After studying at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, Stephen Jones set up a performance art company called
Dogs in Honey, which consisted of acting, directing, and writing songs in the late 1980’s.
After amassing a collection of over 400 home demo recordings, he gained a publishing contract with Chrysalis Music
in 1994. Unable to obtain a recording contract, Stephen self financed his first release under the name “Babybird”....
I Was Born a Man comprising 13 of the best from his home demos.
Following an excellent reception for his record, Stephen began to tour and promote his work.
He built up a decent public following and considerable press and was eventually signed to Echo Records
(a division of Chrysalis Group).
His second single .......”You’re Gorgeous” reached number 3 in the UK in October 1996 and was one of the biggest
selling singles of the year. “You’re Gorgeous” remains a staple of many wedding playlists to this day.
Stephen went on to write two works of fiction, “The Bad Book in 2000” and “Harry and Ida Swap Teeth”. He also
scored the film “Blessed” in 2004.
In the summer of 2008, Stephen traveled to Los Angeles to record 13 songs with Bruce Witkin and Ryan Dorn of
Unison Music Group, LLC. Both Witkin and Dorn are successful music producers in their own right who together and seperately have worked over the
years with a roster of artists that include Adam Ant,Vanessa Paradis, Cher,Whitney Houston, Johnny Depp, Stevie Ray Vaughan, L.A. Guns,The Donna’s,The Blasters,
and Martin Short.
Witkin and Dorn joined forces in 2006 to launch the Unison Music Label in Los Angeles and in addition to having Stephen Jones on their rosters of
talented artists, signed Marianne Keith who has gained nationwide attention in the U.S.A. with her debut album “Beautiful Distraction” and recently
completed her tour with guitar legend “Joe Bonamassa”.
Reference Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Jones_(Babybird) • http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:avfoxqugldhe
Select Editorial:
• I Was Born A Man (Baby Bird Recordings, July 1995)
“I’ll just say that I Was Born A Man is the only record I’ve heard this year with lyrics worth remembering and music that’s impossible to forget, because
I’d rather you listen to it than me talking about it.” - Melody Maker
“...whatever ultra-naff low-fidelity keyboard tinklings he undertakes; he carries with him incredibly touching pieces like Dead Bird Sings that create,
in the middle of this tank top of a record, an altogether different kind of sadness.” - NME
• Bad Shave (Baby Bird Recordings, October 1995)
“...unique, customised but never self-indulgent or irritatingly inaccessible. It’s as off as it’s beautiful, as rich as it’s lo fi... imagine Ray Davies emerging,
blinking and bearded, Howard Hughes like, after years in the darkness and you’ll have some idea of the deeply, deeply English yet marvellously, utterly
alien world of Baby Bird.” - Melody Maker
• Fatherhood (Baby Bird Recordings, December 1995)
“...a mixture of whimsy, egotism and madness with a good bit of talent stirred in...his puzzled world-view is unique. He fills the 20 tracks with
strangenesses.Weirdly wonderful.” - The Guardian
“Fatherhood is another unpredictable and magical journey through the thoughts of Stephen Jones, a man who is clearly in love with sweet melodies
and the millions of ways you can fuck them up...you might find the whole experience as cigar-puffingly satisfying as becoming a dad.” - The Independent
• The Happiest Man Alive (Baby Bird Recordings,April 1996) #127
“...an oblique sadist of spectacular talent.The Happiest Man Alive has an entire central nervous system of its own. It’s a Frankenstein’s monster of an
album, gruesome and miraculous, stitched together from what would appear to be fragments of a dozen different psyches lodged inside one head.”
- Melody Maker
• The Orifginal Lo-Fi (Sanctuary Records, November 2002)
“The five albums in question form a song-cycle tracking the life-cycle from birth to death.The sheer wealth and diversity of music crammed into this
tiny box makes it an absolute bargain.” - The Independent
“The Original Lo-Fi should cement Baby Bird’s reputation as one of the finest experimental pop artists of his time...Written, performed, and produced
as only Stephen Jones is capable of, the songs compiled on The Original Lo-Fi are easily among the finest musical confections of a generation.” - Allmusic
