Gary Clark and Ged Grimes grew up together in Dundee, Scotland and played together in school bands. Influenced by soul and pop artists such as Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder and Bacharach and David, they eventually moved to London, where they played in the bands Perfect Strangers and Dream Kitchen during the early 1980s. Neither band met with success: circa 1984, while still in London, Clark and Grimes noticed that talent scouts and journalists were beginning to follow the soul and pop scenes in Scottish cities. Returning to Dundee, they teamed up with Gary Clark's younger brother Kit Clark to form a new band called Spencer Tracy (after the film star of the same name).