Flaming Stars, Cas-Rock, 5/4/97

First, a couple of words about support act The Captains. Those words are 'Pub rock'. Not necessarily a bad thing of course, take Dr. Feelgood, Wilko Johnson etc. The Captains take the finest elements of these sources and deliver a set similar to what the likes of the Kaisers are doing these days.

You couldn't really call the Flaming Stars pub rock, however. OK, singer Max Décharné was previously in Gallon Drunk. Sure, their debut lp was called 'Songs from the Bar-room Floor'. And there's evidence they're not adverse to a drink or two (Breaker Malt Liquor seems to be the tipple of choice), but there's much more to them than that. Décharné looks like he'd be more at home in a lounge bar anyway, so relaxed is he as he saunters through the audience and does the occasional one-handed keyboard solo. The rest of the band work very hard to make up for this laxness, and drummer Joe Witney in