Starcastle
| Starcastle | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Progressive rock |
| founding | 1969 |
| Website | http://www.starcastlerocks.com |
| Founding members | |
| Stephen Hagler (until 1980) | |
| Mike Castlehorn † | |
| Paul Tassler | |
| Current occupation | |
| Al Lewis | |
Drums |
Stephen Tassler |
| Oliver Wakeman | |
Electric bass |
Woody Lingle |
Electric guitar |
Bruce Botts |
Electric guitar |
Matthew Stewart |
| former members | |
Keyboard |
Herbert Schildt (1969–1978) and (1997–2006) |
Electric bass |
Gary Strater († 2004) |
singing |
Terry Luttrell (? -1978) |
singing |
Ralph Goldhiem (1979-?) |
Drums |
Mauro Magellan (1980) |
Drums |
Scott McKenzie |
singing |
George Harp (1986/87) |
Electric guitar |
Mark McGee (1987-?) |
Electric bass |
John Jowitt (2006) |
Starcastle is an American progressive rock band founded in 1969 . In 2007, after a break of almost 30 years, she released a new studio album.
history
St. James
Starcastle was founded in 1969 at the University of Illinois as a local cover band under the name St. James . The original line-up, consisting of Mike Castlehorn, Stephen Hagler and Paul Tassler, soon disintegrated as Castlehorn was killed in a car accident and Tassler swapped the bass for the role of the band manager a little later. The position of drummer was filled by Paul's brother Stephen Tassler, and the bassist was replaced by Gary Strater, who would remain the only constant member until his death in 2004.
Mad John Fever
Since now only guitarist Stephen Hagler was in the band from the original line-up of St. James , they gave themselves a new name. The new line-up began playing more experimental rock as Mad John Fever ; For the first time, cover versions of groups like Jethro Tull and Wishbone Ash were in their repertoire, and there were also appearances together with Styx and Blue Öyster Cult .
In addition to Starcastle, REO Speedwagon came from the city of Champaign , whose singer Terry Luttrell sang in a group called Sea Daddy after leaving. The same band also belonged to the guitarist Matthew Stewart, who had gained a certain fame by spontaneously performing in clubs at a young age.
Both became members of Mad John Fever a little later.
Pegasus
In 1974 the group decided to change their name again in order to do justice to the clear change in the direction of progressive rock . The name Pegasus , however, was only to last for a short time: After Pegasus performed together with the Strawbs in St. Louis and received positive feedback from the daily press, another group called Pegasus, also from Illinois, became aware of the five musicians and threatened legal action should the name Pegasus not be discarded again.
The search for a new name that should both represent the band's image and be as clear an identification feature as possible ultimately led to the final band name, Starcastle .
Starcastle
Until 1978
The group around Stephen Hagler, unchanged except for the name, made numerous appearances in the following year, and for the first time the music industry noticed them. The dissemination of demo recordings and concert recordings of the group on the part of several radio stations finally led to a recording contract with CBS , where the self-titled debut album was released in the spring of 1976.
The album was very well received, and the following appearances together with Gentle Giant or Jethro Tull were accordingly well attended. The success of the Starcastle album prompted the music label to let the group record the follow-up album in 1977. Roy Thomas Baker , who was responsible for Queen's first albums , was hired as the producer .
Baker, however, didn't know what to do with the band's style, and the single Diamond Song (Deep is the Light) didn't make it into the charts. Although the album finished produced Fountains of Light did not meet the original ideas of the band members, it was still enthusiastically received by critics and was just like the Tour, on the Foreigner and Journey as opening acts were involved, again a commercial success.
Despite the fact that punk rock and disco began to replace progressive rock, Starcastle in England recorded the album Citadel in the same year , again produced by Roy Thomas Baker. Although the singles "Can't Think Twice" and "Could this be Love" were played on the radio every now and then, the sales figures failed to meet the rising expectations of the CBS, and the increasing pressure on the band led to increasing tension.
The last album for the time being, Real to Reel , released in 1978, marks a turning point in the history of Starcastle: In order to meet the expectations of the music labels, the group oriented itself for the first time to the listening habits of the mass audience. The Yes -like style of the previous albums gave way to a more catchy pop rock, which opened the band to a larger audience, but no longer met the expectations of most of the band members. Live recordings from that year were not released until 1999 on the Concert Classics album.
