Star City

Star City came out of Funktion, a Toronto band that had made its name on the central Canadian club circuit. The lineup was Karen Silver on vocals and percussion, Valentino Mancuso on guitar, Jim Rigon on keyboards, Gilles Maheu on bass and Joe Rigon on drums, and everyone but the drummer sang. John Driscoll signed them to Skyline, the label he ran through Quality Records, and then made them wait a year. He told RPM he would release nothing until the band had material that could compete internationally.

The songs were chosen in May 1978 and the band was at Sounds Interchange in Toronto by mid-June, with Mike Jones engineering. Driscoll brought in Robert Ouimet, the Montreal disco authority, as co-producer, and Ouimet's percussion arrangement drives the title track, an 8:44 disco reworking of the Spencer Davis Group's 1967 hit 'I'm A Man'. Jim Burgess, one of New York's leading disco mixers, finished it at Sigma Sound.

TK Records of Florida, home of KC and the Sunshine Band, George McCrae and Peter Brown, took the record for the United States and made Star City the first Canadian band on its roster. TK rush-released the 12-inch in September 1978 behind a full-page trade ad, then issued the album on its Marlin label with a 7-inch edit of the title track backed with 'I Can't Get Over You'. Ray Caviano coordinated the album for TK. Within months he was running Warner Bros.' new RFC label, whose first releases were Quality's Gino Soccio and the Mighty Pope.

Macho, an Italian studio group, had its own long version of 'I'm A Man' on the market at the same moment. RPM's disco playlist for September 23, 1978 carried both, Macho at No. 20 and Star City at No. 23. Driscoll said the record did very well in big markets like New York, and Quality had strong interest in Star City at MIDEM in Cannes in January 1979, placing the band with labels in territories around the world.

Around the title track the album sets the Delfonics' 'La La Means I Love You', 'I Can't Get Over You' from Germany's Hansa publishing catalogue, the Italian 'Melody Of Love (Melodia)' and two band originals, Jim Rigon's 'Make Time For Love' and 'Good Times', written by Mancuso with Bob Crane.

Silver left in 1979 to record under her own name with Driscoll, and within months she had a hit with 'Hold On I'm Comin''. Star City carried on. Skyline issued 'La La Means I Love You' as a single that June, RPM reported in August that new Star City disco product was coming without Silver, and in October Driscoll said overseas licensees wanted a second album and the band was in the studio working on it.

-Robert Williston