Reviewers purred with approval, but Starz stalled at No.123.
#THE BAND STARS SERIAL#
The band’s 1976 self-titled debut album, produced by Jack Douglas (Aerosmith/Alice Cooper), juxtaposed radio-friendly anthems like Detroit Girls and (She’s Just A) Fallen Angel with the creepier, serial killer-inspired Night Crawler, and Pull The Plug, which was about switching off the life-support machine of a dying girlfriend. “In that sense the association was extremely detrimental,” Ranno agrees. The flip-side of being associated with someone as high-profile as Aucoin was that many people automatically (but quite wrongly) assumed Starz were a baby Kiss. But Capitol had no vision for a hard rock band like Starz.” Michael was such an amazing frontman, we could win over an arena of 20,000 people who’d never heard of us. And by the time the first album came out, which wasn’t long afterwards, all the executives responsible for signing us had left. “They were on the other side of the country. Twenty years later they attribute most of the blame for what went wrong to a simple business decision: after a stampede to sign them, in January 1976 Aucoin paired Starz with California-based Capitol Records. Mostly he was referred to simply as Dubé.Īs an unsigned band, Starz had already opened for Peter Frampton and ZZ Top. Joe Dubé was someone he’d seen failing spectacularly in a televised weightlifting competition, and to add extra intrigue he also dropped in the middle initial ‘X’. Other people might’ve thought that way, and I guess it could’ve worked against us.” “We were called Starz in the astrological sense, not because we were potential celebrities. “After success as singles artists, most of us had gone through our drinking, taking drugs and wild living phases,” Ranno reminisces.
#THE BAND STARS PLUS#
A final name change, plus the ousting of keyboard player Larry Gonsky, gave the newly monikered Starz a much-needed final push. The head of that panel, Ron Wallace, said this week that most of the submissions are “strongly opposed” to mining.Starz in their eyes, live in 1977 (Image credit: Getty Images)įallen Angels’ first lucky break came when Bill Aucoin of Rock Steady management, the heavyweights who represented Kiss, signed them up.
That panel is expected to deliver its report to Energy Minister Sonya Savage on Nov. The province is waiting on a report from a panel that has spent the last several months hearing from Albertans about how - or if - coal mines should be allowed near the headwaters of most of the province’s drinking water. One of the main things about releasing this now is that we have to remind people that this is far from over.” There hasn’t been a lot of things in the news. Lund, who promised any revenue from the re-release will be donated to grassroots groups opposing the mines, said while the public controversy about the developments may have subsided, the fight hasn’t ended. Rural people are upset, First Nations people are upset, urban people are upset. “It’s important that we stress this is a non-political issue. Apart from mining’s impact on the area’s beauty, he’s concerned about its effect on water supplies and contamination in a perennially dry region. Lund hasn’t been shy about his opposition to the mines, speaking out on social media and in news interviews. “They can drill, they can mine, over my smouldering bones,” the song opens. Cree-Dene singer Sherryl Sewepagaham also sings a verse in Cree. Lund, together with a posse of pals, have re-recorded and re-released the song as what Lund hopes will become an anthem of opposition to mining development in the Rockies.įellow country stars Terri Clark, Brett Kissel and Paul Brandt joined in. I called up some people who had been supporting me on Twitter and they were all for it.” “It occurred to me that this might make a good reissue and then it occurred to me that maybe we should recruit a few more people.
“This coal thing happened and I looked at (the song) and it was just word for word,” Lund said from his home in Lethbridge, downstream from the proposed mines. Lund’s imagined defender was suddenly very real.
#THE BAND STARS SERIES#
“It was just kind of a story, a fictional story,” Lund said.Įvents have since caught up to the tune “This Is My Prairie.” The summits and foothills of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains have been leased along a vast stretch of their range for coal exploration and a series of companies have announced plans for open-pit mines. EDMONTON - When Alberta country singer Corb Lund wrote a song 12 years ago about a rancher determined to defend the landscape he loves against encroaching development, it was just a campfire yarn.
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