The Hit Parade

All Music Guide:

A duo of singer/songwriter Julian Henry, who plays guitar, and producer Raymond Watts, who plays keyboards and handles the programming, London's Hit Parade were perched on the divide between indie acoustic guitar jangle and dancefloor-friendly electronics for most of their career. Even more than St. Etienne, the Hit Parade make plain the connections between two styles often seen as widely disparate.

Henry and Watts got together in the early '80s and began making bedroom recordings which they issued on their own JSH Records beginning with 1984's "Forever." A string of singles followed over the next two years, including "My Favourite Girl," "The Sun Shines in Cerrards Cross," "You Didn't Love Me Then," "See You in Havana," and "I Get So Sentimental." After a years-long silence, most of these singles were collected on 1990's With Love From the Hit Parade on the U.K. indie Vinyl Japan. The same label released the holiday single "Christmas Tears" later that year, which was included in two versions (one with Amelia Fletcher of Talulah Gosh and Heavenly singing lead) on the 1991 album More Pop Songs, which put Watts' keyboards more prominently into the mix. (A slightly reworked version of this disc, with tracks from the early singles, was released in Japan in 1992 as Light Music.)

Possibly through their relationship with Fletcher, the Hit Parade hooked up with the estimable Sarah Records, which released their next single, "In Gunnersbury Park," in January 1992. By this time, however, the Hit Parade had again slowed down their output, and with the exception of the 1993 single "Hitomi" on Chicago's Minty Fresh label, the duo weren't heard from again until 1994, when Sarah released the EP Autobiography, followed quickly by the full album The Sound of the Hit Parade, with which it shares no tracks. Henry quietly disbanded the Hit Parade after the release of that album.

Wikipedia:

The Hit Parade is a British pop music group, based in London, England. Named after the NBC US television programme, Your Hit Parade, which was broadcast across America in the 1950s as a showcase of the best of chart music, The Hit Parade was formed in 1984, by three schoolfriends Raymond Watts, Matthew Moffatt and Julian Henry. The group have released six albums and eleven singles to date.

Background

The Hit Parade are from the suburbs to the west of London. The band recorded their first three singles in the Raymond Watt's garage, working alongside experimental noise groups Psychic TV and Einstürzende Neubauten, who were both recording there at the time. The Hit Parade's early records "My Favourite Girl" and "The Sun Shines In Gerrards Cross" became 'Singles of the Week' in Melody Maker and Record Mirror, and were played on BBC Radio 1 by DJs including John Peel, David "Kid" Jensen and Janice Long.

The Hit Parade have never been commercially successful, in part because, the three core members have been occupied in other careers. Watts moved to Berlin in 1989 to record with industrial rock acts, Henry developed a successful career in marketing and journalism, while Moffatt founded his own film lighting company. But they have continued to release records to the current day. They proclaim the Latin motto "Semper Eadem" ("always the same") on their records.

Recordings

The Hit Parade record for the JSH record label in the UK, producing 7" vinyl singles in limited editions. The first six of these singles, carrying the catalogue reference JSH 1 through to JSH 6 have become collectible. In 1985, The Hit Parade became the last group signed to Stiff Records by label chief Dave Robinson. Material was recorded for Stiff, but the label went out of business before anything (other than a track on a compilation album) was released.

In 1988, él records label boss Mike Alway introduced Henry to Jessica and Miranda Griffin of indie band Would-be-goods. Henry arranged nine of the original twelve songs on the band's first album, The Camera Loves Me. In the 1990s, The Hit Parade signed to the Sarah Records label, and recorded "In Gunnersbury Park", an ode to Gunnersbury Park, the West London civic garden. Henry, and Harvey Williams from Another Sunny Day, performed at the Sarah Records farewell concert on board the Thekla Boat, permanently moored in Bristol, in 1995.

In the mid 1990s, The Hit Parade started to become popular in Japan, as a part of a neo acoustic movement that celebrated British indie bands such as The Pastels and Haircut One Hundred. The Hit Parade signed to Vinyl Japan and later Polystar Records. They had a Top 20 indie hit with "Hello Hannah Hello". They toured Japan several times, performed at the opening of the Virgin Megastore in Shinjuku, Tokyo, appeared on MTV Japan and other TV shows. They signed to Minty Fresh Records, Chicago, in the United States and released their first US single, "Hello Hannah Hello".

