THE ACADEMY IMPERILED: IS THIS THE DREAM?

Nick Laird-Clowes talks a mile a minute. Wearing a black leather jacket, black pants and a light shirt, his below-shoulder-length brown hair falling out from behind his ears constantly with the animation of his discussion that echoes in his mobile face and hands, he projects a decidedly different picture from the serious, near-wistful Nehru-jacketed figure on the cover of the Dream Academy’s first album.