Five years, a grip of side and solo projects, limitless speculation and a nursery (or two) full of babies later, No Doubt are heading back on the road. They’re ready, more or less.

“I think we’ll be just rehearsed enough to pull it off, not so well-rehearsed that something couldn’t go wrong,” guitarist Tom Dumont admits. “That’s just where you want to be at the beginning of a tour, I think.”

Dumont and Co. would know, having cut their teeth relentlessly touring their native Orange County prior to blowing up into one of the world’s biggest bands. But things have changed, both professionally and personally.

“It’s crazy, the last four or five years, everybody’s really grown up in the sense of – I got married, I have two kids,” Dumont says. “Gwen [Stefani] has two kids. So, I guess we’ve kind of just crossed into that next phase of our lives.”

The very same life changes have rendered speculation about production of the band’s yet-to-be-written or recorded fifth album; a wild goose chase, not only for rabid bloggers and fanboys, but for the band itself.

The seeds for a follow-up to 2001’s Rock Steady were planted in 2007 when, following a three-year hiatus in which Stefani cemented herself as a bona fide superstar with two wildly-successful solo albums and became a first-time mother, the singer voiced a desire to reunite the group.

“The idea was to have an album finished, you know, by the end of [2008] and tour this year, but you know, we didn’t get much done,” Dumont says.

When Stefani became pregnant with her second child, the record-writing process halted altogether.

“We’ve kind of never been fast at making records and writing albums,” Dumont says. “And, so towards the end of the year, after she had her baby and we realized we weren’t going to have an album ready, you know, we were kind of bummed because the touring part of the album is kind of the pay-off and the fun part. Hitting the road and playing live is kind of the blast of it all.”

Luckily for hoards of fans clamoring for tickets to this summer’s much-anticipated super tour, the draw of the road was too strong to foil the plan.

“The novel idea came up at the end of last year; ‘well, screw it, let’s just tour anyway,’” Dumont says.

“The idea was just to play shows and go and kind of revisit the early days of the band when we were a live band again, have fun together, and hopefully through that process we’ll get stoked and figure out what kind of album to make, how to make an album, what to write about, all that.”

As such, the Summer Reunion Tour with the likes of openers Paramore, The Sounds, Katy Perry and Panic at the Disco, will have a distinctly “greatest hits” flavor to it (Diamond-certified album Tragic Kingdom will provide plenty of ammo, alone).

Still, the wait for a new record for the first time in nearly a decade weighs heavily on everyone. What will it sound like? Lyrically, what direction will it head?

At this point, even the band has more questions than answers.

“I think it’s partially a matter of figuring out; ‘what is relevant to write about?’ Dumont says. “It’s that figuring out process: what do I have in common with these three guys now, and what kind of music makes sense for us to do? It’s kind of like getting reacquainted again, in a way, as friends and everything. It hasn’t been that long of a break, but it’s been long enough that, it’s like, what’s our common ground?”

And while No Doubt sorts through what remains, interpersonally, after a long layoff, the bigger challenge may be coming to grips with the dramatically-transformed world around them.

“It’s a hard thing to figure out, and the way the record business is, it’s hard to figure out if we make a record, who is it for? The world’s changed. Records are still meaningful and relevant, yet at the same time, they don’t have the cultural impact that they used to have. We’re never going to sell 10 million records again. Nobody does. It’s like the whole world is splintered into a thousand little pieces, which I think is a healthy thing for music,” Dumont says.

“It’s just up to us to figure out what’s our place in that, where do we fit in, and where can we do something that feels right and feels meaningful.”

In between bites of a Cobb salad at New York’s Tribeca Grand Hotel, Gwen Stefani is explaining why No Doubt is going on tour for the first time in five years without a new album to promote.

“Honestly, it’s procrastination,” she says with a sigh. “My plan was to get pregnant and write a record, but instead of writing, I just ate all the time.”

Stefani laughs as she pops a tomato in her mouth. “Writing is always really hard for me – I hate it and hate it and then I do it, and I’m happy it’s done,” she says. “I was blocked and I needed to get inspired, and I thought playing live would get the creative juices flowing again.”

Which isn’t to say Stefani and her No Doubt bandmates haven’t been busy since the 2001 release of their last album, “Rock Steady.” Stefani, who has two sons, ages 8 months and 3 years, released two solo albums, “Love. Angel. Music. Baby.,” which sold 4 million copies, and “The Sweet Escape,” which sold 1.7 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Bassist Tony Kanal did production work on Stefani’s albums and wrote songs with artists including Pink. Guitarist Tom Dumont produced two records, scored a documentary and was a stay-at-home dad. Drummer Adrian Young did session work and played golf.

Now they’ll be together for a tour that starts Saturday (May 16) in Las Vegas and ends August 1 in Irvine, California.

Hitting the road without new material after years of relative silence might seem like a risk, but the band’s manager, Jim Guerinot, was delighted when the group approached him with the idea. “I think it’s the right move,” he says. “Even though they remained friends throughout the hiatus, they’ve all been working on other projects and haven’t spent a lot of time together. They’ve become more of a unit in the time they’ve been rehearsing together and played a few shows, and I think this will change things for the positive.”

A weight was lifted

So far, the reception has been enthusiastic. Tickets have been selling briskly for the shows; seven dates in Southern California have sold out, according to Live Nation spokesman John Vlautin, as have shows in Houston, Denver and at Jones Beach on New York’s Long Island.

The band started rehearsing in Hollywood, then set up shop in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to prepare for East Coast dates. “As soon as the pressure to make a new album was off, it was like a weight was lifted,” Stefani says. “I could get back into learning the songs and planning the show, and it was so much more fun than banging my head against a wall in the studio.”

