The Dream Academy were a 1980s folk rock and Dream Pop band from England, comprising singer/guitarist Nick Laird-Clowes, multi-instrumentalist (chiefly oboeist) Kate St John and keyboardist Gilbert Gabriel. They are most noted for their hit single, "Life in a Northern Town". History Nick and Gilbert met each other in the late 1970s while Nick was in a band called The Act. Their idea was to create a songscape different from the power pop groups popular at the time in England by mixing instruments and sounds that had not been done prominently before, such as strings, woodwinds, percussion (tympani), and synthesizers. At first, Nick and Gilbert called themselves the "Politics of Pop". In the early years before they were signed, they were rumoured to have had over a dozen rotating members in the group playing various unique instruments until Nick met Kate St. John (then of The Ravishing Beauties) at a party. Nick was immediatel

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