Career Highlights
What were the highlights of Dubstar’s career?
The act headlined the NME tent at Reading Festival in 1996
Every single and album Dubstar released charted in the UK
Dubstar’s first album ‘Disgraceful’ was certified Gold in the UK in 1996
’Stars’ reached number one in Israel in 1996
Dubstar sold over half a million records between 1995 and 2000
Who is the lead singer of Dubstar?
Sarah Blackwood (born 8th May 1971) from Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Why did Steve Hillier leave Dubstar?
Having formed Dubstar in 1991, Steve Hillier left the act in 2000 before the release of the third album Make It Better due to Sarah Blackwood’s increasingly erratic behaviour. Steve reformed Dubstar in 2006 but left the act in January 2014 citing irreconcilable differences over the musical and financial direction of the act.
Formation
Who were Dubstar?
Steve Hillier [songwriting & computers] from Welling, South London born 14th May 1969 (54)
Sarah Blackwood [vocals] from Halifax born 8th May 1971 (53)
Chris Wilkie [guitars] from Gateshead born 25th January 1973 (51)
Paul Wadsworth was the act’s drummer between 1995 to 2000
Where was Dubstar formed?
Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne
When and how was Dubstar formed?
Steve Hillier met Chris Wilkie at Walkers Nightclub in Newcastle in 1991 where Steve was DJing. Steve was looking for a bass player to join him to form a band with himself on vocals and guitar. Instead, he and Wilkie both played guitar with additional instrumentation being provided by samplers and synthesizers. The initial incarnation of the act was called ‘Perfect Tone Series’ with Hillier on Vocals and Guitar, Wilkie on Guitar, Gavin Lee on Drums and Mark Greenwood on bass. The act was renamed ‘The Joans’ in late 1992 and initially became a trio, then a duo when Gavin Lee left to concentrate on a career at British Airways.
In the summer of 1993, Danilo Moscardini. a friend of Hillier’s left a cassette of his girlfriend singing in his flat in Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne. After his friend went off to meet Roger Newbrook in the hotel bar at the top of Hillier’s road, Steve listened to the cassette and heard Sarah Blackwood’s voice for the first time. He immediately rang Chris Wilkie to tell him we should have this woman in the act. Wilkie was not initially keen on the idea but later changed his mind. Hillier met Blackwood but didn’t invite Blackwood into the act until a month later when Blackwood rang him to remind him.
The first gig as a trio with Blackwood on vocals was in late August 1993 at the Broken Doll pub in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Who signed Dubstar?
Dubstar were signed to Food Records by Andy Ross in November 1994.
Where does the name ‘Dubstar’ come from?
The name was chosen to fit the Dub-Reggae-influenced music of the early Dubstar recordings. In 1994 the band was known as The Joans but was changed to Dubstar by manager Graeme Robinson when he was told by Andy Ross that the band would not be signed if they had a ‘wimpy indie band name’.
Music
What style of music did Dubstar release?
Being based in Newcastle and away from London, Dubstar did not fit into any specific scene but was regularly referred to as either ‘synth pop’, ’dreampop’, ‘sophisti-pop’, ’electro pop’ or ‘indie pop’. Although sometimes grouped in with the ‘Britpop’ era of British alternative acts, Dubstar’s music was almost entirely synthesiser-based and drew influences from the classic 4AD Records releases of the 1980s and the ‘alternative dance’ scene of the early 1990s.
Stated influences included Cocteau Twins, Andrew Weatheral, Charles Aznavour, The Smiths and Durutti Column.
Who wrote the songs in Dubstar?
Dubstar released 65 songs with Food Records, 54 of which were written by Steve Hillier of which 6 were co-written with Chris Wilkie and a further 6 were co-written with Wilkie and Sarah Blackwood. Wilkie wrote 4 songs alone. Dubstar released 7 cover songs.
Dubstar also recorded an additional 6 songs for the unreleased Dubstar EP from 2000 and 37 songs across both versions of the unrleased albums United States of Being versions 1 and 2, all of which were written by Hillier.
Who produced Dubstar?
Stephen Hague produced Goodbye and co-produced Disgraceful with Dubstar’s then manager Graeme Robinson. The third Dubstar album Make It Better production credit was Dubstar and Mike ‘Spike’ Drake. The two unreleased United States of Being albums were produced by Steve Hillier in Brighton.
Who else did Dubstar work with?
Dubstar toured as special guests with Erasure in 1996 and the Lightning Seeds in 1997. Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds sang a duet with Sarah Blackwood on the ‘Self Same Thing EP’, which also featured a duet with Gary Numan. Both songs were specially written for the release by Hillier.
