ANNOUNCEMENT: Lighting & Electrical

"Lighting &

Electrical"

…the debut album from Friends of the Stars.

• Friends of the Stars emerged in 2004 from the fated ashes of John Peel favourites The Toques.
• Principal members Anna Russell (vocals, keyboards), Craig Hamilton (vocals, guitars), Cam Docherty (guitars, vocals) and Phil Robinson (percussion, ex-Novak) hail from Birmingham, UK – via Brighton, Northampton and Kilmarnock.
• The 12 self-produced songs on “Lighting & Electrical” reflect the band's diverse tastes and influences – from the looping guitar spirals of epic opener Dragonfly to the feather light touch of the heart-stopping country ballad Old Souls.
• Friends of the Stars share out song-writing and vocal duties – Anna's awesome, soaring voice on its own or complimenting Craig or Cam's more weather-beaten tones.
• Various other artists have agreed to remix tracks for future releases with a view to a possible companion EP for Lighting & Electrical. Details available upon request.
• Lighting & Electrical is wholly owned by the band and is available for worldwide licensing in all territories, either entirely or as individual tracks. The band is particularly interested in talking to labels that release limited 7” vinyl singles and will discuss potential free licensing of individual tracks for this purpose.

MIDEM 2006

• Craig Hamilton will be in Cannes for the MIDEM music conference and will be based on the BRITISH at MIDEM stand. Ask for him at the reception in order to pick up a sampler CD of ‘Lighting and Electrical’ containing the tracks ‘Feelin’ Blue’, ‘Sharpening a Blade’ plus the L&R Woodcutter Fabulous Remix of ‘Sharpening a Blade’.
  
  Craig will be in Cannes from around 3pm Sunday 22nd January until the evening of Thursday 27th

A brief history of Friends of the Stars...

• The history of the band dates back to the late 1990s when Craig, Anna, Phil along with guitarist James Summerfield and bassist Jez Ince first launched a country rock assault from their unlikely West Midlands base.
  
• Buick 6 quickly became the band “you have to see” in Birmingham and their debut single Drunk on My Porch (Winnebago Records) was played by John Peel, a break which lead to them being offered their first Peel session in 2001.
  
• Around this time, an Anglo-Irish Blues outfit with the same name kicked up a fuss and the band were forced to change their name.
  
• However, as The Toques, the band really started to take off; with a second Peel session in 2002 and recording work with key Creation Records cog “Slaughter” Joe Foster. Songs from this session later surfaced as a 7” release on Bearos Records
  
• The second trip to Maida Vale at the invitation of the late, great Radio 1 DJ was a high watermark for the band and the first time they worked with future guitarist Cam Docherty, then ploughing a lone singer-songwriter furrow in Birmingham.
  
• The band took the brave step of eschewing selections from their live set in favour of four esoteric cover versions, ranging from Dinosaur Jr to The Human League. The band recruited Docherty on bass and other friends including Julian Wilson (Grand Drive), Simon Alpin (Teenage Fanclub, Lomax) and Alan McDonald (x[isgreaterthan]y) for the nine-piece band.
  
• Cam Docherty joined on lead guitar in 2004 and the band, now called Friends of the Stars to mark the change, decided to go back to the beginning, with new songs and a new impetus. At this time, the band resigned from a 2002 management deal with Sanctuary Music Management.
  
• They have been working on their debut album “Lighting & Electrical” since summer 2005.
  
  Contact: info@friendsofthestars.co.uk