The STARJETS were originally formed in Belfast in the summer of 1976 by vocalist/guitarist Terry Sharpe, bassist Sean Martin, vocalist/guitarist Paul Bowen and drummer Liam L'Estrange. At that time, gigs in Northern Ireland were few and far between and when bands did get them they were "obliged" to mix their own songs with well known cocerversions. The Starjets covered the likes of The Archies "Sugar sugar" and The Beatles "Please please me" in their set and even supported the Bay City Rollers and The Glitter Band before taking the collective decision to relocate to London in November 1977.

Gigs in and around London with the likes of the Fabulous Poodles, The Rezillos, The Brakes, The Late Show and The Banned eventually led to a deal with Epic Records, The Starjets becoming the first band signed by Muff Winwood, now one of the world's foremost A&R men, who saw them perform at Islington's Hope'N'Anchor and immediatly got the band to record some demos. Their first "release" for Epic was December 78's "Here she comes Again/Watch out" but tough copies were pressed the single was scrapped in favour of January '79 "It really doesn't matter/Scholldays", neither 45 coming with picture sleeve. March '79 saw the release of a third single "Run with pack/Watch out" and a healthy amount of coverage in teen pop magazines who looked on The Starjets as being "the Bay City Rollers of Punk!"

The summer of '79 brought the release of the single "Ten years/One more word" (wich came with a picture sleeve) and then saw the band touting in the UK with both The Tubes and STIFF LITTLE FINGERS (SLF's drummer of the time, Jim Reilly, having been suggested for the job in the first place by The Starjets!). This extra exposure resulted in the brilliant "War stories/Do the push" single reaching N°51 in the UK charts. Their debut Lp "God bless The Starjets", wich came with lyric insert, somehow managed to miss the charts even though the band appeared on "Top Of The Pops", "Cracker jack" and "Roundabout" and recorded Radio 1 sessions for Kid Jensen and Mike Read.

A new, rockier, version of "Schooldays" (c/w What a life) was issued in November 79 and was followed in March 80 by the last Starjets release "Shiraleo/Standby 19". Bowen left soon after it's release and was replaced by Pat Gribbin as The Starjets changed their name to TANGO BRIGADE for mid 1980's "Donegal/In vain" 45. When this failed to dent the charts, disagreements over which musical direction to go in led to the band splitting for good in late 1980. Sean Martin later worked with ex-SLF frontman Jake BURNS in The Big Wheel whilst Terry Sharpe helped out on vocals on the Angelic Upstarts "Live" album before forming THE ADVENTURES with Pat Gribbin and scoring six British National Chart hits in the mid and late 80's. Most recently he has been playing with the Belfast based Dead Handsomes as well as working on some new Adventures material.....

Mark Brennan