Willie Gardner is a Scottish musician, who formed part of various pop and rock bands in the 1970s and 1980s, playing guitar. He was a cousin of Alex Harvey. His earliest known band was The Hot Valves, formed in 1976. The band was influenced by

Bill Nelson Clarence William Nelson II (born September 29, 1942) is an American politician and attorney serving as the administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Nelson previously served as a United States Senator from Flor ...

and

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, and their name was taken from a

Be-Bop Deluxe Be-Bop Deluxe were an English rock band who achieved critical acclaim and moderate commercial success during the mid to late 1970s. History Be-Bop Deluxe Be-Bop Deluxe was founded in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, by singer, guitarist ...

EP. They were Gardner on guitars and lead vocals, Coling King on drums, and Danny Mitchell on keyboards (the latter two later of Modern Man and Messengers), and split up in 1977. In 1977, he joined a third band named

Zones Zone or The Zone may refer to: Places Climate and altitude zones * Death zone (originally the lethal zone), altitudes above a certain point where the amount of oxygen is insufficient to sustain human life for an extended time span * Frigid zone, ...

, composed of drummer

Kenny Hyslop Kenneth John Hyslop (born 14 February 1951 in Helensburgh, Scotland) is a Scottish drummer. He joined the band Salvation with Midge Ure, which later became Slik and, after Ure's departure, some of the remaining members formed the Zones. He als ...

, keyboardist

Billy McIsaac Billy McIsaac (born William McIsaac, 12 July 1949 in Rothesay, Scotland) is a musician, who played mainly keyboards since his early days with different pop bands. Biography Previously, he worked as a telephone engineer and played with a band ca ...

and bassist Russell Webb, who previously were part of

PVC2 Slik were a Scottish people, Scottish pop music, pop group of the mid-1970s, most notable for their UK number 1 hit "Forever and Ever (Slik song), Forever and Ever" in 1976. Initially glam rock, the band later changed their style to soft rock/ ...

, along with

Midge Ure James Ure (born 10 October 1953) is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, the diminutive form of his actual name. Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s ...

, who quit and moved to London to form the

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after the demise of the teenybop band

Slik Slik were a Scottish pop group of the mid-1970s, most notable for their UK number 1 hit " Forever and Ever" in 1976. Initially glam rock, the band later changed their style to soft rock/bubblegum. It was the first band with whom singer and g ...

. They released singles including "

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", "Sign of the Times", "Looking to the Future" and "Mourning Star", and an album called ''

Under Influence ''Under Influence'' was the only album of new wave band Zones, released by Arista Records on June 1, 1979. The album contained multi-genred songs, being very far from the early punkier stuff, like in the case of 7" single "Stuck with You". Jim ...

'' (1979), which was unsuccessful, before splitting up. After Zones, Gardner dedicated himself to a brief solo career, releasing two singles in 1982: "Golden Youth" and "Imation". Then he joined a fledgling

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band, Endgames, with whom released two hits, "First Last for Everything" and "Waiting for Another Chance". The band split up around 1985. Gardner still resides in Scotland and is currently working as an English teacher in Glasgow.

Discography

: ''For his releases with Zones, see: Discography of Zones'' : ''For his releases with Endgames, see: Discography of Endgames''

Solo singles

* "Golden Youth" (Cuba Libre, 1980) * "Imation" (Cuba Libre)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gardner, Willie Year of birth missing (living people) Scottish male guitarists 20th-century Scottish male singers Scottish pop singers Living people Scottish pop guitarists Scottish rock singers Scottish rock guitarists Zones (band) members