No Doubt: Encyclopedia II - No Doubt - History

No Doubt - History

No Doubt - The Beginning

No Doubt was formed by Eric Stefani (keyboards) in Orange County, California with his friend John Spence (lead vocals) in November 1986. Eric's younger sister, Gwen Renée Stefani, joined the group that same year as co-vocalist. The trio played their first gig on New Year's Eve 1986/1987. The band from then on began to play small gigs around the Orange County area. Tony Kanal went to one of these early shows and soon joined the band as a bassist. In 1987 lead vocalist John Spence committed suicide, leaving Gwen Stefani as lead vocalist. Although the band was hit hard by Spence's death, they continued on and began to develop a live following, mainly in the band's home state of California. In 1988 and 1989 two new members were added to the band: Tom Dumont (guitar) and Adrian Young (drums). In 1991 the band received their first big break and were signed to the American record label Interscope Records. No Doubt's self-titled first album was released in 1992 and featured the single "Trapped in a Box". The album was not a success and No Doubt's record label began to lose faith in the band. The recording for their second album, The Beacon Street Collection, was funded by the band and when released renewed faith in the band from the record label and gained No Doubt some new fans. In the fall of 1994 No Doubt would suffer yet another setback when Eric Stefani left the band because he did not like the direction the band was heading in and began to pursue an animation career on the cartoon TV series The Simpsons.

No Doubt - Mainstream Success

After the exit of Eric Stefani, the band entered the recording studio again to work on their third album. The release of 1995's Tragic Kingdom and the single "Just a Girl" allowed the group to achieve mainstream commercial success. A second single, "Spiderwebs", was also successful, and their third single, "Don't Speak" (1996), which was written about the dissolution of Stefani's and bassist Tony Kanal's romantic relationship, was a number one hit for 21 weeks on the Billboard airplay chart.Tragic Kingdom has sold over 15 million copies worldwide and has been certified 10x platinum in the United States.

After some time in between albums No Doubt included their song "New" on the soundtrack to the movie Go in 1999. In 2000, the band released Return of Saturn, their highly anticipated follow up to Tragic Kingdom. The album featured a darker tone and was more lyrically advanced than No Doubt's previous work. The main lyrical focus of the new record had shifted from Gwen Stefani's relationship with bassist Tony Kanal, to her new relationship with Gavin Rossdale, lead singer from the band Bush. "Return of Saturn" was not as successful as their previous album was and the lead single "Ex-Girlfriend" failed to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. Also released as singles from the album were the tracks, "Simple Kind of Life," and "Bathwater."

Shaking off the commercial failure of Return of Saturn the band quickly began work on their next album. Highly influenced by Jamaican Dancehall music and recorded primarily in Jamaica, No Doubt's 2001 studio album, Rock Steady, produced two hit Grammy award winning singles, "Hey Baby" which featured Bounty Killer and "Underneath It All" which featured the first lady of dancehall, Lady Saw. Both singles managed to reach the top five in on the Billboard Hot 100. The album also released "Hella Good" and "Running" as singles. Also in 2001 the band performed on Kelis's sophomore CD titled Wanderland. The song "Perfect Day" features the band playing the entire song with Gwen providing backup vocals.

An album featuring all their singles was released in 2003. It included a cover of the song, "It's My Life" which had originally been a hit for Talk Talk in the 1980s. No Doubt also released a 2-CD 2-DVD box set titled Boom Box. Rock Steady Live, a DVD of one of the band's Long Beach concerts, was also been released.

In 2002 lead singer Gwen Stefani began work on her side project which eventually evolved into the full-fledged solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby., which was released November 23, 2004. Stefani launched her first solo arena tour in October of 2005. She originally stated that she would be releasing a follow up to Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in early 2006 that would mostly contain tracks that did not make the final cut for her first solo album. Gwen has since changed her mind and decided to take time off following her solo tour and not immediately release a follow-up album. This decision was quickly followed by the news of Gwen Stefani's pregnancy (with her baby due in June 2006).

In early 2005, Tom Dumont released his own solo music project, Invincible Overlord with friend and collaborator, Ted Matson. Their music is downloadable for free on the Invincible Overlord web site, and will be backing up Matt Costa on his 2005 tour.

Gwen Stefani in 2005 had confirmed that the band would re-enter the studio to record another album in January 2006. However, Stefani's pregnancy has cast doubts onto whether she will be entering the studio to record any more music in the near-future, sparking rumors that Gwen may push the No Doubt reunion forward to 2007.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki