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Human Frailty Pty Ltd |
Deadstar
Deadstar was formed in late 1994 out of Barry Palmer (guitarist from Hunters and Collectors), Caroline Kennedy (vocals) and Peter Jones (drums and percussion). Barry and Caroline shared most of the song writing duties of the band. Deadstar split late in the year 2000 citing frustration over record company disinterest in their "Over The Radio" single and not having a desire to continue with the band. Deadstar's self titled debut album is shown to the left/above. The 1995 album contains the singles "Valentine's Day/Going Down", "She Loves She" and "Sister". None of these songs were hits or got a large amount of airplay but they introduced the world to Deadstar. The sound on this album is very raw and heavier than one may have been expecting from Hunters and Collectors material. In the first album, Nick Seymour helped out in parts with bass guitar (this was around the time Crowded House was saying goodbye). Nick toured with Deadstar for a while but ended up leaving because he was not enjoying in - it was a big change to go from the hugely successful Crowded House to the little known Deadstar.
Shown to the right/above is Deadstar's second album, "Milk" (1997). This album was a step above the first album and was in turn more successful. The single "Don't It Get You Down" got a significant amount of airplay in Australia and nearly scraped into the top 50. The single "Sex Sell" got airplay on the UK's Radio 1, but a record company mess meant the single did not get released until after the airplay died off. "I've Got Something To Tell You" was also a single off this album. Mark's younger brother Nick Seymour also played with Deadstar for a while around this time (just after the split of the band he was in, Crowded House). Deadstar's masterpiece was their third and final album, "Somewhere Over The Radio" (1999), shown below. In an ideal would this album would have sold a few million more than what it did but life was like that for good music around the year 2000.
"Somewhere Over The Radio" spawned the hit single "Deeper Water" which peaked at #28 on the Australian charts, as well at the minor hit singles "Run Baby Run" (#64) and "Over The Radio". All songs were given a reasonable amount of radio airplay, particularly by the Capitol Radio network. Despite this, record company disinterest in promoting this album is reported to play a part in why the band split. 'Beauty' is the first word that comes to mind when describing "Somewhere Over The Radio" as a whole. The raw edges of the previous two albums are completely smoothed out to produce an album with exceptionally crisp and beautiful vocals blended with an almost perfect guitar driven backing. A "Definitive Collection" best of album was released in 2002, containing around half of the Deadstar material released to date. All of the hits are included, and the "Somewhere Over The Radio" album gets the focus that it deserves.
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