The Villas

All Music Guide:

The Villas are a husband and wife pop duo whose self-released debut in April, 2000, Secrets, garnered enough praise and attention to land them a slot at L.A.'s International Pop Overthrow that same year. Both are vocalists and guitarists (Angel Ali Villa is on lead guitar, while providing harmonies to Bill Villa's lead vocals) and the duo work together as a songwriting team.

The Villas are based out of Allentown, PA, Bill Villa's hometown, where they met in the late '90s through a personals ad penned by Bill, who is the creative director of his own advertising company. Focusing more on his business, Bill Villa's music-making had been at a stand-still for awhile before meeting Angel Ali.

Angel Ali Villa came from her hometown of Elizabeth, NJ to Bethlehem, PA to study at Moravian College and later Kutztown University. She counts the Beatles, the Smiths, AC/DC, and Neil Sedaka among her many musical influences and she fronted a few local bands as lead guitarist and songwriter during the mid-'80s before deciding to focus on a career as an art teacher. She did not play her guitar -- much less write songs -- for several years before meeting up with Bill Villa.

Bill Villa came from a musical family; his father sang with big bands and his grandfather was a professional guitarist, while some of his favorite musicians include Emitt Rhodes, Tom Waits, Todd Rundgren, Bruce Springsteen, and Elvis Costello -- a name that often comes up in descriptions of the Villas' sound. The early '80s found Bill Villa busy singing and songwriting in a locally successful duo called the Fops; he also became a father of two during this time. Through the rest of the '80s, he managed the rock band Daddy Licks, and this experience triggered his initial plans for musical collaboration with Angel Ali: he wanted to promote her. But the duo soon began writing songs together and Bill decided against staying behind the scenes.

The two found inspiration in one another and became active musically again. They were married in June, 1999, and the Villas released Secrets, featuring a number of musical guests, in early April the following year.

Wikipedia:

The Villas, Stokeville, is an estate of 24 Victorian houses in Stoke-upon-Trent, England, Originally a distinct settlement set in green fields, it now merges with the late 19th- and early 20th-century suburban sprawl along London Road below Penkhull village on the outskirts of Stoke-on-Trent and within the ward of Stoke and Trent Vale.

Most dating from 1851–55, The Villas was designed by local architect Charles Lynam, who became a prominent architect in Staffordshire, building the Minton Hollins tileworks, for example. In designing The Villas, he chose an Italianate style similar to other Staffordshire buildings, such as Trentham Hall and Alton railway station.

In June 1850, a number of prominent inhabitants of Stoke formed "The Stokeville Building Society". The purpose of the building society was to provide the means and the financial capability for its members to erect, and ultimately own, houses on copyhold land outside the town of Stoke-upon-Trent. The land, 'Big Meadow and Barker's Meadow', containing seven acres, two rods and 18 perches, belonged to the Reverend Thomas Minton, brother of Herbert Minton and son of the founder of Thomas Minton and Sons (later Mintons Ltd), pottery manufacturer of Stoke, and was finally purchased for £1,582 on 3 May 1859.

Conservation

Originally built in three distinct classes, all providing accommodation for servants to “live in”, changing times meant that many were subdivided by the 1940s.

In the 1956, resident of number 15 The Villas, Arnold Machin, received publicity in the national press when he chained himself to the old metal lamp-post on the turning circle in protest at its planned removal. Machin's protest, "against the destruction of all the beautiful things which is going on in this country." did not prevent the lamp-post from being replaced by a concrete one; however, it was given to him for his own garden and his wife Patricia unlocked him. A similar lamp has since been restored to the position of the original one. The estate subsequently received the distinction, on 19 April 1972, of being the first designated conservation area in Stoke-on-Trent. Initially, only a couple of the houses were listed, but with more houses listed on 15th March 1993, The Villas now contains the highest concentration of Grade II listed buildings in the city.

The Villas Vampire Case

The area gained national attention in January 1973, when Polish immigrant Demetrious Myicuria was found dead in his bed. Apparently terrified of a vampire attack, Myicuria had strewn his room with salt and garlic in ritual fashion. A post-mortem examination showed he had choked to death on a pickled onion, although PC John Pye believed it to have actually been a clove of garlic.