Morning Parade was an English five-piece

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

band from

Harlow Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the upp ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

that formed in 2007 before signing with

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

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 4 December 2014.

Early days and formation

Steve Sparrow and Phil Titus met as students at

Burnt Mill Academy Burnt Mill Academy (formerly known de facto as Burnt Mill School) is a secondary school academy and specialist performing arts college situated on First Avenue in Harlow, Essex, England. The school originally opened in May 1962 as Burnt Mill C ...

in Harlow. They later worked together as labourers. Steve then met Chad Thomas at

Harlow College Harlow College is a further education college in Harlow, Essex, England. This medium-sized college has 5,900 students as of 2018 of which 2,585 are on 16-19 programmes and 2,000 are on adult educational programmes. Its main campus is in the tow ...

in 2003. The three formed an experimental rock band called Anotherstory which featured Sparrow on lead vocals, piano and guitar, Titus on bass and backing vocals and Thomas on guitar and piano. The other two members were Mike Pope (guitar) and Charles Gadsdon (drums). Gadsdon now owns artist management company, The QE Company. The group's first single, called Traffic, was released independently prior to breaking up in 2007. After the split, Sparrow toured the independent music scenes of

and

Bishop's Stortford Bishop's Stortford is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, just west of the M11 motorway on the county boundary with Essex, north-east of central London, and by rail from Liverpool Street station. Stortford had an estimated po ...

. During this time, he met Andy Hayes and Ben Giddings, who became the final two members of Morning Parade that year. They started out away from the public eye, instead focusing on songwriting. When they began gigging in 2008 it took fewer than 20 dates before they were approached by a record label. The band eventually signed to

in May 2010. Their name stems from the days when Titus was working as a plasterer and Sparrow was his labourer. It required early morning starts and travelling, which they referred to as doing the 'morning parade'.

Early tours

On 29 November 2010, Morning Parade announced their 2011 UK tour. Following a number of UK shows they toured Europe with

The Wombats The Wombats are an English indie rock band formed in Liverpool in 2003, consisting of Matthew Murphy (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards), Tord Øverland Knudsen (bass, backing vocals, keyboards), and Dan Haggis (drums, backing vocals, keyboards). ...

. Their UK dates included the V Festival in Chelmsford, a few miles from Harlow. A planned performance at the Belgian

Pukkelpop Pukkelpop is an annual music festival that takes place near the city of Hasselt, Belgium, in mid- to late August. It is held within a large enclosure of fields and woodland—adjacent to a dual carriageway called ''Kempische Steenweg''—in the ...

festival in August 2011 was cancelled after the venue was hit by an unusually heavy storm, which collapsed trees, tents and stages, killing several people. In 2012, Morning Parade performed on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in the US and at Hyde Park in London for the torch relay which opened that year's Olympic Games. Between October and December 2012 the band toured the United States, opening for

The Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamb ...

. One such show at the

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in New York was shot in 3D.

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 & Ourselves". It was recorded at 13 Studios, owned by Blur and

Gorillaz Gorillaz are an English virtual band formed in 1998 by musician Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett, from London. The band primarily consists of four fictional members: 2-D (vocals, keyboards), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar, ...

frontman

Damon Albarn Damon Albarn (; born 23 March 1968) is an English-Icelandic musician, singer-songwriter and composer, best known as the frontman and primary lyricist of the rock band Blur and as the co-creator and primary musical contributor of the virtual ...

, 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. The track listing was as follows: # "Blue Winter" # "Headlights" # "Carousel" # "Running Down The Aisle" # "Us & Ourselves" # "Under The Stars" # "Close To Your Heart" # "Half Litre Bottle" # "Monday Morning" # "Speechless" # "Born Alone" # "Youth"

Airplay, press and critical acclaim

"Under the Stars" was played on

Zane Lowe Alexander Zane Reid Lowe (born 7 August 1973) is a New Zealand radio DJ, live DJ, record producer, and television presenter. After an early career in music creation, production and DJing, he moved to the UK in 1997. He came to prominence thro ...

's show on

BBC Radio One BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

, and released on 29 November 2010. It was also featured on ''

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''. The band released the video for "Under the Stars" on 2 December 2010 on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

. The song has been played on Radio 1,

BBC 6 Music BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...

XFM Radio X is a British National commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. Radio X launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station, a licensed London-wide station in 1997 and nationally in 2015 ...

Absolute Radio Absolute Radio is a British National radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Absolute Radio Network. It broadcasts nationally across the UK via Digital audio broadcasting and on 1215 kHz MW. History 1993–1997: Virg ...

and

Q Radio Q Radio was an online, DAB and DTV radio station, broadcasting on digital television across the UK and online. The station launched in June 2008 as an alternative to the UK's rock and alternative stations, with a strong relationship with Q ...

. "Speechless" was featured on ''

'', in the episode "We'll Always Have Bourbon Street", of season 4 "Shake the Cage", from their new album, ''Pure Adulterated Joy'', was featured in

Konami , is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company, video game and entertainment company headquartered in Chūō, Tokyo, Chūō, Tokyo, it also produces and distributes trading cards, anime, tokusatsu, pachinko machin ...

's football video game ''

Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 ''Pro Evolution Soccer 2015'' (abbreviated as ''PES 2015'' and known as ''World Soccer: Winning Eleven 2015'' in Japan) is a football simulation game developed by PES Productions and published by Konami for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Pla ...

'', having been earlier featured in an official trailer. They have also received praise from

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

, ''

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''., and AbsolutePunk.

Breakup

In a Facebook posting, on 4 December 2014, the band announced they were breaking up. Their former bass guitarist, Phil Titus, died on 9 March 2023, at the age of 36.

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Morning Parade'' (2012) * ''Pure Adulterated Joy'' (2014)

Extended plays

* ''Alienation'' (2013)

Singles

Music videos

References

External links

Morning Parade interview on LeftLion.co.uk
{{Authority control Music in Essex Parlophone artists Astralwerks artists English alternative rock groups Musical groups established in 2007 Musical groups disestablished in 2014 2007 establishments in England 2014 disestablishments in England