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The Dream Academy were a 1980s pop group/band from England, comprising singer/guitarist Nick Laird-Clowes, multi-instrumentalist (chiefly oboe & English horn player Kate St John and keyboardist Gilbert Gabriel). They are most noted for their hit single, "Life in a Northern Town".
HistoryNick and Gilbert met each other in the late 1970s while Nick was in a band called The Act
. Their idea was to create a songscape different from the power pop groups popular at the time in England by mixing instruments and sounds that had not been done prominently before, such as strings, woodwinds, percussion (tympani), and synthesizers. At first, Nick and Gilbert called themselves the "Politics of Pop".
In the early years before they were signed, they were rumoured to have had over a dozen rotating members in the group playing various unique instruments until Nick met Kate St. John (then of The Ravishing Beauties) at a party. Nick was immediately enthralled with Kate's amazing talent (and beauty) and asked her to join. The trio settled on the name The Dream Academy and shopped their demos for nearly two years. Their work was rejected "by every record label" before finally landing a record deal with Warner Bros. Records in 1985. Along the way, they made some close connections with Adam Peters and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, a friend of Laird-Clowes', who produced and/or played on two of their albums and co-wrote one song, "Twelve-Eight Angel".
Their first single, "Life in a Northern Town" was a worldwide smash and sizeable hit in the U.S., charting at #7 on the Billboard Pop Music chart from an album co-produced by Gilmour. The single was a tribute to the English singer/songwriter Nick Drake. It was their only major chart success. Reportedly, their record label initially didn't want to release this single. They thought it needed more drums but Nick and Gilbert were staunch in their opinion that it was perfect and often commented on its unique sound and feeling of a winter snowstorm created almost unintentionally by the recording looping techniques of the time. The song also was initially called "Morning Lasted All Day" but was changed when Paul Simon commented to Nick (to whom he was giving guitar lessons) that it wasn't a very good title.
The band launched a worldwide promotional tour based on the chart success of "Life in a Northern Town" and appeared on such popular TV shows as Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show, American Bandstand (with Dick Clark), MTV (interview with J. J. Jackson), and Top of the Pops. The Dream Academy's eponymous debut album also reached a wide audience in the States. Their two subsequent albums did not match the initial success.
They toured once, in 1991. During the same year, Gilbert and Kate decided to leave the group to pursue solo musical interests and projects. Nick ultimately decided that he could not go on further under the Dream Academy name as "it wasn't the Dream Academy with just me" and took some time off to travel to Southeast Asia and Africa. Shortly thereafter, he began to work with David Gilmour on lyrics for Pink Floyd's The Division Bell album before recording his solo album under the name Trashmonk. Lately, he has produced and consulted on numerous film soundtracks and has nearly finished his sophomore Trashmonk album.
All three members of the band re
Life In A Northern Town also formed the basis of a dance remix by Dario G entitled Sunchyme, released in 1997 to much commercial success in Europe.
DiscographyAlbums- The Dream Academy - 1985
- Remembrance Days - 1987
- A Different Kind of Weather - 1991
- Somewhere in the Sun... Best of the Dream Academy - 2000
Singles- Life In A Northern Town
- The Edge Of Forever (appears in the movie ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off)
- This World
- The Love Parade
- Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (also appears in the movie ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off)
- Indian Summer
- The Lesson Of Love
- Power To Believe (a one-off instrumental of which is used in the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles)
- In The Heart
- Love
- Angel of Mercy
Copyright Citations
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