Riffs, Rants & Rumors: Graham Parker & The Rumour's Complicated Reunion
posted in: Features • Rock
In these nostalgia-mad, reunion-hungry times, it seems like pretty much every band of the last forty years that could or would has already reunited, either for a one-off event, a tour or a full-fledged second wind. From ˜60s psychedelic sorcerers to ˜70s arena rockers, ˜80s post-punks to ˜90s alt-rock icons, this is the age of Let’s get the band back together, and whether you’re passionate about Pavement or screwy for Spandau Ballet, there are precious few musical experiences that haven’t been deemed ripe for revisiting over the last few years.
But even though there have been more than a few recent reunions that have rated a Who cares? at best, there’s one important band that has remained resolutely out of the picture, despite their historical status. Graham Parker & The Rumour are widely regarded as path-making progenitors of punk and new wave, an outfit that emerged from the mid-˜70s UK pub-rock scene with a tantalizing template that was soon followed by the likes of Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson, and eventually, legions of lesser-known GP&R admirers across the globe”from Aussie act Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons to Boston boys Tom Dickie & The Desires, among countless others.
Still, despite their canonical standing in the rock world, Parker and company have shunned the reunion route for decades. After five fabulous years, they parted company shortly after releasing 1980’s The Up Escalator, and that was the end of the story. Or was it? In October of 2010, there was an unadvertised show at New York’s tiny Lakeside Lounge by a band billed as Kippington Lodge Social Club. The ensemble in question turned out to include original Rumour members Bob Andrews (keyboards), Martin Belmont (guitar) and Steve Goulding (drums), blowing through a set containing mostly covers, until a certain unannounced special guest joined in. Surely you see where this story is going by now”yep, it was GP himself who led his former bandmates through a batch of the band’s old classics.
That has turned out to be the group’s only live semi-reunion so far (absent were bassist Andrew Bodnar and guitarist Brinsley Schwarz), but by 2011 a more above-ground plan was brewing. Prompted by a half-joking remark from Goulding, Parker decided to reassemble the original Rumour lineup for a new album. After everyone agreed, Parker had to figure out how to fit his old comrades into his latest batch of tunes. I adjusted my consciousness,” he recalls, “turned [the demos] up very loud¦stuck my head into the computer, and tried to imagine the Rumour playing them. And lo and behold, I can hear Bob Andrews playing that mad shit he played, I can hear it all going on. I had to let it all go and give up, and say, ˜Okay, I want the Rumour to bring it.’ So I just sent them MP3s of me on guitar. I just said, ˜These are the songs.’
The whole thing came together remarkably quickly”the old magic flowed once more between Parker and company, and they put together a new album within about a week. There was not any agonizing over a snare drum sound like there was in the ˜70s, which came from the producers usually anyway, says Parker. There wasn’t any intense kind of ˜Let’s take the songs and dismantle them and put them together again and make them Rumour songs.’ Everything tightened up very quickly. I didn’t need [producer] Mutt Lange, who basically totally arranged the Heat Treatment album. We learned from all that and now we can do it. It’s a bunch of musicians playing at their peak.
If that had been the end of the story, the album would probably have already been out by now, but things quickly became complicated in an extremely unexpected way. A week after I got the Rumour all on board to make this record, recounts Parker, my publishing company¦contacted me saying the music supervisor who works with Judd Apatow got hold of them and said ˜Judd wants to talk to Graham.’ It turned out Apatow wanted Graham to contribute music to his next movie, and to play himself in a satirical screen turn. I said, ˜Well guess what, Judd, I just got the entire Rumour on board to make an album with me next month! They should be in this movie. And so it came to pass that the whole band made the trek to Hollywood to play live for Apatow’s cameras.
This might all seem to be dovetailing wonderfully in terms of reigniting interest in the band’s career, but it’s not quite so simple. You see, Apatow’s comedy isn’t expected until next year’s holiday season. This means that unless they want to waste the extra momentum they’ll surely gain from the film, the band has to sit on the album”and any other plans they might hatch”until then. That said, Parker remains uncertain at best about the prospects for a full-on reunion tour with The Rumour, even after the movie’s release. My theory about reforming bands is you do it for money, and you do it for a lot of money, he says candidly. And me and The Rumour’s career stopped at theaters, and even, in some towns, only clubs. So we wouldn’t be out on the road doing this for, like, Eagles money. That’s one reason I haven’t done it. It’s what you do to bring in the filthy lucre, let’s be honest, that’s why you do it. And that’s never been an issue, because we weren’t big enough to come back and say, ˜We can make a few million here, which would be nice going into our old age.’ We’re not that kind of franchise, really. So definitely it would be interesting to see what the movie does and how things turn out from that. But certainly we had a blast being onstage together. This is one hell of a band.
Whether they tour or not, the album is undeniably in the can, and Parker’s description of its contents is intriguing to say the least. It won’t be [1976 GP&R album] Heat Treatment, which was very forced, or the kind of awkward [third album] Stick To Me. It’s very authentic musicianship, and in that respect, we might have a touch of [classic debut album] Howlin’ Wind about this.
And whatever plans may or may not materialize, Parker sounds genuinely delighted at the results of wrangling his old gang back together to give it another go after thirty years apart. The whole thing has been a fantastic experience, he says. After doing the album, me and The Rumour are back together in the Sunset Marquis in Hollywood, I walk out, and there’s Brinsley and Bob in the pool, like ˜Christ, they’re really here!’ We all went along for the ride. It’s all kind of gravy, whatever happens, happens.