Morning Star

Morning Star is a UK indie rock group led by Jesse D. Vernon, originally from Bristol and now based in Paris. The project is active from 1997 and becomes one of several acts to use the name Morning Star, but this entry refers to Vernon’s group.

Career and releases

The band releases its first album, Morning Star, in 1997 on Swarf-finger Records and Microbe. It follows with My Place In The Dust in 2001, produced by John Parish and issued on Microbe and Sink and Stove Records. Two later albums follow: The Opposite Is True in 2005 and A Sign For The Stranger in 2009, both on Microbe and Disco-Ordination.

Vernon’s songs draw on a wide lyrical and musical range, with references running from Leonard Cohen to Jonathan Richman and from Nina Simone to Jimi Hendrix. His work is also described as song-based and rooted in a broad history of popular music.

Reception and performances

Morning Star builds a reputation in France through extensive live work across the country, attention from the French music press, and use of its tracks in French films, including De l'autre côté du lit. In the UK, the group receives support from Richard Williams of The Guardian and Bob Harris, who plays “Black Swan” from The Opposite Is True.

The band shares bills or supports acts including John Parish, The National, Jeffrey Lewis, Bert Jansch, M. Ward and Camera Obscura. It also tours Japan, with releases there through the label Angel’s Egg.

Jesse D. Vernon and related projects

Jesse D. Vernon is a founder of the freak-out funk project Praise Space Electric and the rock choir First Rays of the Rising Sun, originally called The Keepers of the Fire Mixed Voice Choir, which performs mainly Jimi Hendrix material. He also founds the Bristol/Paris theme night The Greatness of the Magnificence.

He is a key member of Bristol trip-hop group The Invisible Pair of Hands, and also plays in Liftmen, whose single “Meat Raffle” receives praise and later appears on a Twisted Nerve vinyl LP. He is a former member of the Jukes and the John Parish Big Band. Vernon also works with Sean O’Hagan and Bonnie “Prince” Billy on Soy Un Caballo’s debut Les Heures de Raison, and he performs and tours with Kate Stables, also known as This Is The Kit.