The Starlings were an English

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band, formed in 1989, utilised as the main project for

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

-born singer/guitarist Chris Sheehan. The group was dissolved by Sheehan around the release of their last EP. Sheehan went on to record two LPs under the name Starlings as the only member and producer/engineer.

History

Chris Sheehan (26 June 1965 – 18 December 2014) was born in

Palmerston North Palmerston North (; , colloquially known as Palmerston or Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatū Plains, the city is near the north bank of the Manaw ...

.Mason, Stewart "

Starlings Biography Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine, passerine (perching) birds known for the often dark, glossy iridescent sheen of their plumage; their complex vocalizations including mimicking; and their distinctive, often elaborate swarm behaviou ...

, ''

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

'', Macrovision Corporation Sheehan had been a teenage star in his native New Zealand, playing guitar in the new wave band

The Dance Exponents The Exponents, formerly The Dance Exponents, is a New Zealand rock group led by vocalist and songwriter Jordan Luck. Their major hits are "Victoria", " Why Does Love Do This To Me", "Who Loves Who The Most" and, "I'll Say Goodbye (Even Tho ...

between 1983 and the late 1980s.Strong, Martin C. (2003) ''The Great Indie Discography'', Canongate, , p.997 When the group split up he moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, and guested on the debut solo album by

Jane Wiedlin Jane Wiedlin (born May 20, 1958) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and actress, best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and backing vocalist of the new wave music, new wave band The Go-Go's. She voices Dusk, the drummer and ba ...

. He also played guitar on

Curve In mathematics, a curve (also called a curved line in older texts) is an object similar to a line, but that does not have to be straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point. This is the definition that ...

's debut EP in 1990. Initially a five-piece band, Sheehan sacked all original Starlings members other than drummer and fellow New Zealander Barry Blackler and recruited

Northampton Northampton ( ) is a town and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is the county town of Northamptonshire and the administrative centre of the Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority of West Northamptonshire. The town is sit ...

-born bass guitarist Matt Parkin. The band were likened to

The Jesus and Mary Chain The Jesus and Mary Chain are a Scottish alternative rock band formed in East Kilbride in 1983. The band revolves around the songwriting partnership of brothers Jim and William Reid, who are the two founders and only consistent members of the ...

, and supported Curve on their tour of the UK and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

in 1991. After their first EP, the band signed to Dave Stewart's

Anxious Records Anxious Records (sometimes typeset as AnXious) was a record label set up by David A. Stewart of Eurythmics, and overseen by Stewart with Infectious Music's Korda Marshall (when Marshall was at BMG/RCA Records). Originally set up as a BMG label, ...

. The band's debut album ''Valid'' was released in 1992, the songs documenting Sheehan's withdrawal from

heroin Heroin, also known as diacetylmorphine and diamorphine among other names, is a morphinan opioid substance synthesized from the Opium, dried latex of the Papaver somniferum, opium poppy; it is mainly used as a recreational drug for its eupho ...

, followed two years later by ''Too Many Dogs'', with songs described as "vicious, dark, misanthropic gems", the latter released in the United States by

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over the course of its first two decades, starting from the release of its first recor ...

, and attracting critical acclaim if not commercial success.Thompson, Dave (2000) Alternative Rock, Miller Freeman Books, , p.436 Contractual difficulties had led the band to split up in 1991 shortly before the recording of ''Valid''. Parkin and Blackler had also acted as the rhythm section for The Jesus and Mary Chain between 1991 and 1992. Sheehan played with

Babylon Zoo Babylon Zoo were an English rock band formed in 1992 in Wolverhampton. Their song " Spaceman" gained considerable exposure through its use in a Levi's jeans television advert in the United Kingdom in late 1995. Released as the band's debut si ...

, and

The Mutton Birds The Mutton Birds were a New Zealand rock music group formed in Auckland in 1991 by Ross Burge, David Long and Don McGlashan, with Alan Gregg joining a year later. Four of their albums reached the top 10 on the New Zealand Albums Char ...

in the latter half of the 1990s and returned with a solo album, ''Planet Painkiller'' in 2000, under the name Chris Starling. In 2002 the album ''Sounds like... Chris Starling'' was released by Popchild records. He joined

The Sisters of Mercy The Sisters of Mercy are an English rock band formed in Leeds in 1980. After achieving early underground fame, the band experienced a commercial breakthrough in the mid-1980s, sustaining their success until the early 1990s, when they halted th ...

as rhythm guitarist later that year, although he subsequently left the band. In July 2013, Sheehan announced through Fundrazr that he was suffering from incurable cancer (Stage 4

metastatic Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spreading from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, ...

nodular

melanoma Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer; it develops from the melanin-producing cells known as melanocytes. It typically occurs in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye (uveal melanoma). In very rare case ...

). He died on 18 December 2014.

Discography

Singles

*''A Letter From Heaven'' EP (1990), Bad Girl *"Try" (1991) Anxious *''Safe in Heaven Dead'' EP (1991), Anxious *"The Last One" (1991) Anxious *''Loch Angeles Monster'' EP (1994), Anxious *"Tears Before Bedtime" (1994), Anxious/Atlantic Chris Starling *"Rawhide Baby" (1999), EX34 *"The Word" (1999), EX34

Albums

*''Valid'' (1992), Anxious *''Too Many Dogs'' (1994), Anxious/Atlantic *''Out of the Woods'' (1995) – unreleased, subsequently re-recorded and reissued by Chris Sheehan Chris Starling *''Planet Painkiller'' (2000), EX34 *''Sounds Like...'' (2002), EX34

References

Links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Starlings, The Musical groups established in 1989 Musical groups disestablished in 1994 English alternative rock groups