Live At Marble Arch (1976)
A Promo Essential
Record companies in the late 70s knew how to rope in a writer’s allegiances when they sent out promotional recordings that couldn’t be had by any other means (in those ancient pre-internet days of yore). Graham Parker & The Rumour’s Live At Marble Arch, recorded in 1976 and issued by Phonogram Records, was such a sought-after underground favorite it ended up being quickly bootlegged for those non-journos aching for a taste of the promotional good life. Years later, this 10-song set – capturing Parker & The Rumour in all their folky/Morrison-esque/R&B/pub rock glory, and produced by Nick Lowe – was still so revered it ended up being reissued (in its entirety) on two GP collections, Vertigo (HERE) and That’s When You Know (HERE). Because the sonics on the original vinyl were so poor, I’ve opted to use one of the remastered CD versions for this post, which thankfully omits the lame and tiresome introduction. This stuff is essential, stripped bare Parker/Rumour. Peruse the archives for some solo Rumour albums (as well as Brinsley Schwarz), HERE.
White Honey (3:11)
That’s What They All Say (3:52)
Back Door Love (3:29)
Back To Schooldays (3:00)
Silly Thing (3:22)
Chain Of Fools (3:12)
Don’t Ask Me Questions (5:41)
You Can’t Hurry Love (3:34)
Soul Shoes (3:36)
Kansas City (3:51)
BONUS:
The Pink Parker (1977)
A Killer Single… plus
I probably should have thought to add this in the first place. GP & The Rumour’s non-LP cover of The Trammps’ “Hold Back The Night,” along with “(Let Me Get) Sweet On You.” A single that would burn up the charts in the UK. Both tunes would eventually show up as bonus tracks on the 25th Anniversary reissue of Heat Treatment. The original EP was issued on pink vinyl with 2 live tracks from Marble Arch.
Hold Back The Night (3:05)
(Let Me Get) Sweet On You (2:41)
White Honey (Live) (3:11) – From Live At Marble Arch
Soul Shoes (Live) (3:36) – From Live At Marble Arch
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Oh, YEEEEAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSssss………..
Thanks for this treasure from GP & The Rumour. Now I don’t have to wear out my vinyl promo copy from the ’70s. They jump right out of the grooves on this one.
You guys are probably sick as hell of me posting links to long form videos in the comment section, but this is Graham with the Rumour on Rockpalast around 79 or 80 (maybe 81), This is absolutely one of the finest shows I have ever watched. It makes me wish I has seen them at the time…
Not at all. Thanks.
And again a big THANK YOU plus massive praise, Willard – this IS essential, especially in terms of understanding what energy preced “Punk” by folks who weren’t and never would be punks at all, but paved the way .. I saw Mr Parker and his bunch the lot right then in 1976 (at small Berlin Kant-Kino club), and it was a revelation – and prepared us Central European pre-pistols, post-zeppelin, post-adolescent by-the-wall-lot for the (c)rest of waves to come .. Best, TC
I’m envious. I’ve never seen Parker.
Graham showed up first.
The same year that the Ramones crawled out of the Queens sewers an unheralded album arrived at the radio station where I did a morning show: Howlin’ Wind by Graham Parker and the Rumour.
Back then, before consultancy forced rock radio to do the “tighten up,” and shrink their playlists from something that reflected the relative strengths and weaknesses of the current releases to a number that eventually landed at somewhere between 4 and 5 hundred (or less when that specious lowest common denominator-oriented “classic rock” format was conceived by small minded programmers and consultants) we actually took the time to listen to the new arrivals and our decisions on what to play were individual; if my choices were consistently wrong, those bad decisions would be reflected in my ratings and I’d be gone.
We also listened to each other’s shows and considered our peers and their decisions. The consensus on Graham’s first release was unanimous – it rocked. As did the next Mercury release, Heat Treatment. Then Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson showed up and confused many who felt as if they were all the same artist.
It was our job to clarify that issue, which we tried to do. Unfortunately for Graham, his record company and their promotional efforts sucked, especially when one considered the support that Elvis got from Columbia and Joe Jackson got from A & M.
Although brilliant people were in place for Mercury in the U.S. such as the great Paul Nelson, European suits failed to understand the nuances of how to break acts in America – even if they did have the emotional support of dee-jays.
