The Starlings were an English alternative rock band, formed in 1989, utilised as the main project for New Zealand-born singer/guitarist Chris Sheehan.
[1] Sheehan had been a teenage star in his native New Zealand, playing guitar in the new wave band The Dance Exponents between 1983 and the late 1980s.
[2] Initially a five-piece band, Sheehan sacked all original Starlings members other than drummer and fellow New Zealander Barry Blackler and recruited Northampton-born bass guitarist Matt Parkin.
[1] The band's debut album Valid was released in 1992, the songs documenting Sheehan's withdrawal from heroin, followed two years later by Too Many Dogs, with songs described as "vicious, dark, misanthropic gems", the latter released in the United States by Atlantic Records, and attracting critical acclaim if not commercial success.
[3] Sheehan played with Babylon Zoo, and The Mutton Birds in the latter half of the 1990s and returned with a solo album, Planet Painkiller in 2000, under the name Chris Starling.