Babylon Zoo was an electro rock act of the mid- 1990s. The band was the brainchild of Jas Mann, and were based in Wolverhampton, England,
Jas Mann had formerly been in an indie music band, called The Sandkings, which he left in 1992, because of musical differences.
Babylon Zoo was signed to Phonogram Records after Clive Black heard their first three-track demo tape in May 1993. When Black moved to Warner Brothers Records in 1993, he took Mann's contract with him. An album had been prepared and sleeves for a single, "Fire Guided Light", were printed, but Babylon Zoo's debut was put on hold again when Black moved once more to EMI Records in 1995
However, promotional copies of "Spaceman" had already been distributed, and it was chosen to tie in with a new Levi's jeans advertisement. The advertisement concentrated on the speeded-up vocal section at the beginning and end of the song, which was actually the product of an Arthur Baker remix. When released as a single on January 15, 1996, after the band had been signed to a seven-album contract with EMI, it entered the UK Singles Chart at number 1 - becoming the fastest-selling debut record in UK chart history.
Appearances on UK television's Top Of The Pops featured several backing musicians, but these were seen as a mere sideshow compared to their leader.
An album, entitled, 'The Boy With The X-Ray Eyes was' produced at Mann's New Atlantis Productions music/artwork/video centre and included new-age tracts such as the self-explanatory "Is Your Soul For Sale?" and "I'm Cracking Up I Need A Pill".
Towards the end of 1996, "Spaceman" was approaching UK sales of 1 million and was the third biggest-selling single of the year. The comparative failure of the album and follow-up singles did, however, pose questions about their future survival. Mann's full-on adoption of glam rock on the follow-up "King Kong Groover", appeared too late to cash in on the attendant furore surrounding Todd Haynes' genre tribute, Velvet Goldmine.