The Valves
The Valves, like so many bands at the time, kinda collided with punk and adapted their brand of Hot Rods/ Feelgoods high energy rock’n’roll act and rode on its surf (sic). Starting off as a progressive band called Angel Easy, then The Sale, they became The Valves mid-1977. Two singles followed that year, then nothing in 1978 till a final one on Albion and it was all over.
Everybody (that mattered) liked them and bought the records. Quite a bit of envy around that they were the first in Edinburgh to get vinyl-ised. Nobody ever thought they were punks – too hairy, too pub-rock – Nazareth on speed. Robin Saunders, 2001
A trip down to London like the perennial Dick Whittington didn’t find the streets paved with gold but fourth on the bill to Generation X at The Roundhouse and a lukewarm reaction. They returned undeterred and began gigging through 1978 throughout London using a mixture of live ads in the music weeklies and guerrilla graffiti tactics that saw one manager fined. They also picked up the occasional live review (Gary Bushell) and full-page interview (Dave McCullough) as well as continuing support from Scottish fanzines Hanging Around and Kingdom Come.
Left – Sounds 9.12.78
Above – Kingdom Come #15 1979
With their deal with Zoom over, The Valves looked for the all-important major deal, though amazingly an offer from EMI for the boys to cover Manfred Mann’s 5-4-3-2-1, which they used to cover in their set) was turned down by them! In desperation, the band, who were published by Albion, released their third and final single with that label. Despite initial record play and interest a fuck up meant no picture cover and no promotion. They split shortly afterward.
The Valves used to include two covers in the set 5-4-3-2-1 and The Way I Walk. Other songs included Radios, Haircuts From Mars, their New York Dolls tribute – Subway Train Incident Parts 1-5, Fab Front Loader, Turn Up The Volume, Walk Don’t Walk, Bay City Rollers and I Want A Ride.
As of 2023 The Valves are back – check out their site and Facebook
The Valves by singer Dee Robot aka Dave Robertson from May 2002. Nice insight from a different perspective. Not every punk band was a punk band. Read on to understand that cryptic statement.
Thanks to Josephien who typed it all up and emailed me.
The Valves were originally a band called…….ANGEL EASY!!!!???, playing what was known at the time as progressive rock! I happened to be playing at the time, in a pub duo, who were joined by Ronnie Macinnon (?) on guitar, he asked me if I’d be interested in joining his band (Angel Easy) on vocals, as their rhythm guitarist/singer couldn’t do two things at once, I agreed, but when I saw the lyrics that I had to sing, I threw-up, and asked `if I could maybe write my own lyrics.
We were playing “pub rock” at the time, but it was all around then anyway. I’d never really written a song in my life, so when I got the chance, I just went crazy! As my musical upbringing was rock and roll, that meant songs don’t last more than three minutes (maximum), and exactly at this time, I started to hear things on the radio, like “New Rose” from The Damned, which is still, like one of the best tracks ever recorded ever (ever). Of course, I’d read in the music papers all the stuff about the Sex Pistols, etc., but I didn’t like the look of those guys. It wasn’t really a question of us taking a punk direction, it was more that we met each other at the crossroads (man), and the people who were booking gigs at the time, didn’t know who the fuck was who!
STARDATE:1976….I guess punk hit Scotland at more or less the same time as it hit everywhere else. In Edinburgh, bands sprung up like mushrooms after the rain; Matt Vinyl And The Decorators (a name Dave Christie stole from me!) The Scars, The Freeze (The Exploited came later) and many more, but I wasn’t counting. Basically “real” punks hated us, people who liked rough rock and roll and r&b loved us, and as you might imagine, there are always areas of crossover.
Well, as I said, we were never a punk band, but probably because of the first single, we got gigs, and we did obviously have “fans”, but I think very few of them were punks! We played lots of fast songs, but none of them had anything to do with Margaret Thatcher or looking for a job! therefore we were looked down on by the REAL punk bands, altho we did have some friends among them. Gigs were mostly bars and student unions, Tiffany’s, Eric Browns, Stewarts Ballroom, the Abercorn (?), and the Art College, but to be honest, I can’t remember them all.
We got some management, who got us our first support with Tom Robinson, and after the gig, Lenny Love (Rezillos manager) came backstage with Bruce Findlay (?) who asked us if we’d like to record for Zoom. We were of course delighted, and we signed-up! I have no recollection of the deal, only that we got to drink some champagne, which seemed pretty big-time to us! I don’t remember the reviews, so I guess they were crap! But we were probably just happy to get mentioned in the music papers! Obviously, we felt like local heroes. I think at the time there were only us and The Rezillos with a record out.
