Starship

One of the big stadium rock bands of the 1980s, Starship created two of the biggest anthems of the decade with We Built This City and Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now. Their roots go back to 1960s psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, which included singer Grace Slick and guitarist Paul Kantner and it was while working on a solo sci-fi concept album Blows Against The Empire in 1970 that Kantner formed a new band, Jefferson Starship, to back him. The band lasted until 1984 but when Kantner launched a legal battle to stop the use of the Jefferson Starship name, they simply called themselves Starship and headed in a much more commercial direction. Part-written by Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin, We Built This City was one of their first recordings, instantly achieving something that neither Jefferson Airplane nor Jefferson Starship ever had - a Number 1 single - with similar success for their first album Knee Deep In The Hoopla. They repeated the success with second single Sara and did it again in 1987 with Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now. Grace Slick left in 1988 and further personnel changes ensued, but the band re-formed as Mickey Thomas' Starship.