11

They Come From A Land Down Under

They came, they saw, they conquered - well they conquered the hearts, minds and ears of those that got off their backsides and came out to see the trio from Melbourne, Australia. Valentiine made probably the longest journey any band can make to tour the UK and parts of Europe and it becomes even more of a herculean effort when you bear in mind Valentiine are an unsigned band and founded it themselves.

Tonight's gig was their last after eight weeks on the road with Cable35 and lead singer Vanessa V admitted her vocals were suffering a little, not that anyone noticed in the audience, they sounded perfect for the garage rock meets grunge style the band played, mixing the harmonic and aggressive. Out of the four bands on the bill, Valentiine were the least in frenetic in style which left their musicianship skills more open to be scrutinized but the riffs were tied with a strong and heavy undertone and perfect timing changes left all with no doubt these girls kick ass.

There was no weak moment in the set, all tracks were well worth the admission money alone, tracks like Beauty Lies with its slow heavy riffs, Animal and Love Like mixing the gentle with aggression and my personal favourite, Chucky which was a song about "Drinking too much and enjoying it. English do it well. English do it with style." With lyrics like "And I try to suck it up, keep it down, don't throw it up" it might be about a bit more than just the drinking part!

And so closes the European adventure for the Melbourne band. All we can say is thank you for coming over Valentiine and hope it's not long before we see you here again. Next time they are, you all should go and see them, you will not be disappointed.