Babybird is a British indie band formed in 1995. The band is fronted by Stephen Jones, who has also released records as a solo artist, using his own name and the name Babybird.
Jones had begun writing songs and recording home demos as part of an experimental theatre group in Sheffield. A collection of these demos (I Was Born a Man) was released in the summer of 1995, under the name Baby Bird. Following a warm critical reception for this record, he recruited a band made up of Huw Chadbourn (keyboards), Robert Gregory (drums), John Pedder (bass) and Luke Scott (guitar), in order to tour and promote his work.
During 1995, two further albums of demo recordings were released under the name Baby Bird (Bad Shave and Fatherhood) and two in 1996 (The Happiest Man Alive and Dying Happy).
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 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”.
Babybird returned, minus keyboardist Huw Chadbourn, 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”.
In 2000, a line-up of Babybird comprising Stephen Jones, Luke Scott and Matt Hay created a third album. Bugged, which was well-received critically and featured the singles “The F-Word” (later the theme tune to Gordon Ramsay’s UK TV cookery show of the same name) and “Out of Sight”.
Stephen Jones went on to write fiction, release solo work and score a film, Blessed, in 2004.
In October 2005, a posting on the official Babybird website announced that the band had reformed as a three-piece featuring Stephen, Luke Scott and Robert Gregory. A new album, entitled Between My Ears There Is Nothing But Music was released on September 25, 2006.
In August 2009 it was announced that the band would be doing a brief tour of four gigs in November 2009 to promote new album Ex-Maniac released in February 2010. The lineup will consist of Stephen Jones, Luke Scott and Robert Gregory, with a cameo appearance from long-term fan Johnny Depp.
In September 2009, Babybird launched their official online community featuring clips from the forthcoming album, a new video created by Stephen Jones and Stephen himself participating in discussions on the site.
