History
Christian Hayes, David Francolini and Laurence O'Keefe formed Dark Star in 1998. All three had previously been members of Levitation, and had long individual histories in the British alternative rock scene. Hayes had previously been the guitarist for Cardiacs and Ring, and the bass player for The Dave Howard Singers; O'Keefe had played a similar role with The Jazz Butcher; and Francolini had played with Julian Cope, The Blue Aeroplanes and an embryonic Strangelove, (as well as less well-known acts such as The Coltraines, The United States of Mind, Rhythm Party, and Something Pretty Beautiful).
Dark Star signed to the now defunct Harvest Records, the progressive rock subsidiary of EMI. The band went on to release several EPs and a debut album, Twenty Twenty Sound, produced by Steve Lillywhite. Their live performances, (usually with a stage decorated with fairy lights) attracted a dedicated following. The band's common musical influence was Public Image Limited. In 2000, the band had two Top 40 UK Singles Chart hits with re-releases of "Graceadelica" and "I Am The Sun", both from their debut album.
Following the touring and promotion of Twenty Twenty Sound, the band entered the studio to record the follow-up. Strangers And Madmen was mooted as the lead off single and received its first play on The Evening Session, hosted by Steve Lamacq. Due to a change in personnel at EMI and a general lack of interest from the label in the new material, it was agreed the two parties would part.
The band subsequently split in 2001 with no official announcement, to pursue different projects. They were unable to release the already recorded second album, as the rights to the music belonged to EMI. A bootleg of pre-master mixes of this album is now in circulation, entitled 'Zurich' - it is not known where the title actually came from or whether it was the album's intended title.
Francolini subsequently moved back to Bristol, and set up a recording studio. He currently works on several projects (sometimes under the name of Mitch Razor) including the indie band Dragons. Hayes has divided his time between music and tour management - his current musical project is the solo psychedelic project, Mikrokosmos. O'Keefe is now a session bassist, working with a wide variety of acts including Sophia and Martina Topley-Bird.
Read more about this topic: Dark Star (band)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The only thing worse than a liar is a liar that’s also a hypocrite!
There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)
“Don’t you realize that this is a new empire? Why, folks, there’s never been anything like this since creation. Creation, huh, that took six days, this was done in one. History made in an hour. Why it’s a miracle out of the Old Testament!”
—Howard Estabrook (1884–1978)
“You treat world history as a mathematician does mathematics, in which nothing but laws and formulas exist, no reality, no good and evil, no time, no yesterday, no tomorrow, nothing but an eternal, shallow, mathematical present.”
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)