Brit-pop phenoms Gay Dad were led by singer Cliff Jones, a onetime music journalist who first began conceiving the band during the early 1990s. Initial details are sketchy and the nascent group's line-up was fluid, although drummer Nicholas "Baz" Crowe was a mainstay from the outset; a 1994 demo recorded with legendary Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham proved so disastrous it derailed Gay Dad's momentum for over a year, however, and they did not make their live debut until 1995.
Early gigs were often a shambles, and by 1996 Jones -- who in the interim had developed a fascination with psychedelia and glam-rock -- began to rethink the band's approach; a subsequent demo earned Gay Dad considerable insider buzz, and in the spring of 1997 they signed to London Records. Their debut single, 1998's "To Earth with Love, " became a UK smash, and the band -- in addition to Jones and Baz now comprising guitarist Charley Stone, bassist Nigel Hoyle and keyboardist James Riseboro -- emerged as media darlings; the full-length Leisure Noise followed in mid-1999.