No Doubt wants to make it clear that it’s not another ’90s band looking to hit the road and cash in on the band’s greatest hits. “I don’t see us as being part of that ’90s revival,” Kanal says. “We were always a band, even when we weren’t playing together.”

The group also wants to make sure its audience doesn’t consist entirely of twenty- and thirtysomethings who know the band only through “Just a Girl,” its 1995 breakthrough hit single. So it will give away digital copies of its three studio albums to anyone who buys tickets in the top two price tiers. (Seats for No Doubt’s run of summer dates range from $10 for lawn seats to $80 for the best seats, with $59.50 and $24.50 price points in between.)

“Tom had the idea to give the albums away electronically for free with the ticket purchase,” Guerinot says. “A lot of people like Gwen’s solo work but might not be as familiar with No Doubt. There are people who might not have listened to the records in a while.”

Dumont says that giving away the catalog seemed like an obvious value-add. “Lots of bands give away their new CDs, but we didn’t have one of those,” he says. “I’ve always thought you should be able to go and buy an entire catalog in one click, so you could get a broad representation of a band’s work.”

In his mind, giving the music to fans is a continuation of No Doubt’s time-tested strategy. “When we first started out, we had mailing lists and parties where we’d sit and lick stamps for hours. This is a more modern version of that. And we won’t get high off of licking stamp backing, either.”

Today and tomorrow

If the band is worried about fans forgetting the hits, it shouldn’t be. At recent performances on NBC’s “Today” and at the Bamboozle festival in New Jersey, the audience sang along as the band ripped through a set of its greatest hits, including “Spiderwebs,” “Don’t Speak” and its cover of Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life.” The audience at both events leaned slightly older, and at Bamboozle, when Stefani asked those in the crowd to raise their hands if it was their first No Doubt show, many did. Still, they proceeded to sing along to most of the songs.

After the joys of parenthood and channeling their inner Tiger Woods, the band members will do their best to maintain a semblance of normalcy on the road. All admit to being fitness fanatics, and they’re indulging their need to jog while touring. “We travel with two personal trainers,” Kanal says. “We make hotels keep their gyms open late so we can work out. We’re getting older, and we can’t party like we used to.”

But Kanal says that being older has plenty of perks. “We got to live though the record industry in its heyday. When we started, we were in a van and looking for change under the seats so we could buy food. We went from that to having a hit and getting to do things like make music videos with million-dollar budgets.”

Stefani says she and the rest of the band aren’t interested in “gratuitous fame,” but she still finds herself in the spotlight. “I have to wear makeup to the gym because I get some dude doing sit-ups next to me and surreptitiously taking pictures,” she says.

And although Stefani cheerfully shows off pictures of her sons, Kingston and Zuma, she’d rather talk about her ventures as a businesswoman, albeit in a self-effacing manner. Her clothing line, LAMB, is in its seventh year, and she also has her own perfume. Still, Stefani is slow to take credit for it all.

“I’m a good collaborator,” she says. “I’m always open to other opinions, and I can do things like have meetings at my house and juggle it all. I’m actually heading to a five-hour meeting about the new line of handbags after this, and I’m pretty excited. I started it seven years ago and never thought it would last, but here we are.”

During the “Today” performance, Stefani and her cohorts were self-assured, despite worries the day before that they might forget parts of the set. There was a moment during the intro solo of the track “Don’t Speak” where a slight tension rose among the members, but it quickly dissipated as Dumont hit every chord and Stefani’s voice kicked in. Backstage, the visibly relaxed band conducted an interview with a local morning news anchor, who had attended some of the act’s mailing-list parties in the early ’90s in Orange County.

“We’re from Anaheim,” Stefani says with a laugh as she considers her opportunities. “This is cliche to say, but we never thought this would happen to us. We built a studio in the garage, and now we’re driving around on tour with a bus that has a studio in it. We survived it all and we’re still friends, and that’s great.”

Gwen Stefani and No Doubt kick off reunion tour at Borgata by Ed Conran

When a recording artist possesses star quality, it’s usually fairly apparent. That’s typically so well before a singer-songwriter goes national. While having drinks, hot water and whiskey, with Courtney Love, circa 1991, it was obvious that the virtually unknown, yet larger-than-life rocker was destined to become a star. But then there was Dave Matthews. After chatting with the laidback Matthews before an early club show once, I never in a million would have guessed the soft-spoken, unassuming songsmith would become an icon.

And then there is Gwen Stefani, who fits somewhere in the middle between Love and Matthews. It was obvious that the bottle-blonde No Doubt vocalist from Orange County, Calif., wanted to become a pop sensation.

That was part of her appeal during the early to mid ’90s. Tough girls ruled that classic misnomer, “alternative” world. In 1994, the resilient Bikini Kill leader Kathleen Hanna was leading a riot girl revolution. Who would mess with a rocker who was screaming for vengeance?

Well, Hole’s Love beat up Hanna backstage at Lollapalooza in 1995 while she was busy touring behind Hole’s breakthrough release Live Through This. But that’s another story. And there were such female acts as Babes in Toyland and L7, possibly the hardest looking band I ever met. They were the last people you would want to see in a bar fight unless they were on your side.

And then there was the cute, non-threatening Stefani. Shortly after the release of No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom back in the autumn of 1995, 20 or so curious ska-pop fans caught the obscure band at the Middle East, a small Philadelphia comedy club that also hosted rock shows. Bands didn’t care for the venue since they had to haul gear up three floors and, well, it was a comedy venue, so it was hurting on atmosphere.

After a spirited set of ska-pop, Stefani hung out and told the few fans in attendance that she and her bandmates were going to catch Dance Hall Crashers across town. Within months, No Doubt broke through courtesy of Tragic Kingdom. Within 18 months, No Doubt packed 3,000 seaters.

