Hard Rock Music ReIssues: ST. VALENTINE and SLAM
Out now through 20th Century Music / Vanity Music Group are two previously unreleased albums worth of material from a couple of Hollywood’s hottest properties in the late 80s and early 90s.
ST. VALENTINE were basically the face of the Sunset Strip through the latter half of the 80s. The quintet had the look, the over-the-top stageshow and more importantly, the hook laden material that the world over associated with Hollywood and that era of music. Metal Forces magazine’s Kelv Hellrazer praised the band’s musical efforts far and wide, and even went so far as to dub the band’s frontman, Scott Thomas Richards “the best looking guy in rock.”
The band pulled Dana Strum in to produce a demo (and enlisted the talents of both Jeff Scott Soto and Mark Slaughter to help with backing vocals) and labels were suddenly showing severe interest in having the band members’ autographs signatures on some paperwork with Chrysalis Records leading the way. During the courting process, however, the scene on The Strip went from slick, pretty boy AOR bands to tougher, leather clad types and the band’s dreams were shattered.
SLAM also hailed from Tinsel Town and were a magical mix of traditional hard rock and funk rock brilliance. Fronted by the unrivalled vocal talents of (at the time) former Panther, Yngwie Malmsteen and Eyes singer Jeff Scott Soto, who partnered up with former Lee Aaron, Hanover Fist and Beau Nasty lead guitar whiz, George Bernhardt as well as – at different times – future Dokken and House of Lords bassist, Chris McCarvill, Ricky Wolking – upcoming bassist for artists such as Jennifer Batten, The Nixons and more, rapper EQG, multi-instrumentalist Gary Schutt and others.
The band were only in existence for a short period of time but managed to knock out sixteen fantastic songs in the studio, managing to secure small amounts of label interest but, by the time SLAM hit, the musical landscape was so intensely changing that even the band’s plethora of incredible material and their electrifying live show couldn’t manage to bring home a deal.
