The Dream Academy

The appropriately named Dream Academy was an English folk-rock trio who featured the considerable songwriting and musical talents of vocalist/guitarist Nick Laird-Clowes, multi-instrumentalist (primarily oboe and cor anglais) Kate St. John, and keyboardist Gilbert Gabriel. When playing together they conjured up a sound that managed to be both pastoral and sleek, and heavily in debt to psychedelia and vintage British folk but also fitting in next to the synthesized pop artists of their day. The band's biggest hit was the 1985 single "Life in a Northern Town," which juxtaposed African chanting and Nick Drake-inspired melancholy in a majestically Baroque fashion. A self-titled debut from the same year was much in the same vein; two further albums saw them expand into slicker, more mainstream realms before their 1991 split. The seeds for the group were sown in 1982 when Laird-Clowes posted an ad looking for a keyboardist for the band he was in, the Act. It was answered by Gabriel and the pair soon discovered they had much in common musically and began to play as a duo. After a few months spent honing their act in London clubs, they were introduced to St. John, who had been a member of the band the Ravishing Beauties, and were impressed that her instrument of choice was the cor anglais. They invited her to their next rehearsal and found that adding her to the song they were working on, an early version of "Life in a Northern Town," helped complete their Baroque, synthesized take of psychedelic folk. The trio continued to play and record demos that mostly fell on deaf ears in the U.K. although Rough Trade's Geoff Travis took some songs with him on a trip to the U.S. and labels there were more receptive. The band signed to Warner Bros and began work on their first album. They spent months in the studio piecing together tracks, which were then mixed by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour (a major supporter of the trio whose younger brother had also been in the Act.) "Life in a Northern Town," the self-titled 1985 album's lead single, became a hit, landing on the charts and on television sets across the globe. In lieu of touring, the band spent their promotional budget on videos and it helped propel two more singles -- "The Love Parade," and the evocative "Edge of Forever" -- to a modicum of success. The album did well on the charts, too, and caught the ear of film director John Hughes, who used the band's music in a number of his films. For their second album, 1987's Remembrance Days, the trio changed their recording process, working with producer Hugh Padgham on most of it, while also availing themselves of Lindsay Buckingham's talents on two songs. The record utilized a more up-to-date approach with drum machines and programmed sounds predominating, and while it didn't make much impression in the charts, it pointed the way forward for the band musically. When they started work on their third album, A Different Kind of Weather, the sessions were helmed by producer Anthony Moore, with Gilmour adding guitar and mixing expertise. The record featured a trip-hop take on John Lennon's "Love," far less of St. John's woodwinds, and a more straightforward, radio-friendly alternative rock sound overall. It was issued in 1990 and after a short tour to support it, the band broke up. Afterward, St. John joined Van Morrison's live band, formed Channel Light Vessel with Roger Eno and Bill Nelson, released a pair of solo albums in the late '90s, and turned to film music; Laird-Clowes issued a solo album under the name Trashmonk in 2000 before also launching a long career in film music; and unsurprisingly, Gabriel carved out a career in soundtracks as well. The band's work was reissued in 2014 with The Morning Lasted All Day: A Retrospective, a compilation of album tracks and rarities, and a decade later on Religion, Revolution & Railway, a seven-CD collection that gathered up their three albums plus singles, B-sides, remixes, and rarities.
© Tim Sendra & James Christopher Monger /TiVo