Thirteen years later, No Doubt has sold more than 27 million albums and won two Grammys. The group, which has been on hiatus since 2004, will kick off a reunion tour Saturday at the Borgata. Tickets to the band’s shows are as hot as the glamorous Stefani, who has become a solo sensation.

“The fans have always loved Gwen,” guitarist Tom Dumont said during a late 1996 chat. “There’s just something about her.”

The band’s ska-pop sound is catchy but Dumont is correct. It all emanates from Stefani.

During the mid-’90s, grunge reigned supreme. Musical heroes dressed down in flannel and their tortured souls created bleak tunes. And then there was Stefani, who had much more in common with Debbie Harry than gritty girl rockers such as Corin Tucker of Sleater Kinney fame. Stefani sang of being just a girl or being caught in the spiderwebs. Her appeal was obvious when No Doubt’s ballad “Don’t’ Speak” set a record when it spent 16 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay chart throughout the summer of ’96.

“Things really took off for us after ‘Don’t Speak’ hit,” Dumont said. “Things changed and a lot had to do with Gwen and the video. If you didn’t think she was a star before ‘Don’t Speak’ she was definitely a star after that video just took off.”

Indeed. Stefani has that certain something that special performers possess. It’s that intangible, which Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Madonna, a distant cousin of Stefani’s, also have in spades. You can’t take your eyes off of those performers when they take the stage. They command your attention. Fewer and fewer younger performers have that connection.

But Stefani and her bandmates, which include bassist Tony Kanal and drummer Adrian Young, possess a great deal of showmanship. No Doubt shows are all about entertainment. Stefani and Co. put on performance clinics.

No Doubt is working on a new album, which is slated for 2010. A tour supporting the disc will likely follow. But how long will Stefani hang with her bandmates before embarking on another solo venture? Both of her solo albums, 2004’s Love, Angel, Music, Baby and 2006’s The Sweet Escape went multi-platinum.

Kanal has worked with Stefani. Dumont spends considerable time with his side project Invincible Overlord. Young plays drums for the band Bow Wow Wow and has worked with Unwritten Law. Young will also keep time for Dilana Robichaux (of Rockstar Supernova fame).

And then there are the extracurricular activities. Stefani is a fashion designer and a mother of two sons, two-year old Kingston and eight-month old Zuma. Stefani has also dabbled in acting. She played legendary actress Jean Harlow in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator.

There’s no doubt that Stefani is terribly busy. How long until No Doubt is on hiatus again? Who knows, and who knows if it’s going to be long term. Fans should just revel in the fact that there is going to be at least two years worth of No Doubt. The group’s return is welcome since No Doubt is one of the more stylish, energetic and entertaining acts on the circuit. The act can be campy, theatrical and boisterous. And then there is the band’s music, which ranges from celebratory to poignant.

It’s not a bad package from a band that once hoped to be on the cult level ala the aforementioned Dance Hall Crashers. No Doubt went much further and the group is back for a long run.

No album, no game plan, no problem!

But as No Doubt embark on their first tour in five years, Gwen Stefani and her droogs face the biggest challenge of their career: uncertainty. By David Marchese. Photographs by Marc Hom

“We need this so badly,” says Gwen Stefani in the perpetually questioning accent of a native Cali girl. “We’ve been in a drought for, like, years.” She’s talking about the rain currently pelting the greater Los Angeles area. Presumably.

On an early March afternoon, the platinum blond singer, her hair tied back in a loose ponytail, is looking through the kitchen window of the recording studio where she and bandmates Tony Kanal, Tom Dumont, and Adrian Young have been working on a cover of Adam and the Ants’ “Stand and Deliver.” It’s the first music they’ve recorded together in half a decade.

Stefani wraps her long, thin fingers with shiny French-manicured nails around a mug of PG Tips tea. Her calf-length boots, loose slacks, and turtleneck are all black. “You get desperate trying to write songs,” she says. “Then the opportunity to sing this one came up, and now we’re going on tour – it’s like I got out of doing my homework!”

Five years since their last tour, eight years since their last studio album – the triple-platinum pop-dancehall Rock Steady – and a seeming life time since Stefani became a solo megastar and fashion mogul, she and the  boys are re-upping for a 52-date North American safari. If the jaunt goes as well as the band hopes, it should yield a new album. But if the limp economy (though early indicators suggest strong ticket sales) and time apart from fans prove an insurmountable buzzkill? “We can’t think about that shit,” says Kanal. “We have to focus on what we’re doing.”

Right now, that means Antmusic. A few hours after Stefani’s rainy-day ruminating, the four old friends and producer Mark “Spike” Stent are assembled in the Hollywood studio, assuming playback position – eyes on the ground, heads bobbing in time to the music. The quartet will mime “Stand and Deliver” for an upcoming appearance on Gossip Girl, whose 18 to 34, predominantly female demo just so happens to be the same consumer group whose pop-culture radar very likely has a Gwen-shaped blip where No Doubt used to be.

For her part, Stefani is no great fan of the show. “[Gossip Girl is] totally the kind of thing I would watch,” she says apologetically, “but if the choice is between sleeping and watching TV, then I’m going to sleep.”

The track is far from finished. Horns to be rearranged. Backing vocals will be tinkered with. The mix will be tweaked. But even in rough shape, No Doubt seem pretty much the same as you remember. At 39, Stefani’s vocal style remains girlishly brash. Dumont, 41 is still a guitarist adept at layering pop sheen and metal crunch. Drummer Young, 39, and bassist Kanal, 38, have retained their gift for shining skank onto even the straightest rock beats, as well as for razzing one another.

