Rock Music
See ‘the band who never were’ live at Cumbernauld Theatre!
Formed at glasgow Art School in the early 80s and signed to A&M records and Rondor publishing ‘Valerie in the week of wonders’ featured Gerard M Burns ( bass guitar and vocals), and brothers Brian and Ewan Mcfie ( lead guitar and drums). The band was later joined by multi talented Greg Kane ( one half of Hue and Cry) who played bass, keyboards and sax.
The bands sound hovers somewhere between Simple Minds, U2, Psychedelic Furs, and REM, However what began as a serious post-punk outfit, eventually developed into something much more complex, with songs like ‘Unawares’ and “The big kill” being created just before the band split.
It’s fair to say that Valerie and the week of wonders could justifiably be labelled “the band who never were’ , as despite operating at a fairly high level, virtually no record of the band ever having existed remains. In reality all that physically remained from their very considerable output, were the two singles, Real Surprise and Too Late and a big box of unreleased demo tapes which were languishing in their ex managers loft!
During lockdown Burns decided to do something about this, and with the help of Greg Kane he re-mastered as much of the material as was possible, bringing some 15 tracks back finally into the light of day.
The resulting album ‘Helpless” can now be found on Spotify and is available on vinyl via the bands website.
This event will be supported by This Questionable Life.
This Questionable Life is the latest project of 3 former members of Cumbernauld’s very own Manic Noises.
They are Graham Muir: vocals and guitar, Tommy Marshall: bass and backing vocals, and Martin Muir: drums.
The band officially launched in mid-2022 when Manic Noises folded following the departure of William Marshall from the band which had existed since the early 1980s.
They still base their songs on the familiar post-punk sound that their fans and followers will know very well, but perhaps now sound fresher as they incorporate many new influences and perform a new set of songs developed since they became This Questionable Life.
