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Graham Thomas Parker (born 18 November 1950) is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the British band 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. At 18 he left the job and moved to Guernsey in the Channel Islands where he took a variety of jobs, picking tomatoes, digging ditches, collecting money from pinball machines, and working in a bakery. In Guernsey he bought an acoustic guitar and began to learn fingerpicking style and began writing songs with lyrics heavily influenced by the psychedelic music of the time.
Parker returned to England for a year, living in Chichester in Sussex where he worked at the Chichester Rubber Glove Factory. By 1971, he had left England again and spent time in Paris. From France, Parker hitchhiked through Spain to Morocco, where he travelled around for a year before moving to Gibraltar. In Gibraltar he worked on the docks unloading frozen foods, which he then helped deliver to supermarkets. His guitar playing and writing skills were improving, and after playing songs to a few locals in a bar, he found himself on an afternoon show on Gibraltar television where he performed two or three of his own songs. At that time, a strongly psychedelic-influenced band named Pegasus often played in the same bar and asked Parker to join them. 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. Parker, however, was growing out of the hippie trappings and decided the band needed to learn a few songs that involved major keys (all the songs they played were in A minor) and so taught the members some of the soul numbers he had loved as a youth, including Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour". He also tired of the band's hippie name and renamed them Terry Burbot's Magic Mud.
In late 1972, Parker returned to England and lived with his parents, working at a petrol station around the corner from his childhood home in Deepcut. By now he was determined to pursue a career in music and worked steadily on improving his guitar playing and song writing. In late 1974 he placed an ad in Melody Maker seeking like-minded backing musicians. One of the musicians who answered the ad was Noel Brown, a guitarist who lived in south London. Brown introduced him to Paul "Bassman" Riley who had recently been a member of Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers. (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.) Riley thought Parker should meet Dave Robinson, the manager of the by now defunct Brinsley Schwarz band. 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.
One of the songs Parker recorded was "Between You and Me." 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. 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. On hearing the song, Nigel Grainge from Phonogram Records called Gillett and asked who the new singer was. By now Robinson had become Parker's manager and a deal with Phonogram was struck. 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. 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. Parker had one track, "Back to Schooldays", released on the compilation album, A Bunch of Stiff Records for Stiff Records.
In the summer of 1975, Parker joined ex-members of three British Pub rock (United Kingdom) 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). They began in the British pub rock scene, augmented at times by a four-man horn section known as The Rumour Horns: John "Irish" Earle (saxophone), Chris Gower (trombone), Dick Hanson (trumpet), and Ray Beavis (saxophone).
The band's first album, Howlin' Wind, was released to acclaim in April 1976 and was rapidly followed by the stylistically similar Heat Treatment. A mixture of rock, ballads, and reggae-influenced numbers, these albums reflected Parker's early influences and contained the songs which formed the core of Parker's live shows – "Black Honey", "Soul Shoes", "Lady Doctor", "Fool's Gold", and his early signature tune "Don't Ask Me Questions", which hit the top 40 in the UK Singles Chart.
Establishing a recording career in early 1976, Parker preceded two other new wave English singer-songwriters with whom he is often compared: Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson. (Costello's first single was released in 1977, and Jackson's first solo single in late 1978). Jackson said of Parker in a 1979 interview, "Graham Parker I really like. I think he's very genuine."
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. 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 group made a second Australian tour in late 1979, when Parker appeared on Countdown as a guest presenter.
Graham Parker and The Rumour were one of the four support acts for Bob Dylan at the Picnic at Blackbushe on 15 July 1978. The band also opened Richard Branson's new club The Venue, London, in November 1978.
Energized by his new label, Arista Records, and with record producer Jack Nitzsche, Parker wrote the songs that would form the basis for Squeezing Out Sparks, widely held to be the best album of his career. For this album, The Rumour's brass section, prominent on all previous albums, was jettisoned.
Squeezing Out Sparks (1979) was named by Rolling Stone at No. 335 on its List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In an early 1987 Rolling Stone list of their top 100 albums from 1967 to 1987, Squeezing Out Sparks was ranked at No. 45, while Howlin' Wind came in at No. 54. The album features several of Parker's most famous songs, including "Passion Is No Ordinary Word", "You Can't Be Too Strong", and the singles "Local Girls", "Protection", and "Discovering Japan". The companion live album Live Sparks, was sent to US radio stations as part of a concerted promotional campaign.