“Hey, Adrian, how much did you pay Spike to make your drums so loud?” asks Kanal. looking up from the sofa in the dimly lit studio.

“I didn’t pay him anything,” says Young, his head clean shaven except for a long mohawk that’s slicked straight back and dyed bright red. “I just gave him a pee-pee rub.”

“That reminds me,” says the tall faux-hawked Dumont, “I gotta stop at an ATM later.”

The conversation devolves into Kanal threatening to roofie his drummer before Stefani speaks up. “This is so weird,” she says, beaming. “I can’t believe we’re all here doing this again.”

But what exactly are No Doubt doing? The band never broken up, which means this isn’t quite a reunion. And they don’t have any new music to sell, so the trek – kicking off May 2 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with a stop the next day headlining the Bamboozle festival – isn’t part of the usual album-tour cycle. Instead No Doubt’s resurfacing  is best understood as a kind of referendum on the band’s musical and cultural relevance – a road test, if you will.

“I have no idea what we mean to people anymore,” says Stefani, her legs pulled up beside her on a large L-shaped couch in the studio’s lounge. “I was on tour by myself not that long ago and selling out all over the world. But now,” she shrugs, “do people even go out anymore? The world’s gone crazy.”

The fast-approaching tour has Stefani feeling certain about two things: “We’ll have a blast and get some great ideas for an album.” Well, maybe not certain. “Writing songs is a torturous process. I never know how to do it. The fear is always there that I won’t be able to do it again. So, yeah, if the tour doesn’t sell and we don’t come up with anything, maybe this will be the end of No Doubt. But I highly doubt it.”

To encourage writing, Kanal’s tour bus will be equipped with a mobile recording studio. “We’ve never written on tour before,” says Stefani. “I just need to figure out at what point I’ll be able to get some sleep.”

In person, it takes a moment to adjust to the glamorous luster of Stefani’s candy-apple-red lips and near-geisha complexion. Her famously flat belly is hidden under her shirt. “I’m nowhere near in shape for the tour yet,” she frets, then laughs her short, sharp laugh. “I’m only just now starting to fit into my old clothes!”

Her constantly smiling and wide-eyed son Zuma was born last August. He’s with his nanny down the hall. His older brother, Kingston, 3, is at home with Dad, British rocker Gavin Rossdale. Mom has released two platinum selling albums, 2004’s Love. Angel Music. Baby and 2006’s The Sweet Escape, since No Doubt were last a functioning unit. “Before, when I was with the guys, I didn’t have any kids,” says Stefani, an almond-size diamond sparkling on her wedding ring. “That’s like, whoa – a huge deal. The dynamic of the band is different. It has to be.” She notes, ruefully, that for the first time since they formed 23 years ago, the foursome will be traveling in separate buses.

“When you’ve got the endorphins going from the show, it’s so much fun to be all on the same bus, hanging out and drinking champagne. There’s no way that can happen anymore. I’ve got two babies and their nanny, and an assistant, and my security, and a hairdresser. It’s not much of a party, but that’s what I need in order to perform every night.”

In a sense, the band is back where it started. Formed in Anaheim, California in 1986 – largely an outlet for Gwen’s older brother Eric’s quirky ska-pop – the band’s earliest success was found on the road. A sweaty, energetic live show win them plenty of SoCal fans (and built some strong internal bonds: Kanal and Stefani were in a long-term relationship), but the sound didn’t travel. Their first nine years were spent in limbo between local heroes and national nobodies. “It was so exciting to have a following and know we could go play as far away as San Diego and people would show up,” recalls Dumont from behind the wheel of his black Yukon. He’s dressed in a gray hoodie, black jeans and green Chuck Taylors. The Pacific glistens outside the driver’s side window. “It was hard to understand when our record company called us a failure because we only sold 25,000 copies of our first album.”

They sold some ten million more of their third, 1995’s Tragic Kingdom. (Eric left shortly after the album’s release to pursue a career in animation.) Unabashedly perky and deceptively deep, Kingdom’s deep, “Just a Girl,” “Sunday Morning,” and “Don’t Speak” (about Kanal and Stefani’s breakup) drove a gilded scrunchie deep into grunge’s heart.

But 2000’s Return of Saturn, writer immediately after a marathon two-year tour, traded Kingdom’s primary pop colors for standard postadolescent revelations in songs such as “Marry Me,” and “Six Feet Under.” The album sold a tenth as many copies as its predecessor. It also planted a seed.

“When we were touring Saturn, the shows weren’t packed to the rafters, but we had a fucking good time,” says Dumont. He’s on the way from his home in Long Beach to pick up a custom-made speaker cabinet in nearby Newport Beach that he plans to use while recording the new album, wherever and whenever that may be.

“That tour was when Tony discovered Jamaican dancehall music. We’d play it backstage for hours after shows – it was all about not worrying and having fun. We ended up going right from that tour into Rock Steady. That was kind of the idea behind what we’re doing now – just getting back into the vibe of being in No Doubt and remembering how awesome that is. Whether we get inspired the same way, we’ll have to see.”

During his time off from the band, Dumont and his wife, Meike, had two sons, Ace, 3, and Rio, 1. He also branched out in to production work, helming two albums by skateboarder turned singer-songwriter Matt Costa.

Taking a hand from the steering wheel to scratch his grey-flecked goatee, Dumont explains how the No Doubt machine creaked back in to action. “I called Tony and Adrian up in 2007 to get together and write. The plan was to have new music ready for Gwen to write lyrics to as soon as she finished touring The Sweet Escape.”

The Gwenless approach worked for the band before, notably on 2002’s “Hey Baby.” It didn’t work this time.

“We hit on a handful of ideas that we might come back to,” says Dumont. “But without Gwen writing lyrics or melodies, there’s only so much we could do.”

