Starsailor to release greatest hits to tie in with first tour since reforming

'Good Souls' will be available on September 18 and will compile 19 of the Warrington band's singles and fan favourites from their four albums.

The post-Britpop band was formed when former St Oswald’s Primary School pupils Ben Byrne and James 'Stel' Stelfox met James Walsh and Barry Westhead at Wigan and Leigh Music School.

An NME review of one of their gigs then led to a bidding war by record labels in 2000.

A year later they were named best new band at the NME Awards and best new act at the Q Awards.

Starsailor's debut, Love is Here, and the 2003 follow-up, Silence is Easy, both hit number two in the charts as they raced to a total of three million album sales.

They have also had 10 top 40 singles including Fever, Good Souls and Silence is Easy.

Frontman James Walsh said: "It's been more than 15 years since the band first formed and the songs still mean something to people.

"They still sing the words passionately back at us at gigs. We hear stories of how songs have soundtracked key moments in their lives.

"That's why we felt it was the right time to release this album."

Starsailor went on hiatus in 2009 but the quartet reformed in 2014 when they performed a main stage set at the Isle of Wight Festival.

They then toured with Manchester indie band James before heading off to North American in 2015 for a co-headline tour with Embrace.

The Good Souls album also includes two new tracks which were recently recorded with producer Harry Rutherford, who has worked with Eric Clapton and Genesis.

James said: "Give Up The Ghost came from the energy of being back together after so much time."

The other new track is the ballad, Hold On.

James added: "The lyrics are about reassuring someone who has their life ahead of them and passing wisdom onto them. We wanted to get an anthemic chorus which should get the crowd going."

- Starsailor perform at Albert Hall in Manchester on October 3. Visit alberthallmanchester.com