Wigan band Starsailor announce anniversary gigs

Starsailor, who originally formed at Wigan and Leigh College have announced an autumn tour to commemorate 25 years of being a band.

The group, made up of Billinge-born frontman James Walsh on vocals and guitar, keyboardist Barry Westhead from Spring View, James Stelfox on bass and Ben Byrne on drums, will perform at 15 venues across the UK, Europe and Turkey in October and November.

Speaking to the band’s website, James said: “The anniversary has crept up on us a bit.

“Apart from a four-year period from 2010 where we didn’t do music as a band, we’ve been hard at it for the other 21 years.

"Our start feels like yesterday, in a way. If we hadn’t done anything for 10 years, we’d feel differently. But we’ve toured a lot, and we’ve tried to keep our songs alive for our fans.”

The tour includes landmark gigs at Manchester’s Albert Hall, Glasgow’s Barrowland where Starsailor will perform for the first time since supporting Manic Street Preachers in 2001.

James added: “That was a baptism of fire!

"The Manics had a really mixed audience. There were hardcore early fans going ‘who are these people, they clearly haven’t read enough Nietzsche’, mixed with fans who were a bit more receptive to what we were doing.”

In addition to the tour where the four-piece will perform tracks from their six albums, they will play two orchestral shows at Liverpool Tung Auditorium on Saturday February 15.

Starsailor will be working with Joe Duddell who is acclaimed for his work with Elbow, New Order and Richard Dudley.

James said: “We didn’t want to take the easy way out with the anniversary.

"We wanted to do something extra which stretches us creatively, so that it wasn’t all about us stepping into the past.

"These fresh arrangements of old songs, it’s the perfect balance of old and new.

"It’s very much a collaboration with Joe.

"We wanted him to have the chance to express himself, that it’s not just Starsailor with strings.

"Way To Fall sounds amazing, while Poor Misguided Fool is the biggest surprise.”

Tour tickets are now on sale.