Stars (UK band)
Encyclopedia
Stars was a short-lived British
supergroup
that played a small number of live concerts in Cambridge
in February 1972. Its members were Syd Barrett
on guitar, Twink
on drums, and Jack Monck
on bass.
, Twink (ex-Pink Fairies
) moved to Cambridge
and worked with the 'Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band', initially with vocalist/guitarist Bruce Michael Paine (ex-Apple Pie & star of the San Francisco production of 'Hair
') and John 'Honk' Lodge (Junior's Eyes
, Quiver) playing bass. The Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band, now with ex-Delivery
bass player Jack Monck, backed American Blues guitarist Eddie "Guitar" Burns
at King's College Cellar on 26 January 1972. Jack's wife Jenny Spires, a friend of Twink's and former girlfriend of Syd Barrett (ex-Pink Floyd
), went with Syd down to the gig and he brought his guitar along and jammed with them in the last set. At the "Six Hour Technicolor Dream" at the Cambridge Corn Exchange the next day (27 January), the Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band, with guests Fred Frith
and Syd Barrett, played on a bill with Hawkwind
and the Pink Fairies
. The Boogie Band played five tracks before being joined on stage by Syd for a further three. This gig was recorded, and while one mastertape was confiscated by EMI
in 1985, another copy surfaced in 2005 and awaits release. In June 2010 this tape was offered for auction but failed to reach it's reserve price.
Within the next day or two Jenny, Jack & Twink said 'wouldn't it be great to get Syd playing again'. Twink recalled:
and Barrett
. At one point in each show Barrett entered one of the catatonic trances that had plagued his later Pink Floyd performances, the worst coming in a concert where Barrett became almost completely frozen and had to be carried off stage. The posters for the MC5 / Skin Alley gig also billed an appearance from a new line-up of the Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band - Bruce Paine, Rick Fenn
, Bill Gray & 'Gary'. Paine went on to join Steamhammer
for a tour of Europe in late 1972 before returning to the United States.
Stars roadie and occasional bass player Joly said:
Hollingworth wrote:
Jack Monck, speaking in 2001, agreed that the gig was below-par:
The Terrapin fanzine was more charitable in its review of what it called Syd's Final Performance (January 1973).
The damage had already been done when Barrett read the Melody Maker review the following week, despite Joly's assertion that the Cambridge Corn Exchange gig with Nektar, two days later, was an improvement - a claim which Twink seemed to back up:
maintains that he saw Syd perform with Jack Bruce
in Cambridge during the Summer of 1973. Recordings of Stars performances were made but remain lost. American photographer Victor Kraft is known to have recorded (and photographed) the Dandelion gigs, but after his death in 1976 his possessions were removed from his flat by his Cambridge landlord. As mentioned above, the concert with Nektar was recorded but the tapes were lost, although the Boogie Band show with Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies still exists, and a recording of the Eddie "Guitar" Burns
gig is also rumoured to have survived. Twink also claimed that Syd had recorded all of their rehearsals on cassette and kept the tapes, but their fate is unknown. Roy Hollingworth, told of the cause of Stars' breakup several years later, was deeply upset. "It was never my intention to harm Syd because I was his biggest fan. He was one of my heroes. I wrote about what I saw and heard as sensitively as I could and it certainly wasn't meant to be a big put down. A little piece of me died that night too. But on a personal level if it hurt Syd I'm very sorry. Ideally, I'd have loved it if he had made a great comeback and gone on and on and on."
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
that played a small number of live concerts in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
in February 1972. Its members were Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett
Syd Barrett , born Roger Keith Barrett, was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, and painter, best remembered as a founding member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter during the band's psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic...
on guitar, Twink
Twink (musician)
John Charles Alder , better known as Twink, is an English drummer, singer and songwriter who was a central figure in the English psychedelic movement, and an actor.-Early life and career:...
on drums, and Jack Monck
Jack Monck
Jack Monck is a bass guitarist. He has worked with Syd Barrett and David Thomas and Phil Miller from In Cahoots and Delivery.He was also in Stars, Delivery, and The Pedestrians...
on bass.
Beginnings
After a spell in MoroccoMorocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, Twink (ex-Pink Fairies
Pink Fairies
Pink Fairies were an English rock band active in the London underground and psychedelic scene of the early 1970s. They promoted free music, drug taking and anarchy and often performed impromptu gigs and other agitprop stunts, such as playing for free outside the gates at the Bath and Isle of Wight...