Programmers, meaning program directors often were in league with the devil, meaning management, who were suddenly in charge of a station that had good ratings numbers…. stations changed hands when cash poor station owners could point to great ratings – they’d sell their stations to corporations that hadn’t been broadcasters – they’d hire consultants because they didn’t understand the business, and if a consultant acquired multiple stations with a similar format, they’d try to make them all the same… that resulted in very similar playlists that reflected the tastes and opinions of a central programmer and not one for each market…
With shoddy record company support and consultancy attempting to mainstream rock radio and cut back on current album variety, Graham suffered.
But to many of us he shoulda, coulda, and in our hearts has always been, a contender for the heavyweight crown.
Marble Arch arrived at our station with swirling marble vinyl – a nightmare to cue up for radio people… I recall trying to drop a needle at the beginning of the song I wanted to play… often we had a finite amount of time to cue up a record… and the pressure was on to find the damn track with the marble vinyl driving us crazy. We asked for a black vinyl copy and by the time our Mercury rep got it to us, we had backed off of playing Marble Arch…
Mercury kept trying with Graham, although it all came down to novelty vinyl. The Pink Parker showed up after Marble Arch, with “Hold Back the Night” being the emphasis cut. It was a killer track that should have gotten tons of airplay – unfortunately it wasn’t available on an album (and it never showed up in Orlando where I was working as a single) so even if we did play it – which I sure the hell did – nobody could buy it. The ep had 4 tracks, pink vinyl and was beloved but impossible for our listeners to own.
Living well being the best revenge, it’s gratifying to see that Graham is still making great music and still smiling – not what one would have expected from someone who sounded so angry on record… back in the day
Jeff McKee
Richmond, Virginia
Great commentary, Jeff. Had GP wound up on an artist-friendly label at the outset, I feel certain he’d be getting the props Elvis Costello wound up with. (Whether or not he would have scored Diana Krall as well must remain a subject for conjecture.)
So did Mercury break out any new artists in the mid-late Seventies? Racking what’s left of my brain and coming up with nothing.
Thanks for posting the remastered “Arch”. The Rumour remains one of the great unheralded backup bands…
Mercury held it’s own in the later part of the 70′s. They had bands like Rush, who arguably “broke” while on Mercury, and they had the Scorpions (not defending their taste, but the Scorps were fairly large). They also had quite a few “almosts” including City Boy (Remember “5-705″?) and they had the Ohio Players (ok, funk-rock, but still). They also bought out Casablanca, which means they had Kiss for awhile, but a lot of garbage from that label as well, so they had Donna Summer, but they also had the Village People (brrr…). And of course in the late 70′s they had butt-loads of Country hits, as well as legends like Jerry Lee Lewis releasing records. I miss the days of decent labels (they were originally a Jazz imprint). Mercury was a cool label until it wasn’t anymore.
I remember buying the Pink EP and playing the hell out of Hold Back The Night in the club I worked as a DJ just as we were chnging programming from a classic rock-blues-jazz r&b club to something more and this cut helped. I also recall the LAST Mercury-Phono0gram (marbled. too)” of ‘Mercury Poisoning’ which had to be a hard pill for the reord company to swallow and never made a stock copy available as I recall.It was ALSO a great rocker…anyone got THAT one?
(
I don’t… butI’ve got a live version of it coming up tomorrow.)Actually… I DO have “Mercury Poisoning.” Found Passion Is No Ordinary Word (The Graham Parker Anthology 1976-1991) on the shelves. Here you go.
http://www46.zippyshare.com/v/52231994/file.html
Willard,
You are so good to us! I saw an acoustic set by GP and sat about 7 feet from stage. Sparsely attended (sadly for GP but wonderful for those of us there) but I never thought an acoustic one man show could feel so electric. This was about 1991 or so…
Thank you
@ Courtney – regarding the US Mercury label and whether they had any success with rock from the mid-70′s to the end of the decade.
Nope. Of course my memory could be faltering but as best as I can recall, much like the element that’s found on the periodic table, Mercury on a record label at that time meant poison to the artist whose name was unfortunately affixed to it…
10 CC was signed to Mercury on the strength of “I’m Not In Love,” in ’75, but trouble within the group caused the band to break-up before much momentum could generate continued success.
BTO was gangbusters early in the decade by but ’75, internal squabble derailed them as well.
The Dolls and the Runaways were critical faves but both laid eggs with the record buying public (damn those morons)
Rush would be a solid YES – they were on Mercury and they had success, albeit, not nearly the kind of success they might have had on another label.
From 75 thru the end of the decade Rush did just fine but that was it.
Thin Lizzy scored big with their Jailbreak album but nothing, I mean nothing else got any airplay in the United States.
