DON'T ASK ME QUESTIONS
THE UNSUNG LIFE OF
GRAHAM PARKER & THE RUMOUR
DVD
Released: Apr.8.2014
Label: Virgil Films
Run Time: 95 minutes
For Figgs completists:
Excerpts of new interviews with Pete D. (at the 49:40 mark) & Mike (at the 56:18 mark) are included. Live footage and a section of the interview from
"Live at the FTC" DVD was also aired.
Edited review By Jeffery X Martin:
At the end of the Seventies, a British gas station attendant, who was also a musician, got his record played on the radio. The next day, he had a contract offer from a major record label. Overnight success? Not quite.
The Kickstarter-backed documentary Don’t Ask Me Questions chronicles the rise, fall, and reunion of Graham Parker and the Rumour. When their first album, Howling Wind, came out in 1976, the critical acclaim was instant and practically universal. They were widely regarded as the best live act in Britain. That doesn’t necessarily lead to stellar album sales, though, and as Parker says, “Everything was just a bit off.”
Nobody knew what to do with Graham Parker and the Rumour. Their music predated new wave and punk rock, and certainly influenced both of those genres, but Parker never got to be the face of those things. He certainly had the persona for it, as the copious amount of live footage in the movie demonstrates. Parker, with his ever-present over-sized sunglasses and violent manhandling of the microphone stand, was an arresting figure on the stage. Overshadowed by Elvis Costello and The Clash, yet refusing to sell out and go completely commercial, Parker split from The Rumour and ventured out on his own.
Parker is front and center in the documentary, and seems to have given the filmmakers great access to his life. For someone who made a name for himself as an “angry young man,” Parker comes across as mellow, barely even cocky.
It’s interesting to find out what happened to the different members of The Rumour after Parker left them essentially high and dry
If nothing else, the documentary may get people to seek out Graham Parker’s music, which does need to happen. The man did write some of the best pop songs of the Seventies and Eighties, intelligent and dripping with sarcasm and pocked with the scars of British class warfare.
Released: Apr.8.2014
Label: Virgil Films
Run Time: 95 minutes
For Figgs completists:
Excerpts of new interviews with Pete D. (at the 49:40 mark) & Mike (at the 56:18 mark) are included. Live footage and a section of the interview from
"Live at the FTC" DVD was also aired.
Edited review By Jeffery X Martin:
At the end of the Seventies, a British gas station attendant, who was also a musician, got his record played on the radio. The next day, he had a contract offer from a major record label. Overnight success? Not quite.
The Kickstarter-backed documentary Don’t Ask Me Questions chronicles the rise, fall, and reunion of Graham Parker and the Rumour. When their first album, Howling Wind, came out in 1976, the critical acclaim was instant and practically universal. They were widely regarded as the best live act in Britain. That doesn’t necessarily lead to stellar album sales, though, and as Parker says, “Everything was just a bit off.”
Nobody knew what to do with Graham Parker and the Rumour. Their music predated new wave and punk rock, and certainly influenced both of those genres, but Parker never got to be the face of those things. He certainly had the persona for it, as the copious amount of live footage in the movie demonstrates. Parker, with his ever-present over-sized sunglasses and violent manhandling of the microphone stand, was an arresting figure on the stage. Overshadowed by Elvis Costello and The Clash, yet refusing to sell out and go completely commercial, Parker split from The Rumour and ventured out on his own.
Parker is front and center in the documentary, and seems to have given the filmmakers great access to his life. For someone who made a name for himself as an “angry young man,” Parker comes across as mellow, barely even cocky.
It’s interesting to find out what happened to the different members of The Rumour after Parker left them essentially high and dry
If nothing else, the documentary may get people to seek out Graham Parker’s music, which does need to happen. The man did write some of the best pop songs of the Seventies and Eighties, intelligent and dripping with sarcasm and pocked with the scars of British class warfare.