Update on April 13, 2017 – Thanks to some effort from Mr Dair, we can announce a mini-tour of 3 dates at the start of June
Friday June 2 8pm – The Twa Tams, Perth
Saturday June 3 8pm – McChuills, Glasgow
Sunday June 4 8pm – Leith Depot, Edinburgh
Details of support and timings to be confirmed. Or you can check out the Mighties FB page ->
And by the way, thanks to everyone who attended the last gig at Leith Depot – a hot and sweaty night.
And thanks to John Richardson for allowing us to play at his Ripping Records ‘wake’. We haven’t been called ‘legends’ before but better late than never. Again, a night of fun and dancing. – >
It was nice to dust off some of the songs that the Valeetahs didn’t get round to – Haircuts from Mars and Tarzan – and to perform the Cheetahs’ classic Another Umbrella. We like the new song ‘I Took My Time’ also too as well.
And the next gig – Friday December 30 at the Leith Depot – support band still to be arranged. Check the Valves and Leith Depot FB pages for updates . . . .
Update on November 12 – Gig at the Wee Red Bar now features as support the wonderful Trama Dolls. Doors open at 7, gig finishes at 10 (due to another event at the same venue). Tickets are a fiver at the door and entry for 18+ only I’m afraid. At the moment we’re trying to put a set together containing the best of the Valves stuff plus some Cheetahs songs, a cover or two and a couple of new originals. Gonna be tough to squeeze them all in but trying to do some stuff that the Valeetahs didn’t get round to playing.
Dateline – October 20, 2016 update update update update. The Valves are back (well, almost). After the reunion gig in 2013, Dave went to Belgium to do his thang and the rest of us got on with other stuff, the main one being The Valeetahs, a six-piece who played a few gigs from 2014 to February 2016 at Henry’s, the Meadows festival, the Portobello Palm Tree and the Wee Red Bar.
With the demise of the Valeetahs, another band has been formed round the rest of the Valves (Ronnie Mackinnon on guitar, Gordon Dair on drums and Pada on bass) with the addition of Joe Donkin (singer of legendary Embra band The Cheetahs) and Gordon Mackinnon (who was keyboard maestro for the fondly remembered AVO-8)
To be honest, we couldn’t face the angst and effort of coming up with another Valves/Cheetahs mash-up for a name or coming up with a new one so we went for relaunching as The Valves, as 75% of the band are still there and a decent proportion of the songs are Valves classics (‘Classics’? Hmmm – Ed.) The other songs are a mix of Cheetahs songs, new songs from Joe and a couple of cover versions).
Sounds f**kin great (I hear you say) – so where can I see the revamped Valves? Answer – Wee Red Bar in the Art College in Lauriston Place, Edinburgh on Friday December 2. Doors open at 7pm and gig ends at 10pm. Cost will probably be a fiver at the door and support will be announced as soon as we find one. . . if you’ve seen the Valeetahs you know what to expect, but we intend to play some more rarely-heard Valves and Cheetahs songs at this gig. And the atmosphere at the Wee Red Bar is usually tremendous.
If you want to see the kind of stuff we’ve been doing and will do, here’s a link to some Valeetahs stuff on YouTube –
End of update update update
Aaagh – ignore the para below. We’ll have to cancel the Meadows this year but we’ll try again in 2015. Turns out having a singer is a prerequisite to having a set of songs which is a prerequisite for a gig. Damn!
Meadows Festival – Sunday June 8
Not the full Valves experience (as Dave is sitting this one out) but Gordon, Ronnie and Pada are looking for guest singers to contribute to a ‘Valves All-Star’ set (bit of a cheeky use of the word “All-Start” there) so post contact here or our FB page https://www.facebook.com/events/302163629941273/ if you fancy contributing to a bit of Edinburgh history – and in the time-honoured phrase “No time wasters please”.
Photos of the Liquid Room gig plus order instructions for the last run of the t-shirts. Check the latest post (see bottom of page) . . .
