'Life In A Northern Town' by The Dream Academy peaked at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1986. "Like Sinatra in a younger day," formed part of the lyrics. "He said 'In winter 1963; It felt like the world would freeze; With John F. Kennedy; And The Beatles.'" The song was written by Nick Laird-Clowes and Gilbert Gabriel in memory of Nick Drake, an influential legend to many British musicians and songwriters since 1974.
'rediscoverthe80s.com', January 2018: : What are your feelings about 'Life In A Northern Town' now about 29 years later?
Gilbert Gabriel: I think it still holds up pretty darn well. I feel it was a great achievement to accomplish making a record that is still loved today (in 2018).
Speaking to 'Mojo' in 2011, Nick Laird-Clowes recounted, "The song was created in a Southgate bedsit where Gilbert Gabriel had a room. We wrote it while sitting on a floor. Just two guitars - one nylon strung with just three strings on it, while the other was the same guitar that was on the cover of Nick Drake's 'Bryter Layter'. We had the idea, even before we sat down, to write a folk song with an African-style chorus.
"We started it and when we got to the verse melody, there was something about it that reminded me of Nick Drake, who I had been turned on to in 1972 by Roundhouse DJ Jeff Dexter. It was Jeff who first informed me what a brilliant record 'Bryter Layter' was. He claimed, 'I know where that guitar is and one day we'll get hold of it.' I was working at the RCA record factory in Ladbroke Grove at the time and bought Nick Drake's guitar for £100. When the single was completed I dedicated it to Nick."
In calling the song 'Life In A Northern Town', Nick Laird-Clowes made known, "I played him (Paul Simon) the song and he asked, 'What are you going to call it - 'Ah Hey Ma Ma Ma?' I told him that we intended to name it 'Morning Lasted All Day.' 'That's no good,' he said and so I came up with 'Life In A Northern Town' which he thought was a great title. The lyric emerged because I was an early presenter on 'The Tube' and Geoff Wonfor, who went on to shoot 'The Beatles Anthology' series, showed me the long lines of people unemployed and the shipyards that were closed down. That's what 'Life In Northern Town' is really all about."
In 1985, Paul Simon began training Nick Laird-Clowes in harmony and music theory. As told to 'The New York Times', "When Paul volunteered to teach me, I borrowed the money to come to New York and study with him. We worked four or five hours a day, two or three times a week for two months. One of his major lessons was that if you work just a little harder than everyone else you can pull yourself a little bit ahead of them. He also taught me that you didn't have to make musical discoveries by accident, that with a thorough knowledge of harmony, you could actually design interesting music.''
Will Harris, 'rhino.com', 2015: When you set aside the three-part harmonies, what led you to the sounds of The Act (formed in 1979) and then to the more pastoral material favored by The Dream Academy (formed in 1983)?
Nick Laird-Clowes: Well, we went from the three-part harmony acoustic stuff to The Act, which was kind of new wave. Elvis Costello meets the Byrds meets Tom Petty, really, is what I was trying to do. I'd gone to New York, I'd gone to the mod club, I'd seen what was happening. And I'd stayed there for a few months, and I just thought, 'Right, this is it: I've got to form this kind of band.'
And we got signed, amazingly, by Joe Boyd to his Hannibal Records. And Joe was my hero, because I loved Nick Drake! But we weren't doing anything like Nick Drake, and we were working with John Wood, who was Nick Drake's engineer/producer, as well as Joe! So we did that, but it didn't work. And this was the second band I'd had.
A lot of people never got any records out, and I'd made three records, and one of them never got released, but I made one with the first band, one with the second band, and they'd had a really good shot. So I had to think, 'Why isn't it working?' And that's when I realized - to my horror - 'I'm copying other people! I've been copying people because that's how I've learned to do it, but by copying, I'm always a stage behind. By the time I get my Byrds/Elvis Costello thing out, Elvis is on to a whole new thing.'
In fact, the salutary lesson was actually meeting Elvis somewhere, and him saying, 'What band are you in?' And we said, 'The Act.' And he went, 'Oh, are you the one that does the Byrds or the one that does me?' And by 'the one that does the Byrds,' he meant R.E.M., and we were the one that did him. And I was horrified! I had to say, 'I think the one that does you.' But I was thinking, 'Oh, God, that's a terrible thing to say!' So what was great was realizing - after months of torturous soul searching - that you can't copy, you've got to find your own voice, however hard that is.
