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biography
[+]
by Stewart Mason
The Starlings were a nom de studio for singer and
multi-instrumentalist Chris Sheehan, a New Zealand native who released
two albums under this name in the early '90s as but one stop on a
surprisingly varied musical journey.
Sheehan was born in Christchurch, New
Zealand, in 1965 and taught himself guitar as a teenager. At the tender
age of 18, Sheehan joined the already successful new wave band the Dance
Exponents as a second guitarist in 1983, staying long enough to record
three albums with them: Prayers Be Answered, Great Expectations, and
Amplifier. Facing slipping popularity, the group split up and Sheehan
followed the group's drummer, ex-Psychedelic Furs Vince Ely, to Los
Angeles, where both guested on the first solo album by Ely's
then-girlfriend, Jane Wiedlin. Sheehan moved from Los Angeles to London
in 1987 and began recording one-man-band records under the Starlings
name two years later. After a promising first EP, Letters From Heaven,
released through the Rough Trade label in 1990 (which gained some indie
chart notoriety for a ripping cover of the Byrds' classic "Wasn't Born
to Follow"), Sheehan signed to Anxious Records, the vanity label founded
by ex-Eurythmics Dave Stewart. (Sheehan had become the house engineer
at Stewart's studio.) The Starlings' first full-length release, Valid,
wasn't released until 1992, however, not least because Sheehan had
become a fairly serious heroin addict during his early years in England.
The album was written and recorded while Sheehan was still using, but
he successfully completed rehab the same week the album was released.
Although Valid scored good reviews, it did
not sell, a state of affairs Sheehan blamed squarely on his record
label. Rather than stew in private, Sheehan poured out his angst on the
seething Too Many Dogs, a festival of no-minced-words venom that makes
Nine Inch Nails sound like Sunday school teachers. Unamused, Anxious
Records buried the album, let Sheehan record a follow-up, then refused
to release it and unceremoniously dropped him.
Sheehan basically dropped the Starlings
name at that point and spent the rest of the '90s as a journeyman backup
musician, performing and recording with Babylon Zoo, the Mutton Birds,
and Sisters of Mercy, among others. Sheehan released a "solo" album,
Planet Painkiller, under the name Chris Starling in 2000; later that
year, he rejoined the re-formed Sisters of Mercy as rhythm guitarist.
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