Changing only their trousers and their minds, the various remaining members of Jet (not those Aussies, you will recall) spontaneously became Radio Stars. Now completely keyboard-free, they began a series of releases on the Chiswick Records label and, against all the odds, became critical favourites. Even the Sun shone on them, thanks to their mutual interest in the ‘Beast of Barnsley‘.
Even more against the odds was their hit single and acclaimed album, followed by massive touring and another album. The tour climaxed at London’s Lyceum Ballroom, with a sold-out show and an atonal version of ‘Mull of Kintyre’ as a third encore.
Bucking the then-current trend for predictable career paths, the band’s songwriter (Martin Gordon), bassist (Martin Gordon), producer (Martin Gordon) and conceptualist (see where we are going with this one?) was promptly overthrown in a vicious dental coup. The rest is (not) history. Once again, failure was snatched at the last minute from the jaws of victory. Oh well, you can’t win ’em all.
A final gig in March 2017 was unilaterally cancelled in January. And that’s yer lot. The band is retrospectively dealt with on the 4-CD box set Thinking Inside the Box
- Punky Gibbon writes about the astounding haircuts of Radio Stars
- Radio Stars ‘Dirty Pictures’ poster – all the tat and more
- Radio Stars biog from Wikipedia
- Every gig that Radio Stars ever played is listed here, including the odd set list and personal reminiscences from those who attended: it’s the Radio Stars gig list!
- Insanely comprehensive Radio Stars discography from Record Collectors of the World Unite
- They appeared on the Marc Bolan TV show
- Radio Stars in 2009 review
- Radio Stars gig report in 2008 by MG
- Radio Stars/Martin Gordon live review from 2008
- The eye-wateringly-true story of Joyce McKinney and Sex in Chains Blues
- Rickenbacker tales
- Radio Stars became enlarged with cellos in 1982
From the Archive
- They played many times at London’s Marquee
- Live review at the Marquee from 1977
- and from the Nashville Rooms
- and the Marquee again
- and were a cult…
- who could get arrested after all
- They even played in Liverpool. This writer quite liked them. Some of the tracks were not bad at all.
- Radio Stars recorded three John Peel sessions
- Hot Press from 1978
- In 2014, Radio Stars were invoked as cultural icons in the UK’s Independent
- Evidently I was wrong all those years ago, there are Russians in Russia after all
- The terrible story of the origins of ‘No Russians in Russia‘ (hint: it’s not that terrible)
- Live BBC Radio 1 ‘In Concert‘ from 1977 (now available as part of the ‘Thinking Inside The Box‘ 4CD set)
- Radio Stars family tree
- Radio Stars pix gallery
The Recordings
- Animated Radio Stars pic sleeve singles
- Our own annotated Radio Stars discography:
- Songs for Swinging Lovers
- Holiday Album
- Somewhere There’s a Place For Us (compilation)
- Something for the Weekend (live album)
- Two Minutes Mr Smith (early compilation w/bonus tracks)
- Thinking Inside the Box
- Shop for Radio Stars stuff