The group first formed in December 1986 with John Spence[?] as lead singer. He committed suicide in 1988, leaving Gwen Stefani lead vocalist. The band developed a reasonable live following, but it was not until the release of 1995's Tragic Kingdom and the single I'm just a Girl that the group achieved mainstream commercial success. The second single, Don't Speak, written about the dissolution of Gwen and Tony Kanal's romantic relationship, was also a hit. Tragic Kingdom has sold over 15 million copies worldwide.
Publicity for the group was mainly focussed on Gwen and her image as a strong woman in the rock and roll industry, her hairstyle and clothing copied by teenage girls worldwide something like Avril Lavigne in 2002-3.
Their most recent album, Rock Steady, featured another hit single, Hey Baby, with a notably more studio-influenced flavour.
wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump