About Me
Gay Dad were heralded as the saviours of British rock when they shot onto the scene in early 1999. Three years and two albums later the band split, the event itself gaining hardly any column inches in the same publication which had championed the band three years previous. They were the latest victims of the now customary build 'em up and knock 'em down ways of the British music press.Gay Dad appeared in late 98' with a series of whirlwind gigs and created a press roar louder than the Strokes could ever create. When debut single "To Earth with Love" was released in early 99' it shot straight into the top ten. Such was the speed of their ascendancy and the expectation generated by the promise of the debut album that the band took off without packing the proverbial parachute. Despite considerable acclaim for the long player, Gay Dad also attracted more than their fair share of flack. No surprise, therefore, to find the wings shot through and starting to fall off less than a year in. Their second single "Joy!" faired less well, faltering just outside the top twenty and the third single to be lifted from the album, "Oh Jim", only made number 47 as interest waned.Following an extensive and relatively successful tour of America, Gay Dad began to wither under the expectation, shedding band members left, right and centre. Lead guitarist, Charley Stone was the first to leave the band and she was replaced for a short time by current Oasis bass player Andy Bell. Then during the recording of the second album keyboardist James Risbero left the band due to musical differences. Gay Dad had been stripped down to a three-piece and made their live comeback in late '00. The new material was harder and more stripped down than before with the band leaving the experimental influences, so apparent on debut album Leisure Noise, behind.The band had left London Records in favour of a smaller label, b-unique, where they had more control over what they released. A single, "Now, Always and Forever" was released but this failed to reach the top 40. An extensive tour was backed up by another single "Harder, Faster". The third single "Transmission" arguably one of Gay Dads best moments was released just before the second album, also entitled "Transmission" in late 01'. This, too, had disappointing sales and the album, although critically acclaimed failed to make any commercial impact.All went quiet, again, for six months until in June 02' stories began to surface about the band splitting and that frontman Cliff Jones was releasing a solo album towards the end of the year. What will the future hold? Well, Cliff certainly has the talent to span a long and successful solo career, away from the hype and pressures that weighed down on Gay Dad so heavily, but the main question will be as to whether or not the music press are willing to wipe the slate clean...... Cliff Jones Commits Patricide....All the people who thought Gay Dad was either a porno perversion or just the latest rock 'n' roll swindle won't have the glammy British group to kick around anymore. On the eve of the U.S. release of their second album, Transmission, Gay Dad have finally cried uncle."I haven't announced it yet, but I suppose you should know, I've split the band up," says frontman Cliff Jones, on the phone from a studio in Austin, Texas, where he's now working on a solo album and producing a pair of local groups. "It just felt time to move on."So much for questions about the future of Gay Dad, who burst onto the U.K. scene in 1999 when Britain's Radio 1 began playing a demo of "To Earth With Love." The '70s-style epic became a top 10 hit, and Gay Dad became the subject of a furious debate: Were they the next big thing, or the next big scam cooked up by former music journalist Jones?"We got shot out of the cannon," Jones recalls. "Then things started to get out of control, and as rapidly as we went up, we came down again." The descent began soon after the release of Gay Dad's debut, Leisure Noise. Following two tough tours of America and the departure of two members, Jones had "a bit of a breakdown" while recording an aborted second album.The remaining trio--Jones, drummer Nicholas "Baz" Crowe, and bassist Nigel Hoyle--finally recorded Transmission, a more focused outing than its predecessor, with moments of soaring guitar-pop brilliance like the title track. But, Jones says with a sigh, it was "a difficult, difficult record to do, as second albums often can be."Part of the difficulty was the band's name, devised to insure maximum controversy. "[The name] was like being permanently attached to a schizophrenic mad uncle," Jones says. "You'd wake up in the morning and find out he'd been robbing banks and smashing cars up. You never knew how people were going to react to it." One negative reaction, he claims, came from Capitol Records, which planned to release Transmission in America. "Someone in radio promotion said he'd resign if he had to work a band called Gay Dad," Jones reveals. The disc was put out instead by indie label Thirsty Ear. "I didn't realize how difficult it would be to rise above the misconceptions," Jones adds. Therefore, the "completely amicable" split. He's still far less than amicable, though, about the persistent rumor that he's an industry insider who hatched Gay Dad as a spoof. The band "existed long before I became a journalist," says Jones, who's written for British publications like the NME and The Face. "That was only to pay for Gay Dad. Nobody apart from me had any money. It's not as if I said, 'Now I'm a journalist--I know a bunch of people who'll help me get a record deal.' I knew f--k all!"And it's not as though Jones received preferential treatment from his former fellow scribes. After Gay Dad's honeymoon, much of the press coverage turned scathing. "England eats its young--we always have done," Jones says. "It's no wonder English rock doesn't really matter on the global stage anymore. Because we just kill bands before they even have a chance to make a second record."However, Jones is planning a longer-lived solo career. His debut, tentatively titled In The Hands Of Karma, may be out as soon as this fall. It's hard to imagine what it'll sound like; he alternately mentions making "a twisted English version of American garage-punk-pop, with strings thrown in," and using David Bowie's Scary Monsters as a "blueprint."But the enthusiasm is unmistakable, and Jones admits relief at no longer having a Gay Dad to worry about. With a seven-month-old daughter and plans to relocate to the U.S., "I feel relaxed and happy for the first time in a long, long time," he says, "and that's worth anything--even the hassle we went through."excite.com
