O f f i c i a l   B a n d   B i o
    A lot can happen in a few years. Just ask any member of Bush. For them, it is the amount of time it took to go from relative obscurity in the U.K. circuit to the top of the American charts. It is the amount of time it took to score seven hit singles -- "Everything Zen", "Little Things," "Comedown," "Glycerine," "Machinehead," "Swallowed" and "Greedy Fly"-- play a few hundred concerts and sell twelve million copies of their debut album Sixteen Stone and follow up Razorblade Suitcase. In short, it is the amount of time it has taken for Bush to become the biggest English rock act to break in America in more than a decade.
Though it may appear serendipitous on the surface, there is nothing magical about Bush's phenomenal success. By the time they came together in 1992, Robin Goodridge (drums), Dave Parsons (bass), Nigel Pulsford (guitar) and Gavin Rossdale (guitar/vocals) were already frustrated with the fickle U.K. music scene. As musicians, Rossdale had fronted several bands and released a few unsuccessful singles with Midnight, Parsons had been working with glam-punksters Transvision Vamp, Goodridge was been getting regular session work and recording with club act The Beautiful People and Pulsford had been gigging as a member of Beggar's Banquet act King's Blank.

 
    The band was officially founded when Gavin and Nigel, who met at a London club gig shortly after Rossdale had returned to the U. K. from a brief stint in Los Angeles, began working. Weaned on punk and citing influences as diverse as the Pixies and Bob Marley, Rossdale and Pulsford's shared musical interests quickly evolved into the full throttle, melodic sonic assault that has become Bush's trademark. With the addition of a rhythm section in Goodridge and Parsons, the band began to record and tour with money earned at various day jobs in the hope of securing a label deal.

    The sessions produced an album's worth of noisy demos that were far more in keeping with America's exploding alternative rock scene at the time than with the burgeoning Brit Pop movement in London. Despite the disappointments, Bush continued however they could as a band both professionally and personally -- all the while developing a work ethic that would serve them well in the months to follow.

 
    By late 1993, the band signed with an unknown new label called Trauma Records. Rob Kahane, president of the label, came to see the band on the advice of a friend. Both sides decided to take a chance, and with the modest budget from Trauma, Bush were left alone to record with Clive Langer and Alan Winstanly. The Album was Sixteen Stone .
Written by Rossdale and sung in a throaty, intense growl, the songs were loaded with slashing guitar, snakey bass lines and pounding back beats, capturing perfectly the energy the band had been putting across in their live show. With titles like "Machinehead," Testosterone,"Bomb" and "Glycerine" to match the incendiary music, Bush balanced the sonic aggression and cryptic lyricism with absolutely irresistible guitar hooks and anthemic choruses -- revealing a very keen awareness of classic pop song structure with resorting to clich�s.

 
    Within a year the debut album was in the shops and its explosive first single "Everything Zen," was creating major buzz at radio. By early 1995, major support from MTV for the Matt Mahurin-directed "Everything Zen" video drove the track to #1 on the alternative radio charts. It was a pattern that would repeat itself over and over and over as five singles were released through the next year -- all of which have now become playlist staples at alternative and rock radio. Bush's accomplishments are even more impressive considered against the complete absence of advance hype from their homeland (generally, a prerequisite for any British band crossing the Atlantic) or any critical support whatever. Sixteen Stone was the sound of a band making it on their own merit and their own terms.

 
    Not content to rely exclusively on radio and MTV, Bush embarked on a short club tour of America in January 1995 that ultimately expanded into a grueling eighteen month marathon -- taking the band form CBGB's in New York City to the biggest arenas in the country by the spring of 1996. In all, Bush performed more than 230 U. S. concerts in support of Sixteen Stone, delivering a raucous, riveting 90-minute show almost nightly. With each new single, each new video, each gig, their fan base grew and Sixteen Stone inched further up the album charts, holding steady in the lower echelon of the Top 20 -- until December 1995.

 
    In that month, with their fourth single "Glycerine" headed for #1, career-making performances on Saturday Night Live, at Christmas radio concerts for KROQ in Los Angeles and Z100 in New York City and on the Howard Stern Show rocketed the album into the Top 10 of Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart, where it stayed for much for the winter and following spring. Rolling Stone and Details cover stories only served to verify the obvious -- Bush had conquered the American charts and hearts of millions.

   
    Finally concluding their Sixteen Stone Tour in May 1996 with two sold-out shows at Red Rocks, Bush returned home and ambitiously began work almost immediately on their second album, Razorblade Suitcase. Hiring engineer/producer, Steve Albini, King of the Underworld and a master at capturing actual, unadorned performance, Bush quickly cut the 13 tracks for the new disc at Studio Two and Abbey Road. The songs were recorded mostly in one or two takes with few overdubs, owing less to any 'lo-fi' experiment than to the fact that the band's live performance momentum was carried so easily into the studio.
The resulting album balances raw and ragged songs like "Personal Holloway," "A Tendency To Start Fires," "Greedy Fly," "Cold Contagious" and "Insect Kin," with bittersweet laments like "Straight No Chaser" and "Bone Driven." "Swallowed" was the first single from the disc, distilling Bush's approach on Razorblade Suitcase to the essentials with its infectious guitar and chorus.

 
    Following the sessions for the new album, Bush returned to the U.S. in early September for a final piece of promotion for Sixteen Stone at the MTV Video Music Awards -- turning in a fiery performance of "Machinehead" and walking away with the award that matters most: The Viewers Choice. Surprised by the victory, Bush thanked their fans with a promise to return next year.

 
    True to form, "Swallowed," the first single from the new album, topped the Modern Rock charts for nearly two months and Razorblade Suitcase entered Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart as #1 in November 1996. The ensuing media frenzy was matched only by fan support as the disk sold two million copies by Christmas. Following the success of their subsequent singles "Greedy Fly" and "Cold Contagious," Bush kicked off an 80-date U.S. arena tour, which sold out almost instantly. Having achieved success beyond their wildest dreams, the band continued their relentless pace -- touring Europe, Australia and the Far East through December 1997.

 
    Deconstructed, an eleven track remix disk of singles and album cuts from Sixteen Stone and Razorblade Suitcase, was released in November 1997 to excellent reviews. The disk features mixes by A-list remix artists and DJs from both sides of the Atlantic, including Goldie, Tricky, Jack Dangers and Phillip Steir. The first single, "Mouth" -- which was remixed by Bush and also included on the An American Werewolf in Paris soundtrack -- proved to be one of Bush's biggest hits to date. The "Mouth" video, which co-stars Werewolf actress Julie Delpy, was honored with an MTV Movie award nomination in June 1998. Bush are currently working on new material in London. Their next studio album is expected in early 1999.