Starsailor at Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Starsailor’s initial run of success saw both their Love Is Here debut album and the 2003 follow-up Silence Is Easy hit number 2 on the charts as they raced to a total of three million sales. Now their biggest hits and fan favourites have been collated in Good Souls: The Greatest Hits, which was released on 18^th September on Parlophone and they are currently touring.

The album kicks off with the band’s three biggest hits in the shape of Good Souls, Silence Is Easy, and Alcoholic. In addition to those tracks, it features a further seven top-40 hits, as well as deeper cuts such as Tie Up My Hands and Fidelity which became staples of Starsailor’s live shows.
 
In a full Shepherd’s Bush Empire, James Walsh enter the stage with the rest of the band and begin their set with Poor Misguided Fool. Two songs later, In the Crossfire turns on the audience that rise from their seats.

It was during the early winter of 2001 that the name of Starsailor surfaced the UK radios with Fever, pushed by DJ Steve Lamacq, and it’s still that very same song to charm the West London crowd.

Tonight’s concert, however, isn’t simply a stroll down memory lane; the band also showcases new material: latest single Give Up the Ghost, recently recorded with producer Harry Rutherford at the famous Fisher Lane Studios. “The lyrics are about reassuring someone who has their life ahead of them and passing wisdom onto them,” Walsh said of the track. “We wanted to get an anthemic chorus which should get the crowd going.” And it works.

The highlights of the show are This Time, Tell Me It’s Not Over and the Philip Spector-produced Silence Is Easy. It’s a great concert, a celebration of the golden age of Brit pop rock, when Radiohead, Oasis and Coldplay put the spotlight back on the UK music scene.

The encore couldn’t be any better, with every member of the public singing along Four to the Floor and Good Souls.

Alex White
Photos: Filippo L’Astorina

For further information about Starsailor and future events visit here.

Watch the video for Give Up the Ghost here: