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25-467: " Life in a Northern Town " is the debut single by British band The Dream Academy , released in March 1985. It appears on the band's self-titled debut studio album, The Dream Academy . Written by band members Nick Laird-Clowes and Gilbert Gabriel , the song was produced by Laird-Clowes with help from Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour . "Life in a Northern Town" reached No. 7 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in February 1986 and reached No. 15 on

50-481: A Northern Town" as a "richly textured nostalgic ballad...that looks back warmly on 'winter 1963, when it felt like the world would freeze with John F. Kennedy and the Beatles'". According to SingersRoom.com, the song's "haunting, ethereal melody and poetic lyrics...create a sense of wistfulness..." ClassicFM.com describes the song as "brimming with nostalgia, something that's mainly achieved, somewhat unexpectedly, with

75-404: A Northern Town" is written in the key of E major with a main chord pattern of E-A maj7 -E. "Life in a Northern Town" was dedicated to singer-songwriter Nick Drake , who died in 1974. Laird-Clowes said he wrote the song on the guitar that Drake had been holding on the cover of his 1971 album Bryter Layter . Laird-Clowes told Mojo that his mentor Paul Simon spurred him to come up with

100-626: A wide audience in the U.S. Their two subsequent albums did not match their initial success. The Dream Academy disbanded in 1991. The band released a compilation album entitled Somewhere in the Sun... Best of the Dream Academy in Japan in 2000. In 2014, the band released another compilation album: The Morning Lasted All Day: A Retrospective . The Morning Lasted All Day was compiled, annotated, and remastered by Laird-Clowes. Love on

125-541: Is most noted for their 1985 hit record , " Life in a Northern Town ". Laird-Clowes and Gabriel met each other in the late 1970s whilst the former 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 the UK, by mixing instruments and sounds that had been rarely done prominently before, such as strings , woodwinds, percussion ( timpani ) and synthesizers . At first, Laird-Clowes and Gabriel called themselves

150-710: The UK Singles Chart . The single was dedicated to the English singer-songwriter Nick Drake . It was their only major chart success. The band's follow-up single, " The Love Parade " (1985), charted in the U.K. and the United States. Also in 1985, The Dream Academy covered the Smiths' "Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want". Their version of the song peaked at number 83 on the UK Singles Chart . The Dream Academy's instrumental version of this cover

175-551: The Inside The deluxe fan edition of Love on the Inside was released on July 22, 2008, which included 17 tracks in special packaging with an expanded CD booklet and access to download exclusive music video and behind the scenes footage. The deluxe fan edition was also released on vinyl record . Love on the Inside regular edition consisted of 12 songs and a regular CD booklet and was released on July 29. " All I Want to Do ",

200-468: The Politics of Paradise. The Dream Academy formed in 1983. Laird-Clowes met Kate St John (then of The Ravishing Beauties) at a party and asked her to join his band. The trio settled on the name The Dream Academy and shopped their demos for nearly two years. Their work was rejected by every record label before they finally landed a recording contract with Warner Bros. Records in 1985. Along

225-450: The UK charts. It is the band's highest charting single in the UK, the US, and Ireland. American country music artists Sugarland , Little Big Town , and Jake Owen recorded a live cover version of "Life in a Northern Town" that became a minor U.S. hit in 2008. The Dream Academy released the original version of "Life in a Northern Town" as a single in 1985. The song was included as a track on

250-533: The album climbed to No. 1 on US Billboard 200, becoming the duo's first No. 1 album. The album has been certified 2× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America with sales of over 2 million copies in the United States. Love on the Inside has a score of 83 out of 100 from Metacritic based on "universal acclaim" from many critics, with many reviews focusing on the song selection and Nettles' vocal performance, as well as

275-544: The album recalled 1980s rock bands such as The Bangles , and that by doing so, it kept "their more tepid tendencies in check." The album received a three-star rating (out of five) from Slant Magazine reviewer Jonathan Keefe, who said that the songs recalled rock acts such as Def Leppard , R.E.M. and Concrete Blonde , and called "All I Want to Do" the "most grotesque thing shipped to radio since Jessica Simpson 's cover of ' These Boots Are Made for Walkin' '." He also said that "Genevieve", "Keep You" and "Already Gone" were

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300-509: The album's ballads recalled Mary Chapin Carpenter and Rodney Crowell , while other tracks such as "All I Want to Do" were "goofy, arena-ready crowd-pleasers". Billboard critic Ken Tucker also gave a positive review, saying that Gallimore's production was "finely crafted" and that "All I Want to Do" was a "tantalizing tease" of the album's breadth. Chuck Eddy of Blender magazine gave it three-and-a-half stars out of five, saying that

