Welcome to the Gavin Rossdale information site.

Biography

Born in Kilburn, London, England, to parents Barbara Stephan (b. Scotland) and Douglas Rossdale (a doctor of Russian Jewish descent); they divorced when he was eleven years old and he was raised primarily by his father and aunt (his mother remarried and moved to Florida). He has an older sister, Soraya, and a younger one, Lorraine (daughter called Jade). Rossdale modelled briefly, producing some embarrassing fashion shots with good friend Marilyn. Gavin learned to play bass guitar after hanging out with Soraya's boyfriend who was in a band called The Nobodyz, but switched to rhythm guitar. At 17, he had left Westminster School, played semi-pro soccer until side-lined by an injury, and formed a band called Midnight (formerly Little Dukes), which produced a couple of singles and a bunch of publicity photos.

Bush

Lead singer/songwriter for the UK post-grunge rock band Bush. Their first album, Sixteen Stone (1994), was a huge commercial success. Almost overnight, Bush went from playing small pubs in London to headlining arenas in the US, the result of extensive, non-stop touring. However, some critics labelled them as an inferior derivative of bands such as Nirvana and Pixies, and this criticism followed them throughout their career as a band. In particular, Rossdale's throaty singing voice and random, stream of consciousness-style lyrics were dismissed by some as an imitation of Nirvana's lead singer, Kurt Cobain. Although the band reached superstar status in the U.S., they failed to have much impact on the Brit-Pop riddled UK charts, the lone exception being their single "Swallowed", which reached #7. A change in record labels, management and an extended hiatus did not bode well for the band, who unofficially split in 2002.

After Bush

In 2004, after Bush had been on hiatus for two years, Rossdale formed Institute. Their first album, Distort Yourself, released September 13, 2005 achieved moderate success and one song was used in the motion picture Stealth.

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