Early history Gay Dad were formed in 1994 by former
Mojo and
The Face journalist
Cliff Jones and art magazine publisher Nick Crowe (drums), along with friends they had known in Berkshire as teenagers, Dominic S (vocals), Tim Forster (keyboards), and bassist Nigel George Hoyle, who had originally played in a band called Brutus with S a year or two earlier. Jones, S, Forster and Crowe had played together in various incarnations of what was to become Gay Dad ten years previously, such as The Timothy and the Astral Projection Society. Known recordings include the track 'Freaking out in Sunninghill Sky St' (sic) which was made available as a limited edition cassette in the late 1980s. The first Gay Dad demo was produced by Jim Irvin (writer and former frontman of
Furniture) and funded by the
Rolling Stones' former record producer and manager,
Andrew Loog Oldham with his original business partner in the Immediate label, Tony Calder. Jones had met with Calder and Oldham, who were convinced by a performance at the band's rehearsal room to sign the band. Gay Dad made their live debut in 1995 at the Orange Club in West Kensington, London. Following a band reshuffle, Crowe invited fellow
Liverpool University graduate James Riseboro to play keyboards, and the band recorded three new tracks at Raezor Studio,
Wandsworth, during autumn 1996 including a song called "
To Earth with Love". Though only intended to win them some live dates, the demo attracted keen record-label interest from
Island,
Chrysalis,
Mercury,
EMI and others. These included
London, to whom they signed in December 1997.
"To Earth with Love" (1998) With Charley Stone (formerly of
Salad) joining as a live guitarist to add some of the overdubbed guitar parts from their multi-layered sound, they toured the UK in early 1998, before starting recording sessions at RAK Studios in Regents Park with the record producer
Tony Visconti and engineer Mark Frith who had co-produced the demos that got the band signed. Visconti co-produced (with the band and Frith) the track "
To Earth with Love," before he was sacked. The album sessions relocated to The Dairy studio in
Brixton with producers/
sound engineers
Gary Langan (ex-
Art of Noise) and
Chris Hughes. and Gay Dad were hailed as the "saviours" of
British rock by magazines such as
Select and
Melody Maker. and in July they supported the
Stereophonics in
Morfa Stadium,
Swansea. The second single, "Joy!", reached No. 22 in the UK, but the third single from the album, "Oh Jim", only made No. 47. A year later Crowe spoke to an ex-Capitol Records executive who confirmed the label had scuppered the deal because of the band's unacceptable name. Instead,
Transmission was put out by indie label
Thirsty Ear. Later that year Gay Dad's second single, "
Joy!" was used in a
Mitsubishi car advertisement, the football video game
FIFA 2000, and TV shows including
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and
The Naked Chef. Following the split, Jones went into production and co-songwriting working with
The Electric Soft Parade,
Sia,
Scanners,
Lovebites,
Jamie Dornan,
The Applicators, Faceless Warewolves, The Golden Virgins, and
Mark Owen (though nothing was ever released with Owen). He occasionally writes on music for
The Sunday Times. He is also tutoring at the Bristol Institute of Modern Music. Crowe went on to write for
Prospect magazine, contributing music criticism and essays, while bringing up his children on a small holding on Exmoor. Hoyle eventually ended up working with
Freelance Hellraiser recording a track for the
Ian Brown remix album. He then worked with Dylan Rippon and Crispin Hunt (of the defunct
Longpigs) in a new band called Gramercy. The band posted numerous songs on their website then split up (just before they were to release their debut EP
Hold On through Redemption Records). In 2009 he released a solo album as Nigel Of Bermondsey on Pure Mint records. ==Discography==