Glaxo Babies

Glaxo Babies
Cover art from Dreams Interrupted, a compilation album covering the period 1978–1980
Background information
Also known as	Gl*xo Babies
Origin	Bristol, UK
Genres	Post-punk
Years active	1978–1980, 1985–1990
Labels	Heartbeat, Cherry Red, Y
Associated acts	Maximum Joy, The Transmitters, The Pop Group
Website	www.myspace.com/GlaxoBabies
Past members	Rob Chapman, Dan Catis, Geoff Alsopp, Tom Nichols, Tony Wrafter, Charlie Llewellin, Tim Aylett, Alan Jones

Glaxo Babies were a Bristol-based UK post-punk group, formed in late 1977. There were three distinct phases in the band's life and after initially breaking up in 1980, they reformed in 1985, only to finally break up again in 1990.

The band was formed by Tom Nichols (bassist), Dan Catsis (guitarist) and drummer Geoff Alsopp (previously Nichols and Alsopp had been in another Bristol based band called The Vultures). The initial band line-up was completed by Rob Chapman (singer) joining in November 1977, and their first gig was held just 3 weeks later in The Dockland Settlement, St Pauls, Bristol. The band signed to local label Heartbeat Records (marketed by Cherry Red), with their first release being the This Is Your Life EP in February 1979. This led to them recording their first session for BBC radios John Peel the following April, and the track "It's Irrational", from this session, opened the seminal 1979 Bristol Compilation album "Avon Calling". For this release the band had been forced by pharmaceutical company Glaxo to change their name, and this resulted in the use of "Gl*xo Babies", with an asterisk replacing the "a", although subsequent recordings have used a mixture of the two forms.

Tony Wrafter (saxophone) had joined the band in early 1979, and in May 1979 drummer Geoff Alsopp was replaced by Welshman Charlie Llewellin. This line-up had just started to record their debut album in June 1979 at Crescent Studios, Bath with David Lord as engineer. However, due to artistic differences Rob Chapman promptly left the group after the recording of just a couple of run through tracks (including a song about Christine Keeler, former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and the political scandal known as the Profumo Affair).