VALERIE "They're nothing but trouble". Mum & Dad.

Valerie are Jo Lean - Vox, Vicky Tse - Guitar, and the infamous Elvis on drums. The band met through Manchester club night "Poptastic" and quickly bonded over shared passions - namely larger, dancing, Sleater - Kinney, John Waters, getting dirty and causing trouble.

Disinterested in the local music scene and excited by bands filtering over from the U.S…Our three heroes decide to form Valerie. Life as they knew it would never be the same again. The band named themselves after Valerie Solanas, the would be assassin of Andy Warhol and author of the feminist S.C.U.M Manifesto. Solanas is seen as a crackpot by many, as are Jo, Vix and Elvis, but the band were inspired by the way she acted upon her beliefs no matter how extreme and with little support.
Valerie's sound is very much a product of their inspirations - punk, riot girl, lo fi, no fi, d.i.y, pop and lately even signs of a naive hip hop.

Valeries prime motive has always been to entertain, rather than win the Mercury Music Prize - although it's reportedly in the bag after the Switchflicker single. Interaction with the audience is a vital part of Valerie - the banter is just as important as the songs and Heat magazine is their bible.

Valerie are trouble, but they're comedy core trouble. Love 'em. Hate 'em. Beware.
Let the games begin……….

"Can't play. Won't play. They're going to be massive anyway"
Diddie Davenport on Valerie in the Manchester Evening News even before they all snogged him!

City Life	Review

VALERIE ALL MY HEROES HATE ME

Forget Ian Brown, Happy Mondays and New Order, This North Manchester band have always been in love with the sound of early riot grrrl. Hence their debut EP finds them paying homage to Bikini Kill Kathleen,
(Ecultural gurus, Ebad behaviour and E100% Olympian cool. The production is non-existent and the instrumentation extremely LO-fi, but that doesn't stop the title song from being a raw slice of visceral grrl-rock. The remaining three tracks cover cartoon rap, confessional indie and snaking guitars making this an interesting and entertaining debut. Go Valerie!

Sarah -Jane
City LIfe July 2002