Грэм Паркер: Музыкалық жол және өмір тарихы

English singer songwriterthe English sportsman

Graham Thomas Parker (born 18 November 1950) is an English singer songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the British band Graham Parker & the Rumour.

Parker was born in Hackney, East London, in 1950. He was a pupil at Chobham Secondary Modern School in Surrey. After the success of the Beatles, Parker and some other 12/13 year olds formed the Deepcut Three, soon renamed the Black Rockers. None of the members actually learned to play their instruments, however, and were merely dress up bands, adopting Beatle haircuts, black jeans and polo neck sweaters. 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. 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.

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. The group made a second Australian tour in late 1979, when Parker appeared on Countdown as a guest presenter.

An official Graham Parker and The Rumour live album, The Parkerilla, issued in 1978, had nothing new: 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".

Year Artist credit Album title Peak chart positions AUS UK CAN US1976 Graham Parker & the Rumour Howlin' Wind – – – –1976 Heat Treatment – 52 – 1691977 Stick to Me 35 19 – 1251979 Squeezing Out Sparks 22 18 79 401980 The Up Escalator 36 11 27 401982 Graham Parker Another Grey Area 98 40 – 521983 The Real Macaw 57 – – 591985Graham Parker & the Shot Steady Nerves – – 82 571988 Graham Parker The Mona Lisa's Sister 81 – 46 771989 Human Soul – – – 1651991 Struck by Lightning – – – 1311992 Burning Questions – – – –1995 12 Haunted Episodes – – – –1996 Acid Bubblegum – – – –2001 Deepcut to Nowhere – – – –2004 Your Country – – – –2005Graham 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 – – – –2018Graham Parker & the Goldtops Cloud Symbols – – – –2019Graham Parker Squeezing Out Sparks Solo Acoustic 40th Anniversary – – – –2023Graham Parker & the Goldtops Last Chance to Learn the Twist – – – – "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.

Year Title Chart positions Album UK AUS CAN US USMain USMod1976 "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 Parkerilla1979 "Mercury Poisoning" – – – – – – Non album single "Protection" – 46 – – – –Squeezing Out Sparks "Discovering Japan" – – – – – – "Local Girls" – – – – – – "I Want You Back (Alive)" – 46 – 103 – – Non album single1980 "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 Macaw1985 "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" – – – – – 18Human Soul "–" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory.