‘Brian May and Friends: Star Fleet Project’ with Eddie Van Halen

The “just for fun” Star Fleet Project project consisted of Queen’s Brian May, Eddie Van Halen, drummer Alan Gratzer (of REO Speedwagon), Phil Chen (session bassist who played with Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart), and Fred Mandel (session keyboard player who also played as additional keyboard player on Queen’s Hot Space World Tour and The Works). Roger Taylor, Queen’s drummer, provided backing vocals for the title song. It was not meant for the tapes to be released and they had minimal mixing before release.

We’ve just transcribed Brian May’s liner notes for the album, and they’re worth reading:

Stop! What you have just picked up is not your normal kind of album. Not an album which has been “thoughtfully pieced together by a coordinated band as a balanced and polished listening experience.” Not a Queen album. Not a solo Brian May album. It’s a record of unique event.

On the 21st and 22nd of April 1983, five musicians from different backgrounds, who had previously known each other only as friends, played together for the first time. Purely for fun. And listening to this record, I hope you will share in the excitement we felt.

STAR FLEET is the theme tune for superb TV sci-fi series broadcast in England for kids of all ages; Japanese visuals and British soundtrack including music by Paul Bliss. The heroes pilot space vehicles which can assemble into a giant robot for land battles. The aliens fly fantastic insect-like craft which spawned smaller fighting machines: all intent on possession of the secret of F Zero One.

Having been introduced to all this by my small boy, I became equally obsessed by it, and formed the idea of making a hard rock version of the title theme.

A few months later I found myself in Los Angeles doing very little. I suddenly realized that four musicians, with whom I’d long wanted to play, were at the end of a local telephone call. To my great surprise, they all liked the ideas I had, so I took my courage in both hands, booked a studio, and in we went. None of us had done this kind of thing before– no record company, no plans for release, no backup organizations, just us. Just for fun.

In STAR FLEET, recorded on the first day, you can hear a kind of nervous exhilaration. The new situation produced a strange and different kind of energy.

In LET ME OUT– an old song of mine which found to life– and in BLUES BREAKER, which of course is purely spontaneous, you can hear a much more relaxed set of people, just laying back and enjoying the fresh inspiration of each other’s playing…

I could have put away these tapes in a bottom drawer and kept them as a private record of one of the best experiences of my life. But the few people I’ve played them for have to urged me to “publish,” and it will make me very happy if others can enjoy the stuff the way I have.

I’ve attempted to hone STAR FLEET into something like a proper record– my thanks to Roger for helping me with the chorus vocals. I haven’t messed one scrap with the tracking done on the day. The rest is simply mixed ‘naked.’

In BLUES BREAKER you can hear us smiling as we search for answering phrases. In the last solo of LET ME OUT, Edward torches his top string to its audible death and winds up quite naturally on the remaining five. The rest I’ll leave to your imagination. It’s not hard to figure out who did what!

Thank you!! Enjoy!!!

BRIAN MAY
August, 1983

The article below was first published in The Inside – the all Van Halen magazine published by the staff of VHND.com.

The Making of Star Fleet Project

By Brad Starks

Question: What do Edward Van Halen, Brian May, Fred Mandel, Alan Gratzer and Phil Chen all have in common? 

Answer: For two days in April of 1983, these five musicians who had previously known each other only as friends, joined forces at The Record Plant in Los Angeles, California for an informal jam session. The result was unleashed on the public six months later in the shape of the three-track mini LP entitled Brian May and Friends: Star Fleet Project.

While many people have heard of this project, fewer actually own the album and fewer yet know the history behind it.

In The Beginning 
The seed for Star Fleet Project was planted by Jimmy May, one of Brian’s three children, who turned his father onto a children’s science fiction television show broadcast on Saturday mornings by Central TV in England. This futuristic live-action Japanese series centered around the secret of F Zero One – the good guys commanded several space vehicles that could assemble into one large robot for land battles (similar to The Transformers), while the alien bad guys flew gargantuan insect-like mother ships that released smaller, laser-equipped fighter ships. Though Brian was intrigued by the show, it was a couple of verses at the end of the theme song that really captured his attention, creating a desire within to make a hard rock version of the tune. Brian, the guitarist for Queen, attempted to get in touch with the song’s writer, British keyboardist Paul Bliss, but was unsuccessful until after the Star Fleet Project was completed.

Several months later, while in Los Angeles, Brian had some free time on his hands and decided to bring his Star Fleet Project to life. To his delight, Eddie Van Halen (whose friendship May values tremendously), bassist Phil Chen (who has a unique percussive approach to the instrument). Long-time friend and drummer Alan Gratzer and keyboardist Fred Mandell all liked his idea and agreed to participate in the “just for fun” engagement.

In The Studio 
Day One: Recording began on April 21, 1983 at about noon, with the album;s first cut, May’s hard rock version of the sci-fi theme song, “Star Fleet”. “I thought it was the most adventurous and ambitious thing to try,” described Brian. “We were very up and full of nervous tension. I think you can tell by the way we played. We all didn’t know each other and it was very electric. Everyone looked at each other wondering what the Hell was going to happen next-very funny. The situation produced a strange and different kind of energy.” Clocking in at just over eight minutes, ‘Star Fleet’ begins with May soling over a tapped harmonic intro from Eddie. (The same technique can be heard on the intro to “Women In Love.”) The song features Brian’s trademark multi-layered guitar lines and yards of classic Ed. Three minutes and seven seconds into the cut, Eddie lets loose with an extremely tasty and expressive solo as only he can-tremolo picked runs, screaming pinched harmonics and complex bent-note tapping sequences abound. “With ‘Star Fleet’ I wanted to give Edward a place to just let loose” added May. The song fades out at 5:10 then starts back up again, which was completely unplanned. “Edward has this thing where he can never stop playing,” continued Brian. “So every time everybody else thought we’d finished, he’d be going ‘chak, chacka, chack, chack’. He’s just so inspiring, it’s ridiculous.”

Day Two: The albums second cut, “Let Me Out” was recorded on Friday April 22, and was originally planned to be the only other song for the project. At 7:13, “Let Me Out” features Ed and Brian trading bluesy solos. If you listen closely during the final solo of the song, you can hear Eddie break a string-and keep on playing! “Eddie tortures his top string to it’s audible death and winds up quite naturally on the remaining five” explains May. “First of all, we thought, ‘Well, should we do something about that?’ And then I thought, “No, it’s great, because nobody has ever heard that on a record before.”

The track is only a precursor of what is to come on side two of the album though. “Blues Breaker”, which is arguably the piece-de-resistance of the project was born right there in the studio while Eddie and Brian were talking about their love of Eric Clapton and John Mayall’s classic “Blues Breakers” album. “We were just talking about those sessions, and what it must have been like in those days and everything was a bit freer and easier, “ explained May. “We started kicking around those little riffs which are a bit like the ones on “Blues Breaker” and just let the tape roll as we played about.”

And play they did! “Blues Breaker” (Dedicated to Eric Clapton) slams nearly 13 minutes of pure blues in your face. That’s right, Eddie playing the blues. From Chuck Berry-esque lines to more tremolo runs and tapping, Ed and Brian treat your ears to spontaneous jamming at it’s finest as they play call-and-response to each other’ solos. Fred Mandel lays down a fabulous bed of smokey barroom piano comping, complete with a rousing solo of his own, providing the perfect backdrop for the rare blues treat from the guitarists. “In “Blues Breaker” you can hear us smiling as we search for answering phrases,” describes May. It doesn’t get much rarer than this.

Throughout the two-day session, Eddie used his original red, white and black-striped Frankenstrat through one Marshall head and cabinet. Brian played his own homemade guitar through a couple of Vox AC-30 amplifiers and a Boss Chorus Ensemble pedal. May’s guitar parts were mixed on both the left and the right, while Eddie’s lines were mixed down the middle.

Overdubs were kept to a minimum because Brian wanted to preserve the original feed of the sessions. “There’s all sorts of talking to each other that you can hear if you listen carefully,” he explained. (Most easily directed at the end of “Star Fleet”) “And there’s bits where we slip around. I don’t think it’s a matter for concern. I would rather leave that in there and keep it original.”

Releasing The Album 
Originally, there weren’t any plans to release any kind of album. Brian wasn’t sure if it would be in good taste to release it. (Thank God he did!) “I could have put these tapes in a bottom of a drawer and kept them as a private record of one of the best experiences of my life, “ May said. “But the few for urged me to publish.”

“After we played, he called me up about four months later and asked what I thought about putting the stuff out, “ remembered Eddie. “I said, ‘Send me a tape, let me hear it first, because I didn’t remember how it went. And he did and I said, ‘Sure, what the hell? It reeks of fun. Brian is good, he gets a brown sound.” The response from the other participants was equally positive and on October 31, 1983 “Brian May and Friend: Star Fleet Project” made its debut.

Track Listing:

Listen to all 3 songs here: