6. Young Turk 1985–1993 (Miami/Geffen and Virgin)

Young Turk, 1990 (not in order): Rhett O’Neil (vocals), Eddie Oliva
and Michael Alexander (guitars), Bill McKelvy (bass)
and Rick Diaz (drums). Photo: Young Turk Facebook.

 

At the dawn of the decade, two of South Florida’s biggest signings — before the shift to alternative rock with the likes Marilyn Manson and Collapsing Lungs — were Nuclear Valdez and Young Turk (and the county-inflected Mavericks soon to follow). As with their hair metal scene brethren Cryer and Tuff Luck: Young Turk became a standing-room-only club act. And as with Ronnie Garvin’s Stranger: Young Turk weather two failed record deals: first, with Geffen, then Virgin.

The band self-released their debut, five-song EP, Do You Know Where Your Daughters Are? (1987; recorded for a mere $2,000), and a full-length cassette, Train To Nowhere (1990) — the latter garnered major label interest. Signed by Geffen’s A&R man Tom Zutaut (he pops up a few times amid these South Florida band bios), the Turks recorded demos in earnest, tentatively titled, Tired of Laughing (1991), at Memphis, Tennessee’s legendary Ardent Studios (see Alex Chilton’s legendary Big Star) with noted rock drummer Carl Canedy (the Rods; know your Ronnie James Dio sidebars) as producer and engineered by noted New York City-based mastering engineer, Bob Ludwig, at Joe Walsh’s Kiva Studios. Unimpressed with the sessions — and refusing the label’s request to write “radio friendly songs” (cue Saigon Kick’s “Love Is on the Way”) — the recordings were unreleased; Geffen dropped the band.

Resuscitated by Virgin Records, Young Turk cut all-new songs for their debut album proper, N.E 2nd Ave. (1992). While the rock press was favorable and radio began supporting the album, it was too little too late: the changing tides of grunge, arrived. In the digital age, the “lost Geffen tapes” were released in 2021. As with the Rock City Angels: Young Turk found a home on VH 1 Classics with the album’s lead video single, “The Saddest Song (La Di Da).”

Undeterred, Young Turk bassist Bill McKelvy returned to South Florida, joining ex-Saigon Kick drummer Phil Varone, and vocalist Randy Bates, formerly with fellow Fort Lauderdale bands East of Gideon and Talk of War (themselves weathering failed label overtures) to form the local “supergroup” Planet Boom. A heavier, alt-rock driven concern that quickly achieved a standing-room-only club rep, it too, met with more major label tomfoolery and a quick break up.

Randy Bates returned with the apt alt-rock concerns Nectar and Mindflower; each released a nationally-distributed vanity-press album. Phil Varone’s ex-Saigon Kick bandmate, bassist Tom DeFile, also returned to South Florida — along with ex-Queen Anne’s Revenge singer Eddie Gowan, former Trouble Tribe guitarist Adam Wacht, and former Beggars & Thieves drummer Bobby Borg — for one more bite at the demo apple with Left for Dead, which split in 1995 due to label disinterest.

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Enjoy Young Turk's Lost Geffen Sessions and N.E 2nd Avenue, and in our In the Cabinet: Lost South Florida Local Tapes, the demo from Left for Dead, as well as East of Gideon's self-titled debut and their sophomore release, Long Way Home (2022), on Over the Edge Radio You Tube.