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".
1980's The Up Escalator was Parker's highest-charting album in the UK, and was produced by Jimmy Iovine. The album featured the single "Stupefaction" and the track "Endless Night", which had guest vocals from Bruce Springsteen. The front cover of the album credited only Graham Parker, not "Graham Parker and The Rumour". The album was certified Gold in Canada (for over 50,000 copies sold).
The Up Escalator would prove to be Parker's last album with the Rumour until a reunion decades later. However, Rumour guitarist Brinsley Schwarz reunited with Parker in 1983 and played on most of his albums through to the decade's end. Other Rumour members also played with Parker in later years: bassist Andrew Bodnar would rejoin Parker from 1988 through the mid-1990s, and drummer Steve Goulding would play on Parker's 2001 album Deepcut To Nowhere.
1983's The Real Macaw, with drumming by Gilson Lavis of Squeeze and Brinsley Schwarz on guitar, did not fare as well, hitting US No. 59 on the album charts but missing the UK charts altogether. 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)". The Shot was a four-piece backing band, all of whom had played on either The Real Macaw or Another Grey Area: Brinsley Schwarz (guitar), George Small (keyboards), Kevin Jenkins (bass) and Michael Braun (drums). Steady Nerves was recorded in New York City, and Parker began living mostly in the United States during this time.
Record label changes came quickly after the mid-1980s, partly accounting for the number of compilation albums in Graham Parker's discography. Particularly unproductive was Parker's tenure at Atlantic Records, where he released nothing and signed to RCA Records. He began producing his own recordings and issued The Mona Lisa's Sister. The backing band for this album included former Rumour-mates Schwarz and Bodnar; keyboardists James Hallawell and Steve Nieve; and drummer Terry Williams (replaced on one cut by Andy Duncan, and two others by Pete Thomas, who, like Nieve, was a member of Elvis Costello and the Attractions). Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Mona Lisa's Sister at No. 97 on its list of The 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s.
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. After the personal 12 Haunted Episodes, and 1996's Acid Bubblegum (featuring Jimmy Destri of Blondie on keyboards), Parker grew quiet in the late 1990s. 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).
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. The album was recorded and mixed in two weeks.
Songs of No Consequence was recorded with The Figgs in 2005. A show from the ensuing tour with the Figgs was broadcast on FM radio and released as an album in 2006. In March 2007, a new full-length album, Don't Tell Columbus, was released.
In addition to his records, Parker published an illustrated science fiction novella, The Great Trouser Mystery in 1980. He published a set of short stories, Carp Fishing on Valium, in June 2000. His third book, the novel The Other Life of Brian, appeared in September 2003.
In early 2011, Parker reunited with all five original members of The Rumour to record a new album, Three Chords Good. It was released in November 2012. Music journalism, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that the release was "the rare reunion that simultaneously looks back while living in the present." Meanwhile, the Judd Apatow film This Is 40, in which Parker and Rumour play themselves, was released a month later, in December 2012.
The Parker/Rumour reunion continued into 2015, when their new album Mystery Glue was issued. It was followed by a short international tour, after which the reunion ended.
In April 2018, Parker signed with 100% Records, and released a brand new single titled "Dreamin'". Later, in July 2018, Parker announced Cloud Symbols, his brand new studio album to be released on 21 September 2018. 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. The album also features the Rumour Brass, making this their first appearance on a Graham Parker album since Stick to Me in 1977 and their first time working with Parker since the Squeezing Out Sparks tour in 1979. The album was initially to be produced by Neil Brockbank, but he died during the recording of the album and production duties for the rest of the album were passed onto Tuck Nelson and Parker himself.
He announced a solo, acoustic 40th Anniversary version of Squeezing Out Sparks, for an 13 April 2019 release. It also contains the non-album single, "Mercury Poisoning".
