back to calendar ›

Graham Parker Duo featuring Brinsley Schwarz with Special Guest My Darling Clementine with My Darling Clementine

Share this event:

Graham Parker is a rock and roll original who, as a petrol pump attendant from Surrey, England, went to London in the mid-1970s, hooked up with musicians like Nick Lowe, Martin Belmont, Nicky Hopkins, Danny Federici, and Jack Nitzsche, and made some of the hottest rock and roll records ever set to vinyl, including Howlin’ Wind, Heat Treatment, Squeezing Out Sparks, and The Mona Lisa’s Sister. Since then, he’s carved out an impressive body of work as a folk troubadour, recording a series of scintillating solo albums, including Live Alone at the Freight and Salvage. Long known for his workingman’s passion, sardonic sense of humor, incisive lyrics, and occasional bouts of unexpected tenderness, Graham comes to Infinity Hall Hartford with his longtime co-conspirator, the renowned guitarist Brinsley Schwarz, who powered Graham’s band the Rumour and has continued to back him throughout much of his career.

Graham Parker

Connect with this artist:

www.grahamparker.net/

Video:

Artist Bio

In the spring of 1975, Graham Parker, a 24-year-old petrol pump attendant from Surrey, England, began to drive up to London to meet like-minded musicians and get a backing band behind his songs, which he now considered to be stronger and more interesting than anything

he was hearing on the radio. By placing an advert in the Melody Maker he met Noel Brown, a guitarist, and Paul “Bassman” Riley, a bass player who had featured in Chilli Willi and The Red Hot Peppers, a so- called “pub rock” band that had recently split up. Riley thought Parker should meet Dave Robinson, a manager who ran a small studio above the Hope and Anchor pub in Islington. Robinson had previously managed Brinsley Schwarz, another demised pub rock outfit that included its eponymous guitarist, Nick Lowe on bass and Bob Andrews on keyboards.

Lights went off in Robinson’s head when he heard Parker’s songs, and shortly after recording some demos, began to ease Schwarz and Andrews, along with a young rhythm section comprised of Andrew Bodnar on bass and Steve Goulding on drums, into place behind Parker. Together with Martin Belmont, the former guitarist of Ducks Deluxe, yet another alleged pub rock band that had also called it quits, they began rehearsing that summer.

Before they had played a note together however, Parker had secured a major record deal with Phonogram records after Robinson got a tape of a Parker demo to Charlie Gillett who hosted an eclectic Radio London show named Honky Tonk. As soon as the song had had its airing, Nigel Grainge from Phonogram called Gillett insisting he wanted to sign Parker right away.

 

Until then, Parker had had exactly zero professional, or even semi-professional, experience in the music business. Before his journey to London, he had seen the name Brinsley Schwarz in the Melody Maker gig guide and imagined that with a name like that, they must surely be a German heavy metal band.

 

During those first rehearsals, Robinson brought a “tall, bird-nosed fellow,” as Parker described him, to the sessions and said that he would produce their first LP. His name was Nick Lowe, the aforementioned bass player in “the German heavy metal band.”

Parker and the Rumour’s first album “Howlin’ Wind” was recorded in London in late 1975 and released in April 1976 to widespread critical acclaim. This was followed in the same year by “Heat Treatment” and a hit EP, “The Pink Parker,” released on pink vinyl.

 

The band played a handful of small venues starting in late ‘75 before opening for the hit band Ace (“How Long”) on a concert tour. Within a year they were headlining concert hall tours in the UK themselves and toured America twice, driving around in a station wagon and picking up gigs wherever Dave Robinson could find them. Parker’s label, Mercury Records, the American arm of Phonogram, paid scant attention to the band. With punk rock and new wave still a year and a half away from making any impression, Mercury failed to see a marketing angle to use and therefore left them, much to Dave Robinson’s annoyance, largely to fend for themselves in the land of Styx and Kansas. But their critical acclaim and fervent and growing fan base could not be denied and by 1978, despite the mixed reaction to their third album “Stick To Me,” released in 1977, they made steady progress and began to gain a reputation for being a premier live band throughout the world. Finally, after the lack of support from Mercury, Parker signed a lucrative deal with Arista records and released the Jack Nitzsche produced “Squeezing Out Sparks” in 1979. The album, which contained such classics as “You Can’t Be Too Strong,” “Discovering Japan” and “Passion Is No Ordinary Word” reached #44 in the US album charts, sold a quarter of a million copies and was widely hailed as a masterpiece. Parker and the Rumour toured extensively in the year of its release, beginning at Belfast’s Witlow Hall on February 2nd and ending at the Town Hall, Auckland, New Zealand on the 26th of November, with very little time off in between.

 

They made their last album together, “The Up Escalator,” with Nicky Hopkins and Danny Federici replacing Bob Andrews on piano and organ respectively.

Schwarz and Bodnar worked often with Parker on both recordings and onstage during the ‘80’s most significantly on the successful “The Mona Lisa’s Sister” in 1988.

Parker has continued to release albums regularly on a variety of labels, including the standout collections “Struck By Lightning” on RCA, “Deepcut To Nowhere” on Razor & Tie, and “Don’t Tell Columbus” released on Bloodshot Records in 2005.

In the year 2000, St. Martin’s Press published a collection of short stories by Parker entitled “Carp Fishing On Valium” which was republished later in 2012 on Tangible Press in both book and e-book form with the addition of three previously unpublished stories featuring the suburban travails of the books’ protagonist, Brian Porker.

In May 2011, Parker called the Rumour members out of the blue to work with him once again on a new album that would be their first together in over 30 years.

The new album, “Three Chords Good,” was recorded in July of that year. In a strange quirk of fate, not more than two weeks after the band confirmed that they would indeed be agreeable to a recording reunion, movie and TV writer/director/producer Judd Apatow got hold of Parker and proposed a meeting. Apatow loosely described to Parker a movie project he was writing in which he thought Parker might have a small part to play. The movie, “This Is 40” was released theatrical on December 21st 2012 and featured Parker acting as himself with performance sequences in a duo setting (with Tom Freund) and with the Rumour. "This Is 40" hit number three box office on its first weekend and showed for months in movie houses everywhere.

“Three Chords Good” was released in October 2012 and tours of both America, the United Kingdom and Europe followed.

“Don’t Ask Me Questions,” a documentary by the Gramaglia Brothers (“End Of The Century: The Story Of The Ramones”) had been in the works for over ten years and was basically finished when Parker announced to the film makers that he was about to do what he swore he would never do: reform the Rumour. The Gramaglias therefore filmed the entire recording sessions in conjunction with Judd Apatow and also shot footage of Parker and the Rumour in Hollywood on the movie set. The documentary was shown on BBC 4 to great acclaim.

A new Graham Parker and the Rumour album has now been recorded at the famous RAK studios. "Mystery Glue" will be released worldwide by Universal Records in May 2015 on the obscure '70's Universal owned label, Cadet Concept, a former imprint of the famous Chess Records.

My Darling Clementine

Connect with this artist:

www.mydarlingclementinemusic.co.uk

For what began life as a side project for Michael Weston King & Lou Dalgleish,  a labour of love, a homage to the classic country duets, My Darling Clementine is now very much part of the country and Americana landscape, courtesy of 3 albums, over 300 shows and numerous awards

The debut album,  “How Do You Plead?” was produced by Neil Brockbank (Nick Lowe, Tift Merritt). It was a highly acclaimed record on both side of the Atlantic – Country Music People called it the “greatest UK country record ever made” and American Songwriter stating it as “as authentic as anything out of Nashville or Texas…A batch of superb C&W corkers.”

Such praise led to a US record deal and invitations to appear at the Americana Music Association in Nashville and SXSW in Austin

2013s follow-up, “The Reconciliation” produced by Colin Eliot (Richard Hawley, Duane Eddy) received similar praise. Uncut exclaimed “The husband-and-wife duo serve up more countrified duet thrills…on this form, it’s a winning formula that looks set to run and run.”   While in the States CMT Edge featured the standout track “The Gospel According to George” and Popmatters considered the album as one of their Top 10 Country Albums of 2013. 

Not ones to rest, the band spent the better part of 2015 collaborating with best selling crime writer Mark Billingham on an audiobook, stage play and album called The Other Half, in which Mark narrates his story to the backdrop of King and Dalgleish’s songs. The album, which also featured guest appearances from singer and songwriter Graham Parker and the British actor David Morrissey. 

“A convincing world of barflies, peeling paint  and characters on bar stools with very dark secrets.”
BBC Radio 4 Front Row  

“With The Other Half, My Darling Clementine reaffirms the fact that they are the UK’s strongest and most assured purveyors of authentic traditional Americana. A superb collection of stories and songs, it would make Johnny and June proud, while giving the rest of us plenty to cheer about as well.”
No Depression

Into 2016 and they continue to tour the world. The USA in spring, Europe in the summer and autumn, while a new album is being readied for release later in the year.

The touring band line-up is:

Vocals – Lou Dalgleish
Guitar and Vocals – Michael Weston King

with

Guitar – Martin Belmont (Graham Parker & The Rumour,  Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Ducks Deluxe)
Piano and Organ – Liam Grundy (Scotty Moore, James Burton)
Bass – Kevin Foster  (Jackie Leven, Ducks Deluxe, Los Pistoleros, Doll By Doll)
Drums – Neil Bullock (Chuck Berry, Ronnie Scott, Broadcast)
Pedal Steel – Alan Cook (Chris Hillman, The Charlatans, Jackie Leven)

Video:

---

buy tickets for this show ›

Other Shows you may be interested in:

10,000 Maniacs D.A. Foster & The Shaboo All-Stars with Duke & The Esoterics - A Musical Extravaganza to Benefit Work Vessels for Vets Adam Ezra Group with Special Guest Gracie Day