Starfighter

Starfighter started out as the solo project of Tim Brown, who was a founding member of The Shovels. They specialised in sixties influenced beatmusic. Other members were drummer Dave Schroyen (Now in Millionaire and Vandal X and several other projects), Bass guitar player Bart Vandebroek (from Belgium’s best band ever, Evil Superstars) and Erik Debny (now in a band called The Stamps with Tim Brown’s girlfriend Sofie on vocals) Check out The Shovels’ lo- fi debut album ‘Plastic Fantastic Generation’ (KS008) and follow up ‘Time Machine’ (KS025) on Kinky Star Records for some humouristic lo-fi retropop. After moving from Hasselt, Limburg to Ghent, Tim created eleven songs and recorded them on an analog 4 –track recorder with whatever gear was found ‘round his flat. Some guitars, a vintage drumcomputer, an ashtray and various other tools created these lo-fi sounds. ‘No/Fi’ (KS022) is the title of this debut album. It contains demo versions of some Starfighter songs, echos from the Eighties, intimate lullabies and pure porno-rock. Finishing touch was provided by DJ 4T4 (known from Flemish hiphopband ‘t Hof van Commerce and Ultrasonic). He added some extra beats, scratches and sounds. To be able to perform live, Tim started looking for a bassplayer and a drummer. After several line-up changes and rehearsals Tim opted for drummer Jen Bernon, former drummer in Lill’Mill (who had made a superb pop EP called "Nofo" on Kinky Star Records, KS020) and Luc Waegeman on bass guitar (also bassplayer in Needle and the Painreaction) Luc is also the former drummer of seXmachines (wich was Danny"dEUS" Mommens' underground cult band who released a single on KSR called "On Stage" ,KS004) and he's is also the key person in Kinky Star Records. Tim takes care of the leadvocals and -guitar. In 2001 Starfighter played the Halderner Open Air Festival and Popkomm Music Messe (both in Germany), Access to Amsterdam (A2A),VPRO’s 3 voor 12 webcast-radio, Kink FM radio (all in Holland), and did some shows in France (one of them opening up for Ash at l'Aeronef in Lille where they blew Ash away) They also visited Switserland where they played the Bad Bonn Kilbi festival in Düdingen, and did exessive clubtouring in Belgium, ( some of them together with Das Pop) wich proved to be very successful. In 2002 Starfighter played some radio shows in Holland (VPRO’s Club Lek) and got offered the hottest spot of the year, playing the aftershow of The Strokes in AB club in Brussels. They played numerous summer festivals like Marktrock, Maanrock and Gentse Feesten. They opened up the Marquee venue of the highly respected Pukkelpop Festival and closed down the Dour Festival tent at 2am, and were invited to the Vooruit in Ghent for ‘One night in Ghent’. In 2003 they were invited to Glasgow, Scotland to do a showcase at the international Musicworks festival and also to the Eurosonic festival in Groningen, Holland. Drummer Jen joins Das Pop to complete their new line up. The first Starfighter full album is called "Make a sex Noise”. The three singles taken from this album( About You, International, My Attitude) got good airplay on Belgian ‘Alternative’ radio station Studio Brussel and the videoclips got shown on Belgian music TV channels Jim TV and TMF. Press jumped onto Starfighter like dogs with rabies. ‘Make a Sex Noise’ has been released in Belgium, Holland and France. On all occasions, Starfighter has proven to be an incredibly strong live sensation.