Speedstar

In early December 2002, Brisbane five-piece Speedstar played to a few hundred people squeezed comfortably in to an observatory at the back of the Australian Homebake festival site. The show was pure class - a beautifully acoustic affair ending with their drummer throwing roses in to the crowd and one that quickly became the most talked about set of the day. It capped off a brilliant year for the band after the release of their critically acclaimed debut album 'Bruises You Can Touch' - and it's about to be repeated tenfold with the arrival of their brand new album 'Forget The Sun, Just Hold On'. Speedstar's return to the fray isn't only what they've become famous for - creating songs that deal with the delicate nature of love and hate and every emotion in between - for while the title of 'Bruises You Can Touch' was a barely disguised nod to the dark hurt of the songs held within, this time round Speedstar have a new message - it's time to look for the positive, no matter what kind of situation you've found yourself in, and having spent most of 2003 writing and recording their second album with that in mind, Speedstar are about to present 14 of the most life-affirming tracks you're likely to hear from any band this year. Working with revered Scottish producer Tony Doogan (whose credits include albums from artists such as Belle and Sebastian, The Super Furry Animals and The Reindeer Section) and infamous LA music identity Mixerman, 'Forget The Sun, Just Hold On' was set down over three weeks in the cathartic surrounds of New South Wales' Byron Bay. The album was recorded with no less than seven people in the studio at once, with a revolving cast of glockenspiels, maracas, string and horn sections, gospel singers - and the list goes on - in the studio at any one time, which meant if someone wasn't playing something, they'd be called upon to pick up something else. What resulted is an album not only bursting with lush instrumentation, but also one with an experimental edge not found on the band's debut - the kind of thing that this time round led to tea-towels on the drumskins, an odd assortment of very un-rock instrumentation and all tracks being laid down in the studio as live as possible. You'll find the results in the poppy keyboard blips of tracks like 'Crying' or the warped Sgt. Pepper-esque 'The Saddest Summer on Record (reprise)', but it's also hinted at on more 'traditional' Speedstar tunes like the piano led 'Sky Blue' and heartbreaking acoustic of 'Gospel ..27'. Not that there's not still the occasional dark undertone that symbolised 'Bruises You Can Touch' sneaking through - while the tunes on 'Forget The Sun Just Hold On' are bursting with an almost illegal amount of optimism, you'll still find tracks like the summer joy of 'One Sunny Day', which, despite it's cheery acoustic camouflage, opens with the lyrics 'You were one sunny day/ In a year I wish would fade away/When you left me lying on the pavement…'. Rest assured it's still very much the Speedstar you know and love - the same band who, with a handful of EP's released during 2001 and 'Bruises You Can Touch' (with renowned Sex Pistols/ The Jam producer Steve James) gained a passionately devoted legion of fans buoyed on by a relentless touring schedule across Australia that included nationwide supports with bands like Doves and Starsailor and appearances at the Big Day Out, Livid and Homebake festivals - but this time, there's one essential difference - the hearts are mended, the love is ultimate and the sun is shining. 'Forget The Sun, Just Hold On' is not only an album about holding on, but also letting go. The first time you fell in love - this time prepare to fall even harder. They broke up in June 2006.