Starz In The 00's?
by Martin Popoff
Seventies metal legends Starz, who released four studio albums from '76 to '78, followed by a gaggle of posthumous live releases in the '80s, could be reforming for a short tour, starting in Texas.
Guitarist Richie Ranno explains. "It all started because the Starz website was getting a tremendous amount of hits. A promoter from Texas called me and said 'would you guys get together and play down here?' And I said 'No' (laughs). Because he just wanted us to play San Antonio. We had just never really pursued getting back together. We always talk to each other, but we never pursued playing because we live all over the country. Michael's in L.A., Brendan's in Nashville, Dube lives about an hour and half from me, and our original bass player Peter Sweval passed away about ten years ago. We had a couple of different bass players that we used, and there are some I know for sure we wouldn't use (laughs). So I said, 'if you can get us four cities, then maybe we can all just fly in.' So he contacted this big agent who kind of specializes in reunion tours. So that's where we're at now. Whether or not the promoters or clubs are interested is another story. If they're not interested, then it doesn't really matter. The first idea would be to do those four dates and see how it goes. And then if it goes well, maybe we would look at three weeks in the Midwest, a week out East, and then that would be it. Just have a little fun."
In the meantime, three collections of Starz rarities have recently been released: Back In The Day is a collection of early demos, Fallen Angels is the legendary Jack Richardson-produced shelved album before the band changed their name to Starz, and Live In Louisville is an 18 track, 2 CD live set. See www.erols.com/starzcentral for ordering info.
