| The Valves, like
so many bands at the time, kinda collided with punk and adapting their brand
of Hot Rods/ Feelgoods high energy rock'n'roll act rode on its surf.
Originally a progressive cum pub band Angel Easy roughed up the
vocals and roughed up the guitars. As Dee Robot in the punk 77 says
"...
the people who were booking gigs at the time, didn’t know who the
fuck was who!"
Having attracted
a small following in their native Edinburgh a gig supporting Tom
Robinson led to them being signed by Zoom Records on a 1 year
contract. They immediately changed their name to The Valves.
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
Within 4
months they had released 2 singles on Zoom the classic
Robot Love / For
Adolfs Only
and the
Tarzan Of The Kings Road / Ain't No Surf In Portobello.
While the former was a bona fide 24 carat punk classic the latter a
more R&B surf affair that must have certainly confused any fan base
they may have had from the first single. Together the singles
notched up sales of over 22,000 with very little promotion from
Zoom. |
