This contemporary rock act was something of a phenomenon during their mid-90s heyday: no UK band with such an indifferent reception in their homeland experienced such success elsewhere. Formed in west London, England, Bush's initial success in the USA was thanks to college radio, which picked up on tracks from their debut Sixteen Stone. By the summer of 1995 that record had become a million-seller, while highly promoted UK artists such as Blur and Oasis were still struggling to achieve one tenth of those sales. This was largely attributable to Bush's musical style - generic grunge sitting somewhere between Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. However, Bush had previously spent two years toiling around small London venues, despite being managed by Dave Dorrell, the man behind MARRS' UK number 1, "Pump Up The Volume'. The songs on their debut were principally written by vocalist/guitarist Gavin Rossdale (b. 30 October 1965, Kilburn, London, England). Rossdale, a former student at Westminster school who had trials for Chelsea Football Club, had previously recorded two singles with his first band Midnight, who also included in their ranks film director David Puttnam's son Sacha. After that band was dropped, he spent six months in California in 1991 - significantly, seeing Nirvana at Los Angeles" Roxy Club during this time.
Rossdale formed Bush with Dave Parsons (b. David Richard Parsons, 2 July 1962, Hillingdon, London, England; bass, ex-Transvision Vamp), Robin Goodridge (b. 10 September 1966, Crawley, West Sussex, England; drums, ex-Beautiful People) and Nigel Pulsford (b. Kenneth Howard Nigel Pulsford, 11 April 1963, Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales; guitar, ex-King Blank). The band made their US connection when disc jockey Gary Crowley passed one of their tapes to Rob Kahane, former manager of George Michael and in the process of setting up his own Trauma Records label. An earlier agreement with the Walt Disney-owned Hollywood Records in 1993 had sundered when Kahane's relations with the label soured. After gaining airplay on Los Angeles' KROQ station in late 1994, particularly for the single "Everything Zen", interest in the band snowballed. The songs on Sixteen Stone dealt with issues as diverse as the bombing of a Covent Garden pub ("Bomb"), death ("Little Things"), religious cults ("Monkey") and sex ("Testosterone").
By 1996 the band's debut had racked up three million sales, at which time they confirmed an intriguing choice of producer for the follow-up set - Steve Albini. The excellent Razorblade Suitcase entered the US album chart at number 1 at the end of 1996. Following in the wake was the UK, who finally recognized the band's existence by buying enough copies to put them in the album chart. A desultory remix album followed while the band set about recording material for their third studio set. The Science Of Things (1999) saw a marked drop in US sales. Ironically, given its past history, the band was now caught up in the general malaise afflicting UK acts attempting to sell records in America. Golden State (2001), despite being a welcome return to well-structured songs, was even less successful and prompted the members to put Bush on indefinite hiatus. A live CD/DVD and a compilation set have been the only products to emerge since, with Rossdale moving on to sing with Institute before launching a solo career in the late 00s.
