Mellotronists

Steven Davies-Morris here.  Some of you music-types may already have
heard this, but I'm passing it on anyway.

I'm sad to report that Gary Strater, bassist of US symphonic proggers
Starcastle, lost his battle with liver and pancreatic cancer on Sunday.
Not only was he a great musician and all-around good guy, he was a friend
of the Systems Theory project, having offered to play bass for us and
produce and album.  When Greg and I were in bands in the late 70s,
Starcastle were personal heroes.  Only a handful of US bands ever "made
it" to any degree playing prog -- there was no national prog scene,
because of the vast distances between major cities -- so bands that put
out albums on real labels (Kansas, Starcastle, Ethos, Fireballet, etc)
were watched like hawks.  If they can do it, we can do it, etc.

I got to know Gary a couple of years ago.  He phoned me out of the blue to
say how much he liked what we were doing (he'd heard the two demos discs)
and offered his bass and production assistance.  Had his health not
deteriorated so rapidly in the last year we would have worked with him,
but it wasn't something I was going to push since he had a Starcastle
reformation and other projects.

His passing at age 51 is another reminder to me that we have to create our
art *now* because we just don't know what's round the corder, and if our
number's up.  After a decent interval, his burial, time to mourn and move
forward, etc., I'll email his business parter Eric Abrahams, and ask him
if Gary had ever laid down anything for some of the older tracks.  About
18 months ago I sent him a CD-R with several bass-less tracks.  It would
be very cool if it turns out he had done something that we could use in
the future.  I won't hold my breath on that, but one never knows.

So today might be a good day to fire up some Starcastle if you have it, or
at least raise a glass in his honour.
-- 
Cheers,
SDM -- a 21st century schizoid man
internet music project links:
soundclick <www.soundclick.com/systemstheory>
garageband <http://www.garageband.com/artist/systemstheory>
NP: nothing