Thanks for that...for me, stopping hating starlings was the day I was sitting at an outside cafe and one hopped over to scan my plate. I realized that all the behaviour he was showing was stuff I'd totally enjoy in a brewers bb. hence it was irrational to hate this bright, funny creature who could not possibly understand or be responsible for being in "the wrong country."
I'm actually beginning to have a transformation in my thinking about "invasives." I understand wanting to get rid of overpopulations of flora and fauna that are profoundly disruptive (like the feral pigs in the rural areas of SF Bay Area, that totally degrade watersheds, or like the frogs in Australia, or the pike dropped into lakes). But just as "our" natives are "overrun" by invasives, so our own natives become pests elsewhere (I understand the California poppy and the raccoon are major pests in different areas of Europe), and the dispassionate long-term looker in me wonders if it isn't all just going to balance out in the long run - critters finding their niches here and there - and if it DOESN'T it will be much more due to our own pesticides and hydrocarbons than to the effects of critters trading off where they live.
<soapbox mode off>

"the vocalisations are pretty varied"

Actually, starlings are mimics like mockingbirds, and they are all imitating different sounds -- other birds, cats, roosters, car alarms, etc -- but done all at once it is a cacophony. One at a time, you can appreciate their vocal capabilities. Mozart had a pet starling who would sing with him when he was composing. He wrote one piece dedicated to it and had an elaborate funeral for it when it died.

Now, as far as the excessively huge flocks of starlings that seem so obnoxious, there is a funny phenomenon -- they don't show up for people who love starlings (like people on the pet starling lists). In ten years more or less since I had a pet starling and started seeing starlings in a new way (and admiring their BEAUTY) I have never =once= seen one of those huge obnoxious flocks, only starlings in modest, reasonable numbers presenting themselves as individuals. This was consistently true with the starling lovers on the pet starling list. Somehow, when you start appreciating and admiring their songs and their iridescent plumage, they want to keep your admiration, they want you to hear their songs clearly, and see their plumage clearly, and huge flocks don't allow that.

BTW, a lot of bird ID books say that sexes are alike in starlings. This is not true. The sexes have different plumage. The females have more dense speckles on their breast and the males have fewer to no speckles. However, some starlings have medium degree of speckling and could be either sex.

If you google the phrase "pet starling" there are some amazing pages (hope they are still up, haven't checked in years). WAV files of talking starlings, etc.