The Rumour was an English rock band in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They are best known as the
backup band
A backup band or backing band is a musical ensemble that typically accompanies a single artist who is the featured performer. The situation may be a live performance or in a recording session, and the group may or may not have its own name, such a ...
for
Graham Parker
Graham Thomas Parker (born 18 November 1950) is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the British band Graham Parker & the Rumour.
Life and career Early career (1960s–1976)
Parker was born in Hackney, East L ...
, whose early records (from 1976 to 1980) were credited to Graham Parker & The Rumour.
However, The Rumour also recorded on their own, releasing three
album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...
s: ''Max'' (1977), ''Frogs, Sprouts, Clogs and Krauts'' (1979), and ''Purity of Essence'' (1980).
The group broke up at the end of 1980, but reunited as Parker's backing band in 2011, and have performed and recorded with Parker ever since. The band undertook a short final UK tour in October 2015, finishing with a final concert at the London Forum on 17 October 2015. At this show, the surviving members of the horn section also reunited, for the first time in 33 years.
History
Members of The Rumour came from the veteran UK pub rock bands
Brinsley Schwarz,
Ducks Deluxe and Bontemps Roulez. Throughout most of their existence (1975–1980), The Rumour consisted of founding members
Bob Andrews (keyboards),
Brinsley Schwarz (guitar),
Martin Belmont
Martin Belmont (born 21 December 1948) is an English rock and country-blues guitarist, best known for being a founding member of Graham Parker & The Rumour.
Life and career
Belmont was born in Bromley, Kent, England. After working as a roadie ...
(guitar),
Andrew Bodnar
Andrew Bodnar is an English bass player who grew up in Clapham, South London. He and drummer Steve Goulding (The Rumour, The Mekons, etc) met and began playing together as a rhythm section while still at school. They spent their teenage years au ...
(bass), and
Stephen Goulding (drums).
Lead vocals were shared amongst all group members.
The Rumour debuted on disc as Graham Parker's backing band on his 1976 album ''
Howlin' Wind
''Howlin' Wind'' is the debut album by English singer-songwriter Graham Parker and his band the Rumour, released in 1976. The Rumour are mainly former pub rock scene musicians, including guitarist Brinsley Schwarz and keyboardist Bob Andrews o ...
''.
While continuing to work with Parker (and to receive billing on his albums), the following year The Rumour began to issue their own recordings, starting with the 1977 album ''Max'' (a reply to
Fleetwood Mac
Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the line-up for their epony ...
for calling their latest album ''
Rumours''). 1979 saw the band showcase their mastery of the new wave sound with ''Frogs, Sprouts, Clogs and Krauts'', a commentary on European society.
The Rumour were noted for their hard driving, skilled, tightly arranged ensemble playing. They have been compared to
The Band and the
Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
, frequently recalling both simultaneously. Together with Parker they recorded several albums, most notably 1979's ''
Squeezing Out Sparks
''Squeezing Out Sparks'' is the fourth studio album by English singer-songwriter Graham Parker and his band the Rumour. The album was released in March 1979. Although the Rumour were not credited on the cover, their name was included on the album ...
''.
Members of The Rumour (often, but not always, acting as a unit) also kept themselves busy during this era appearing as
session musician
Session musicians, studio musicians, or backing musicians are musicians hired to perform in recording sessions or live performances. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a recording artist on a ...
s on various recordings issued by acts associated with
pub rock and
new wave. At various points, and on various recordings, The Rumour backed
Nick Lowe
Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in power pop and new wave,[Dave Edmunds
David William Edmunds (born 15 April 1944) is a Welsh singer-songwriter, guitarist and record producer. Although he is mainly associated with pub rock and new wave, having many hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, his natural leaning has alwa ...]
,
Carlene Carter
Carlene Carter (born Rebecca Carlene Smith; September 26, 1955) is an American country music singer and songwriter. She is the daughter of June Carter Cash and her first husband, Carl Smith.
