getString problems

[rbizarre]

I am having a little problem with my resultsets.
I pass this query to the database

rs = statement.executeQuery("SELECT location FROM location_src_title WHERE id = 1 ");

and then I want the info printed out to the screen(it should be only one record in the set)
so I do this: String val = rs.getString("location");

and later on in the page I write <%= val %>, every time I run the code I get
java.sql.SQLException: Before start of result set

I have concluded that the exception is caused by the getString() method, I am still a novice so there could easily be something wrong with what I have. Am I using the getString incorrectly?? any help in solving this matter would be much appreciated.