Star Fleet Project: the most overlooked supergroup of the 1980s
Most people have a clear notion of what the ultimate supergroup should sound like. However, there’s also a significant possibility that such a supergroup could become a disaster if it actually materialised. While many supergroups have lived up to their promise, many have also featured icons who ended up embarrassing themselves by producing a lacklustre record together. Yet, when the stars align, you get something extraordinary, such as the Star Fleet Project, where Queen and Van Halen converge.
That is, for just a couple of songs. While the Star Fleet Project only have one EP to their name, the three songs they made together were miraculous for guitar players everywhere. Even though most of these kinds of bands start off in a board room of people trying to put something together, their inception actually began in the mind of Brian May as an offshoot of Queen.
Because looking back on this era of Queen, it doesn’t always make for the most adventurous rock music. They still had fantastic songs to their name, but there wasn’t much room for May to flex his chops on songs like ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ or later on ‘Radio Gaga’. He needed another outlet, and Star Fleet seemed like a way for him to blow off steam.
Bringing Roger Taylor in tow to sing backup, May turned in a masterclass performance once he hooked up with Eddie Van Halen. Despite Van Halen still climbing the charts with each passing day, Eddie was more than willing to take the challenge, eventually turning each of the group’s three songs into an excuse to jam for as long as they wanted.
Out of all the songs, ‘Starfleet’ might be the greatest that anyone could have expected from the project. There’s all the shredding expertise that many would know in a heartbeat, but it still holds together as a fantastic track. May was already an incredible songwriter, and though this adaptation of a TV theme song is more or less a shortcut for him to play licks, the verse and chorus have all the tunefulness of a song like ‘39’ off A Night at the Opera, only this time it actually sounds like the space traveller that May was singing about.
Even though ‘Let Me Out’ is a bit of a downgrade from the first song, it’s easy to pick out every one of the licks in the song as May or Eddie. By the time this record was made, each one had their patented licks down, and for every sweeping arpeggio that May does, there’s usually an accompanying tapping lick that isn’t too far behind.
While the blues-infused closer ‘Bluesbreaker’ was meant to be a nod to Eric Clapton, ‘Slowhand’ may have been one of the only people not digging the project, later saying that it was one of the more soulless homages that he had ever heard. Then again, this wasn’t about simply trying to grandstand. It was about having fun, and this 12-minute tune feels like a bunch of kids in their garage jamming for the hell of it.
More than anything, the Star Fleet Project is a great vehicle for what May can do. Now that he didn’t have his walls of guitars backing him up, this was a reminder that he was still a damn good player without all of the bells and whistles that had been thrown onto Queen’s records the past few years.
Then again, this could also be a baton-passing moment for Eddie. The last few Van Halen records were guitar-dominated, but that Queen influence may have given Eddie more confidence to reach outside his comfort zone when working on records like 1984 and embracing synthesisers later.
Although this came out right when the era of shredders was about to kick into high gear, Star Fleet Project is the record that still had all the values of a great rock band at its heart. The charts were reserved for pop hits, but for anyone who was into Queen or Van Halen strictly for the incredible guitar solos, this is the kind of treat that has only gotten sweeter with age.