) moved to Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
and worked with the 'Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band', initially with vocalist/guitarist Bruce Michael Paine (ex-Apple Pie & star of the San Francisco production of 'Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
') and John 'Honk' Lodge (Junior's Eyes
Junior's Eyes (band)
Junior's Eyes was a British group led by guitarist Mick Wayne , which recorded one album and is notable for acting as David Bowie's backing band during 1969.-Beginnings:...
, Quiver) playing bass. The Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band, now with ex-Delivery
Delivery (band)
Delivery was a British blues/progressive rock musical group, formed in the late 1960s. The band was one of the wellsprings of the progressive rock Canterbury scene....
bass player Jack Monck, backed American Blues guitarist Eddie "Guitar" Burns
Eddie "Guitar" Burns
Eddie "Guitar" Burns is an American Detroit blues guitarist, harmonica player, singer and songwriter...
at King's College Cellar on 26 January 1972. Jack's wife Jenny Spires, a friend of Twink's and former girlfriend of Syd Barrett (ex-Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
), went with Syd down to the gig and he brought his guitar along and jammed with them in the last set. At the "Six Hour Technicolor Dream" at the Cambridge Corn Exchange the next day (27 January), the Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band, with guests Fred Frith
Fred Frith
Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
and Syd Barrett, played on a bill with Hawkwind
Hawkwind
Hawkwind are an English rock band, one of the earliest space rock groups. Their lyrics favour urban and science fiction themes. They are also a noted precursor to punk rock and now are considered a link between the hippie and punk cultures....
and the Pink Fairies
Pink Fairies
Pink Fairies were an English rock band active in the London underground and psychedelic scene of the early 1970s. They promoted free music, drug taking and anarchy and often performed impromptu gigs and other agitprop stunts, such as playing for free outside the gates at the Bath and Isle of Wight...
. The Boogie Band played five tracks before being joined on stage by Syd for a further three. This gig was recorded, and while one mastertape was confiscated by EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
in 1985, another copy surfaced in 2005 and awaits release. In June 2010 this tape was offered for auction but failed to reach it's reserve price.
Within the next day or two Jenny, Jack & Twink said 'wouldn't it be great to get Syd playing again'. Twink recalled:
"We went round to his house and... Syd came to the door and Jenny said, 'Jack and Twink were thinking it would be nice to form a band, just the three of you.' So he said 'Yeah, alright, come in'. And that was that. We started rehearsing down in the basement of his house, that's how it started." "We were doing all of Syd's stuff, old material like 'Lucifer SamLucifer Sam"Lucifer Sam" is a song by British psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, featured on the debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn .-Music and lyrics:...
'. We did about half a dozen gigs. I think it was a pretty tight set but some of the gigs were kind of loose because we didn't have road managers, we just had people helping out and stuff. We played all around the Cambridge area, didn't go out of Cambridge, just places like coffee bars - and we played the Market Square, that was the most memorable gig. It was a good gig, it was really brilliant." "And we did a few in the Dandelion Coffee Bar, I think we did two there & they were also good."
Performances
All 'Stars' performances contained early Pink Floyd songs and tracks from Barrett's 1970 solo albums The Madcap LaughsThe Madcap Laughs
The Madcap Laughs is an album by British singer/songwriter Syd Barrett, released on 3 January 1970. It was his first solo album after being replaced in the band Pink Floyd by his old school friend David Gilmour.- History :...
and Barrett
Barrett (album)
Barrett was the second and final studio album of new material released by former Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett. In February 1970, shortly after releasing his first album, The Madcap Laughs, Barrett appeared on John Peel's Top Gear radio show where he presented only one song from the newly released...
. At one point in each show Barrett entered one of the catatonic trances that had plagued his later Pink Floyd performances, the worst coming in a concert where Barrett became almost completely frozen and had to be carried off stage. The posters for the MC5 / Skin Alley gig also billed an appearance from a new line-up of the Last Minute Put Together Boogie Band - Bruce Paine, Rick Fenn
Rick Fenn
Richard 'Rick' Fenn is an English rock guitarist. He is best known for being a member of the band 10cc since 1976. He has also collaborated with Mike Oldfield, Rick Wakeman, Hollies singer Peter Howarth and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason....
, Bill Gray & 'Gary'. Paine went on to join Steamhammer
Steamhammer (band)
Steamhammer was a blues-rock band from Worthing, England. The band was founded in 1968 by Martin Quittenton and Kieran White...
for a tour of Europe in late 1972 before returning to the United States.