325-579: The album's lead-off single, debuted on the Hot Country Songs charts at No. 27 for the chart week of June 7, 2008 and became the duo's third Number One hit on that chart. Following it was " Already Gone " and " It Happens ", which also went to Number One on the same chart in January and May 2009, respectively. All three of these singles were co-written by Sugarland's members ( Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles ) along with Bobby Pinson , with whom

350-506: The album; although a music video was made for the song, its release to radio was cancelled. Of the five bonus tracks included on the Deluxe Fan Edition, two are live recordings of cover songs : " Life in a Northern Town ", originally by The Dream Academy , and " Come On Get Higher ", originally by Matt Nathanson . The former, which features guest vocals from Little Big Town and Jake Owen , had charted earlier in 2008 (before

375-520: The band's self-titled album . The single peaked at number seven on the US charts and number 15 on the UK charts. Laird-Clowes has stated that the song is about the collapse of the shipping industry in the United Kingdom. Gilbert Gabriel , a member of the Dream Academy and co-writer of "Life in a Northern Town,” said that the inspiration for the tune came from his experience at Dartington College of Arts . According to Nick Laird-Clowes, "We had

400-466: The duo also co-wrote their 2006 single " Want To ". "Joey", which Sugarland wrote with Bill Anderson , was released in July 2009 as the fourth single. Originally instead of "It Happens", "Love" was scheduled to be the third single from the album. A live music video was made to promote this song and was ranked No. 46 on GAC's Top 50 Videos of 2009 list. The song "Keep You" was planned as the fifth single from

425-433: 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." The song includes elements of classical music, an "African-esque" chant of "hey ma ma ma ma” (which was later sampled by dance duo Dario G for their track " Sunchyme " and by the duo Tritonal ), and hints of psychedelia . "Life in

450-605: The production of Byron Gallimore , who also produced the duo's 2006 album Enjoy the Ride . Thom Jurek of Allmusic gave the album four stars out of five, commends the use of minimal overdubs in the production. Of the song choices, he said, "While this set is saturated with hunger and ambition, it's also confident and sophisticated — the album sounds as if they meant every word but had a great time making it." He cited "We Run", "Joey" and "Love" as standout tracks. Chris Willman of Entertainment Weekly gave it an A− rating, saying that

475-478: The release of "All I Want to Do") based on unsolicited airplay that brought the live recording to No. 28 on the country charts. Footage of the live performance also aired as a music video on CMT . The album debuted at No. 2 on US Billboard 200 chart as well as No. 1 on Top Country Albums chart, with 313,734 copies sold in its first week. The album was held off the top spot by Miley Cyrus ' album Breakout which sold 371,660 in its first week. The second week,

500-541: The song in various locations in Hebden Bridge , West Yorkshire. The second version, released in November 1985, features the group performing at a concert while clips play featuring footage of Newcastle upon Tyne , Manchester , and Aliquippa , Pennsylvania . Credits sourced from "One Two Testing" and Mix. The Dream Academy Additional Musicians Stephen Holden of The New York Times described "Life in

525-404: The title; "I played him 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." 7" single 12" single Two videos were released to promote the single. The earlier version features the group performing

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550-551: The way, they made connections with Adam Peters and Pink Floyd 's David Gilmour , a friend of Laird-Clowes. Gilmour would go on to produce and/or play on two of their albums and co-write one Dream Academy song, "Twelve-Eight Angel". The band's first single, " Life in a Northern Town " (1985), was a worldwide success and sizeable hit in the U.S., charting at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart , from an album co-produced by Gilmour. The song also made number 15 in

575-581: The wistful sound of an oboe". The song was covered in 2007 by the country music duo Sugarland , along with Little Big Town and Jake Owen , on the Sugarland Change for Change Tour. A live performance from 2007 was made into a music video by Becky Fluke for the network Country Music Television . This performance was included on the Deluxe Fan Edition of Sugarland's 2008 album Love on the Inside and on Capitol Records ' late 2008 re-release of Little Big Town's 2007 album A Place to Land . It

600-595: Was nominated for Vocal Event of the Year at the Country Music Association awards, Best Country Collaboration with Vocals at the 51st Grammy Awards , and Vocal Event of the Year at the 44th Annual Academy of Country Music awards. The Dream Academy The Dream Academy was a British band consisting of singer/guitarist and primary songwriter Nick Laird-Clowes , multi-instrumentalist Kate St John , and keyboardist Gilbert Gabriel . The band

625-471: Was used in the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off in 1986. The band launched a worldwide promotional tour based on the chart success of "Life in a Northern Town" and appeared on the television programmes Saturday Night Live , The Tonight Show , American Bandstand (with Dick Clark ), MTV (interview with J. J. Jackson ), and Top of the Pops . The Dream Academy's eponymous debut album also reached

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