These Acid Stars

Released
album Track Listing

Saturday
Great All Great
Stuck Between Daydreaming And Somewhere Else
Sports Day, 1983
Fires
Nilsong
Wild Weekend
Horse Operas
Ex Wonderboy
Bingo Wings
The Ballad Of J Xaverre
I Promised Myself

Details These Acid Stars

‘These Acid Stars’ is the debut album from J Xaverre (pronounced zav-ier).Known to his mum as Pete Gofton, and currently modelling the look of an hirsute Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Relocated to the glamour of his native Sunderland (alumni: The Venerable Bede, Leatherface), and encouraged by fellow Wearside operatives The Futureheads, Pete set about getting the symphonies playing daily in his head onto tape.

If the themes are universal: lost love, self-doubt, the horror of un-muscled flesh, the art is in the delivery. First single ‘Great All Great’ may appear to be about unrequited love, but it’s actually the tale of an illicit affair between a star and her security guard (Kris & Barbara rather than Whitney & Kevin). ‘Horse Operas’ is set on a cruise ship, as a middle-aged couple attempt to revive a love turned sour. You get the picture. Musically, we’re given the grand tour. Gone is any notion of JX being solely an arbiter of lo-fi introspection; pop melodies to give Damon Gough a seizure lurk everywhere. Equally, we’re always allowed to be conscious of Pete’s pop past, but we’re never allowed to wallow in it. If anything, songs like ‘Ex-Wonderboy’ and the epic ‘Ballad Of J Xaverre’ manage to be self-effacing and epic at the same time, which is quite some going when you think about it.