The Dream Academy
The Dream Academy, from the cover of Remembrance Days. Clockwise from bottom, Nick Laird-Clowes, Kate St. John, and Gilbert Gabriel.
Background information
Origin	London, England, United Kingdom
Genre(s)	Folk Rock, Dream Pop.
Years active	1983–1991
Label(s)	Blanco y Negro Reprise Records Warner Bros.
Associated acts	Channel Light Vessel The Excellent Staircase Trashmonk
Former members
Gilbert Gabriel Nick Laird-Clowes Kate St. John

The Dream Academy were a 1980s folk rock and Dream Pop band from England, comprising singer/guitarist Nick Laird-Clowes, multi-instrumentalist (chiefly oboeist) Kate St John and keyboardist Gilbert Gabriel. They are most noted for their hit single, "Life in a Northern Town".

History

Nick 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. 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 world-wide smash and sizeable hit in the U.S., charting at number 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 world-wide 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 South East Asia and Africa. Shortly thereafter, he began to work with Gilmour on lyrics for Pink Floyd's The Division Bell album before recording his solo album under the name Trashmonk and working on movie soundtracks.

All three members of the band remain active recording musicians, each with their own careers. They are said to have reunited on a forthcoming album, "Angels and Fools", by Gilbert's new band, The Excellent Staircase (formally The Believers); on the track "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want", a cover of the song by The Smiths.

Discography

Albums