American melodic rockers St. VALENTINE operated in the Californian scene all over the ’80s. St. Valentine was in fact a variant of the infamous Hollywood band London when a name change was adopted circa 1983. They were initially led by Dessi Valentine.
After Dessi’s departure to Diamond Rexx and D’Molls (and a name change to Dessi Rexx), Englishman John ‘Wardie’ Ward was employed as vocalist (he later went on to Madam X, Shame and Hurricane) before relocating back to Britain where he sang with SHY. Other members of the band’s early line up included Nigel Itson on drums (who had been in London), L.A. stalwart Lizzie Grey on guitar, and Marc Simon on bass.
After several line-up changes, Dana Strum (at the time in Vinnie Vincent Invasion) produced St. VALENTINE’s demo in 1987, securing backing vocals provided by Mark Slaughter and Jeff Scott Soto.
While St. VALENTINE looks / big hair refer to glam metal, their music was much more melodic hard rock / AOR oriented than their Hollywood peers.
As requested, here’s the limited edition CD pressing made by the band’s Fan Club.
‘St. Valentine’ contains the demos the band recorded with Dana Strum specifically for A&R and press purposes. The sound quality is good, considering the source come from cassette.
The songs on the demo are slick, polished and definitely catchy melodic hard rock. The band look like Poison – but sound like pretty AORish, even with a slightly Scandinavian touch like Treat or Europe.
‘Take Me Away’ has a stack of good vocal harmonies, catchy chorus and a bombast sound. Great melodic rock. ‘Chances’ is a big, keyboard heavy slice of AOR, then ‘I Want It She’s Got It’ rocks hard and is also an energetic rocker and evidence of some pretty fine song writing.
As happened with many good bands at the time, St. VALENTINE were really close to sign a deal with Virgin Records. They had the chops, the right connections, but the overcrowded scene leave many talented bands with empty hands.
If you like second had of the ’80 MR/AOR, you need to hear St. VALENTINE. The sound quality from this disc is much better than the K7 copies floating the net.
1 – I Need You
2 – Take Me Away
3 – Chances
4 – I Want It, She’s Got It
5 – Hard Days, Long Nights
Scott Thomas Richards – lead vocals
Rusty Shinkle – guitars
Eloy – keyboards
Marc Simon – bass
Chris Lorentzen – drums
Mark Clark – keyboards, synths
St. VALENTINE – 1987 [feat Mark Slaughter and Jeff Scott Soto / Fan Club limited CD] Mini LP
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