Musicians - Stephen Jones

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	Musicians - Stephen Jones

Stephen Jones is a British musician and novelist, born on 16 September, 1962, in Telford, UK.

Lo-fi period

After studying at Nottingham Trent University, Stephen Jones became involved with an experimental theatre company, Dogs in Honey, in Sheffield in the late 1980s, writing songs for productions.

Amassing over 400 home demo recordings, produced in his and other people's homes, he gained a publishing contract with Chrysalis Music in 1994. However, he was unable to gain a recording contract, and self-financed the release 5,000 copies of an album under the name Baby Bird, I Was Born a Man, comprising 13 of the best from his collection of home demos.

The LP was a lo-fi indie affair, with voice, guitar, keyboards and drum machine recorded on 4-track tape recorder. The reception for the record was extrememly positive after it was picked up by the British radio DJ John Peel, leading quickly to a decision to release, over a period, four further albums of demo recordings and to form a band in order to tour.

Babybird the band

During the second half of 1995, Stephen toured relentlessly with Huw Chadbourne (keyboards), Robert Gregory (drums), John Pedder (bass) and Luke Scott (guitar), and released two further collections of demos Bad Shave and Fatherhood (a fourth album, The Happiest Man Alive was realeased in early 1996). At this time, Stephen as a solo artist retained the name Baby Bird, whilst the work of the band was distinguished by the name Babybird.

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.

"You're Gorgeous"

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 Stephen 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 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.

After "You're Gorgeous"

The album Ugly Beautiful was released to a warm reception, but was not the unmitigated critical triumph that some had anticipated from Babybird's first studio-recorded album. The album produced two more hit singles, "Candy Girl" and "Cornershop". Shortly after Ugly Beautiful, a fifth album of demos was released - Dying Happy, a perhaps pointedly non-commercial selection.

Babybird returned in 1998 with There's Something Going On, preceded by a single, "Bad Old Man". The album was a modest success and was followed by further minor hits, "If You'll Be Mine" and "Back Together".

The 2000 album Bugged was well-received critically (it might be suggested that it is an album of the right quality, but four years later than expected). However, sales were poor and the two singles from it, "The F-Word" (later the theme tune to a UK TV cookery show of the same name) and "Out of Sight" barely dented the charts. Babybird were dropped by their record label soon after. A third single from the album "Fireflies/Getaway" was released on Animal Noise records, but sold few copies. The band subsequently split.

After Babybird

In the following years, Jones returned to where he had started - releasing albums of demos (under his own name) to a small but appreciative audience. This time round he produced two albums of instrumental music designed to help him develop a career in film music. Stephen Jones 1985-2001 was released in 2001, and Plastic Tablets came out in 2003. Stephen created the soundtrack for the film Blessed in 2004.

Between the two instrumental albums, Stephen collaborated with the Manchester-based dance artist Aim on a single, "Good Disease", and worked on an album of demo songs. This became the hip-hop influenced Almost Cured of Sadness, on Sanctuary Records. Again, Stephen was to score a critical success, but legal problems over samples delayed its release. It and the single "Friend" received little promotion and sold few copies.

In October 2005, a posting on the announced that the band had reformed, and would be releasing new material in 2006.

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