Stars roadie and occasional bass player Joly said:
"Stars played a number of times at a hippie-community cafe called ‘The Dandelion’ and then one Saturday outdoor in the main square in Cambridge and then two shows at the (huge, cavernous) Corn Exchange on a Thursday and Saturday, two days later. Nektar had state of the art audio... I mixed the band. Another roadie was Nigel, who took care of the stage. I think it was a friend of his that taped the show. I was lent the tape by Nigel some months later and it sounded good; I gave it back without copying. I later heard he lost it... The MC5 show was not recorded and was not a good show. The promoter of these shows - Steve Brink - had promised that there would be no press; however he did invite a guy from the Melody MakerMelody MakerMelody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
, Roy Hollingworth, who had some sort of nervous breakdown at the [MC5] show. He wrote a piece that came out the next Wednesday detailing a wave of absolute alienation he sensed at the show, and used Syd as a metaphor for it."
Hollingworth wrote:
"He played a demented solo that ran ragged lines of up to 10 minutes. His raggled hair fell over a face that fell over a guitar and seldom looked up. He changed time almost by the minute, the keys and chords made little sense. The fingers on his left hand met the frets like strangers. They formed chords, reformed them - apparently nearly got it right - and then wandered away again. Then Syd scratched his nose and let loose a very short sigh. It was like watching somebody piece together a memory that had suffered the most severe shell-shock. I don't know how much Syd Barrett remembered, but he didn't give in. Even though he lost his bassist and even though Twink couldn’t share Syd's journey, Syd played on. ...He has a beard now, but his eyes are still deep cavities hiding an inexplicable vision. Tuning up presents awkward problems. He holds his guitar like he’s never held a guitar before. He keeps scratching his nose. 'Madcap Laughs' opened the set. It didn’t sound much like it used to. But Syd’s voice did. A well-spoken wine - “Barth,” “Larf.” See Emily Play? The chords are out of tune and he keeps looking to his right and sort of scowling at Twink and the bassist, as though in disagreement. I stood and watched and thought he was bloody great. A girl gets up on stage and dances; he sees her, and looks fairly startled. As the clock ticked into the small hours of Friday morning, Syd retreated to the back of the stage trying to find one of those runs. He messes chords together. There is no pattern but if you think hard you can see a faint one, you can see some trailers in the sky. The large concrete floor is littered now, not with people but with their relics. Plastic cups that contained orange juice or lemon or coffee. And some squashed wholenut scones and buns. And underground papers. And Syd played on. Will anyone listen to the Madcap?" - "The Madcap Returns" (Melody Maker, 4 March 1972)
Jack Monck, speaking in 2001, agreed that the gig was below-par:
"I remember looking across at Syd, and just thinking 'you don't want to be here, do you?' He was kind of, like, going through the motions, the mic was here and he'd just sort of be singing like this [gesturing off to one side], and everybody just knew that the wheels had come off. You were just witnessing the breakdown of someone in performance. Some gigs are good and some are bad. Some are really bad, and that was probably the worst."
The Terrapin fanzine was more charitable in its review of what it called Syd's Final Performance (January 1973).
"[Syd] did versions of 'OctopusOctopus (song)Octopus, also known as Clowns and Jugglers, is a 1969 song by Syd Barrett, and appeared on his first solo album, The Madcap Laughs. The album's title came about as a result of co-producer David Gilmour mishearing a line from this song Octopus, also known as Clowns and Jugglers, is a 1969 song by...
' and 'No Man's Land from the Madcap albumThe Madcap LaughsThe Madcap Laughs is an album by British singer/songwriter Syd Barrett, released on 3 January 1970. It was his first solo album after being replaced in the band Pink Floyd by his old school friend David Gilmour.- History :...
: 'Waving My Arms in the Air' and 'Baby Lemonade' from BarrettBarrett (album)Barrett was the second and final studio album of new material released by former Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett. In February 1970, shortly after releasing his first album, The Madcap Laughs, Barrett appeared on John Peel's Top Gear radio show where he presented only one song from the newly released...
: and 'Lucifer SamLucifer Sam"Lucifer Sam" is a song by British psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, featured on the debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn .-Music and lyrics:...
' from the legendary first Floyd albumThe Piper at the Gates of DawnThe Piper at the Gates of Dawn is the debut album by the English rock group Pink Floyd, and the only one made under founding member Syd Barrett's leadership. The album contains whimsical lyrics about space, scarecrows, gnomes, bicycles and fairy tales, along with psychedelic instrumental songs...
. Twink played drums and Jack Monck played bass until his amp decided it couldn't cope with Syd's musical journey and went dead! The lyrics were, for the most part, inaudible due to the terrible P.A., and Syd did no talking between the numbers, which were sadly under-rehearsed. But that was a genius on stage and he did show odd flashes of brilliance, but after about an hour Syd decided he had had enough, so he slowly unplugged and went home."
