Starsailor - FULL CIRCLE
By Adam Docker
I still remember buying Starsailor’s debut album Love Is Here when it first came out.
I drove from London all the way down to Sicily with that album on repeat, mile after mile, it became part of the landscape, part of the journey.
Years later, All the Plans was the soundtrack to a completely different chapter. I was filming across Africa around 2010–11, long days on the road, unfamiliar places, and that same voice cutting through it all. Music has a way of attaching itself to moments like that. It stays with you.
Then life did what it sometimes does. Through a producer friend, I was introduced to the singer James Walsh. We met in a café in South London and spoke about ideas for videos. Nothing overthought, just a conversation, a shared creative curiosity.
A few months later, we were in the backstreets of Soho filming a video his solo single How Can It Be Wrong. It was as stripped back as it gets, just James, his guitar, and me with a small Sony FX6 and a 50mm lens. No fuss, no crew.
Around that time, I gave him a photograph I had taken at Bombay Beach in California. That image became the cover for his solo album Coming Good. A small moment, but one that meant a lot to me.
Then, in February 2025 Starsailor were playing a special show at the Tung Auditorium in Liverpool, performing with a string orchestra. James asked if I could produce a live video.
I turned up with everything I had.
A Sony Venice, three FX6s, an FX3, and four GoPros and a small crew: David Kennedy North, Grace TSP and Leon D’Angelo.
They played twice that day, a matinee and an evening performance, which gave me the chance to approach it differently each time, finding new angles, new moments, new energy. You can watch the concert here or watch the videos below.
By the end of 2025, the live album was finished.
The band asked me to contribute to the design of the cover.
I pulled stills from the footage and worked them in Photoshop, shaping them into something that felt true to my style. The final design was then taken further by Ian Ross, who brought his own craft to it and elevated it into a proper record sleeve.
Back in the day, album covers meant something. You’d sit with them, study them, read into them. They carried a story beyond the music itself.
So to be part of creating something physical, a record, a CD, something you can hold, that felt special.
There’s now a framed copy on my wall.
From driving across Europe with their music in my ears, to helping shape a piece of their story.
I’m looking forward to what comes next.
