No Doubt

No Doubt is an American alternative rock group whose music was initially influenced heavily by ska, punk and New Wave.

History

The group was first formed by Eric Stefani in Orange County, California in the city of Anaheim in December 1986 with John Spence as lead singer. Spence committed suicide in 1987, leaving Eric's younger sister Gwen Stefani as lead vocalist. The band developed a live following, mainly in the band's home state of California. In 1994, Eric left because he didn't like the direction the band was headed and pursued an animating career on the cartoon TV series The Simpsons.

No Doubt's self-titled first album was released in 1992 through Interscope Records, and featured the single "Trapped in a Box". Their second album, The Beacon Street Collection, was released independently. 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 Gwen and Tony Kanal's romantic relationship, was a number one hit for 21 weeks on the airplay chart of the Billboard Hot 100. Tragic Kingdom has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.

No Doubt included its song "New" on the soundtrack to the movie Go in 1999. In 2000, the band released Return of Saturn, their highly anticipated followup to Tragic Kingdom. The album featured a darker tone and was more lyrically advanced than No Doubt's previous works. The band has spoken unkindly of the album in more recent interviews for various reasons. Consequently, they have excluded many fan-favorite songs in post-2000 concerts such as "Home Now", "Comforting Lie", "Dark Blue" and "Artificial Sweetner".

Influenced by Dance Hall music and recorded primarily in Jamaica, No Doubt's most recent studio album, Rock Steady, released in 2003, produced two hit Grammy winning singles, "Hey Baby" and "Underneath It All", with a notably more studio-influenced flavour. The album also made singles of "Hella Good" and the unsuccessful "Running".

Publicity for the group was mainly focused on platinum-blonde Gwen and her image which took inspiration from 1940s Hollywood and punk rock. Gwen's hairstyle and clothing have been copied by teenage girls worldwide, who are sometimes called "gwenabees".

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. No Doubt also released a 2-CD 2-DVD box set titled Boombox. Rock Steady Live, a DVD of one of the band's Long Beach concerts, has also been released.

Lead singer Gwen Stefani has taken time to record a solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby., which was released November 23, 2004, and she is set to tour for one month starting in October 2005, with The Black Eyed Peas opening for her. It also has been said that Stefani will be releasing a "Part 2" type of album to Love. Angel. Music. Baby., with a release date unknown. It will mostly contain tracks already recorded for her first solo album that did not make the final cut.

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 website, and will be backing up Matt Costa on his 2005 tour.

There have been talks from band member Tony Kanal that the group will enter the studio sometime in 2005 to record a new album-- which is contigent on the personal/professional schedules of all the band members. Gwen Stefani later confirmed that the band would re-enter the studio to record another album in January 2006.

As far as albums go, their first huge album was "Tragic Kingdom", with a lot of ska and punk songs, especially non-released ones. "Return of Saturn" went more in a punk, pop direction, and Rock Steady had a lot of dance, reggae styled music on it. No Doubt always tries new things, which Gwen Stefani did with her solo album, a mix of hiphop, pop and dance. They also try new clothing styles, especially Stefani.

Current Members

Gwen Stefani – Vocals
Tom Dumont – Guitar
Tony Kanal – Bass
Adrian Young – Drums
Stephen Bradley – Keyboard, horns
Gabriel Mc Nair – Keyboard, horns

Former Members

John Spence – Vocals (1986–1987)
Eric Stefani – Keyboard (1986–1994)

Discography

Albums

No Doubt (1992)
Beacon Street Collection (1995)
Tragic Kingdom (1995) US #1 (10,000,000), UK #3
Return of Saturn (2000) US #2 (1,600,000), UK #31
Rock Steady (2001) US #9 (2,800,000), UK #43
The Singles 1992-2003 (2003) US #2 (2,200,000), UK #6
Boom Box (2003)
Everything in Time (2004)

Singles

From No Doubt:

1992 "Trapped In A Box"

From Tragic Kingdom:

1995 "Just A Girl" #23 US, #38 UK (1996 release)
1997 "Spiderwebs" #16 UK
1997 "Don't Speak" #1 UK
1997 "Excuse Me Mr."
1997 "Sunday Morning" #50 UK

From Go Soundtrack:

1999 "New" #30 UK

From Return of Saturn:

2000 "Ex-Girlfriend" #23 UK
2000 "Simple Kind Of Life" #38 US, #69 UK
2000 "Bathwater"

From Rock Steady:

2001 "Hey Baby" (featuring Bounty Killer) #5 US, #2 UK (2002 release)
2002 "Hella Good" #13 US, #12 UK
2002 "Underneath It All" (featuring Lady Saw) #3 US, #18 UK
2003 "Running" #62 US

From The Singles 1992-2003:

2003 "It's My Life" #10 US, #20 UK
2004 "It's My Life" (re-release)/"Bathwater" #17 UK

External links