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Babylon Zoo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Babylon Zoo was an electro rock one-hit wonder of the mid 1990s. The band was the brainchild of Jas Mann, and were based in Wolverhampton, England.
Jas Mann had formerly been in an indie music band, called The Sandkings, which he left in 1992, because of musical differences.
Babylon Zoo was signed to Phonogram Records after Clive Black heard their first three-track demo tape in May 1993. When Black moved to Warner Bros. Records in 1993, he took Mann's contract with him. An album had been prepared and sleeves for a single, "Fire Guided Light", were printed, but Babylon Zoo's debut was put on hold again when Black moved once more to EMI in 1995, where the band were signed on to a seven album contract.
However, promotional copies of "Spaceman" had already been distributed, and it was chosen to tie in with a new Levi's jeans advertisement. The advertisement concentrated on the sped-up vocal section at the beginning and end of the song, which was the product of an Arthur Baker remix. The single went straight to Number 1 on the UK singles chart on 21 January 1996, selling 418,000 copies in the first week of release, at the time being the fastest selling single in the UK. The single remained at number 1 in the UK for 5 weeks, selling 893,000 copies in this period.
The single went to number 1 in the single charts in 23 countries. Appearances on BBC Television's Top Of The Pops featured several backing musicians, but the band was, in effect, centered around Jas Mann. Towards the end of 1996, "Spaceman" was approaching UK sales of one million and was the third biggest selling single of the year.
An album, entitled, The Boy With the X-Ray Eyes was produced at Mann's New Atlantis Productions music/artwork/video centre and included new-age tracks such as "Is Your Soul For Sale?" and "I'm Cracking Up I Need A Pill."
Three years later, 1999, a follow up album was released entitled King Kong Groover, but both singles from it failed to chart, with the second not even getting beyond the promotional copy stage. By this time, Mann had adopted Glam Rock as a new style, but it appeared all too late to cash in on the attendant furore surrounding Todd Haynes' genre tribute, Velvet Goldmine.
Given the failure of their subsequent singles, they became considered a one-hit wonder.
In 2005, it was announced that a new Babylon Zoo album, Cold Clockwork Doll, would be released sometime in the near future, although this has yet to be released.
In 2006 "Spaceman" featured on trailers for Ant and Dec's film Alien Autopsy, the BBC's children's channel, CBeebies for the animated pre-school series Lunar Jim, and Channel Ten's advertisement for Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series).
Contents |
| Title | Released | Chart Position |
|---|---|---|
| "The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes" | February, 1996 | #6 UK (Gold) |
| "King Kong Groover" | February, 1999 | - |
| Year | Song |
|
Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | "Spaceman" | #1 | "The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes" |
| 1996 | "Animal Army" | #17 | "The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes" |
| 1996 | "The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes" | #32 | "The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes" |
| 1999 | "All The Money's Gone" | #46 | "King Kong Groover" |
| 1999 | "Honaloochie Boogie" | Promo released (France only) | "King Kong Groover" |
| 2000 | "Love Lies Bleeding" | Internet-only release | - |
- Babylon Zoo - Spaceman excerpt (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- An excerpt from the long version of Spaceman
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.
- Promo version video (Alternatively go onto YouTube.com and type in Babylon Zoo and you will see many Spaceman videos.)
- Babylon Zoo Online (unofficial)
- Babylon Zoo (fansite)
- Babylon Zoo at MusicBrainz
- Babylon Zoo at Discogs