DECADES BEFORE OASIS famously helicoptered onto the field at Knebworth and long before the Gulfstream G5 became the most name-checked jet in hip-hop, there was The Starship, the decadently tricked-out, constantly re-liveried Boeing 720 jumbo jet that acted as a flying tour bus for some of the biggest bands of the mid-1970s, including Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Elton John, the Bee Gees, Alice Cooper and Peter Frampton.
In 1973, teen heart-throb Bobby Sherman and his manager, Ward Sylvester, bought the first Boeing 720 ever produced (in 1960) for US$600,000 from United Airlines, then spent an additional US$200,000—US$1.3 million in today's currency— converting the interior. Seating dropped from 138 to 40, while new shagadelic amenities included a 30ft-long brass-edged bar, an electric fireplace in the ‘drawing room’, a king-sized waterbed…