It was during a second writing session last winter at a then-pregnant Stefani’s Hollywood home that the band realized what it had to do to feel like a family again. “We needed to have group therapy,” says Stefani, back at the studio. “We would talk about crazy stuff, like how the process that we used before is not gonna work anymore. To be a mom and the lead singer and songwriter and the best friend of these guys,” she pauses, “there was a lot leaning on my shoulders. I couldn’t have a baby, then sit in a studio for a year making an album.”

Kanal also feels the talks were a turning point. “There were some very emotional discussions,” he says. “We’re still under contract for a record, but Interscope appreciates that we have to put out the right record. We have to ease back into this. I understand te skepticism people might have about a band going on tour without any new songs, but this is not us being a nostalgia act. This is not a cash grab. This is a necessary step in No Doubt making another record.”

Dumont remembers that around the same time his band was sorting itself out, he found himself continually clearing up a common misconception. “Everyone thought the band had broken up because Gwen was doing her own thing,” he says. “I’d tell family members that we were working on new music, and they’d go, ‘Really? Who’s singing?’ ”

Adrain Young pulls his metallic green 1962 Park Avenue Cadillac into the parking lot of the Virginia Country Club in Long Beach. He steps out of the car, resplendent in green and blue plaid slacks, a white long-sleeved T-shirt, and a black cardigan – a far cry from the thongs he used to favor onstage. “I’ve been a member for a year,” says the drummer. “My mentor moved here from another golf club. That’s the main reason I joined.”

Young, whose fit build, strong jaw, ramrod posture, and Technicolor clothing make him resemble a psychedelic Marine, plays to a plus-one handicap. His personal best is around 66. For those unfamiliar with golf parlance, that means he’s really fucking good.

“I’m not worried that going on tour will hurt my progress,” says Young, who invested in gonzo golf mag Schwing! in the late ’90s. “I’ll practice in the mornings and play on days off.” He tried to get his son, mason, 7, into the game. “I kind of burned him out already,” he says, frowning. “You can’t force it.”

The plan for this afternoon is to eat and the work with his 9-iron. Young enters the club’s dark wood and oxblood leather dining room and takes a seat at a table near a TV tuned to ESPN. He’s in a feisty mood, and not just because his long game has been giving him problems.

“No Doubt is absolutely still relevant,” says Young. “I don’t know if you know this, but during Gwen’s how in Irvine last June, we did a surprise encore as No Doubt,” he pokes the air with his fork for emphasis, “and that crowd was piercingly loud. Louder than any crowd I remember. That night put to rest any doubt I had about our relevance or legacy.”

Paramore’s Hayley Williams, whose four-men-and-a-lady band is opening for No Doubt this summer, needed no convincing. “I respect them all so much,” she says. “They toured around in a van for years before they blew up. They slept on floors. They’re not a marketing gimmick or a bunch of studio friends. They’re a real band and they’ve had this amazing success. That’s what we all aspire to. All my friends are stoked they’re back.”

The 20-year-old singer has a special love for Stefani. “Gwen is a big deal to me,” Williams says. “She was one of the first people I heard who wrote from a girl’s point of view. I always related to what she was singing about, whether it was ‘Just a Girl’ and being disrespected, or ‘Simple Kind of Life’ and wanting to have a family. I don’t know a girl who doesn’t think of her as a role model.”

Stefani is happy to play the part. “Heaven for me is looking out at the audience and seeing so many young girls,” she says. “On one level, it’s so strange to me that anyone knows who I am, but feeling like I am reaching people and still being respected as a woman is the most rewarding thing.”

But the Stefani that Williams first fell for is not the Stefani of Tragic Kingdom, or even Rock Steady. She married a rock star. Her L.A.M.B fashion label, started in 2003, has been sported on Eva Longoria Parker and Paris Hilton, among others. She set up a companion accessories line, Harajuku Lovers in 2005. Her dance-oriented solo albums, featuring collaborators like Andre 3000, the Neptunes, and Akon, competed and won the world of Xtina and Britnet. For a time, she made public appearances accompanied by a quartet of Japanese lovelies dubbed the Harajuku Girls (Think of them as Sanrio bric-a-brac – made of people).  To some, the fact that Stefani’s decade has been more ooh la la than oi! oi! oi! might seem like a regression.

Stefani doesn’t buy it. “I’m not doing anything now that I haven’t always wanted to do,” she argues, crossing her arms and furrowing her brow. “I’ve always been interested in fashion. I’ve always liked dumb dance music, like Debbie Deb and Club Nouveau. I know it was weird to be on the same circuit with Madonna and Mariah, but I did it my own way. It was campy, it was funny. If people didn’t get it, that’s their problem. People gave me shit about the Harajuku Girls. Seriously? How do you see that that wasn’t meant to be ridiculous?”

She says she’s used to criticism. “When you’re a creative person – and that’s how I define myself – then you’re always going to make somebody mad. Fifteen years ago, when No Doubt started making poppier songs, there were hardcore ska fans who said, ‘Fuck you’.”

So it’s fair to say that No Doubt won’t be playing “Hollaback Girl”? “I’m so over dance music now,” she says. “I had a really specific sound and concept in my head, and I’ve squeezed it out. It’s done. Everyone wants to make it like I ‘left’ the band, but I never planned for my thing to be so big. I always felt like I was cheating on them when I was working with other musicians. In my mind, there was never any question that I was going to come back to No Doubt. Those guys are my best friends forever.”

An older country club member, wearing trousers pulled up to just below his neck, approaches Young, who is finishing up his ahi and brown rice. “That’s some haircut,” he says, motioning to the drummer’s crimson mohawk. The old man’s head is dotted with liver spots.

