Few weeks ago we featured in exclusive at plotn08 the recordings of American melodic rockers St. VALENTINE whom operated in the Californian scene all over the ’80s.
Now 20th Century Music released for the first time on CD that five-song EP the band recorded with Dana Strum (at the time in Vinnie Vincent Invasion) as producer and Mark Slaughter & Jeff Scott Soto providing backing vocals, augmented with 5 extra bonus tracks: two studio demos produced by extraordinaire Matt Chidgey (Lynch Mob) and three live songs captured at The Roxy in West Hollywood in 1987. All digitally remastered.
While St. VALENTINE looks / big hair refer to glam metal, their music was much more melodic hard rock / AOR oriented than their Hollywood peers.
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.
‘St. Valentine’ contains the the tracks the band recorded with Dana Strum specifically for A&R and press purposes. With this remastering the sound quality obtained is very good. The unreleased demos rocks, and the live tracks showcase St. Valentine’s hot on stage.
The songs 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 songwriting.
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.
1 I Need You
2 Take Me Away
3 I Want It, She's Got It
4 Chances
5 Hard Days, Long Nights
6 Scream Out
7 Try
8 Scream Out (Live)
9 Hold On To The Dream (Live)
10 Hard Days, Long Nights (Live)
for subscr
St. Valentine – St. Valentine 2022 Limited Edition,
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