Welcome to the Valves blog. A bit late perhaps, but with a reunion gig coming up, we thought a Valves blog might be a good way of storing new and old stuff and passing on news to any peeps who are interested.
OK, I guess we’re going to need some damn content for this Valves blog. So – hmmm, At the moment , Gordon, Ronnie and I (Pada) are less-than-frantically rehearsing for a gig in December 2013 (Liquid Room in Victoria St on the 21st). We haven’t fallen out with Dave – he’s in Belgium and has been for a few years now and won’t be coming over till December.
Gordon has been keeping his hand in over the intervening decades with various musical projects but Ron and I are a tad rusty but are loosening up nicely. Any requests for songs for the gig, by the way? We think we know what we want to (or can) play but we may have some forgotten some classics (in the broadest sense of the word). But be careful – if you can remember the song you might be asked to play it at the gig, as there’s a fair chance we’ve forgotten how to play it.
If you have some decent photos too, look them out but don’t send them yet till we old-fashioned guys figure some kind of internetty transfer to get them to us.
Cheers,
Pada
Got to be at the reunion gig! Got some pics from the gig at Craigmillar, August 1980ish I think.
Loved going to Nicky Tams to catch the guys back in the day.
I wonder how many ‘old faces’ will show up?
Robot Love ya all!
Saw some mention of a reunion gig, so went searching – and found this site.
Jings, I’d never have guessed there’d be a reunion gig! Saw the band, at the Meadows Fest gig which is mentioned on the site, when I was in my very early teens. I’m sure I saw you somewhere else, too, but I can’t imagine where, given that I’d have never managed to bluff my way into a bar, back then. I distinctly remember the MF gig affecting my guitar style: the straight lead looped through the strap was a revelation, back in the days of cheap, crappy curly leads. Yup, that’s how superficial I was/am. Probably inevitably, I now prefer the looks of my (decent quality!) curly leads. Go figure…
I had a few of the singles, too, although they’ve disappeared off somewhere, over the years.
Anyway, hope to be at the gig. Should be a great night!
Cheers.
Hi Gary and Ian. Ta – we’re almost as surprised as you that there’s a reunion gig coming up. Hope you can make it. Some well-known and not-so well known songs have extracts on the ‘Music’ page of the blog so you may remember some of them. Ian, hope all your leads stay curly . . . .
This “old face” has a ticket…
Looking forward to it, although it seems I’m only back in Embra these days for reunion gigs and funerals…
DVD and news made my day when sent link. I met Alison at West End Club gig in 1978 and we are still both fans. Got tickets for the gig as it ‘s her birthday on 19th December so ‘West End Club’ for us on the night.
Gordon, it’s on the set list….
Yeah! Got my tickets fae Rippin Records……even meeting up with my cousin Frankie B who turns out is mates with yourself Gordon. He says we met at his wedding reception at the Tartan Club!!
By a strange coincidence I’ve been thinking of doing a piece on the band for a feature on my blog about my favourite records released on Scottish independent labels so if any Valves would fancy answering a few questions on Ain’t No Surf in Portobello and the reunion gig feel free to get in touch.
Good luck with the show!
Great gig last night. Good memories of many Valves gigs with Skids Monos Rezillos . Mostly in the company of the late Mr Johnny Waller even looked a few copies of Kingdom Come fanzine. Great Valves interview and some words on The Freeze……
Thanks for last night chaps.
Apologies for adding a horrible Captcha ‘type what you can barely read’ function before you can post comments but I’ve just spent some hours deleting 2000+ comments added by spammers and bots. If you can’t read the captcha text, just keep pressing refresh until a readable one appears.
Hello boys, hows it going? I used to drive for a band called Angel Easy. Seems like a long time ago now. Maybe see you at the 100 club next year.
Hi Kenny, it was a long time ago. I can barely remember you but Gordon Dair does – still a Jethro Tull fan? Hope you are well. Pada