LISSEN, GRAHAM Parker is a kid in a hurry. And if there's any justice, he's gonna go places. Judging by the performance at Dingwalls, after he and The Rumour have only done about nine or ten gigs, places is where he's going to go.

I don't know much about him, except that he writes all his own stuff, and plays it, and sings it, and if I wasn't careful I'd make some sort of comparison with a Mr Spr*ngst*n. I'd have to be careful because Graham Parker without hype, and without that mysterious elan that New York's East Side is supposed to give you, is better.

The Dingwalls gig kicked off with a very Band sounding 'That's What They All Say', and followed-it up with more tracks from the forthcoming LP, Howlin Wind (Phonogram have snapped GP up), including 'Nothing's Gonna Pull It Away', the fast, 'Jerry Lee-like 'Back To School Days', and the title track from the album, the haunting slow 'Howlin Wind'.

While we were gathering breath, a six piece brass section came on stage - and suddenly it was pub band benefit nite. The Rumour are in fact a bit of Brinsley Schwartz and a bit of Ducks Deluxe, and guesting in the brass section was one of the guys from the Kilburns. You won't always see them with the brass, which is a pity because the effect is staggering. They surged into 'Where Were You When The Rains Came?’, followed it with the one that's going to be the single 'Silly Thing', and one about a visit to a very strange 'Lady Doctor', and then stomped us into tight riffed submission with 'Soul Shoes'. Graham Parker is one of the most original people I've seen in months. He isn't a funk dispenser, he isn't a melancholy folk poet. He's all of them things.

Graham Parker is good because he's being exactly himself. And what comes across is that he's been working on these songs writing the tunes, saving himself up, and getting ready.

To paraphrase the by now immortal line, Graham Parker is ready for the world.

Thanks to Stephen Towler for his help with this article!

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