Stephen Jones (Baby Bird)
| Stephen Jones | |
|---|---|
| Born |
16 September 1962 Telford, Shropshire, England |
| Genres | Pop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, novelist |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Associated acts | Babybird |
| Website | Babybird official site |
Stephen Jones (born 16 September 1962) is an English musician and novelist.
After studying at Nottingham Trent University, Jones became involved with an experimental theatre company, Dogs in Honey, in Nottingham in the late 1980s, writing songs for productions.
By 1994, Jones had written over 400 songs and gained a publishing contract with Chrysalis Music. However, he was unable to gain a recording contract, and formed a plan to self-finance the release of a series of albums featuring his home demos, limited to 1,000 copies of each, under the name Baby Bird.
The first of these was I Was Born a Man, released in August 1995 and positively received by the NME.
During the second half of 1995, Jones toured under the name Babybird with Huw Chadbourne (keyboards), Robert Gregory (drums), John Pedder (bass) and Luke Scott (guitar). Two further collections of demos were released, Bad Shave and Fatherhood (a fourth album, The Happiest Man Alive was released in early 1996).
By the end of the year, a decent public following had been built up, as well as quite considerable excitement within the press and music industry. Babybird were signed to Echo Records (a division of the Chrysalis Group), and the first "proper" single, a full-band recording of "Goodnight", which had appeared in demo form on Fatherhood, was eventually released in the summer of 1996, becoming a minor chart hit in the UK.
The second single, "You're Gorgeous", reached number 3 in the UK singles chart in October 1996, and was also one of the biggest selling singles of the year, going on to chart around the world. This remains the song for which Jones, and Babybird, are best known.
However, it presented a much more commercial face to the public in comparison to Jones' previous work. The early demo albums won Jones great credibility with those who heard them, but had not reached a wide audience (each one being a one-off pressing). Arguably, the commercial sound and success of "You're Gorgeous", which received massive exposure by comparison, made it hard for many to take Jones seriously as an indie artist. Essentially, what he was best at was no longer what he was best known for.
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