Who created the artwork for ‘Disgraceful’?
A photographer based in North London called Rob Steele. He also provided the photography for Goodbye. The typography and graphic design was provided by Attik.
How many singles did Dubstar release?
Dubstar released eight singles, all of which charted in the UK, seven of which made the UK Top 40 (Cathedral Park’s highest position was 41) and three made the Top 20. ‘The Self Same Thing’ EP was released in 2000.
What was Dubstar’s biggest hit?
The song Stars reached number 15 in the UK TOP 40 singles chart in April 1996 and was an international hit. Together with ‘Not So Manic Now’ and ‘No More Talk’ it is still regularly played by radio stations across the world.
How many albums did Dubstar release?
Three, each of which charted in the UK.
Disgraceful 1995 (awarded Gold status in 1996)
Goodbye 1997
Make It Better 2000
A ‘best of Dubstar’ was released by EMI in 2004 initially including a previously unheard demo version of the song ‘When the World Knows Your Name’ and hidden track in the form of the acoustic version of Stars (which was originally the B-Side of the single ‘No More Talk’).
Interesting facts about Dubstar’s five albums:
Disgraceful: many of the songs on this album were written when Steve Hillier was still at Chislehurst and Sidcup Grammar School. Not So Manic Now was a cover version of a song by Wakefield band Brick Supply.
Goodbye: …was initially to be entitled ‘Death is the End’ but was changed when the title was thought to be too negative.
Make It Better: was recorded in the Arts Centre Newcastle Upon Tyne in a studio built by the act specifically for the album. The closest any member of the act lived to any other during the recording of the album was 144 miles (with Blackwood living in Manchester and Wilkie in Gateshead…Hillier was 267 miles away in Brighton).
United States of Being: There wasn’t an official title to this fourth Dubstar album until news of its recording was leaked onto Wikipedia using the title of one of the main songs.
United States of Being Version Two:…was mixed in Malta by trance legend Tim Mason.
After Food Records
When did Dubstar split?
Steve Hillier left Dubstar for the first time in July 2000 prior to the release of Make It Better citing his inability to work with Sarah Blackwood. The act ended in November 2000 when EMI Records declined to exercise their option for a fourth album, and Dubstar was dropped from the roster.
What happened next?
Sarah Blackwood joined Technique to replace the departing singer Xan. This band would become Client and be signed to Toast Hawaii, a label formed by Andrew Fletcher of Depeche Mode.
Steve Hillier and Chris Wilkie worked with Mark Owen on his number four single ‘Four Minute Warning’, with Hillier cowriting the B-Side ‘Live If You Try’.
Hillier continued songwriting, remixing and production, working with a wide variety of artists including Bebel Gilberto, Hooverphonic, Elkka, Landon Pigg, Karen Mok, Flosstradamus and Hannah Trigwell. He also produced a session with the nascent and then unknown Sussex band Keane for BMG Records in 2002.
Reformation & End
The act reformed with the original lineup in 2006 to record a new album unofficially entitled ‘United States of Being’. This was suddenly abandoned in 2008 when Blackwood left the act to concentrate on her commitments to Client.
A reformation was attempted by Blackwood in late 2009 after she left Client and another album was completed (untitled at the time but now known as United States of Being version 2). Dubstar played a variety of gigs in this period including a ‘comeback’ show at The Lexington in London, a benefit for the making of a documentary about the Riverside venue at The Cluny in Newcastle, and with Human League in Tynemouth.
Hillier left the act again in early 2014 following these shows citing reluctance to play the 90s nostalgia circuit and stating ‘the time for more Dubstar has long passed’ in an interview on Introducing on BBC Sussex in 2015.
Both United States of Being albums remain unreleased in full. In 2023 Hillier began releasing selected songs from the sessions on the Dubstar Archive YouTube Channel.
Where are they now?
Steve Hillier lives in Brighton and continues songwriting with contemporary artists as well as releasing music under his own name and with Brighton Cassette Club. He wrote and taught creativity, music technology and songwriting degree courses for Falmouth (Waterbear), Sussex (BIMM) and Middlesex Universities (Point Blank) from 2004 to 2024, and writes on the subjects for various websites.
Sarah Blackwood performed in Client from 2001 to 2009, and was a fitness instructor in Highgate, North London until moving to Birmingham.
Chris Wilkie lives in North Tyneside.
In recent years Blackwood and Wilkie have recorded new music together reusing the name Dubstar. They released their self-financed albums ‘One’ and ‘Two’ and associated singles in 2018 and 2022.