Keyboardist Schildt and singer Luttrell left Starcastle after the last concert of the tour for the album Real to Reel in order to devote themselves to other projects. Since sales of the record were also slow, the CBS Starcastle finally canceled the record deal, so that manager Paul Tassler was again solely responsible for the band.
1979 to 1998
From 1979 Starcastle went on tour again. During the tour, Stephen Hagler was replaced as singer in the summer of that year by Ralph Goldhiem, the singer of the band Timberline, which is also under contract with CBS. The group has now moved from Champaign to Atlanta , where they soon reached an agreement with producer Jeff Glixman, who had produced several Kansas releases, among other things . While the first demo cassettes were being recorded, the former Queen manager Jack Nelson was brought on board, who negotiated with A&M Records and Arista Records , but this was unsuccessful. Undeterred, the group continued their gigs, even considering another name change - in 1979 they performed once as The Pack - until Stephen Hagler and Stephen Tassler finally left the band in 1980. Short-term replacement for Tassler on drums was Mauro Magellan, but only a little later switched to The Georgia Satellites , which were also produced by Jeff Glixman.
With Hagler, the last founding member of Starcastle had now left, and most of the remaining band members took time off to realize other projects or to devote themselves to their private lives. Only bassist Strater tried to recruit new members for further Starcastle recordings. After working with singer Goldhiem ended, he moved to California, where he put together a new Starcastle line-up with singer George Harp and guitarist Bruce Botts. The trio was complemented at times by the drummer Scott McKenzie. However, the search for a new keyboardist was unsuccessful.
Over the next six months the band wrote and rehearsed new pieces. The members decided to continue performing as Starcastle despite the new line-up and the resulting change in style in a somewhat rougher sounding direction. Some music producers, including Bill Graham , became aware of the band, but there was no new record deal for the time being.
Until the mid-nineties, Starcastle had the most creative phase in the band's history with changing line-ups, in which many new pieces were created. Gary Strater, dissatisfied with the inconsistent interplay of frequently changing musicians, finally decided to press ahead with the recording of a new album that would capture the energy of all lineups equally.
Since 1999
In 1999 some concert recordings from 1978, still with singer Luttrell, appeared on Renaissance Records. In 2001, under the South West Label Group music label, Chronos I was a compilation of demo recordings from the time of the first two albums, including three previously unreleased tracks. Both publications received positive feedback.
At the same time, the band appeared at several progressive rock festivals, which had been attracting larger audiences for a number of years, and thereby increasingly moved into the public eye. In 2004 Gary Strater was finally able to realize "his" project: Starcastle, meanwhile strengthened by the singer Al Lewis, recorded a new album after a break of 26 years under the title Song of Times .
Almost all former Starcastle members were involved in the album, Terry Luttrell can also be heard in one of the pieces. During the recording, however, Gary Strater succumbed to cancer, so the publication of the Song of Times was another three years in coming.
style
With the exception of the more mainstream- oriented album Real to Reel , Starcastle's recordings are clearly influenced by Yes ; especially the distinctive bass and the high vocals of Terry Luttrell often lead to the fact that Starcastle was and is compared to the band around Chris Squire. Nevertheless, Starcastle has quite independent elements such as the frequent choir singing, which is also consistently present on the album Song of Times .
Discography
- 1976 • Starcastle
- 1977 • Fountains of Light
- 1977 • Citadel
- 1978 • Real to Reel
- 1999 • Concert Classics (live recordings from 1978)
- 2001 • Chronos I (demo recordings from 1976/77)
- 2007 • Song of Times
swell
- ↑ Source: Official history of the band ( Memento of the original from December 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Review of Starcastle on the Babyblauen Seiten
- ↑ Review of Fountains of Light on the Babyblauen Seiten
- ↑ Review of Citadel on the Babyblauen Seiten
- ↑ Review of Real to Reel on the Babyblauen Seiten
- ↑ Review of Concert Classics
- ↑ Review of Chronos I
- ↑ Review of the debut album on ProgressiveWorld.net ( memento of the original from November 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Band biography on Pandora.com
- ↑ Review of Fountains of Light on ArtistDirect.com
