One of the UK’s most cherished indie bands The Hit Parade releases its thirteenth single on JSH Records tomorrow to mark Record Store Day 2018.
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.
Happy World is the a side of the the new single, produced by R G Watts and recorded by the group at home. rough round the edges indie pop, the band haven’t fallen far from the c86 tree they originally grew from. And with as catchy a chorus as we’ve heard this year, alongside that sort of fragile innocence the band have always traded in, why should they?
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.
