Morning Parade

Morning Parade
Background information
Origin	Harlow, Essex, England
Genres	Alternative rock, indie rock
Years active	2007 - 2014
Labels	Parlophone Astralwerks
Associated acts	Anotherstory, Wing Commander, Goldfish
Website	Official website
Past members	Steve Sparrow Chad Thomas Phil Titus Ben Giddings Andy Hayes

Morning Parade was a five-piece alternative rock band from Harlow, Essex that formed in 2007 before signing with Parlophone in 2010. Its self-titled debut album was released early in 2012. The line-up was composed of Steve Sparrow (lead vocals, piano and guitar), Phil Titus (bass), Chad Thomas (guitar), Ben Giddings (piano/synths), and Andrew Hayes (drums). The band broke up on December 4, 2014.

Early days and formation

Steve Sparrow and Phil Titus met at school as they both attended Burnt Mill Academy in Harlow. They later worked together as labourers. Steve then met Chad Thomas at Harlow College in 2003. Together they became three parts of a band called Anotherstory.^[1] Sparrow was the lead vocalist and also played the piano and guitar, Titus was the bassist and backing vocalist and Thomas played the guitar and piano. The other two members were Mike Pope, who played guitar, and Charles Gadsdon the drummer. Gadsdon now owns artist management company, The QE Company. Anotherstory played experimental and alternative rock, inspired by artists such as Elbow, Radiohead and The Stills. Their first single, "Traffic", was released by the band independently prior to their break-up in 2007.

After the split, Sparrow toured the local scene of Harlow and Bishop's Stortford. Footage of him playing acoustic versions of his songs from this period are still available on YouTube. During this time, he met Andy Hayes and Ben Giddings, who became the final two members of Morning Parade that same year.^[2] They had all previously been in other bands and started out away from the public eye, instead focusing on songwriting. When they did eventually start playing gigs, it took fewer than 20 before they were approached by a record label. The band ignored these early approaches, but eventually signed to Parlophone, a major British label which looks after acts such as Coldplay and Kylie Minogue, in May 2010.^[3]

Their name stems from the days when Titus was working as a plasterer and Sparrow was his labourer. It used to require early mornings and travelling to get to their various jobs. They referred to this as doing the 'morning parade'. They also say the name refers to the transition period between night and day.

Shows

On 29 November 2010, Morning Parade announced their 2011 UK tour.^[4] After having played a number of shows throughout the UK, they then toured Europe with The Wombats, which included performances in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Italy. Among the festivals played is the V Festival in Chelmsford, a few miles away from the band's hometown of Harlow. A planned performance at the Belgian Pukkelpop festival in August 2011 was canceled after the venue was hit by an unusually heavy storm, which collapsed trees, tents and stages, killing several people.^[5]

In 2012, Morning Parade performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno here in the US, as well as Hyde Park for the London Olympics torch relay for the summer games.^[6]

From October through December 2012 the band toured the United States opening for The Smashing Pumpkins. On December 10, 2012 Morning Parade played a make-up show with The Smashing Pumpkins at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn New York, USA. The show was shot in 3d.^[6]

On 6 August 2013, Morning Parade announced they will be releasing a new album, and will tour the US with Biffy Clyro.^[7]

Debut album

Morning Parade's eponymous debut album was released on 5 March 2012, following the release of singles "Under The Stars", "A&E" and "Us And Ourselves". It was recorded at 13 Studios, owned by Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn, and in collaboration with producer Jason Cox

On 8 December 2011, Morning Parade played the album in full at London's Camden Barfly to a small group of fans. On 6 February the following year, a month before its physical release, the album was made available on Spotify.^[8]

The track listing was as follows:

1. "Blue Winter"
2. "Headlights"
3. "Carousel"
4. "Running Down The Aisle"
5. "Us & Ourselves"
6. "Under The Stars"
7. "Close To Your Heart"
8. "Half Litre Bottle"
9. "Monday Morning"
10. "Speechless"
11. "Born Alone"
12. "Youth"

Airplay, press and critical acclaim

"Under the Stars" was played on Zane Lowe's show on BBC Radio One,^[9][10] and released on 29 November 2010. It was also featured on The Vampire Diaries. The band released the video for "Under the Stars" on 2 December 2010 on YouTube, which was first shown exclusively on The Sun's website on 30 November.^[11] The song has been played on Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, XFM, Absolute Radio and Q Radio.^[12]

"Speechless" was featured on The Vampire Diaries,^[13] in the episode "We'll Always Have Bourbon Street",^[14] of Season 4

"Shake the Cage", from their new album, Pure Adulterated Joy, will be featured in Konami's football video game Pro Evolution Soccer 2015, having been featured in an official trailer.^[15]

They have also received praise from MTV,^[16] Vogue.,^[17] and AbsolutePunk

Breakup

In a Facebook posting, on 4 December 2014, the band announced they were calling it quits.^[18]

Discography

Studio albums

• Morning Parade (2012)
• Pure Adulterated Joy (2014)

Extended plays

• Alienation (2013)

Singles

Music videos

References

External links

• Official website
• Morning Parade on Twitter
• Morning Parade interview on LeftLion.co.uk