{"id":631094,"date":"2026-06-10T12:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T12:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/631094\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T12:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T12:02:10","slug":"how-no-doubt-went-supernova-with-tragic-kingdom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/631094\/","title":{"rendered":"How No Doubt went supernova with Tragic Kingdom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every time Gwen Sefani ventures outside her parents\u2019 Orange County home she gets the same question.<\/p>\n

\u201dDoes anyone ever tell you that you look like that girl?\u201d<\/p>\n

By \u201cthat girl\u201d, they mean the effervescent frontwoman of No Doubt<\/a>, currently sitting pretty at Number One on the nation\u2019s album chart, “that girl’ who is on the cover of all the national music magazines, and constantly on MTV. And Gwen Stefani just shrugs and walks away with a smile. Being \u201cthat girl\u201d has never been so much fun.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For the first nine years of their career, No Doubt were in their own words \u201cillegal\u201d. They released their self-titled debut album on Interscope Records in 1992 and literally no-one looked up from their grunge albums. Pissed off and not a little embarrassed, they returned to Gwen\u2019s father\u2019s garage and knocked out a self-financed album titled The Beacon Street Collection in 1995. And still no-one outside of of their immediate families cared. The following year, the dogged quartet – completed by guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist Tony Kanal, and drummer Adrian Young- stuck out a third record, Tragic Kingdom and hoped for the best.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

You probably know the rest: the arena tour with Bush<\/a>, the three smash hit US singles, Tragic Kingdom hitting the top spot on the Billboard 200 just before Christmas ’96: it has remained there ever since, selling six million copies to date. Now, things are set to get really wild.<\/p>\n

This week, Gwen Stefani wanted nothing more than to reunite with her boyfriend, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale<\/a>, on holiday in London. Sadly, the demands of pop stardom being what they are, she will spend large chunks of this ostensibly free time chatting to UK journalists, as will Tom Dumont back at home in California.<\/p>\n

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At various points today, the pair will use the words \u201cweird\u201d, \u201cbrilliant\u201d, and \u201cfun\u201d to describe their ‘overnight’ success.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many good bands never even get in the charts, never mind get to number one,\u201d Gwen says in her sugar-sweet drawl. \u201cSo for this to happen after all the years of being a cult underground band is incredible. I have to get people to slap me across the face in case it\u2019s all just been a dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.<\/p>\n

Self-confessed \u201cnice middle class kids\u201d, both Gwen and Tom are extremely polite and pleasant. And frankly, you could forgive a little rudeness or arrogance from the pair, given that recent critical appraisals of the band have ranged from \u201clightweight mock rock\u201d to \u201cfronted by the most irritating woman in rock\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sort of criticism still hurts,\u201dTom says. \u201dI don\u2019t think we\u2019re incredible artists, but I think we have some redeeming qualities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever,\u201d is Gwen\u2019s succinct response. \u201cCritics aside, it feels so cool for us to be getting some respect from our peers after all this time. We were playing one festival and I noticed that a lot of the other bands were watching us from the side of the stage, and I was like, Wow!\u201d<\/p>\n

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People from LA looked down on us because we were uncool and suburban and didn\u2019t take drugs<\/p>\n

Gwen Stefani<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore, we were the nerd band from Orange County, and even people from LA looked down on us because we were uncool and suburban and didn\u2019t take drugs. People laughed at this kind of music when Nirvana were huge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back then, No Doubt were more of a pure ska band, kicked into life when Gwen\u2019s brother, their former keyboard player Eric, brought home his first record by Camden nutty boys Madness.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur whole family got into it and it was kinda embarrassing,\u201d Gwen giggles. \u201cAt Thanksgiving, we watched these old videos that my Dad had shot when we were kids, and there was one where the four kids recreated a Madness video. I just looked so awkward and stupid in front of the camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny to think that 15 years later I\u2019m still doing stuff like this and people actually take me seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

America takes ska-punk very seriously now too, thanks to the success of No Doubt\u2019s So-Cal brethren Rancid<\/a>, Sublime and Goldfinger.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole ska scene in America used to be so underground, and we were happy initially just to imitate British ska bands seven years after they were happening,\u201d Gwen recalls. \u201cBut the ska-punk people are so strict with their rules. Our whole attitude was to play whatever makes us feel good. We just stole from everyone, like, \u2018Hey, let\u2019s stick that Nirvana chorus with that Specials riff\u2019, to make this big salad of sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

This \u201cbig salad of sound\u201d has proven very appetising to American record buyers. Gwen and Tom are extremely modest about their success, claiming they were just in the right place at the right time, as music fans tired of \u201cmale-oriented hard rock\u201d sought out something fresh and popular.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still take the trash out and clean the toilet just like everyone else,\u201d Tom insists.<\/p>\n

But then Tom doesn\u2019t get recognised as much as \u201cthat girl\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still live with my parents, which is embarrassing I know, and Dads will drop their kids off at our house with a camera and their No Doubt stuff,\u201d she reveals. \u201cI\u2019ll casually open the door and all these little girls will be there, like Trick-or-Treat or something. It\u2019s kinda rude and weird, but I know it won\u2019t last forever and so I just try to enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want to be dicks,\u201d Tom adds. \u201cComing from that punk scene in California, we\u2019re real careful not to get too full of ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

So how have your friends and family reacted to No Doubt\u2019s nine-year overnight success?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pretty lucky because our parents are super-proud for us\u201d, Tom says. \u201cMy parents have always been really supportive, but now they\u2019re just crazy. They think that they\u2019re stars. Mind you, I haven\u2019t seen my friends for ages, so they probably think, \u2018Asshole now he\u2019s a big rockstar, he hasn\u2019t got time for us\u2019.\u201d.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Gwen, who admits to being \u201cso tired I can\u2019t breathe\u201d, simply wants to cuddle up to Gavin Rossdale and \u201cpretend I have no life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 13 years we were the band that sat in the garage making fun of everyone on TV and radio,\u201d she admits. \u201cTo be in that position ourselves now is a real trip. I don\u2019t know how good we are, but I know we\u2019re having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

A version of this article was published in Kerrrang! in February 1997.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every time Gwen Sefani ventures outside her parents\u2019 Orange County home she gets the same question. \u201dDoes anyone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-631094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}