Brian May - Star Fleet Project (1983)

At just under 30 minutes in length, the mini-album Star Fleet Project is short, but certainly sweet, and is the debut solo project for Queen’s Brian May. The increasingly hard to find album, however, is not a Brian May solo project in the same way as his post-Queen works but is rather a jam session collaboration with some of May’s friends. Whilst this may not seem like a concept that should make it to vinyl, when you realise that among these ‘friends’ is guitarist Eddie Van Halen the project becomes all the more alluring.

Inspired by a Japanese children sci-fi animation series that was avidly watched by his child, May set about writing the Star Fleet theme into an extended full ’song’ and this piece forms the opener to the album and was also a single release. The version here is not the same as the single version, the video for which can be seen below, but is a longer more improvised version with extended soloing.

Next-up is Let Me Out, which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a Queen album to be fair, and is a slow shuffle with some crashing chords and May taking lead vocal duties: there are even some Queen-esque vocal harmonies on the chorus for good measure. There’s a nice little guitar solo from May and then just as you think the track is about to fade, in comes the solos with Eddie Van Halen and May taking it in turns to run through a number of solos and it’s not long before Van Halen is into his stride with his runs but here they are in a more understated bluesy style to suit the number: but for fans of his speed-picking, he does squeeze a bit in too! May also really makes his guitar really screech here on the solos before the band return to the chorus for the outtro.

Side 2 of the old vinyl features just one track, May’s tribute to Eric Clapton, Blues Breaker which is a 12 minute slow blues instrumental jam with May and Van Halen again trading solos. However, unlike Clapton, Van Halen throws in some tapping and rapid runs as the track progresses whilst May, never the speed freak, keeps it simple but effective. Finally, Fred Mandel gets a piano solo spot too before the track double-times for the final bars.

This is a very interesting album indeed recorded when Brian May was in between the ill-received funk-oriented Hot Space and the reinventing Works albums by Queen and works extremely well as an intentionally minimally-produced set of jams. Eddie Van Halen and Brian May have two of the most distinctive guitar styles in rock so it is interesting here to hear both of them adapting their styles to blues – a style that heavily influenced both players – and trading solos throughout. If you can get hold of a copy, I’d highly recommend it!

• Brian May – Guitar/Vocals
• Edward Van Halen – Guitar
• Phil Chen – Bass
• Fred Mandel – Keyboards
• Alan Gratzer – Drums

Van Halen - Van Halen (1978)

Whilst Van Halen’s later offering 1984 may have really broken the band and catapulted them to international stardom, their 1978 self-titled debut sent shock-waves throughout the rock and musician’s fraternity. Not that the tracks themselves were the greatest thing since sliced bread – although many are strong – but that the guitar playing of Eddie Van Halen was at that time in a league of its own. There were some good guitarists around previously but Eddie Van Halen had really raised the bar and played a style that was to form the bedrock for all rock/metal guitarists who followed in his wake.

The album opens with Runnin’ With The devil – and is, as with the rest of the album, a sparsely produced number owing to the 12-hour time-frame in which the album was recorded – and is a plodding number with a short guitart break but nothing to indicate what was to come next. The really ground-breaking number on the album is not a song and only features guitar and a bit of drums from Eddie’s brother Alex. Eruption features all the trademarks of Eddie Van Halen’s guitar technique – and the blueprint for rock guitarists thereafter – crammed into a one and half minute guitar-fest. Speed picking and tapping are showcased in Eruption and the rest, as they say, is history!

A rocky cover of the Kinks’ You Really Got Me is up next followed by Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love, an uptempo and mildly catchy number with some strong melodic guitar work from Van Halen. Things then crank-up another gear with I’m The One, featuring a frantic bluesy riff and some lightening runs and soloing and is a good forerunner of the mid-80s Van Halen sound as heard on Hot For Teacher.

Guitar playing apart, the album then, for me, drifts into mediocrity with the exception being Feel Your Love Tonight – which in itself was a little ahead of its time and is akin to the later Glam/Hair metal musings of Ratt and the like – and Little Dreamer, a slow riff-based number.

Ice Cream man, the penultimate track, showcases the humour of the band – something always in evidence through frontman Dave Lee Roth – which was to provide an undercurrent largely up to the installation of Sammy Hagar on vocals many years later. The track starts with a trad blues acoustic riff and then transcends into an absolute belter of a rock and roll number with some classic Van Halen soloing.

The closing track, On Fire, is another uptempo number featuring some nice use of harmonics from Van Halen but is one of the weaker track on the album and vocally/melodically is quite a dated piece.

In conclusion the album’s influence is greater than the sum of its parts – Dave Lee Roth, love or loathe him, was a pioneering rock/metal frontman – a real showman of a performer that broke the mould of the more staid approach that had become the mainstay previously with rock bands – and Eddie Van Halen had reinvented rock/metal guitar playing just in time for the 1980s to inspire a long line of shredder’s who would come to the fore, some of whom would overtake his playing abilities within a matter of years but, just as in the 1960s guitarists such as Hendrix, Clapton, Blackmore etc had begun to break the mould and pave the way for the rock of the 1970s, thus Van Halen had repeated the trick in the late 1970s with this breakthrough album and paved the way for Vai, Malmsteen etc to move things up a gear a few years later.

• Eddie Van Halen – Guitar
• Dave Lee Roth- Vocals
• Alex Van Halen – Drums
• Michael Anthony – Bass