And unless there’s something I’m spacing out on, that’s it. Nada, nothing, zippo save Rush, which is a band I couldn’t stand, still don’t get it, but they did do well while on Mercury.
Other than the one Boy are Back blip, Thin Lizzy stiffed
Mercury failed to break into rock radio or have significant sales for their artists from the mid-70′s thru 1980.
While I agree (mostly) with you, please refer to the enclosed link to find the artists who have ever been on Mercury (it is DEFINITELY not a complete one). Mercury had many more successes than any of us are truly aware of. There was more than just Rush, who I mentioned in a previous post.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Mercury_Records_artists
It is good to remember that Mercury had a series of artists who were “singles” artists (remember them?), So they may not have had a immediate “Rock Only” stature. However, sometimes quantity made up for quality in the middle to late 70′s.
btw, I do have that last Graham LP with several versions of Mercury Poisoning on it – on vinyl. No turntable, however. I’d be happy to ship the damn thing to you, Willard, if you want it.
Lemme Know,
Jeff McKee
Richmond, Va.
That’s a kind offer, Jeff. But, I already have (I suspect, like you) too much vinyl, CDs and hard drive files than I know what to do with. Thanks.
You’re on a roll lately Willard – another sterling post. Very interesting comments above, too… gonna read ‘em now. Thanks!
Comments and links and memories and videos and tidbits are the best thing about posting.
The answer to Courtney’s question, “So did Mercury break out any new artists in the mid-late Seventies,” is, I guess, how one defines “break out.”
Assuming we’re not talking about zits here, I limited my response to rock acts and put “break out” into the context of radio airplay which would lead to sales, touring, and follow up releases.
I recall that Spirit released a bunch of stuff on Mercury in the ’70′s (like Spirit of ’76,) but as much as they were admired and as much as they did play clubs, their airplay was limited at best, and their product sold quite poorly.
With many of the acts the best thing they seemed to do to prolong their careers was to leave the label.
In responding to Courtney’s query I answered using the limitations of the time period she asked about – the mid to late ’70′s.
From memory, I recall that the Scorpions were an RCA act throughout the ’70′s but yes, they did sign with Mercury. I remember that their first was the one with the kinky cover – the sticky boobie cover, Lovedrive.
We didn’t play that kind of music but the cover gives me a frame of reference – let’s say ’79. That would mean that they had their period of success in the ’80′s.
I’ll stick with my initial response. Their local reps would load you up with product and invariably it was stuff you didn’t want and never played and, it never got played on the air either.
Can’t answer for top 40 at that time, although I did do Top 40 just as the format exploded with Prince, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper…. from 82 until it peaked in 87 or so… then back to rock where I’ve been ever since… my dealings with label guys was limited during the top 40 years… but Bon Jovi was a Mercury act that made it in the ’80′s,
Instead of any more thinking about this, I’ll go back to the point that I tried to make – Mercury served Graham miserably. It hampered his success and IMO he spent years trying to recover from the mess into which they plopped him.
He even wrote a song about it… bottom line, Mercury was a terrible label to work with at that time.
Willard, you’re right, I’ve got more vinyl than sense. And I wouldn’t change a thing.
I saw Graham Parker & The Rumour along with Southside Johnny & The Jukes on a double bill back in 77 or 78…these were historic performances that recalled the white heat energy of the original rock & roll moments from the 50′s. Also, I really like the fact that Parker has always gone his own way as an artist; no matter what his audience demanded. I think that attitude indicates that he still has great work ahead of him.
Captain Willard..
You’ve done it again – - Parker and The Rumour – one could say they are/were a band that was, how to put it, criminally underappreciated – but that would be a gross understatement of the facts. Heard his 1st – had to hear more – saw them live in and around Philadelphia – and had to catch them again…1st time at The Bijou Cafe. You speak of The Pink Parker and Mercury Poisoning – and I can tell you that I purchased them at 3rd Street Rock & Jazz Records and – speaking of Parker’s live recordings – was witness to the recording of his
Live Alone In America – in Philadelphia.
As always – thanks for sharing your many treats stored in the hold of The Boat!
G
Aaah once again you pinpointed it, this was the first record I bought for my own money. I had a LP before and that was Atom Heart Mother and I love equally. Next one was Diamond Head.
Great stuff this, thx all. If anyone has decent rips of Heat Treatment, Howlin’ Wind & Imaginary Television that would be great.
Just found your site yesterday, first Pogo A Gogo now The Pink Parker, deep joy ! Many thanks