“Yeah, it is,” says a smiling Young. “You like it?”

“No, I don’t,” the man responds.

Later, Young wallops a long drive into the path of the distinguished gentleman at the opposite end of the driving range. He says it was an accident. Then he does it again.

“If you asked me what I’d like to do every day,” says Tony Kanal at home in the Hollywood Hills, “the answer is playing shows with No Doubt. That’s been my life since I was 16 years old.” On this day, the band’s only childless member is wearing a blue plaid Western-style shirt and skinny black jeans. His black hair is dyed its usual blond. “I’ve always been obsessed with my band. That’s just how I am. But I understand it’s not realistic for everybody else. I’m sure I’d feel different if I had kids.”

Kanal and his live-in girlfriend, Erin, an actress, have been talking about starting a family. He has the band’s blessing. (“I have two boys. Tom has two boys. Adrian has a boy,” says Stefani. “Tony needs to have a girl so the kids can start their own No Doubt.”)

Kanal’s house is a 1925 Spanish Colonial villa that was designed by Stiles O. Clements, the architect responsible for L.A.’s famed Wiltern and Mayan theaters. In a nod to Kanal’s heritage – his parent’s were born in India – a large statue of the Hindu god Ganesha takes pride of place in the foyer. Four cats scamper across the intricately patterned carpets. The modest recording studio on the third floor has an immodest view: On clear days, Catalina Island is visible 20 miles away. Looking northeast, the white dome of the Griffith Observatory rises above the tall palm trees.

The studio is where Kanal, who has the slim build and springy step of a welterweight, retreats to write and record. In the last two years, he produced an album for the reggae singer Elan and did writing an production on Stefani’s solo albums. Along with Dumont and Young, he cowrote” Paralysis,” a track on Scott Weiland’s recent “Happy” in Goloshes. Lately, though, past triumphs are far from his mind.

“It dawned on me that the kids who bought Rock Steady might have outgrown us,” he says. “There are people who didn’t know Gwen was in a band. There are people who will see No Doubt for the first time. It’s a weird thing. You know, going back to when we were playing Fender’s Ballroom in Long Beach in 1987, I had a good sense about who was coming to the shows. Now I don’t really know. It could be anyone.”

The results of a survey posted on No Doubt’s website in late 2008 gave some clues. “The audience is a split you don’t usually see,” explains the band’s manager, Jim Guernot. “Gwen is an influence on very young people and brings them along with her, but there’s also the traditional audience of people in their 30s who have been following the band for 20 years. Concerts usually get one audience or the other, not both. Presales for the tour were tracking at 124 percent higher than they were for Gwen’s tour last year,” he says. “I would’ve been happy if we’d been equal.”

From his lofty perch, Kanal professes allegiance to a power greater than market research. “I’ve had moments of doubt in my life,” he says, “and they’ve been resolved through music. It sounds weird to say, but it’s true.” He continues: “We can push ourselves in a new way. If I didn’t think that we could do that, I would want to call it for what it is. I’d say, ‘Let’s call this a farewell tour’.”

Back in the studio, the final notes of “Stand and Deliver” have long faded away. The band will be back later in the week to listen to a final mix. As Stent gets back to work, Kanal tells Stefani about the radio interviews he was doing earlier that day. “They’re still talking the same shit,” he says to Stefani. Kanal cops the smooth tones of a drive-time DJ, ” ‘I hate to touch a nerve here, Tony, but didn’t you and Gwen used to date?’ ”

Stefani rolls her eyes. “That’s so lame,” she says.

“Try answering questions about thongs,” Young chimes in.

Stefani’s assistant, carrying Zuma, pops in to remind the band that they’re due at the singer’s house to discuss stage designs. Outside, the rain has stopped. The four bandmates get up to leave. Stefani, now holding her son, says anxiously and wistfully, “I want to be out there already.”

Then she speaks again, to everyone and no one, “We still have so far to go.”

Thanks to Jenny at BSO and Heather for the scan – No Doubt are featured in the latest edition of Entertainment Weekly USA with a full page promotional advert for their upcoming amphitheater tour with Paramore.

On a side note; I’m going to be travelling from the UK to the Cleveland, OH show which is on my birthday (June 29th) and also spending a few days in NYC so anyone who is also planning to go Cleveland make sure you say hi!

I don’t normally post general news but this is just too exciting! No Doubt have updated their website with this fab new photo and a little flash intro that promises a tour and new record for 2009. I can’t wait for all the new magazine covers and interviews that 2009 will bring!!!

Also, I’ve been adding lots more articles this week to the archive so check out the list of most recently added in the footer.

Big thanks again go to iamanodoubtfreak4ever who has been sending over a mass of new clippings for the gallery including these fantastic magazine adverts for No Doubt’s Everything In Time and The Singles releases, also for Gwen Stefani’s Love Angel Music Baby album.

Do you have any clippings to donate to the gallery?? You can use the contact form to upload them or send them straight over to christinasparkle[AT]hotmail.co.uk

Amongst the bunch was these fab images from Teen People US May 2000. Check them out!

Do you have scans that you want to add to the gallery?? Use the contact form to upload them

I’ve added some PSDs that I created to the downloads section. Unfortunately I can only upload them as transparent pngs for the moment due the file size of PSDs but that shouldn’t make any difference to how you use them!

Use them to create sigs, banners or for your own ND fansites, just don’t redistribute as your own please!

Unlikely ska-chick turned international fashion icon and starlet Gwen Stefani is pushing for world domination with her Harajuku hip-pop.

Her debut solo album, Love. Angel. Music. Baby, released last year, has gone six-times platinum worldwide and, with pop anthems like ‘Hollaback Girl’ becoming the sound of 2005, Gwen Stefani has spent the year becoming a solo star of truly international status.

