STAR - Children Of The Sun/ Your Time Will Come

Label: Bradleys

Year of Release: 1973

A strange one, this. Bradleys were the recorded music arm of Associated Television (ATV), but unlike BBC Records and Tapes didn't solely specialise in output related to their programmes. The formation of this sister company was largely due to the creation of ATV Music, which began as a publishing house for TV themes but quickly wriggled its tentacles into all kinds of profitable directions, including buying up The Beatles Northern Songs catalogue. 

Bradleys should have been a serious contender in the record charts with such financial muscle behind them, but the vast majority of their output consisted of pop flops - bright, shiny 45s which clearly had their eyes on success but could never quite make it over the line. As a result, the label came and went within three-and-a-half years leaving very little impression on popular culture at all, unlike its parent television company which gave the world The Muppet Show, Family Fortunes, The Golden Shot, and Pipkins. 

The unfortunately named Star were among their many hopefuls, but this was their only recorded effort, and in common with most of their label mates, it achieved nish. Both sides have a pretty and harmonious bright seventies pop feel to them - the early part of the decade was utterly riddled with warm, hopeful songs offering optimistic viewpoints. "Children Of The Sun" opens with slide guitar and a bluesy message, before moving towards a giant hug of a chorus for all the kids everywhere. At the time, serious critics would probably have dismissed this as mere froth, but it's got a richness and bouyancy a lot of the cast-off rock records of the same era frankly didn't have. Why live off cold second-hand blues riffs when you can also let the sunshine in through the curtains occasionally? 

 

The compilers of "Mixed Up Minds" obviously noted the group's potential in 2014 and put the B-side "Your Day Will Come" on to their compilation of mostly progressive rock and pop, and it remains commercially available to this day. It might seem like a strange choice of track, but once again, it's another example of a seventies soft pop beacon. Frankie Valli obviously also approved, making it the centrepiece of his similarly titled album "Our Day Will Come" in 1975.  

One of the songwriters behind both sides here, Barry Leng, was prolific, penning scores of songs for a wide variety of pop artists from Amii Stewart to Berni Flint. He was also something of a jobbing producer around the Bradley offices before going out to greater success in the wider world. 

Rob Custance is something of a mystery man, though, as indeed are the group Star themselves (to me, anyway). If you know more, please do leave a comment.

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