Babybird
Come on now, I’m sure there’s more than just me that spent many an afternoon prancing around the living room in cycling shorts and your mum’s high heels pretending that You’re Gorgeous was about you and you were dancing in the video…
But other than they heyday in the nineties, just what exactly are they doing with themselves these days… and are they actually gorgeous… or just batting about their average?
The Early Days
Babybird formed in 1995, with the wonderful Mr Stephen Jones as frontman and lyricist extraordinaire… well he’d actually been writing songs and recording home demos as part of an experimental theatre group in Sheffield, but decided they’d be far better thrust onto the lap of the public.
A collection of his demos was released in the summer of 1995, and were quite well received by us, the critical public, mainly thanks to him getting his mates, Huw Chadbourn (keyboards), Robert Gregory (drums), John Pedder (bass) and Luke A R Scott (guitar) on board to give him a helping hand.
During 1995, two further albums of demo recordings were released under the name Baby Bird (Bad Shave and Fatherhood) and two in 1996 (The Happiest Man Alive and Dying Happy), and by the end of the year, Babybird had carved quite a strong public following and caused quite a stir in the media, which is always good.
Success
After impressing the musical ‘who’s who’ of the 90’s, the band were signed to Echo Records and the first "proper" single, Goodnight, was eventually released in the summer of 1996, becoming a minor chart hit in the UK.
Yet, as we all know Babybird didn’t get their ‘big break’ until they unleashed their sexy little trump card, You’re Gorgeous, in 1996; a song that was reported to be about Katrina Oberholzer, an aspiring model tricked by a flattering photographer into a photoshoot.
The song managed to bag a respectable number 3 in the UK charts, and remains one of the biggest selling singles of the year, as it went on to be a huge success all over the world, and becoming the band’s signature tune.
Post Gorgeous….
We all know you can’t stay beautiful forever, and although their album, Ugly Beautiful received quite a warm reception as fans still basked in the glow of that single, it led to many people no longer taking Jones seriously as an indie artist amid whispers that he’d gone too mainstream.
The album did manage to cough up two more singles though, Candy Girl and Cornershop, until they did what all reputable bands do, and go on hiatus.
By the time they limped back onto the scene in 1998, they’d ditched keyboardist Huw Chadbourn, and produced the album, There's Something Going On, which was preceded by a single, Bad Old Man, and brought the band a little modest success.
Not enough to keep then entertained though, as we didn’t hear from them again until 2000, where they’d undergone another line-up change, this time with the band consisting of Stephen Jones, Luke Scott and Matt Hay.
So, third time lucky for the band with Bugged? Well, not really. Although it was well received by critics, the public weren’t very keen on it, and the two singled hardly made a mark on the charts, although, in their defence, Gordon Ramsey liked The F-Word enough to use it as the theme to his TV show of the same name.
Where are they now?
Well, the lovely Stephen Jones decided to keep writing, but instead of writing flop after flop, the turned his hand to works of fiction as well as the odd solo track and even the score to the film, Blessed in 2004.
The rest of the guys probably went back to work in their local supermarket for a bit until they decided they needed to make a quick buck, and reformed as a three-piece (dragging Stephen away from his film scores) with a new album in tow; Between My Ears There Is Nothing But Music.
Sadly though, a career in the shadow of Girls Aloud and Westlife just wasn’t enough for the lads though, and since 2006, we haven’t heard as much as a peep for them as a collective.
Jones however, has recently been working on a new solo project entitled 'Death of the Neighbourhood' which was released on November 10, 2008 on ATIC Records… let’s just see if he can make (another) comeback now… I’m not holding my breath.
FemaleFirst - Ruth harrison