A to Z of N. Ireland Punk Bands

THE STARJETS

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The Starjets were originally formed in West Belfast way back in the hot summer of 1976 by vocalist/guitarist Terry Sharpe, bassist Sean Martin, vocalist/guitarist Paul Bowen and drummer Liam L'Estrange. Terry had worked in Harrison Records, a local record shop situated on Castle Street in Belfast prior to starting the band. At that time, gigs in Northern Ireland were few and far between and when bands did get them they were "obliged" to mix their own songs with well-known cover versions of the day. The Starjets confessed to being influenced by the Beach Boys, The Beatles and the Buzzcocks and covered the likes of The Archies "Sugar Sugar" and The Beatles "Please Please Me" in their set and even supported the Bay City Rollers at the Tonic Cinema in Bangor and The Glitter Band at the Manor House in Enniskillen in 1976. Terry recalls the Rollers gig “I remember that you couldn’t hear yourself play because of the screaming. They weren’t screaming at us I might hasten to add. It was the first time that I realised that it isn’t necessarily the group that pre-pubescent girls scream at; they just want an excuse to go fucking mental”. With the advent of punk and the emergence of original material in their set, the Starjets made a collective decision to relocate to London in November 1977. Terry again “ There was this culture which had developed in West Belfast where nobody was going into the centre of Belfast let alone going out of town to play. All these kind of illicit shebeens had opened and we had secured a string of bookings in those but in order to do those you had to play covers from the charts of the day. We had now started writing our own material and coupled with the emerging punk scene in London, we decided that there was something happening there and that there were bands that we really should be seeing”.

They gigged in and around the London area with the likes of the Fabulous Poodles, The Rezillos, The Brakes, The Late Show and The Banned at popular venues such as The Marquee and The Venue. Terry Sharp recalls “When we hit London, we hit it hard. All I can really recall is that all the dressing rooms at celebrated venues such as the Marquee we so bloody tiny”. The band soon gained a solid reputation as a good live act. This eventually led to a deal with Epic Records, The Starjets becoming the first band signed by Muff Winwood, now one of the world's foremost A&R men, who saw them perform at Islington's Hope N Anchor and immediately got the band to record some demos. Their first "release" for Epic was in December 1978 with “Here She Comes Again/Watch Out" but though copies were pressed, the single was scrapped in favour of "It really doesn't matter/Schooldays", produced by Status Quo knobster Pip Williams, which was released in January 1979, though promo copies do exist with a release date of 29th December ’78 on the label. Neither 7” came with a picture sleeve. March '79 saw the release of a third single "Run with pack/Watch out" and the band received a healthy amount of coverage in teen pop magazines such as Jackie, Mates and My Guy, who looked on The Starjets as being "the Bay City Rollers of Punk!" or ‘Pretty boys of The New Wave’.

The summer of 1979 brought the release of the single "Ten Years/One More Word" (which came with a picture sleeve this time) and then saw the band touring in the UK with both The Tubes and Stiff Little Fingers. Terry Sharp “Supporting The Tubes, that was our first experience of American sound engineers who really are into the big rig and doing the mix properly. I can also recall being enormously impressed by The Tubes terrific live act. I recall too that someone backstage had stolen Fee Waybill’s trousers. The Tubes tour manager approached us in a flap basically accusing us of stealing these fluorescent green, skin tight leopard skin trousers.” To this day the culprit’s identity still remains a mystery. This extra exposure resulted in the brilliant "War Stories/Do the push" single reaching N°51 in the UK charts. A live performance ‘promo video’ was shot at a deserted Rainbow for this single.

Their debut LP "God Bless The Starjets", which came with a lyric insert, somehow managed to miss the charts even though the band appeared on "Top Of The Pops", "Cracker Jack" and "Roundaround" and recorded Radio 1 sessions for Kid Jensen and Mike Read. They also made a ‘surprise’ appearance on Juke Box Jury on the release of ‘War Stories’. The band’s album had been recorded at the residential Manor Studios, a studio famed for being haunted, Terry “It cost about a thousand pounds a day. We were up there for about three weeks and then in mixing suites. I was in the haunted room when there was a big electrical thunderstorm. It’s an eerie manor house anyway with two big dogs lolloping about, but when the French windows burst open with the wind and woke me up, that was a terrifying experience. Once we got the bill from CBS, my hair really stood on end then I can tell you” The Starjets only played a handful of dates in Belfast during their existence and were resented in some quarters because of this, Terry “ This is something that we were given tremendous stick for by people like The Outcasts. This whole thing of oh! You should have stayed here and maybe there is something in that. Perhaps going to London and getting a record deal quickly and going into the studio quickly did spoil us. Maybe we did take it easy and sat back and thought all we had to do was show up and that we’d cracked it. Perhaps it might have been an idea to stay in Belfast, stood our ground, played our own songs and tried to kick against the pricks. At the time however, we came from West Belfast and we were getting it in the ass where we lived. We couldn’t drift back to sweet suburbia and leave the mayhem behind us. To walk up and down the Falls road with any kind of clothes with attitude could be life threatening behaviour in those days. I’d also been to drama school in London and I missed it a bit and Paul had also lived in London. We thought we were going to have to go there eventually because nothing ever comes to Belfast. There was no music industry in Belfast and it was impossible to get signed being based in Belfast.”

A new, rockier, version of "Schooldays" (c/w What A Life) was issued in November 1979 and was followed in March 1980 by the last Starjets release "Shiraleo/Standby 19". Bowen left soon after it's release and was replaced by Pat Gribbin (who had previously played with The Jets) as The Starjets changed their name to Tango Brigade for mid 1980 release "Donegal/In Vain" 45. When this failed to dent the charts, disagreements over which musical direction to go in led to the band splitting for good in late 1980 parting company with CBS reputedly in £80,000 debt to the record company. Sean Martin later worked with ex-SLF front man Jake Burns In The Big Wheel whilst Terry Sharpe provided backing vocals on the Angelic Upstarts 1981 album ‘2,000 Voices’ (Jake Burns and Jim Reilly also appeared on this album). Terry also guested on the Upstarts follow up album ‘Angelic Upstarts’ live Terry, “Yeah The Upstarts were mates of ours. We used to drink in this bar beside where the old Marquee club was called The Ship in Wardour. They were from the North East, we were from Belfast, so they were like provincials just like us trying to make it in the music business in the big smoke”.

Terry subsequently formed The Adventures with Pat Gribbin and scored six British National Chart hits in the mid and late 80's.

In 2018 Spit Records issued two limited run 7" vinyl singles by The Starjets, The 1979 Belfast Demos. Volume One (SOLD OUT) contains blistering studio renditions of 'Run With The Pack' & 'Any Danger Love'. Volume Two follwed a few months later. This single contained the tracks 'War Stories' & ' Ten Years'. Again these are previously unreleased unique studio recordings from 1979 (You can listen to the demo of War Stories below). In 2019 Spit Records persuaded all four original members of The Starjets to reform for a gig at the old Crumlin Road Jail, in Belfast. The Starjets went on to play one other show in 2019. You can view Any Danger Love from the bands' soundcheck at the Crumlin Road jail gig below.

The Starjets - live at the Music Machine, London - Record Mirror review by Mike Nichols 1st September 1979.
When this latest bunch of idolised paddies dashed on stage and made a declaration of intent to ‘set the world alight’ I was prepared to help fan the flames. After all, the album’s more than promising with a few tunes that are amongst the finest examples of quality pop rock to have emerged in a pretty good year. Unfortunately, Starjets blew it, having only themselves to blame. The heated argument in the dressing room afterwards is only one indication that too many egos can ruin success.
A couple of times during the short set, garrulous guitarist Paul Bowen had to be cut short from his haranguing of the audience. At the same time, bassist Sean Martin was forced to hold the set together in the face of such opposition as his own drummer, unprofessional in the extreme, but at least the material was good. ‘Run With The Pack’ is a bit of an own-up since this is extremely what the band are doing. Running with the teen-dream tales of The Undertones etc and dropping Stiff Little political statements in the form of ‘War Is Over’. Then again, ‘War Stories’ is a good single, even if it was big - headedly introduced as having been unanimously predicted a hit on ‘Juke Box Jury’. ‘Standby 19’ and ‘Ten Years’ were also ok, featuring some fine twin guitar-work from Messrs Bowen and Sharpe. This was followed by a slower, poppier ‘Smart Boys’ (yet more self praise, yawn!) and an agreeable version of Bowie’s ‘Jean Genie’. Probably the best number was the rousing ‘Any Danger Love’, a powerful track showing a similar sense of dynamics to The Clash’s ‘Safe European Home’. But even this would have been eclipsed by the mighty’Schooldays’, presumably the encore if they hadn’t played at being prima donnas and refused to return. They blamed an apathetic audience. I blame a pathetic attitude, inexcusable in an outfit whose good luck (record deal, major venues etc) most young bands would give their eye-teeth for.
If anyone has any further information or photographs of this band, then please DO get in contact via spit77to82@aol.com