubtedly one of the top five biggest British exponents of the 60s is immense.

"It is a total fluke that the vocalist left and I was on hand and had the chance to step in. They did not even know I could sing."

The five-piece band re-formed last year to celebrate the original lead singer's 60th birthday. The line-up now includes original members John Steel and Dave Rowberry with Argent bass player Jim Rodford and Titanic guitarist Johnnie Williamson.

Peter has worked as a booking agent for the band for ten years through his Clitheroe-based rock 'n' roll agency Rock Artist Management.

But it was his project to write and produce a 12-track album called Animals and Friends with producer Jerry Donahue that triggered off the singing career.

He said: "There have been standing ovations everywhere we have been.

"The music from that time was just timeless and totally original because they had no-one to copy."

No stranger to performing in front of 2,000-strong audiences at Birmingham's Symphony Hall and Manchester's Lowry Centre, the singer is now looking forward to sell-out concerts in Germany and then Holland.

He said: "We have already got hundreds of dates in the diary for this year all over the world."

Peter and the five-piece band will be performing at a free concert in Mitton Hall, Whalley Road, Whalley, on April 17.