page_title: Graham Parker
section_title: To the present
hierarchical_section_title: Graham Parker / Life and career / To the present
caption_attribution_description: w:Graham Parker at w:South by Southwest 2007
context_page_description: Graham Parker is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the British band Graham Parker & the Rumour.
context_section_description: Parker began a more active period in 2001, with the UK re-release of his early Rumour work, and with his third studio album for Razor & Tie, Deepcut to Nowhere. In 2003, he collaborated with Kate Pierson of the B-52's and Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom to record an album of lesser-known John Lennon/Paul McCartney compositions that had never been recorded by The Beatles. The album, called From a Window: Lost Songs of Lennon & McCartney, was credited to "Pierson, Parker, Janovitz". Also in 2003, Parker contributed a solo acoustic version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" to the compilation album, A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd.
  New solo work continued with 2004's Your Country, which saw Parker switch labels to Chicago-based indie Bloodshot Records and was co-produced by John Would at Stanley Recording in Venice, California. The album was recorded and mixed in two weeks.
  Songs of No Consequence was recorded with The Figgs in 2005. A show from the ensuing tour with the Figgs was broadcast on FM radio and released as an album in 2006. In March 2007, a new full-length album, Don't Tell Columbus, was released.
  In addition to his records, Parker published an illustrated science fiction novella, The Great Trouser Mystery in 1980. He published a set of short stories, Carp Fishing on Valium, in June 2000. His third book, the novel The Other Life of Brian, appeared in September 2003.
  In early 2011, Parker reunited with all five original members of The Rumour to record a new album, Three Chords Good. It was released in November 2012. Music journalist, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that the release was "the rare reunion that simultaneously looks back while living in the present." Meanwhile, the Judd Apatow film This Is 40, in which Parker and Rumour play themselves, was released a month later, in December 2012.
  The Parker/Rumour reunion continued into 2015, when their new album Mystery Glue was issued.  It was followed by a short international tour, after which the reunion ended.
  In April 2018, Parker signed with 100% Records, and released a brand new single titled "Dreamin'". Later, in July 2018, Parker announced Cloud Symbols, his brand new studio album to be released on 21 September 2018. The album features Parker's brand new backing band The Goldtops, which consists of Martin Belmont on guitar, Geraint Watkins on keyboards, Simon Edwards on bass, and Roy Dodds on drums. The album also features the Rumour Brass, making this their first appearance on a Graham Parker album since Stick to Me in 1977 and their first time working with Parker since the Squeezing Out Sparks tour in 1979. The album was initially to be produced by Neil Brockbank, but he died during the recording of the album and production duties for the rest of the album were passed onto Tuck Nelson and Parker himself.
  He announced a solo, acoustic 40th Anniversary version of Squeezing Out Sparks, for an 13 April 2019 release.  It also contains the non-album single, "Mercury Poisoning".
caption: Parker at SXSW, 2007
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