The Starlings were an English

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

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

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

-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 (; mi, Te Papa-i-Oea, known colloquially as Palmy) is a city in the North Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Manawatū-Whanganui region. Located in the eastern Manawatu Plains, the city is near the north bank of the ...

.Mason, Stewart " Starlings Biography, ''

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

'', Macrovision Corporation Sheehan had been a teenage star in his native New Zealand, playing guitar in the new wave band The Dance Exponents 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 ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, and guested on the debut solo album by

Jane Wiedlin Jane Marie Genevieve Wiedlin (born May 20, 1958) is an American musician and singer, best known as the co-founder, rhythm guitarist and backing vocalist of the new wave music, new wave band The The Go-Go's, Go-Go's. She has also had a successful ...

. 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 (geometry), line, but that does not have to be Linearity, straight. Intuitively, a curve may be thought of as the trace left by a moving point (ge ...

'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 market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

-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. After signing to independent label Creation Records, they rele ...

, and supported Curve on their tour of the UK and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

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 potent opioid mainly used as a recreational drug for its euphoric effects. Medical grade diamorphine is used as a pure hydrochloride salt. Various white and brow ...

, 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 its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

, 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 sin ...

, 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 Chart ...

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 is an English rock band, formed in 1980 in Leeds. After achieving early underground fame there, the band had their commercial breakthrough in the mid-1980s and sustained it until the early 1990s, when they stopped releasin ...

as rhythm guitarist later that year, although he subsequently left the band. In July 2013, Sheehan announced through

Fundrazr FundRazr is a free crowdfunding and online fundraising platform released in 2009. FundRazr operates internationally in 35+ counties with the largest markets being United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia. It allows users to run a wide-r ...

that he was suffering from incurable cancer (Stage 4

metastatic Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread 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, then, ...

nodular

melanoma Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...

). 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