Hardly suprising – she has all the makings of a sex icon – bleached blonde barnet? Check. Scarlet smackers? Check. Tight belly constantly on display? Check. Gwen Stefani really is an all round siren, ticking all the boxes. An individual, quirky trend bender with a feisty attitude. Gwen was already an accomplished star, as the enigmatic front woman of No Doubt before she launched herself as a modern day style icon. An important addition to a long line of contemporary feisty females fronters of rock and alternative bands, she is the Debbie Harry of our generation.

Never far from the public eye, Gwen always has a busy schedule. Currently in the midst of an epic US tour which has seen the Black Eyed Peas as support, her second album is imminent and likely to create the same impact as the 2004 debut. Beyond music, her projects have stretched out into many expressive and artistic areas – from clothing lines (L.A.M.B) to film (a cameo in Zoolander and playing Jean Harlow in The Aviator). The No Doubt Greatest Hits compilation came out in 2003 and after being caught up in the hurricane this was by no means the end of the yellow brick road for Dorothy, she was going to the Emerald City and beyond.

Going it alone defined Gwen’s career; it all began with the dynamic single. ‘What You Waiting For?’, and the famous fairy tale video, with the cute Harajuku look becoming instantly fashionable. Then came the debut album that left Britney relieved she was taking some time out and reached the Top Five in world charts. The single ‘Hollaback Girl’ reached the number one spot of the Billboard Hot 100 parachuting her into the hip hop market with street smarts and urban attitude.

This solo debut revolved around some massive team ups, with Dr Dre and Andre 3000 of Outkast adding flava to the mix. “The whole idea was to collaborate,” says Stefani, “to do a solo record means trying to pour my heart out, which I feel like I already do in No Doubt. This is more of an art project. I wanted to play different roles and work with a ton of people.”

No problems there then. When it came to people to work with or styles to spin, she had the biggest talents queueing round the block with enough names for several solo albums to span several genres. Looking like a guest list for an exclusive shindig Mary J. Blige, Missy Elliot, OutKast, Linda Perry. Tim Armstrong, Dallas Austin and Damon Elliot are all among her collaborators, Present too were hip-hop beats from Dr. Dre, the Neptunes and Andre 3000. Dallas Austin and Nellee Hooper (Massive Attack, Soul II Soul) give the tracks a dance feel, and the album’s new wave sound comes by way of Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore, Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart and New Order. “I knew exactly what my influences were; Club Nouveau, Lisa Lisa, Prince, New Order, The Cure, Early Madonna,” says Stefani. “Everybody was under strict instructions haha!” An almighty 80s mixtape mash-up was on the cards.

Despite being such a phenomenal star, working with OutKast’s Andre 3000 on the track ‘Bubble Pop Electric’ proved to be particuarly  nerve-racking for our fearless heroine. They are clearly star-crossed collaborators, as both admire each other’s sound, “I’m such a fan of Andre’s. I was sent hundreds of tracks, and his were actually the first that I liked. It was interesting to work with him while his star was really shining bright. At first,  it was kind of intimidating, like, I didn’t feel I could shine. But by the end, it felt like we were in a band together.” Shining star Andre was equally keen to please and requested that the samples they submitted for Gwen’s consideration recieved special effort and attention.

With such a selection of talents desperate to perform and work with her it would be easy to assume she would be feeling confident, actually she is a little self conscious – and we thought she was No Doubt, not self doubt!

“I have my job in the band. I write the words and I write the melody, that’s what I do. But when you go and you’re writing with some of these people who are so talented, like they’re songwriters, they do it everyday. For some reason, it just looks so easy for them. I’ve had a hard time with my ego, becuase it gets bruised. Like, ‘Oh my god, maybe they’re writing some of the melody and they came up with something really good, and I didn’t come up with it.’ So it’s a whole kind of learning process for me.”

It is clear Gwen has no plans to cut herself off from the band and even had their input for her first solo venture. During the writing process, she went back to Los Angeles to join her husband, Gavin Rossdale. She started to feel overwhelmed by the task at hand, so she sought solace in former bandmate and boyfriend Tony Kanal, thinking that visiting him would give her a much-needed break.

“I just had a breakdown,” she explained, “I was like, ‘I gotta stop now, I have nothing to write about, I can’t do it anymore.’ So I left the studio and went over to Tony’s house, because he was like ‘Come over, we’re going to all go out!’ ” There was no therapeutic night out though, instead Stefani found that Kanal had a surprise waiting for her at his home studio.”

“He starts, ‘Hey, lemme play you some tracks’ and he plays me this track he’s doing for another singer and I was blown away. And the he goes, ‘Lemme play you some tracks I’ve been doing for you!’ So he played me this track and I was like, woah!”

With the blues and writers block behind her Gwen knuckled down with Kanal and worked out the as-yet-untitled song with him that very night, claiming it is, “probably my favourite track that I’ve written so far.” But unfortunately the inspiration only struck once. They did try to write together for two weeks straight after that, and couldn’t find a place where they clicked in quite the same way. “Tony and I kinda came from different schools,” she says. “There’s a certain kind of record I’m trying to make; it comes from something that I used to listen to growing up, so it’s more of a dance kind of thing.”

Inevitably the signature No Doubt sounds remained, but it became clear Gwen took the opportunity to develop her own space where she could be herself, and that self seems pretty kooky. The music video for the first single ‘What You Waiting For?’ really pushed the bazaar. The scene took a contemporary adaptation of Alice In Wonderland, naturally with Gwen as the over imaginative Alice. A pure slice of the Mad Hatter’s crazy cake, it was a real visual spectacular, highlighting both Gwen’s dark and juvenile dimensions. This eccentricity has never had an adverse effect on her career; in fact she is admired all the more for it. Unique and inimitable she remains the pop icon with edge, offering more than Madge, Missy or J-Lo put together.