In 2006, The Hit Parade released The Return Of The Hit Parade, their fifth album. It was the result of a three year collaboration between Henry and St Etienne producer / engineer / musician, Ian Catt. Their ninth single "My Stupid Band" was released at this time. The album also contained two songs set in coastal villages in Penwith, West Cornwall; "The Queen of Mousehole" and "Born in St Ives". In the same year, the Hit Parade single "You Didn't Love Me Then", appeared on Sanctuary Records C86 double album Cd86: The Birth Of Indie Pop. In 2009, various new songs set in Penwith, Cornwall, have appeared on the band's MySpace page, including "Garage In Drift", "Treen Girl" and "Rainy Day In Newlyn".

The band released their tenth single in October 2010, a duet featuring Cath Carroll and Julian Henry named "I Like Bubblegum" b/w "Zennor Mermaid" on 7" vinyl on JSH Records. The single raised money for the Porthmeor Studio in St Ives Cornwall restoration fund. It was voted one of the best singles of 2010 by Drowned In Sound. In May 2011 they released their 11th single 'There's Something About Mary', described as 'a bona fide pop smash' by Drowned In Sound. The B-side contains a tribute to 90s Sarah Records signing Brighter, named 'The Boy Who Loves Brighter'.

Songs

The Hit Parade's songs have referenced locations including "See You In Havana" (Zihuatanejo, Mexico), "Huebos Mexica" (Zona Rosa, Zocalo, Mexico City), "Road To Beaconsfield" (Beaconsfield, Bull Lane Tennis Club Gerrards Cross), "Wipe Away the Tears" (Acton, London), "So This Is London" (London, Regent's Street), "Born In St Ives" (St Ives, Cornwall), "The Queen Of Mousehole" (Mousehole, Cornwall), "Westbourne Terrace W2", "Autobiography" (Goodwin Sands, Kent), "Gunnersbury Park", West London, "So Said Kayo" (Nagoya TV Tower, Mr Donut, Tokyo Hands Dept Store). The Hit Parade song, "Grace Darling", tells her heroic story, and appeared on their fourth album, The Sound of The Hit Parade. Various Hit Parade songs refer to writers and their work, including "The Road To Beaconsfield" (George Orwell, Enid Blyton), "As I Lay Dying" (William Faulkner), "House Of Sarah" Evelyn Waugh Brideshead Revisited), "Huebos Mexicana" (Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Ernest Hemingway, Malcolm Lowry, Ken Kesey), "See You In Havana" (Hemingway) and others. The band's artwork features literary locations including Eric Blair (George Orwell), Wordsworth (Grasmere, Cumbria), Derek Jarman (Dungeness), Colerige (Alfoxden Park), Ian Fleming & Noël Coward (St Margarets Bay). Several of the Hit Parade's songs reference other indie pop landmarks including "Harvey", "House Of Sarah", "Are You Scared To Be Happy?", "Boy Who Loves Brighter" and others as was referenced in the Guardian article in June 2011.

The band's 10th single 'I Like Bubblegum' features a duet between Julian Henry and Cath Carroll.

Concerts

The Hit Parade first played live as a three piece at a residency at The Mean Fiddler in North London in 1990; they later toured the UK and in 1992 they toured Japan for the first time playing concerts in Shinjuku, Tokyo; they returned for four other tours playing concerts in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, appearing as headliners and with Billy Childish and his group the Milkshakes, and for a tour with Edwyn Collins. Their line up during these tours included Mike Watts (keyboards), Harvey Williams (guitar) and Cath Carroll (vocals). The last time The Hit Parade played live as a three piece with Henry, Moffatt and Watts, was in 2006 in London. Henry and Williams played several concerts in London and Oxford in 2009, including at the London Indiepop Festival where they played a set of combined Another Sunny Day and Hit Parade songs and were given a warm welcome.

Line up

The Hit Parade's bass guitarist, Raymond Watts, is known for his industrial group PIG, releasing seventeen albums. As well as touring extensively in North America, Japan and Europe, Watts has recorded many albums with KMFDM, including a platinum selling track on the video game movie Mortal Kombat. In 2009, Watts co-produced the music for fashion designer Alexander McQueen's last Paris show. The Hit Parade's drummer, Matthew Moffatt, runs a London based film lighting company, working with directors including Mike Leigh, Kathryn Bigelow and Paul Greengrass. Moffatt is credited on several Hollywood and British produced films including the Oscar winning Hurt Locker, and the Oscar nominated Vera Drake and United 93. The Hit Parade's guitarist, Julian Henry, founded the public releations agency Henry's House, is a trustee of The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA, London), is an advisor to Simon Fuller, and has written for periodicals including NME, Music Week and The Guardian on both music and marketing. Other members included Cath Carroll, Harvey Williams and Mike Watts.