As of 2020, since 1978, Carter has recorded 12 album ...
and other acts. As well, in 1977 Bodnar and Goulding played bass and drums, respectively, on
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...
's first UK chart hit, "
Watching the Detectives". The band also backed
Garland Jeffreys
Garland Jeffreys (born June 29, 1943) is an American singer and songwriter in rock and roll, reggae, blues, and soul music.
Career
Jeffreys is from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, of African American and Puerto Rican heritage. He majored in art hist ...
on the tour for his ''Escape Artist'' album.
Feeling that their work was overlooked due to their image as Graham Parker's backing band, an album was planned for release as The Duplicates. However, the idea was ultimately shelved after the release of a single: I Want To Make You Very Happy / Call Of The Faithful. Andrews subsequently left the group during 1979, with session musician
Nicky Hopkins
Nicholas Christian "Nicky" Hopkins (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist. Hopkins performed on many popular and enduring British and American rock music recordings from the 1960s to the 1990s, most notably ...
playing piano subsequently. The remaining quartet continued on, recording their own album ''Purity of Essence'' (1980) and serving as the backing band on Graham Parker's ''
The Up Escalator
''The Up Escalator'' is an album by Graham Parker and the Rumour, released on 23 May 1980 by Stiff Records as LP (SEEZ 23) and as cassette (ZSEEZ 23). In the USA, the album was released by Arista. Released after Parker's successful 1979 album '' ...
'' (1980) before breaking up by 1981.
Bodnar said of the band's breakup:
Post-Rumour careers
All of the former members of The Rumour worked fairly frequently as session musicians in the years following the Rumour's demise. Schwarz, Bodnar and Goulding all worked with Parker at various times since The Rumour's break-up, and Belmont has appeared on recordings by Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe. Goulding has also been a member of
The Mekons
The Mekons are a British band formed in the late 1970s as an art collective. They are one of the longest-running and most prolific of the first-wave British punk rock bands.
The band's style has evolved over time to incorporate aspects of ...
since 1984.
A
compilation album
A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...
of Rumour material (from their last two albums only) was released by Metro in 2000, entitled ''Not So Much a Rumour, More a Way of Life''.
Reunion
On 21 October 2010, Parker, Andrews, Belmont, Goulding, and bassist Jeremy Chatzky performed together under the name Kippington Lodge Social Club, at a preview screening of ''Don't Ask Me Questions'', a documentary about Parker. The following spring all five original members joined Parker to record a new album, entitled ''Three Chords Good'', and in September 2011 Parker and The Rumour filmed a performance scene for the
Judd Apatow
Judd Apatow (; born December 6, 1967) is an American comedian, director, producer, and screenwriter, best known for his work in comedy and drama films. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, through which he produced and directed the films '' ...
film ''
This Is 40
''This Is 40'' is a 2012 American romantic comedy film written and directed by Judd Apatow and starring Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann. A " sort-of sequel" to Apatow's 2007 film ''Knocked Up'', the movie centers on married couple Pete (Rudd) and Debbie ...
''. The album was released in November 2012.
Music journalist
Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on w ...
,
Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, occ ...
noted that the release was "the rare reunion that simultaneously looks back while living in the present."
Discography
*''Max'', Mercury Records (1977)
*''Frogs Sprouts Clogs and Krauts'', Stiff Records (UK) (1979)
*''Purity Of Essence'', Stiff Records (UK)/Hannibal Records (US) (1980) - Note that the track listings and performances of the UK and US editions of this album differ significantly.
The US track listing:
1.Tula
2.I Don’t Want the Night to End
3.Writing in the Water
4.Have You Seen my Baby?
5.Rubber Band Man
6.More Than She Will Say
7.Houston
8.Falling in Love With a Dream
9.Depression
10.I Think It’s Gonna Work Out Fine
11.Name and Number
''For albums with Graham Parker, see
Graham Parker's discography.''
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rumour, The
English rock music groups
Vertigo Records artists
English new wave musical groups
British pub rock music groups
Musical backing groups
Musical groups from London
Musical groups established in 1976
Graham Parker