Any Starcastle fans out there?

[Guss]

Hey does anybody have any information/opinions about starcastle? Has anybody ever even heard of them? Im really not quite sure about their status in relation to the public and would like to get some reviews from people who have listened. Thanks

[rickbass]

I know a little about them because, living in St. Louis, we used to gig in the S. Illinois area and they would be on the bill in some places during their early days. I think they were a Champaign, IL band and capitalized on the university there to get a good start.

As I remember, they were doing the "Yes-type, artsy-fartsy rock" genre, with a Moog synth and a high-pitched singer who used to be with REO, Luttrell (can't remember the first name).

If you know of Pavlov's Dog, that's who my band was on a bill with them and Starcastle, who headlined.

[WildeStarr]

I know bassist Gary Strater a little bit, but I have not seen him for years. I hear that he has been real sick.
My old Guitar player from Vicious Rumors (Mark Mghee) played with Gary in an early 80's version of Starcastle that Gary had going out here in S.F., Gary was the only original member left at that point.

Starcastle

Dave Starr: Bassist with CHASTAIN & Vicious Rumors

[Guss]

He has been sick. He has pancreatic cancer. He is also my teacher so that is how i learned of the band. I wouldn't ask him to plug his own band however.
I guess he is getting better because he called the other day and told be that he could resume teaching me. Hopefully he will recover soon.

Oh yeah, and if anybody's wondering, i dont actually live in New Hampshire. I don't know why i put that actually. for some reason we thought it was funny. I live in mahomet, which is about 8 miles away from champaign

[baba]

That was a great arcade game. I must have dropped hundreds of dollars of quarters on it in the 80s.

[Bob Lee (QSC)]

I saw them back in 1977 in Springfield, Mass., opening for the Outlaws and Boston. They weren't even listed on the tickets or the marquee, and my friends and I had never heard of them before. But they amazed us at how tight they played. And their lighting was really cool, too; there was this round convex disk, maybe five feet in diameter, oriented vertically behind the drummer and covered with pieces of mirror of various sizes and shapes. Many of the pieces were oblong and oriented radially. It didn't look like anything significant until at one point in one song all the spotlights hit it simultaneously, and these thousands of beams of bright light pierced the smoke in the arena (yes, smoke; this was the 70s). Probably half the audience was stoned, and the other half was inhaling second-hand toke, so there was this big "Wooohhhhhhh" from the audience. And then a much BIGGER "Wooohhhhhhh" when the disk started revolving, throwing those beams into motion. Yeah, it was mainly a psychedelic mirror ball, but it was a pretty cool effect. Another lighting effect was a bunch of strobe lights, distributed about the stage, that flashed during some fast synthesizer arpeggios. Each one flashed at some different rate, so the effect was kind of like what you see at a night time sporting event when thousands of people are snapping flash photos.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by Bob Lee (QSC)

...and these thousands of beams of bright light pierced the smoke in the arena (yes, smoke; this was the 70s). Probably half the audience was stoned, and the other half was inhaling second-hand toke...

Second-hand toker here.
...those were the daze, huh?

[grooveguru]

Yep, "Lady Of The Lake" is on my laptop right. Also have "Small Beginnings" on by Flash

[JimK]

Originally Posted by grooveguru

Also have "Small Beginnings" on by Flash

Flash's 1st 2 albums had some very nice artwork.
I think there may be a compilation set of Flash's albums...minus the artwork.