One of the UK’s most cherished indie bands The Hit Parade releases its thirteenth single on JSH Records to mark Record Store Day 2018 today.
Happy World is a new song, a defiant battle cry from this idealistic pop group, to tell the tale of an increasingly belligerent indie band that now exists only as a dream in its songwriter’s imagination, recorded in lo-fi mono and produced by R G Watts. It will be available in all good record stores. The B-Side ‘Otaku Boy’ is another new song, a vignette about obsessive relationships and the writing of Banana Yoshimoto.
The Hit Parade was formed by three school friends in 1984. They have released six albums and 12 singles since and built a small but determined following amongst record fans in London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, New York, Stockholm and Penzance. After touring Japan in the 1990s (first with Thee Milkshakes then with Edwyn Collins), the Hit Parade went into a period of hibernation although their 2013 single ‘I Like Bubblegum’ was heralded one of the best singles of the year by Drowned In Sound.
Like other Hit Parade 7” vinyl singles, Happy World is cut by hand, written and recorded at home and is sold in a limited edition. A new Hit Parade LP, provisionally labelled “Still Julian”, is hoped for in 2018.
