Stars

Written by STEVE Hillier

When February 1992

Where Jesmond, Newcastle Upon Tyne

Originally Sung By Steve Hillier

Features Roland W-30, Yamaha DX100  

Spotify Link

YOUTUBE link to GDR demo of Stars 1994

Youtube link to Steve hillier’s 2021 Glitterball Remix

STARS and KING TUBBY DJ MASHUP 2001

Stars on Wikipedia

“We’ll take out hearts outside, leave our lives behind and watch the stars go out”

Stars, Dubstar’s most successful song, was written as Walkers Nightclub in Newcastle was closed. It was an infamous haunt for students and gangsters and the first Tyneside nightclub that I worked in. Walkers Nightclub was a favourite haunt with the more discerning Geordie clubber, I’d DJed at the permanently sold-out Wednesday’s ‘Westworld’ club night since 1989…my first regular nightclub spot since arriving in Newcastle.

Walkers had numerous difficulties, from regular overcrowding to problems with the drug trade and a broken air conditioning system. Despite this its closure was a shock. The club had come to define the mid-week music scene for me and many others on Tyneside. While The Riverside was there for bands, in the late 80s and early 90s Walkers Nightclub was where you went to dance. And on a Wednesday (and later Thursday night at my indie club ‘Futureworld’) you came for my choice of music. Walkers is where I met Chris Wilkie. It’s also where the Dubstar story begins. I took a phonecall in my Tyneside flat on a Thursday afternoon, the police had closed Walkers. I was getting ready for a special club night for the release of the latest Cure album…I’d spent weeks arranging this with a promo company based in Blackheath called Streets Ahead. It was a big deal for all parties, and now I had to tell them the club had closed.

Crestfallen, I walked down through the rain into Jesmond Dene to stare at the animals in the petting zoo and gather my thoughts. I had no idea what I would do. Walkers had been the largest part of my income for years, it also was the springboard from which I got the rest of my gigs, such was the glowing reputation of the Westworld night.

I decided to write Stars, one of the most important decisions in my career, maybe in my entire life.

Walkers returned as Planet Earth in 1993, and regained the Walkers crown to become the late-night drinking spot for many Dubstar sessions. It was a five-minute walk from The Forth Hotel and our studio ‘Stink Central’ at The Arts Centre. It was handy to know that when we got off the train from Kings Cross at one in the morning there was somewhere that would let us in for the tenth drink of the night.

Planet Earth was a terrific club, there’s nothing like it down here in Brighton. But it couldn’t replace Walkers, it had an extra something. Danger maybe?

I wrote Stars on the old piano in my front room in Jesmond, with a lead melody that only features on the ‘acoustic version’ on the B-Side of No More Talk (and now this new piano version). It came together quickly, which is always a good sign. Stars took on a life of its own when I completed the first draft using my Roland W-30 sampler and sequencer. Almost the entire arrangement you hear on the Dubstar version was assembled on the W-30. There’s also a lead ‘twinkle’ from the Yamaha DX100 I’d bought for £100 at Mckay Sounds on Westgate Road earlier that month…a pure sine wave, largely because it was the only sound I liked from the keyboard at the time. That opinion changed soon after. I now own three.

The arrangement to Stars was conceived with a nod to Massive Attack, my favourite new act at the time, and the Dub Reggae tunes I grew up with in Lewisham, South London. Of course, being one of my songs, and having very little idea of how Dub Reggae works it had a strong melody and wistful lyric…a reflection of how I was feeling about the state of the club scene on Tyneside. And what on earth I was going to do next.

I didn’t understand why people liked Stars so much at first, I wasn’t keen on recording it at all. But through my experiences working at Pinnacle Records, my first job after leaving school, and out of respect to Andy (the boss) Ross at Food Records, I knew that if there were any point in signing to his record label it would be to allow his expertise as the guide for the next stage for Dubstar. He wanted to release Stars first, so we did. It went on to be the most successful Dubstar song by far, and is still played on the radio and featured on playlists across the world today.

Today, I know why people like it. It’s grown on me too.