Back in September 2010 I was the first blogger to ever write about the girlband Parade. I knew about them as I’d been working for the company that put the group together. I hadn’t heard any of their music at the time, so my prognosis that “They are not looking to fill a girlband niche, they won’t be a new Sugababes or All Saints, instead they’re aiming to be the next Spice Girls or Girls Aloud” was based only on what kind of group I felt they wanted and needed to be.
Eventually their music was released, and while I really liked debut single Louder, and it deservedly made the UK top 10, overall the sound just wasn’t big enough to capture the nation or make Parade the band I had hoped for. Still, the girls definitely had the talent and star quality to succeed, so when they left their original record label and asked me to get involved with the A&R of their new music I jumped at the chance. I made it my mission to make sure that Parade fulfilled their poptastic potential.
After speaking to the girls to find out their musical tastes and ambitions, I got to work organising sessions for them with some of the producers and writers who I thought would be able to bring out the special something that had made me believe in Parade. Among those were Fred Ball, Ed Drewett, Jamal Hadaway, MNEK, K-Gee and Tim Powell, a producer who I’ve been keenly following since he left Xenomania to work on his own projects a couple of years ago.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkeKJBu-ODE?feature=player_embedded&w=520&h=340]
It was with Tim that Parade came up with Light Me Up, the first song the public get to hear from their new material. Light Me Up was released this morning as a free download and has already had great reviews from Popjustice, MuuMuse, Sugarscape and many more. It’s an absolute belter of a pop track, sounding like Girls Aloud meets Rita Ora with a chorus that would make even the grumpiest person smile. In my eyes, today is Day One of the new Parade and I can’t wait to see what happens next!
If you like the song please click here to download it and support Parade. Also don’t forget you can see Parade perform Light Me Up and many more songs at the next This Must Be Pop Live!
It was that post that made me realise how cool Parade were going to be 😉 So thankyou for introducing me to them 🙂 x