The Dream Academy

The Dream Academy was a British alternative pop band consisting of lead vocalist and guitarist<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and primary songwriter<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Nick Laird-Clowes, woodwinds player and pianist Kate St John, and keyboardist Gilbert Gabriel.<ref name="auto">Template:Cite web</ref> The band is most noted for their 1985 hit record, "Life in a Northern Town".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Grdn2024">Template:Cite news</ref>

History

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.<ref name="Rhino Interview">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Grdn2024"/>

The Dream Academy formed in 1983.<ref name="auto2">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="auto"/> Laird-Clowes met Kate St John (then of The Ravishing Beauties) at a party and asked her to join his band.<ref name="Grdn2024"/> 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".<ref name="Rhino Interview"/>

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 Billboard Hot 100 chart, from an album co-produced by Gilmour.<ref name="auto2"/> The song also made number 15 in the UK Singles Chart.<ref name="British Hit Singles & Albums">Template:Cite book</ref> The single was dedicated to the English singer-songwriter Nick Drake.<ref name="auto2" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It was their only major chart success. The band's follow-up single, "The Love Parade" (1985), charted in the U.K.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and the United States.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Also in 1985, The Dream Academy covered the Smiths' "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want".<ref name="auto1">Template:Cite news</ref> Their version of the song peaked at number 83 on the UK Singles Chart.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Dream Academy's instrumental version of this cover was used in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off in 1986.<ref name="auto1"/>

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 United States. Their two subsequent albums did not match their initial success.<ref name="auto2"/> They also covered "Everybody's Got to Learn Sometime", released on the album Remembrance Days (1987).

The Dream Academy disbanded in 1991.<ref name="auto1"/> In 2000, the band released a compilation album in Japan entitled Somewhere in the Sun... Best of the Dream Academy. In 2014, the band released another compilation album: The Morning Lasted All Day: A Retrospective. The Morning Lasted All Day was compiled, annotated, and remastered by Laird-Clowes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Band members

• Gilbert Gabriel – keyboards, synthesizers, vocals
• Nick Laird-Clowes – lead vocals, guitars, harmonica
• Kate St John – saxophone, oboe, cor anglais, accordion, piano, backing vocals

Discography

Studio albums

Year	Album details	Peak chart positions
		UK <ref name="UK">Template:Cite web</ref>	US <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1985	The Dream Academy Release date: November 1985 Label: Warner Bros. Records	58	20
1987	Remembrance Days Release date: 1987 Label: Reprise Records	—	181
1990	A Different Kind of Weather Release date: 1990 Label: Reprise Records	—	—
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Compilation albums

Year	Album details
2000	Best of the Dream Academy Release date: 28 March 2000 Label: WEA International
2014	The Morning Lasted All Day: A Retrospective<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Release date: 29 July 2014 Label: Real Gone Music
2024	Religion, Revolution & Railways: The Complete Recordings<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Release date: 23 February 2024 Label: Cherry Red Records

Singles

Year	Single	Peak chart positions										Album
		UK <ref name="UK" />	AUS <ref>Template:Cite book N.B. the Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA between mid 1983 and 19 June 1988.</ref>	BEL <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	CAN <ref>Template:Cite web</ref> <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	CAN AC <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	IRE <ref name="IRE">Template:Cite web</ref>	NLD Template:Efn	US <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	US AC <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>	US Main <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1985	"Life in a Northern Town"	15	4	—	14	7	9	—	7	2	7	The Dream Academy
	"The Edge of Forever"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	37
	"This World"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
1986	"The Love Parade"	68	76	30	41	—	—	—	36	13	—
	"Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want"	83	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Ferris Bueller's Day Off (soundtrack)
	"Indian Summer"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Remembrance Days
1987	"The Lesson of Love"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	"Power to Believe"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	"In the Heart"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	Non-album single
1990	"Love"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	A Different Kind of Weather
1991	"Angel of Mercy"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
2014	"Sunrising"	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	The Morning Lasted All Day
"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Notes

See also

• List of folk rock artists
• List of performers on Top of the Pops

External links

• VH1 artist page
• Template:IMDb name