In early 1974, Kantner, Slick, Freiberg, Papa John Creach & John Barbata (i.e., the last Airplane line up minus Jack & Jorma) together with Peter (Kangaroo) Kaukonen and teenage guitar hero Craig Chaquico finally went on tour as Jefferson Starship. The tour featured material from the Baron von Tollboth... and Manhole albums. Soon, ex-Rod Stewart bassist/keyboardist Pete Sears joined the band, and Peter Kaukonen left.
In July, the band recorded their 'first' album Dragon Fly at Wally Heider's in San Francisco. The album is perhaps their most brilliant release ever, containing the classics Ride the Tiger, All Fly Away, and two of Grace's best songs ever (Devil's Den, co-written with Papa John, and Hyperdrive, co-written with Sears). Morever, David Freiberg and Robert Hunter followed up their superb Manhole collaboration It's Only Music with the beautiful Come to Life. Marty Balin returned to sing his and Paul's tune Caroline, but did not rejoin the band until later in the fall; The band toured behind the album during the fall and on November 24, at Winterland, Marty Balin rejoined the band, with the words: "I sing and they feed me".
The band returned to the studio for the recordings of their follow up album to be titled Red Octopus, which was released in June 1975. The album contained the band's first hit single Miracles (a Balin love ballad, but with a much deeper meaning than the apparent sex theme) and the album became a big commercial success, even if it musically did not match its predecessor.
After a long summer/fall Red Octopus tour the Jefferson Starship (minus Papa John who had left the band in favour for his solo work) returned to Wally Heider's in March 1976 for the recording of their June release Spitfire. The album mixed classic epics like St. Charles and Dance with the Dragon, soaring Balin love ballads like the hit With Your Love with the funky Slick/Sears collaboration Hot Water. The band once again embarked a national tour in support of the album.
After the tour was completed, the band members took some time off before rejoining their duties at Wally Heider's in late summer and fall 1977 for the recording of the Earth album. After Earth's release in March 1978 the Jefferson Starship went on a national tour with both Papa John and a horn section(!). These shows are rumoured to be the best ever (evidence can be found on at least one audience recording in circulation), and were rumoured to be released on a live album (now is definitely the time to dig out these recordings from the vaults and release them, RCA [JL's note]).
After the national tour the band went to Europe. In Germany, Grace got sick and when she could not perform the crowd went nuts and destroyed the Starship's equipment. Grace flew home, but the rest of the band made at least one more appearance, namely at the Knebworth Festival in UK (with borrowed equipment). Grace left the band permanently to concentrate on a solo career. The others went into the studio to record their next album. One day, when driving to the studio, Marty Balin turned his car around and went down to the beach instead. In a couple of months Jefferson Starship had lost both their main lead vocalists.
In 1982, Winds of Change was released. When it was time to go on tour, Donny Baldwin replaced the leaving Dunbar behind the drums. A concert from Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver in January, 1983, was later released on video. The 'last' true Jefferson Starship album for more than 10 years was the 1984-release Nuclear Furniture. During the following tour Paul Kantner left the band in June. The band carried on touring for some time, but Kantner was soon followed by Freiberg ("they wasn't what I needed - I wasn't what they needed" Freiberg later commented). After some legal fights, the remaining five members continued as the Mickey Thomas lead hit machine Starship. But that's really another story...
Instead, Kantner hooked up with Marty Balin once again, and formed KBC Band together with their former Airplane colleague Jack Casady (a k a God) in mid-´85. The band also included keyboardist extraordinaire Tim Gorman, lead guitarist Mark 'Slick' Aguilar, drummer Daniel Verdusco (spelling?) and a sax player. The self-titled album KBC Band was released in 1986. Paul spent his 1987 vacation in Nicaragua and on his return a second album was planned. However, the record company wanted another album than Paul, being really on fire after his Nicaraguan experience, wanted. So, Paul left the project and KBC Band was history.
In 1988, Paul Kantner did a few shows with Hot Tuna and also with Grace Slick (who by then had left Starship), and somewhere along the line the plans for a Jefferson Airplane reunion were formed. A Jefferson Airplane album and tour followed in 1989 (with Kantner, Slick, Balin, Casady and Kaukonen onboard the Airplane) but things didn't really work out.
In 1991, Paul Kantner got together with Tim Gorman and Slick Aguilar once again in the acoustic group Paul Kantner's Wooden Ships. They made some really nice shows and the project soon evolved into Jefferson Starship - The Next Generation.
The band has been touring extensively the past years. In 1995, Jefferson Starship released the live album Deep Space/Virgin Sky, a tribute album to Papa John who passed away in 1994. Since spring 1995, Diana Mangano is the only female vocalist of the group, and since May 1996, ex-Dixie Dregs keyboardist T Lavitz handles the keys (see further the band members page).
In the spring of 1997, Marty Balin made an acoustic tour together with Slick Aguilar (read reviews). Marty also released solo album, Freedom Flight. In 1998, Jefferson Starship have been touring extensively - both east and west - both electric and acoustic. Their new album Windows of Heaven will be released in US February 9, 1999.
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