Nick Laird-Clowes: Well, we went from the three-part harmony acoustic stuff to The Act, which was kind of new wave. Elvis Costello meets the Byrds meets Tom Petty, really, is what I was trying to do. I'd gone to New York, I'd gone to the mod club, I'd seen what was happening. And I'd stayed there for a few months, and I just thought, 'Right, this is it: I've got to form this kind of band.'
And we got signed, amazingly, by Joe Boyd to his Hannibal Records. And Joe was my hero, because I loved Nick Drake! But we weren't doing anything like Nick Drake, and we were working with John Wood, who was Nick Drake's engineer/producer, as well as Joe! So we did that, but it didn't work. And this was the second band I'd had.
A lot of people never got any records out, and I'd made three records, and one of them never got released, but I made one with the first band, one with the second band, and they'd had a really good shot. So I had to think, 'Why isn't it working?' And that's when I realized - to my horror - 'I'm copying other people! I've been copying people because that's how I've learned to do it, but by copying, I'm always a stage behind. By the time I get my Byrds/Elvis Costello thing out, Elvis is on to a whole new thing.'
In fact, the salutary lesson was actually meeting Elvis somewhere, and him saying, 'What band are you in?' And we said, 'The Act.' And he went, 'Oh, are you the one that does the Byrds or the one that does me?' And by 'the one that does the Byrds,' he meant R.E.M., and we were the one that did him. And I was horrified! I had to say, 'I think the one that does you.' But I was thinking, 'Oh, God, that's a terrible thing to say!' So what was great was realizing - after months of torturous soul searching - that you can't copy, you've got to find your own voice, however hard that is.
In 1976, Marc Bolan gave Nick Laird-Clowes's Beatles-influenced band Alphalfa their first studio session. As told to James McNair of the UK 'Independent' in 1999, "In the studio he was trying to teach us something that it's taken me years to learn. Bolan knew that getting that energy on to tape was all that mattered." In writing song, Paul Simon reportedly also told Nick Laird-Clowes, "Rule number one: fact is always more interesting than fiction."
'rediscoverthe80s.com', January 2018: The Dream Academy had its biggest hit with 'Life In A Northern Town' which you co-wrote with Laird-Clowes and was released in 1985. Please take us back to when it was written and recorded. What can you tell us about back-story about how that particular song was conceived? What inspired it?
Gilbert Gabriel: I remember this song emerging gradually from the ether in autumn when I was living in Southgate in a shared house with other students. I was endlessly experimenting with different guitar chord shapes higher up the guitar fretboard on a guitar with only five strings. Eventually, I found two chords that seemed to achieve a sense of consonance that seemed to mesmerize me.
Nick then learned it and came up with a lower inversion that I embellished with a colorful chord progression played on the Solina synthesizer. Nick and I would then sing various chants over these chords inspired by a library tape of some African children I asked my girlfriend to borrow from her college library. The idea was to 're-conjure' the '60s and more idealistic times through the visual imagery of the verses that were fused with a chant that sounded universal.
Hence the reference to The Beatles and JFK that became the axiom that we would build it around as well as the massive chant. We consciously wanted to create a song that had a wide demographic appeal but communicated something honest, beautiful and universal - a song that could appeal to children, adults and grandparents. I think we achieved this.
Speaking to the press in early 1986, Nick Laird-Clowes, then 28, stated, "Though we are very much an '80s band, the music that was popular when I was an adolescent still has a special meaning. Albums like the Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds,' Love's 'Forever Changes,' Neil Young's surreal mini-symphonies with the Buffalo Springfield, and everything by the Beatles have been seminal influences. The period from 1965 to '68 was unique because people were taking so many musical risks, experimenting with strings, delving into Eastern instruments and philosophy, and mixing it all up.''
As told to the UK 'Telegraph' in 1999, "'Life In A Northern Town' was officially the most played radio single of 1985. And when you've got a record in America that's Top 10 the whole country sings it.'"
