The 1980s were Parker's most commercially successful years, with well-financed recordings and radio and video play. [1], Graham Parker and the Rumour appeared on BBC television's Top of the Pops in 1977, performing their version of The Trammps' "Hold Back the Night" from The Pink Parker EP, a Top 30 hit in the UK Singles Chart in March 1977. (Brown also found Parker a gig at Southern Comfort, a tiny hamburger café on Seven Sisters Road in Finsbury Park, London where he played solo, performing a mixture of original songs and covers.) The band also opened Richard Branson's new club The Venue, London, in November 1978. Produced by Jimmy Iovine. He continues to be best-known as the leader (and singer) of the popular British band Graham Parker & the Rumour, though he has has a number of solo albums to his name.Despite moderate commercial success, he has consistently been hailed by critics as one the most prominent musicians … Produced by Jimmy Iovine. However, Parker's 1985 release Steady Nerves (credited to Graham Parker and The Shot) was a moderate success and included his only US Top 40 hit "Wake Up (Next to You)". 54. 335[6] on its List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. Graham Parker (born November 18, 1950 in London) is a British rock singer and songwriter. Also in 2003, Parker contributed a solo acoustic version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" to the compilation album, A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd. 4:50; Graham Parker and the Rumour - Thunder and Rain. 45, while Howlin' Wind came in at No. Graham Parker and the Rumour (led by British rock musician Graham Parker, with Brinsley Schwarz and Martin Belmont on guitars, Bob Andrews on keyboards, Andrew Bodnar on bass and Steve Goulding on drums) formed in the summer of 1975 in London, England, and began doing the … [1], Parker and the Rumour gained a following in Australia thanks to the support of community radio (4ZZZ, 3RRR), Sydney independent rock station Double Jay (2JJ) and the ABC's weekly pop TV show Countdown, which gave the group nationwide exposure. In 1975, he recorded a few demo tracks in London with Dave Robinson, who would shortly found Stiff Records and who connected Parker with his first backing band of note, The Rumour. Graham Parker and The Rumour - "Saturday Nite is Dead" 12" Vinyl Rip [1979] [1], Parker was born in Hackney, East London in 1950. With Parker in the band playing a borrowed electric guitar, Pegasus played one show in Gibraltar before going to Tangier, Morocco, where they briefly performed in a nightclub. Youtube; Endless Night Graham Parker & The Rumour. Produced by Robert John Lange. [11][12], He announced a solo, acoustic 40th Anniversary version of Squeezing Out Sparks, for an 13 April 2019 release. Originally released in 1976, from the album 'Howling Wind'. This album charted at UK No. The album features Parker's brand new backing band The Goldtops, which consists of Martin Belmont on guitar, Geraint Watkins on keyboards, Simon Edwards on bass, and Roy Dodds on drums. Graham Parker & The Rumour - New York Shuffle (1978 clip) 3:04; A FLG Maurepas upload - Graham Parker & The Rumours - Watch The Moon Come Down. "[9] Meanwhile, the Judd Apatow film This Is 40, in which Parker and Rumour play themselves, was released a month later, in December 2012.[10]. In early 2011, Parker reunited with all five original members of The Rumour to record a new album, Three Chords Good. This remix was released as a single in 1978 from the album 'The Parkerilla'. Later, in July 2018, Parker announced Cloud Symbols, his brand new studio album to be released on 21 September 2018. 40 and US No. [5], An official Graham Parker and The Rumour live album, The Parkerilla, issued in 1978, had nothing new:[1] three sides were live, with versions of previously released songs; the fourth was devoted to a "disco" remake of "Hey Lord, Don't Ask Me Questions". Robinson had a small studio above the Hope & Anchor pub in Islington and began to record Parker, sometimes solo and sometimes with a few musicians behind him.[2]. See Heat Treatment for the first UK version issued with a … Background. [2] However, Rumour guitarist Brinsley Schwarz reunited with Parker in 1983 and play on most of his albums through the decade's end. New solo work continued with 2004's Your Country, which saw Parker switch labels to Chicago-based indie Bloodshot Records and was co-produced by John Would at Stanley Recording in Venice, California. Youtube; Maneuvers Graham Parker & The Rumour. Graham Parker and the Rumour appeared on BBC television's Top of the Pops in 1977, performing their version of The Trammps' "Hold Back the Night" from The Pink Parker EP, a Top 30 hit in the UK Singles Chart in March 1977. Graham Parker & The Rumour - New York Shuffle (1978 clip) 3:04; A FLG Maurepas upload - Graham Parker & The Rumours - Watch The Moon Come Down. Youtube; Hotel Chambermaid Graham Parker & The Rumour. Parker left school at 16 and went to work at the Animal Virus Research Institute in Pirbright, Surrey, where he bred animals for foot-and-mouth disease research. [1] Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Mona Lisa's Sister at No. Another song, "Nothin's Gonna Pull Us Apart" was played, in demo form, on the Charlie Gillett show "Honky Tonk" on BBC London 94.9. By 1971, he had left England again and spent time in Paris right at the time of the Free Angela Davis march through the city. The Parkerilla satisfied his contractual obligation to Mercury Records, freeing him to sign with Arista. 1992's Burning Questions was released by Capitol Records, who promptly dropped him after the album failed to sell.