THE FLAMING STARS
Max Décharné : Vocals, Keyboards;
Paul Dempsey : Bass;
Joe Whitney : Drums;
Mark Hosking : Guitar;
Huck Whitney : Guitar
Since their first EP in March 1995 The Flaming Stars have released seven or eight albums, gigged extensively in the UK and Germany and played shows in
France, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Greece and Japan.
The Flaming Stars released their first EP Hospital, Heaven or Hell in
March 1995. The lead track Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye was a favourite on the
John Peel Show, the bands first session soon followed and the track
showed up at number 29 in his Festive Fifty. The debut EP was also
featured on the Evening Session with Steve Lamacq, who also touted the
band as one of his Flavours of the Month in Select. In August a
follow-up single appeared entitled The Face on the Bar Room Floor,
persuading Mark Lamarr to bring the band onto his GLR show for an
acoustic session. Their pre-Christmas 95 EP, called Money to Burn, was
featured heavily on evening Radio One and brought the band their first
Mark Radcliffe live session. The band recorded the sixteen tracks for
their debut album and next EP over seven days in January 96. April
brought another session for John Peel. The Downhill Without Brakes EP
was released in May and the album, Songs from the Bar Room Floor in June
96.
The band's fifth single Ten Feet Tall appeared in December 96, having
been previewed during their second session for Mark Radcliffe in
October. The Video for Ten Feet Tall was shown on BBC2¹s Top Of The Pops
2 show, and two of their singles were in Peel¹s Festive Fifty (the last
he has compiled to date). The next LP Bring Me The Rest Of Alfredo
Garcia appeared in March 97, together with the single Bury My Heart At
Pier 13. A third John Peel Session was broadcast in April 97. During the
last few days of July the band recorded their third album, Sell Your
Soul To The Flaming Stars, together with a single, New Hope For The
Dead, which was released in October to coincide with another UK tour and
the band¹s fourth Peel Session.
1998 started with gigs in Scotland and
the north, followed by Greece and then a full UK tour. A double-A side
single The Day The Earth Caught Fire/Sweet Smell Of Success was released
at the end of April and was single of the week in Melody Maker. The
video was featured on MTV¹s Alternative Nation show. A fifth John Peel
session was broadcast in July. Further UK gigs were followed by tours of
Germany, Denmark and Sweden in the autumn of 1998. The fourth album was
recorded in October 98 and January 99 at Pathway Studios in Islington.
In April 99 the band played shows in Japan, followed by a return to
Greece in May 99 and UK dates to coincide with the release of the new
album Pathway. A sixth John Peel Session was recorded on Tuesday June
1st. Since then a compilation of all their Peel Sessions has been
released and their latest single, You Don¹t Always Want What You Get,
and album, A Walk on the Wired Side, came out in 2000.
2001 saw the band release a new single Some Things You Don't Forget / Only Tonight on Vinyl Japan. The band then released 2 brand new songs on Alternative Tentacles Records One Lonely Night / Days Like This, which is still available! Since then, the band has released their first through third albums
in the USA on Alternative Tentacles Records: "Ginmill Perfume" (a best of), "Sunset and Void," and their latest, the brilliant "Named and Shamed"!
Photo by Mary Scanlon
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