It wasn’t a question of reversion to r&b with “Tarzan/no surf”; that was more or less the style I was writing in and like I said, there was a bit of confusion at the time, between pub rock/punk/new wave. It was recorded not so long after the first one, and we were, in fact, beginning to get bigger and better gigs. We played all over England/Scotland and Ireland, and got booked for a mini-tour of Sweden, all in 1978 when we had no record out at all! I don’t regret signing to Zoom, and I don’t remember if ANYTHING went wrong,
I think we just thought it was cool to be in London. I’m not sure that London bands paid any attention to us! and the public was generally cooler/colder toward us than at home, but we were happy to do it, AND we did have the BIGGEST graffiti (?) campaign in London!!! one of our managers was up in court because of it, we got fined four hundred pounds or something like that. We played the Roundhouse, the Marquee, the Rock Garden, the Hope and Anchor, the Nashville, the Music Machine ( later the Camden Palace), the Last Resort, in Acton with Skrewdriver (!), and a few other things.
I liked bands like The Damned and The Clash very much; I wasn’t crazy about the people who took themselves too seriously! I also liked X-RAY SPECS, The Saints, from Australia, and John Otway. I think we only toured with Joe Jackson, but we played support for lots of big acts; The Stranglers, Ian Dury, The Adverts, Gen X, Saints, The Members, the Greedy Bastards, etc.,.
I think we got pretty good coverage , considering that we weren’t SO big, of course, it could always have been better, but then….so could we!
Our management was trying to get us a deal with a major. We had an offer from E.M.I. to do a single, a cover of Manfred Mann’s 54321 which we used to do for an encore number, but I guess that got fucked-up? There were two or three offers from other companies to do an album, but Gordon, our drummer, who we trusted to know stuff ( cos basically the rest of us didn’t have a clue !), persuaded us that there wasn’t enuff money involved, so I guess you could say we fucked that up ourselves! I’m not sure any of us wanted to move to London; we played there on a very regular basis, but I’m not sure we could’ve survived there. I don’t think it was even discussed, but I couldn’t have gone anyway, as I was married (with children!)
We were always told that we changed our repertoire too often, with the result that we never quite gave material a chance to “grow” and develop. This was probably my fault, cos I got bored with the songs very quickly.
The deal with Albion was for publishing only, meanwhile, we (our management) were hoping to sign to a major, (some hope !) history will show that it never happened, and out of desperation, Albion decided to put out a single….Don’t Mean Nuthin……which also DID nuthin at all! At first, we were excited because it was played on the radio for a couple of weeks, then silence! We went to Albion to ask why our lovely record had suddenly vanished, and the head honcho said…….Oh, the record plugger has gone on holiday! So, of course, we asked why they couldn’t get some other bugger as a plugger, but it was just like they couldn’t give a shit, so I quit! Regarding the missing sleeve; there was an excellent layout prepared by a guy called DON…somebody, a really cool guy who worked with our management, and there was the possibility of four different sleeves (I think Generation X had just done this trick, and we were impressed!) but this was obviously beyond the financial reach of Albion, which is fucking ridiculous in a time when things like sleeves and colored vinyl really DID make a difference!
That’s about when it ended. We played ONE more gig AFTER we were officially broken up, at the first stadium concert in Scotland, organised by our (ex) management. They asked if we’d like to play, just for fun, so The Cheetahs opened, (good friends of ours) and we played second, on a bill that included Squeeze and The Undertones, to mention just a couple, and Van Morrison was top of the bill. But I never saw him, cos me and my family had to catch the last bus home (it’s tuff at the top!)
Directly afterward we were all caught up by the dole, and faced with the choice of getting a job, or going to court,
Within four months The Valves had released two singles on Zoom the classic Robot Love / For Adolfs Only and the Tarzan Of The Kings Road / Ain’t No Surf In Portobello. Together the singles notched up sales of over 22,000 with very little promotion from Zoom.
The Valves – Adolfs Only / Robot Love
(Zoom Records – August 1977)
The Valves were the first Edinburgh punk band to get to vinyl. Their finest moment and gracing many a homemade compilation tape of punk tunes. Caught exactly as the punk zeitgeist was taking hold. Rough, uptempo and full of just the kind of shoutalong that punky types hearts would beat faster to.
“A-D-O-L-F-P-A – Adolf was a piss artist – OK!”
Sounds 24.9.77
The Valves – Tarzan Of The Kings Road / Ain’t No Surf In Portobello – (Zoom – November 1978)
For those punky types who had been expecting more of the same as the first single (released just 4 months earlier) this would have been a surprise from the cover showing some very unpunky types to the music which was okayish mix of frantic garage style and beach boy style rock’n’roll toons. Portobello referred to here isn’t Portobello Road in London but Portobello Beach in Edinburgh (“a mini Blackpool with calm murky water ” – Trick #1 fanzine November 1977). The King’s Road isn’t the one in Edinburgh, but that bastion of ted and punk battles and fashionistas in Chelsea, London.
The Valves – Don’t Mean Nothing At All / Linda Vindaloo
(Albion 1979)
By 1979 they had signed to Albion and it’s one of those anomalies that this comes without a picture sleeve in the UK but with one in Italy of all places. It’s fine uptempo power pop/new wave with It Don’t Matter and the pick the sixties-ish almost psychedelic grooves of Linda Vindaloo. Supposedly an album was in the offing with Albion but it never happened.
TalkPunk
Post comments, images & videos - Posts are checked and offensive or irrelevant ones will be removed