[1]. In addition to his records, Parker published an illustrated science fiction novella, The Great Trouser Mystery in 1980. They made their first tour there in 1978, where they spotted rising Australian band The Sports, who subsequently supported Parker and the Rumour on their early 1979 UK tour. The jettisoned brass section continued to play on other people's records, credited as The Irish Horns (on the album London Calling by The Clash) or The Rumour Brass, most notably on Katrina and the Waves' 1985 hit "Walking On Sunshine". View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1980 Vinyl release of "The Up Escalator" on Discogs. Album The Up Escalator. [2] Parker's 1991 offering, Struck By Lightning, had Bodnar and Pete Thomas in the backing band, as well as guest appearances from The Band's Garth Hudson on keyboards and John Sebastian on autoharp. Long-time guitarist Schwarz once again left Parker after the 1990 album Human Soul. By now he was determined to pursue a career in music and worked steadily on improving his guitar playing and song writing. Parker began a more active period in 2001, with the UK re-release of his early Rumour work, and with his third studio album for Razor & Tie, Deepcut to Nowhere. From France, Parker hitchhiked through Spain to Morocco, where he traveled around for a year before moving to Gibraltar. Graham Parker & Some of The Rumour featuring Brinsley Schwarz on guitar and Andrew Bodnar on bass on their 1988 UK tour. 3:16 Graham Parker and the rumour - "The Raid" ... Youtube… Parker continued to record for RCA through the early 1990s. The Rumour were an English rock band in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Songs of No Consequence was recorded with The Figgs in 2005. After the personal 12 Haunted Episodes,[2] and 1996's Acid Bubblegum (featuring Jimmy Destri of Blondie on keyboards), Parker grew quiet in the late 1990s. [1] Steady Nerves was recorded in New York City, and Parker began living mostly in the United States during this time.[1]. 59 on the album charts but missing the UK charts altogether. A 1994 Christmas-themed EP release (Graham Parker's Christmas Cracker) was issued on Dakota Arts Records, before Parker found a more permanent home on American independent label Razor & Tie. [citation needed], Parker returned to England for a year, living in Chichester in Sussex where he worked at the Chichester Rubber Glove Factory. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1980 Vinyl release of "The Best Of Graham Parker And The Rumour" on Discogs. 131 saw Parker dropped by the label. Music journalist, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that the release was "the rare reunion that simultaneously looks back while living in the present. [4] The group made a second Australian tour in late 1979, when Parker appeared on Countdown as a guest presenter. When the lights are low you know I'm going to … In Gibraltar he worked on the docks unloading frozen foods, which he then helped deliver to supermarkets. 97 on its list of The 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s. Introduced by Kid Jensen. This demo version ended up on Parker's first album, Howlin' Wind, after the Rumour tried to record it but failed to achieve the natural feel of the demo. Brown introduced him to Paul "Bassman" Riley who had recently been a member of Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers. The album featured the single "Stupefaction" and the track "Endless Night", which had guest vocals from Bruce Springsteen. Robinson then went about recruiting the musicians who would become the Rumour, and recording for Howlin’ Wind began in the winter of 1975 with Nick Lowe producing. By the time Parker was 15 he was a fan of soul music, especially Otis Redding, and would go to dance clubs in the nearby towns of Woking and Camberley where there was a thriving appreciation of soul music, Motown and ska. Graham Parker chronology; Heat Treatment (1977) Stick to Me (1977) The Parkerilla (1978) Stick to Me is the third studio album by English singer-songwriter Graham Parker and his first group, the Rumour. However, The Rumour were also recording artists in their own right, releasing three albums: Max (1977), Frogs, Sprouts, Clogs and Krauts (1979), and Purity of Essence (1980). You let me in and I'll help you win This chance must be heaven sent In 1978, Graham Parker & the Rumour's career was on the rise in the U.K. and going nowhere in America, despite rave reviews for his first three albums and a growing reputation as a powerful live act. The Parker/Rumour reunion continued into 2015, when their new album Mystery Glue was issued. 1977 BBC Top of the Pops with their version of The Trammps "Hold Back the Night" from The Pink Parker EP He also tired of the band's hippie name and renamed them Terry Burbot's Magic Mud. The album, rather, is one chapter in the story Graham Parker and the Rumour are telling — a tale sometimes subverted by weaknesses of nerve, imagination or craft, a tale of true fear and drama. In the summer of 1975, Parker joined ex-members of three British pub-rock bands to form Graham Parker and the Rumour: Parker (lead vocals, guitar) with Brinsley Schwarz (lead guitar) and Bob Andrews (keyboards) (both ex Brinsley Schwarz), Martin Belmont (rhythm guitar, ex Ducks Deluxe) and Andrew Bodnar (bass) and Steve Goulding (drums). The band's first album, Howlin' Wind, was released to acclaim in April 1976 and was rapidly followed by the stylistically similar Heat Treatment. [1] However, he continued to play live fairly regularly, often working with backing band The Figgs (who, like The Rumour, when not backing Parker also issue records as a discrete unit).