In September 2023, Graham Parker & the Goldtops released a new studio album Last Chance to Learn the Twist. The Goldtops lineup now included drummer Jim Russell in place of Roy Dodds.
| 1976 | Graham Parker & the Rumour | Howlin' Wind | – | – | – | – |
| 1976 | Heat Treatment | – | 52 | – | 169 | |
| 1977 | Stick to Me | 35 | 19 | – | 125 | |
| 1979 | Squeezing Out Sparks | 22 | 18 | 79 | 40 | |
| 1980 | The Up Escalator | 36 | 11 | 27 | 40 | |
| 1982 | Graham Parker | Another Grey Area | 98 | 40 | – | 52 |
| 1983 | The Real Macaw | 57 | – | – | 59 | |
| 1985 | Graham Parker & the Shot | Steady Nerves | – | – | 82 | 57 |
| 1988 | Graham Parker | The Mona Lisa's Sister | 81 | – | 46 | 77 |
| 1989 | Human Soul | – | – | – | 165 | |
| 1991 | Struck by Lightning | – | – | – | 131 | |
| 1992 | Burning Questions | – | – | – | – | |
| 1995 | 12 Haunted Episodes | – | – | – | – | |
| 1996 | Acid Bubblegum | – | – | – | – | |
| 2001 | Deepcut to Nowhere | – | – | – | – | |
| 2004 | Your Country | – | – | – | – | |
| 2005 | Graham Parker & the Figgs | Songs of No Consequence | – | – | – | – |
| 2007 | Graham Parker | Don't Tell Columbus | – | – | – | – |
| 2009 | Carp Fishing On Valium | – | – | – | – | |
| 2010 | Imaginary Television | – | – | – | – | |
| 2012 | Graham Parker & the Rumour | Three Chords Good | – | – | – | – |
| 2015 | Mystery Glue | – | – | – | – | |
| 2018 | Graham Parker & the Goldtops | Cloud Symbols | – | – | – | – |
| 2019 | Graham Parker | Squeezing Out Sparks Solo Acoustic 40th Anniversary | – | – | – | – |
| 2023 | Graham Parker & the Goldtops | Last Chance to Learn the Twist | – | – | – | – |
| "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||
Graham Parker
| 1976 | "Silly Thing" | – | – | – | – | – | – | Howlin' Wind |
| "Soul Shoes" | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| "Hotel Chambermaid" | – | – | – | – | – | – | Heat Treatment | |
| "Heat Treatment" | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 1977 | "Pourin' It All Out" | – | – | – | – | – | – | |
| "Hold Back the Night" | 24 | – | – | 58 | – | – | The Pink Parker | |
| "(Let Me Get) Sweet on You" | – | – | 107 | – | – | |||
| 1978 | "The New York Shuffle" | – | 49 | – | – | – | – | Stick to Me |
| "The Heat in Harlem"/"Stick to Me" | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| "Hey Lord, Don't Ask Me Questions" | 32 | 24 | – | – | – | – | The Parkerilla | |
| 1979 | "Mercury Poisoning" | – | – | – | – | – | – | Non-album single |
| "Protection" | – | 46 | – | – | – | – | Squeezing Out Sparks | |
| "Discovering Japan" | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| "Local Girls" | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| "I Want You Back (Alive)" | – | 46 | – | 103 | – | – | Non-album single | |
| 1980 | "Stupefaction" | – | – | – | – | – | – | The Up Escalator |
| "Love Without Greed" | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| "No Holding Back"/"Endless Night" | – | – | – | – | – | – | ||
| 1982 | "Temporary Beauty" | 50 | – | – | – | 52 | – | Another Grey Area |
| "You Hit the Spot" | – | – | – | – | 42 | – | ||
| 1983 | "Life Gets Better" | – | 35 | – | 94 | – | – | The Real Macaw |
| 1985 | "Break Them Down" | – | – | – | – | – | – | Steady Nerves |
| "Wake Up (Next to You)" | – | – | 94 | 39 | 19 | – | ||
| 1988 | "Get Started. Start a Fire" | – | – | 85 | – | 23 | – | The Mona Lisa's Sister |
| "Don't Let It Break You Down" | – | – | – | – | – | 27 | ||
| 1989 | "Big Man on Paper" | – | – | – | – | – | 18 | Human Soul |
| "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. | ||||||||
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