Laird-Clowes and Gabriel met each other in the late 1970s whilst the former 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 the UK, by mixing instruments and sounds that had been rarely done prominently before, such as strings, woodwinds, percussion (timpani) and synthesizers. At first, Laird-Clowes and Gabriel called themselves the Politics of Paradise.[9][8]
The Dream Academy formed in 1983.[1][5] Laird-Clowes met Kate St John (then of The Ravishing Beauties) at a party and asked her to join his band.[8] 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 they finally landed a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records in 1985. Along the way, they made connections with Adam Peters and Pink Floyd's David Gilmour, a friend of Laird-Clowes. Gilmour would go on to produce and/or play on two of their albums and co-write one Dream Academy song, "Twelve-Eight Angel".[9]
The band's first single, "Life in a Northern Town" (1985), was a worldwide success and sizeable hit in the U.S., charting at No. 7 on the BillboardHot 100chart, from an album co-produced by Gilmour.[1] The song also made number 15 in the UK Singles Chart.[10] The single was dedicated to the English singer-songwriter Nick Drake.[1][11] It was their only major chart success. The band's follow-up single, "The Love Parade" (1985), charted in the U.K.[12] and the United States.[13][14]
Also in 1985, The Dream Academy covered the Smiths' "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want".[15] Their version of the song peaked at number 83 on the UK Singles Chart.[16] The Dream Academy's instrumental version of this cover was used in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off in 1986.[15]
The band launched a worldwide promotional tour based on the chart success of "Life in a Northern Town" and appeared on the television programmes 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 U.S. Their two subsequent albums did not match their initial success.[1]
^While none of the group's songs charted on the official Album Top 100 or Single Top 100, "Life in a Northern Town" was a hit on the Dutch Charts' unranked Single Tip chart.[27]
^Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (Illustrated ed.). St. Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 96. ISBN0-646-11917-6. N.B. the Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA between mid 1983 and 19 June 1988.
