August 2018 update – have I been neglecting blog duties so long? After a spell as the six-piece Valeetahs, the band have settled down as a revived Valves 5-piece. With Dee living in Antwerp (which makes gigs a bit tricky) we have the legendary Joe Donkin (Cheetahs) on vocals and song-writing duties and the bold Gordon Mackinnon on keys and Walter White trilby. Videos are all over YouTube and our FB page.

Ronnie created this tree (a la Zigzag) in 1977 –

 

All the Valves participated in an occasional band called ‘The Dirty Dossers’ which consisted of the band minus some members and/or plus some additional talent such as Jamie from the Monos,  Dougie Thomson, Stuart Nisbet (at that time a Valves Road manager along with Pete) whose career has since taken a nose-dive via playing/recording with the Proclaimers, China Crisis etc. etc. The Dossers played a variety of gigs, memorably as a 12-piece playing a City Lynx benefit at the Astoria and as a 3-piece (Stuart plus the Gordons) playing mainly Van Morrison’s back catalogue at the Rowan Fair oop north after Dave pulled out of the gig for medical reasons.

Nice pic, guys . . .

After the Valves folded, Dee and Pada found themselves in a band called the Mudsharks with Stuart on guitar, Keith Burns on drums and Alan Marshall and Alan (damn, forgot) on guitar/sax. Some good stuff there – may add some samples to the site in future . . .