The damage had already been done when Barrett read the Melody Maker review the following week, despite Joly's assertion that the Cambridge Corn Exchange gig with Nektar, two days later, was an improvement - a claim which Twink seemed to back up:
"I did have once one of the Stars gigs, between me & Joly, who was a friend I was working with at the time. He used to make badges. He had a tape but I don't know what happened to it. The tapes were good. The band didn't stay together very long. Straight after that gig the bad press that we got, I think it was Roy Hollingworth, Melody Maker, he did a piece & he killed the band in fact, with that review. 'Cos Syd came round with it in his hand the next day, he saw it & says 'I don't want to play anymore'. So that was it. I mean I expected that, I thought that that was a possibility that something like that might happen, but it was a shame that it did. We tried to do [a proposed gig at Essex University] without Syd, because Syd had said that he didn't want to play anymore - but we had that booked so we all went down there with the intention of playing, I'd brought another couple of musicians in to cover for Syd. But in fact the promoter didn't want us to play 'cos Syd wasn't there - so it was a bit of a disaster... It was the wrong thing to do, we should've pulled out. But we decided to go down there and it didn't work out."
Aftermath
Shortly thereafter Syd Barrett left music and his public life altogether and began living in seclusion, although poet Pete BrownPete Brown
Peter Ronald Brown is an English performance poet and lyricist.Best known for his collaborations with Jack Bruce, Brown also worked with The Battered Ornaments, formed his own group Pete Brown & Piblokto!, and worked with Graham Bond and Phil Ryan. Brown also writes film scores and formed a film...
maintains that he saw Syd perform with Jack Bruce
Jack Bruce
John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
in Cambridge during the Summer of 1973. Recordings of Stars performances were made but remain lost. American photographer Victor Kraft is known to have recorded (and photographed) the Dandelion gigs, but after his death in 1976 his possessions were removed from his flat by his Cambridge landlord. As mentioned above, the concert with Nektar was recorded but the tapes were lost, although the Boogie Band show with Hawkwind and the Pink Fairies still exists, and a recording of the Eddie "Guitar" Burns
Eddie "Guitar" Burns
Eddie "Guitar" Burns is an American Detroit blues guitarist, harmonica player, singer and songwriter...
gig is also rumoured to have survived. Twink also claimed that Syd had recorded all of their rehearsals on cassette and kept the tapes, but their fate is unknown. Roy Hollingworth, told of the cause of Stars' breakup several years later, was deeply upset. "It was never my intention to harm Syd because I was his biggest fan. He was one of my heroes. I wrote about what I saw and heard as sensitively as I could and it certainly wasn't meant to be a big put down. A little piece of me died that night too. But on a personal level if it hurt Syd I'm very sorry. Ideally, I'd have loved it if he had made a great comeback and gone on and on and on."
Known 'Stars' appearances
- Saturday 5 February 1972 – The Dandelion Coffee Bar, Cambridge
- Saturday 12 February 1972 – Petty CuryPetty CuryPetty Cury is a pedestrianised shopping street in central Cambridge, England. It connects Market Hill, the location of Cambridge's central outdoor market, and Guildhall Street to the west with the shopping streets of Sidney Street and St Andrew's Street to the east...
(near the Market Square), Cambridge - February 1972 – The Dandelion Coffee Bar, Cambridge
- Thursday 24 February 1972 – The Corn ExchangeCambridge Corn ExchangeThe Cambridge Corn Exchange is a concert venue in Cambridge, England. It is also used as an examination hall for students at Cambridge University.-Building the venue:...
, Cambridge (with MC5MC5The MC5 is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan and originally active from 1964 to 1972. The original band line-up consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis, and drummer Dennis Thompson...
& Skin AlleySkin AlleySkin Alley was a progressive British- rock combo, that existed from 1969 to 1974. They are best known for their track, "Living In Sin".-Career:...
) - Saturday 26 February 1972 – The Corn ExchangeCambridge Corn ExchangeThe Cambridge Corn Exchange is a concert venue in Cambridge, England. It is also used as an examination hall for students at Cambridge University.-Building the venue:...
, Cambridge (with NektarNektarNektar is a 1970s English progressive rock band originally based in Germany.- History :The band formed in Hamburg, Germany in 1969, members included Englishmen Roye Albrighton on guitars and vocals, Allan "Taff" Freeman on keyboards, Derek "Mo" Moore on bass, Ron Howden on drums, and Mick Brockett...
)
