Biography

Brit-pop phenoms Gay Dad were led by singer Cliff Jones, a onetime music journalist who first began conceiving the band during the early 1990s. Initial details are sketchy and the nascent group's line-up was fluid, although drummer Nicholas "Baz" Crowe was a mainstay from the outset; a 1994 demo recorded with legendary Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham proved so disastrous it derailed Gay Dad's momentum for over a year, however, and they did not make their live debut until 1995. Early gigs were often a shambles, and by 1996 Jones -- who in the interim had developed a fascination with psychedelia and glam-rock -- began to rethink the band's approach; a subsequent demo earned Gay Dad considerable insider buzz, and in the spring of 1997 they signed to London Records. Their debut single, 1998's "To Earth with Love, " became a UK smash, and the band -- in addition to Jones and Baz now comprising guitarist Charley Stone, bassist Nigel Hoyle and keyboardist James Riseboro -- emerged as media darlings; the full-length Leisure Noise followed in mid-1999, with Stone leaving Gay Dad soon after. It would be three years until they would appear again, but they chose not to replace Stone and instead kept the group smaller for Transmission, a focused effort that showed them lean closer to their pop tendencies than their psychedelic tendencies. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi