Graham Parker and The Rumour did extensive gigging in the U.K., including an opening act spot with Ace in small theatres and colleges. We also spent two weeks in Holland, strangely, with Nick Lowe as tour manager. There may have been other European shows, but I can't recall them. We toured America twice. Our first gig there was in Washington, D.C. opening for Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee in a place called The Cellar Door in front of a load of white blues snobs.

THE PINK PARKER EP 1977

     This record, containing "Hold Back The Night," "Let Me Get (Sweet On You)," and two live cuts, was possibly recorded in 1976 and released in 1977. It was pressed in pink vinyl and started a craze of colored records. I remember playing "Top Of The Pops" live an having to use the dreadful BBC horn players and Bob Andrews completely losing it and screaming at them as they took tea and read "Caravan Weekly."

STICK TO ME 1977

     This LP was recorded twice. The first attempt was done in a studio owned by Island Records in London and was produced by somebody called Bob Potter (not the gypsy impresario from Mychett who owns Lakeside Country Club). It took a month to do, but something was wrong with either the studio alignment or the master tapes or both. I remember seeing black stuff coming off the 24-track tapes and being told it was only oxide and not to worry about it.

     As a Scandinavian tour was planned immediately on its completion and further European gigs scheduled, we had a spare week in which to re-record the album. My manager at the time -- who was bilingual -- said that only one person could produce it in that space of time and that person was Nick Lowe. The record was applauded by the British press for its "ferocious punch" and panned by the Americans with comments such as "this man needs a producer." Brinsley Schwarz was not very well at the time of the European tour so Brian Robertson from Thin Lizzy, a band we supported that year in the U.K. and the U.S.A., took his place on the guitar on some European gigs.

THE PARKERILLA 1978

     Three sides of the record were live, on the fourth side was a re-recorded version of "Don't Ask Me Questions" produced by Mutt Lange. In the press, I pompously announced that the Parkerilla would represent "the end of an era for G.P. and The Rumour," not having a clue as to what I was talking about.

SQUEEZING OUT SPARKS 1979

     Paul Conroy, who worked at Stiff Records for my then manager, called this record "Twee," not realizing it meant death to tiny unborn children. Hardly "Twee" I should think.

     I believe we did our second Australia tour in support of the album and also a mega-festival at Blackbush Airport in Surrey with Bob Dylan headlining. Backstage, Bob came up to me and said "I really love that song... ." He then proceeded to string me along for what seemed to be an eternity pretending not to remember the song's title. When he finally said "Don't Ask Me Questions," huge beads of sweat popped out of my forehead like boils. Chalkie Davis was on hand to take a photograph and what appears to be a smile on my face is really my dried out upper lip stuck fast above my lip in pure terror.

THE UP ESCALATOR 1980

     Ron Wolfe, the tour manager at the time, left the master tapes sitting on the ground at Nassau Airport, The Bahamas, when we went there to do vocals. The producer, the engineer and myself had driven to our apartments and it was a good half hour before anyone noticed one month of expensive recording had disappeared. We sped back to the airport and found them sitting on the 90 degree tarmac with all kinds of dodgy looking rastas trucking around.

     G.P. and The Rumour (with Nicky Hopkins replacing Bob Andrews on keyboards) played its last gig in Germany on a show called "Rockpalast."

ANOTHER GREY AREA 1982

     I toured the U.K. and Europe with a band largely consisting of "bland American musicians" two of whom had played on the LP. Luckily for record buyers everywhere, it is now quite difficult to obtain and although the Americans seemed to like it well enough, I believe it has been discontinued in the States. This record was (over)produced by Jack Douglas and cost a mere $300,000 to make.

THE REAL MACAW 1983

     My first foray into drum machine-land although the main beef is supplied by the big right hand of Gilson Lavies from Squeeze. A fairly experimental record that unfortunately suffered from excessive tunnel vision mixing, unnecessarily cleaning up what could have been a tougher item.

STEADY NERVES 1985

     I toured the U.S.A. opening for Eric Clapton just prior to his renewed popularity which began after his appearance at "Live Aid." The tour was an example of how to disappear in America for months playing to popcorn eating non-human entities.

THE MONA LISA'S SISTER 1988

     I decided not to use people who call themselves producers anymore and to call myself one. The first release for RCA in the U.S. and Demon Records in Britain and Europe. I did some touring on both sides of the pond but what really helped this record in America was a gourmet eating tour I embarked on just after the record's release. Glad-handing radio and press people for two weeks over extravagant and costly meals is really the only way to successfully promote a record in this day and age.

LIVE! ALONE IN AMERICA 1989

     A three week solo tour in the States prompted me to record this just in case I never did this again. The real title of the record is LIVE! ALONE! A LEGEND IN HIS OWN MIND. RCA balked at this, thinking the album too serious a piece of work for such a frivolous title. Demon, strangely enough, felt the same way. Quite extraordinary.

HUMAN SOUL 1989

     This time out I did an interesting tour with Dave Edmunds, Dion, Kim Wilson and an all star band featuring Steve Cropper on guitar. The tour was a bit of a stiff in America, probably because Marlboro, who sponsored it, made sure their name was enormous on every bit of advertising and the names of the stars almost microscopic. Whilst having dinner one night with Cropper (platinum American Express card) and Terry Williams, Steve looked at Terry, pointed to me and said "now this guy can really play guitar." I know there had been some fine wine floating about but I like to think that finally, someone who really knew what he was talking about had latched on to... etc., etc., (con't page 94).

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING 1991

     The idea was to cut the basics with drums, bass guitar and vocals and worry about the rest later. In the studio where the overdubs were done I lucked into the engineerls computerized rolodex for musicians, phone numbers and everything just fell into place. Pete Thomas, Andrew Bodnar and I were driving to a music store to buy drum skins one day and talking about how great it would be to get Garth Hudson on something and there he was in the store, standing in the corner tooting on an old saxophone! My ego, still bloated from Steve Cropper's comment (see HUMAN SOUL), I ended up playing all the guitar parts. I played lots of stuff designed specifically to annoy Brinsley Schwarz.

     Promotion for this record will probably be in the form of wine and cheese making exhibitions throughout Europe and America. Stay tuned!

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