This was my last record for Crème Organization, released in February 2012. I’m not quite sure why it was released under a different artist name: I have always used Rude 66 for everything I did but somehow decided here to use a (thinly disguised) other name. Funny enough it works to this day: many people have no idea I did this record though I figured the “66” would be a dead giveaway. Oh well.

The Starfighter EP is actually a real concept record that tells a true story: how Germany in the 1960’s ordered brand new F-104 Starfighter jet fighters from Lockheed, then used them in ways they were never intended to be used, and killed a shitload of their own pilots in the process. One in four (!) crashed. They were not alone, in the end it turned out to be a huge bribe scandal, and even our Dutch Royal family was involved. We had crashing Starfighters in the Dutch army too.
Of course I wasn’t the first one to put this insane story to music: the brilliant Robert Calvert already made the Captain Lockheed & the Starfighters rock album in the 1970’s with member of Gong and Hawkwind. Theirs was more of a humorous take on the matter, while I wanted the brutal truth to shine through.

The musical recipe was a little’ back to basics’ for me: No more electro or Italo-wave but dark grimy acid, this time with lots of choirs singing for added dramatic effect. Most of the ‘vocals’ on the EP are newsreel samples or fragments of documentaries about the subject, only on the last track Shaunna reads a spine chilling list of all the crashed planes and their year/ reason of crashing.
I made the basis of all the tracks in one day and evening. Or course the recording and mixing took longer, but I guess the story was an inspiring one.

The idea arose between me, the label and designer Godspill to do something with the sleeve and a picture of the airplane. I don’t remember whose idea it was exactly to do a paper cutout kit, but it fits the subject matter brilliantly, as does the helmet face label and the clear vinyl of the original. Such a cool package!

We still play tracks from the record in our live set today. Though an odd duck in my discography, it’s probably my own personal favorite of all the records I have made. It sort of ties together all my musical styles and influences.

This digital version has all the original tracks in gently remastered form and 2 added bonus tracks: a very early demo version of “Alle Piloten” and an unused vocoder version of “Pilot Was Killed”.

Rude 66, November 2019