What is your favourite Babylon Zoo song?
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Spaceman
Animal Army
Boy With The X-Ray Eyes
Parallel Lines
Fire Guided Light
All The Money’s Gone
Stereo Superstar
Chrome Invader
Love Lies Bleeding
view results BIO Jasbinder Mann was born in Dudley in 1971, the product of his Indian/Native American parents. This sci-fi nut also had a strong passion for music and released a low-budget 7’’ single at only 15. ’The Glove Puppets’ was a partnership with his friend Adam Toussaint and the single was sold through local record shops. In 1988, he joined a local indie band called the Sandkings, who were signed to London Records. The band enjoyed some success in UK indie circles but after releasing a few singles and an album Jas Mann left to find somewhere that his ’vision’ would be appreciated. His future looked bleak so he sold some of his stuff and bought studio time, the product of which was a 3-track demo. This was the dawn of Babylon Zoo. His new creation was signed under Phonogram Records after Clive Black heard the demo in May ’93. Later that year Black moved to WEA (Warner Bros. Records) and took Jas’ contract with him. An album had been prepared and the original ’Spaceman’ singles were printed but Babylon Zoos debut was put on hold again when Black moved once more to EMI in 1995. All of a sudden everything started to fall together. The Arthur Baker remix of the song was heard by a company director of Levi’s playing at the wrong speed on a Manchester radio station. After some convincing Jas was persueded to allow part of the song to be sped up. It was chosen to appear in their new TV commercial that was shown until the end of December. The song was already well into the nation’s subconcious also helped by a performance on Top Of The Pops before it was released. When it reached the shops, after Babylon Zoo had been signed to a seven-album deal with EMI, it entered the UK chart at No.1, becoming the fastest-selling debut record in UK chart history. It spent 4 weeks at the top of the chart. All future releases would certainly have a tough act to follow. An impressive debut album ’The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes’ was, on the whole, well received by the press and peaked at No.6. The second single ’Animal Army’ didn’t get anywhere near Spaceman’s success which is a shame for such a good song but it did still reach a respectable No.17. Babylon Zoo released the title track from the album as a single on 16th September 1996 but it was another comparative failure despite a new b-side and some good remixes. It got to No.32. By now Spaceman had reached No. 1 in over 20 countries across the globe and Spaceman was nearing sales of 1,000,000 in the UK. At the end of the year Jas’ live musicians disbanded after a long, successful period of touring. After two years away from the music scene Babylon Zoo were back with a single and the second album ’King Kong Groover’. In January ’99 the glam rock style single ’All The Money’s Gone’ was released. BZ had the opportunity of performing it on two TV shows but despite this it couldn’t crack into the Top 40. The video for All the Moneys Gone is animated in its entirety and took seven months from conception to completion. It portrays the characters Chrome Invader/King Kong Groover, Leopard Prince and Aroma Girl. Both Chrome Invader and Aroma Girl are the names of songs on the album. Where the video fades to a close at the end of the song, the storyline is continued as a comic strip that can be found in the King Kong Groover booklet. The second single from KKG was Honaloochie Boogie, a Mott the Hoople cover version, but it only reached promo status and wasn’t sold in the shops. Jas was in a clinch with EMI at the time, so any planned forthcoming single releases were probably cancelled. The last Babylon Zoo song made to date was the download-only ’Love Lies Bleeding’ in 2000. Shortly after, Jas Mann announced that he wouldn’t make any more music under the Babylon Zoo name. In 2003 Jas started a new online project called ’Mariachi Static’ along with founding Hub Records together with his friend Jose Martinez Jr. They signed some talented artists under the record label, including Modular, Ozium and Repo-Kidd but I don’t think much came of it. As far as I know, since the Hub Records site went down it has ceased to exist. As for Mariachi Static they put out 3 songs which Jas described as ’analogue rock’. An album was planned but there have been no signs of this yet. Amongst all this, Jas announced a Babylon Zoo return with a third album ’Cold Clockwork Doll’ but this now seems unlikely to materialise. Jas is currently establishing himself in the film industry and is said to be working on his first feature length movie "The Whisperers" for 2009. All The Money’s Gone (Live on UK National Lottery) This is a fan page, I have no association with Jas Mann