You would think all that popularity would filter through her bleach blonde bonce and have some sort of an effect, but her eccentricity is nothing to do with her fame, it is who she is. Being unique is definitely one of her skills, but she remains modest. “I think everyone has gifts and everyone has talents. If you are successful at it, it feels really good but it never penetrates completely. There are moments where I think that we made an amazing record and I’m so proud of it, but I don’t wake up and go, ‘Wow, I’m amazing’.”

But Gwen, and therefore No Doubt, really are amazing as are their achievements to date. Introduced to the band through her brother and riding on the new wave of ska-punk No Doubt first bowled us over with ‘Don’t Speak’ and have kept us rocking for years beyond with anthems such as ‘I’m Just a Girl’, ‘Hey Baby’ and the salacious Talk Talk cover ‘It’s My Life’. Although she was born and raised in sunny California this goodtime girl is not just an average all-round American. An Italian father and Irish mother have obviousl influenced her style and helped her bridge many a cultural gap as well as giving her that flexibility between genres like punk, ska, hip-hop and R&B.

The band underwent many revamps – well they did start out way back in 1987 -  and so has Gwen, reinvention is important as her image is a sharp focus for her fans. No Doubt were huge, especially in the US, piling platinum sales figures for their albums and huge sold out stadium tours. The yellow brick road was always a long and windy one for them though. Just when they thought it was almost over they were working on another album, Tragic Kingdom and the band soon had the label Intersope’s full attention again. The old saying about the third time being the charm proved true, and there was nothing tragic to be found in this offering. The album hit Number One on the Billboard charts and also won the group a Grammy Award.

It was clear even then that the band, whatever their individual talents, had just one star, and she was ready for a new challenge, without forgetting her past. “We’re still going to do No Doubt songs, but 17 years we’ve been together… you hit a point in your music career where you put a Greatest Hits out, it’s like ‘No way!’ you know? So I decided to do this.”

It is a clear example of a change as good as a rest. “I wanted to do a dance record really bad, I thought it was going to be really easy and fun, but it was really hard and took a long time but all I wanted to do was make a dance record. Not event that – a stupid dance record, haha”

Rumours and gossip are the fuel of fame and Gwen knows it. She admits she used the speculation of band break up as a cheeky publicity stunt. “I thought it would be a good idea to say we were breaking up, but really we’re not. We decided after our album Rock Steady we were going to take some time apart to pursue independent projects. And I really wanted to do a movie.” Sure enough, having conquered the MTV screen, Gwen was ready to take over the big screen. She confidently tucked acting under her studded belt with the part in The Aviator. With a top draw cast, Matin Scorsese’s Howard Huges biopic, in which she starred alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Cate Blanchett, Kate Beckinsale, Jude Law and Willem Dafoe gave Gwen the opportunity to prove her performing skills could stretch beyond her singing career. Striking theatricality has always been part of Gwen’s repertoire, which is clear in the music videos. Remember ‘It’s My Life’ – a mini movie in itself.

She may not have been the main role but her part was integral, as was her look. Gwen was initially dissatisfied with the attempts to transform her into screen legend Jean Harlow for The Aviator. “I would have done it a little differently. I’m always in control of my hair and make-up. I was like, ‘Are you sure you want the lips to be that thin? Jean Harlow’s were bigger than that. It’s not like I didn’t read two biographies and watch 18 of her movies before I got here!’ “

The look, recapturing Harlow’s incandescent beauty turned out to be good enough for the cover of Vogue, but Gwen’s looks have always been a focal point. She is still not sure about all the hype. “It’s always odd to talk about my fashion. It’s something you look at, you don’t need to talk about it.” How can it be ignored though? It is so out there and unique, much like the person within the clothes. Gwen definitely has some fashion interest as she has gone on to launch her own label, L.A.M.B (Love. Angel. Music. Baby of course!). “L.A.M.B is based on everything I’ve ever worn from my first punker pants to the present day.”

Discontent with cornering the casual market, as a favour Gwen agreed to design the wedding gown worn by close pal Mieke Binzer when she wed Gwen’s bandmate Tom Dumont in October 2004. The bride was so impressed with the 1920s inspired satin gown the pop star created she thought Gwen should concentrate on becoming the next Vera Wang.

The hype surrounding Gwen’s own wedding to Gavin Rossdale, of the band Bush, was itself enormous, and played it’s part in developing Gwen’s profile away from No Doubt landing them in the pantheon of glamorous celebrity couples inhabited by Sienna and Jude, Brad and Jen, Ben and Jen, Posh and Becks and other hapless lovers served up as tabloid fodder for the generation of Heat-reading suburban secretaries and fat, lonely no-hopers.

Gwen may have been generating the hype when she got married, when someone else got married, and even when no one was getting married but few stars seem to do it with such ease, and remain so much themselves. So here’s to Gwen, there’s no doubt she’ll continue to get everything she deserves and more in 2006. Can I have it like that? You got it like that!

Just A Girl? Blonde Ambition

• Watch out Armani, Stefani’s fashion label L.A.M.B is favoured by the likes of Halle Berry, J-Lo and Nicole Kidman.
• Her designer flair was evident years ago when she used to spend hours making her own clothes. Fly girl meets high fashion is Stefani’s forte.
• She dated her bandmate Tony Kanal for many years and the anthem “Don’t Speak” is the tale of their tragic romance. Despite the split the band stayed strong.
• Gwen cites Madness, Kermit the Frog, Julie Andrews and Fishbone’s Angelo Moore as her inspirational heroes.