During my broken armed exile, I missed three gigs. One of the drawbacks (and there aren't many) to living out in the sticks is how much you rely on your car - and when you can't drive, you're stuck. That said, I'm not sure I'd have wanted to risk facing any pogo-jumping, push-shoving, crowd surfers with my arm feeling delicate... even at last night's Starsailor performance, I had to hold it away from the over-excitement of revellers from time to time - and Starsailor fans are hardly hardcore moshers.
The gigs I missed then were Half Man Half Biscuit, Glasvegas, and The Killers. At least I got my money back for the tickets... even made an indecent profit on the Killers tickets, which I'm normally opposed to - but given the circumstances...
Anyway, I'm back on the circuit at last. With the first gig of the year finally under my belt. I do like Starsailor, though not as much as my mate Dave does - he's seen them six times in the last couple of years. They're a solid indie band who specialise in widescreen yearning romanticism, and the main thing they have in their favour is lead singer James Walsh's massive rockstar singing voice. I specify 'singing' because the weird thing about Walsh is that when he speaks - when he chats with the audience between songs for example - he sounds like a strangled duck. Or that Ashley character who used to be in Coronation Street. Or David Beckham. I don't understand how someone can talk like that in normal conversation, and then suddenly turn on these enormous, roof-shaking vocals whenever the music starts. But however he does it, it works, turning what might otherwise be everyday indie anthems into emotional windtunnels. That's the main reason I reckon Starsailor work better as a live band than on record... not to say that they haven't produced some very nice records, but live those songs just... well, they come alive.
That said, the new Starsailor album is definitely a grower, and may even be their strongest to date. Walsh certainly believes it to be so, championing Neon Sky as "the best song we've ever written" while boasting to the audience that last night's venue (The Ritz, Manchester) was too small for them, and that they hoped to be back soon at the much bigger Apollo (personally, I hate the Apollo - I can never understand why bands want to play there) or even the MEN Arena. Wishful thinking perhaps for a band four albums in with little airplay on their side, but if ever Starsailor have deserved their own Elbow moment, this must be it. I'd like to see them get a shot at the big time, if only because - for all last night's bravado - Walsh seems like a genuinely decent bloke who loves, really loves, what he does. And his acoustic Dancing Queen was possibly the best Abba cover I've ever heard.
Here's their new single, Tell Me It's Not Over. It does remind me ever-so-slightly of one of the biggest hits of the 90s in the chorus, though it's very different in delivery - and if you're gonna steal... even subconsciously... do it from the greats.
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7 rants and reactions:
I don't need to mention that I have never heard of Starsailor, do I?
After all, you would be disappointed if I had heard of them.
"I do like Starsailor, though not as much as my mate Dave"
Did you mean "I do like Starsailor, though not as much as my mate Dave does"?
If not, it is nice, but probably not unusual, for you to prefer your mates to a rock band, although I would probably forgo listening to my mate talking about 12th century French history in order to spend an afternoon with Marianne Faithful.
I did watch the film, thank you. However, I think that you have made a mistake: a banner in the background clearly indicates that the band is called "Stairs to Harrow Road", which makes far more sense.
At last you can wave your cigarette lighter aloft for the ballads once more! Seriously, am pleased to hear that you are now "cast away"...! ;-)
Vicus - thank you as always, particularly for the pedantry, which is always appreciated round these parts. Edits have been made to spare any further confusion... though I did actually mean both those things.
Stairs To Harrow Road would be a great name for a band. I'm thinking of learning guitar just so I can form it.
Steve - if I had a cigarette lighter, I'd be using it to set fire to the head of the annoying bloke in front who kept pogoing backwards into us.
Good band - although I wouldn't class them as indie anymore. (I found myself wondering how they managed to turn the lights off one by one in the vid; how sad is that?)
I've seen Starsailor a couple of times, but got put off by the second album. It's probably worth giving them another chance then....?
Agree with you about the Apollo - the more times I go there the more reasons I find to dislike it.
Obviously had never heard of that band down this way, the closest we came to it was a band in the 80s from here called Hello Sailor (look them up, they had a few good 'uns.
BT - you're probably right, particularly as indie has become a dirty word these days. I'm not sure how else to label them though - beyond anthemic guitar.
Beth - I definitely think the new album's their strongest since the debut.
Sag - are they anything like Sailor? (A Glass Of Champagne?) Oh, no, they're not.
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