NEW TALENT! Extraordinarily good new talent!

Not the Rumour, because they're not new!

Of course they're an amazing band, who - at least on the night I saw them down Dingwalls - seemed to be carrying fresh faced Graham. In fact they're what's already been described as a pub-rocking supergroup.

Brinsley Schwarz's on guitar, organ tenor sax and backing vocals. And the Brin's old keyboard man, Bob Andrews, is in here too, with the ex-Ducks Deluxe guitarist Martin Belmont making up the Rumour front line. And on the drums and bass respectively there's Stephen Goulding and Andrew Bodnar. No, the Mister New-Boy is Graham, lead vocals, acoustic guitar and bloody fine songwriter. Petrol Pump Parker himself. The young fellow who was guzzling out premium in a Camberly Filling Station until somebody decided they were going to make him a regular Four Star.

But enough of the biographical details; this album is just remarkably excellent, debut or not.

It's raw, packed to cramming with excitement and energy, topping musicianship, and a bunch of marvellously well arranged songs.

You just have to turn to "Not If It Pleases Me", starting off as a blues busk by Parker on acoustic and vocals, and gradually building into one helluva climax as each of the band is brought in, for the point to be proved.

And I don't care if Petrol Pump rips off Van Morrison, Springsteen and Dylan. After all you can steal the wheels off a Mercedes and fit them to a Beetle, but there's no guarantee you're going to have a good runner.

See, the thing is Parker, with a limited voice which is as painfully cracked as old paint, writes some real whirly songs, sounding as freshly-baked as a new loaf. And they work. Work so well that even if he'd completely re-routed "Moondance" or "Desire" into his music I really wouldn't have minded.

Because, most of all Parker and The Rumour make you realise that although there's still a lot to be said for uncovering an actual un-derivative talent, music's to such a large extent ephemeral that you have to grab what you can while you can. And enjoy it. Blow the sources.

You can tell though that Morrison is a predominant influence both vocally ("White Honey") and musically ("Gypsy Blood"), while he has a penchant too for Dylan phrasing and rapid lyric fire as on "Soul Shoes." And the organ part on "You've Got To Be Kidding" sounds as though it's been dragged in from the "Like A Rolling Stone" sessions.

Even so Rumour build their own solid sound into the songs in an almost leisurely manner which is a real paradox to the ebullient feel they achieve.

Tony Stewart  

Thanks to Stephen Towler for his help with this article!

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