The Dawn Parade

I've wanted to write a post about the Dawn Parade for a long time but various computer issues have prevented it. I apologise in advance to any of my Ipswich friends who've had to endure one of my many drunken rants about this band but at least this time you ain't stuck in a pub with me.

The Dawn Parade were a band from Cambridge who broke up in August of last year, after five years of writing amazing music and not getting a sodding record deal. I realise that everybody has a great "lost" band. We go on about them to indifferent friends, unable to understand exactly why no one notices their inherent genious except us. I know that. Music is a very subjective thing and this is part of its beauty but sometimes I just have to say...I don't get it.

The Dawn Parade were an amalgamation of everything that is passionate and exciting in rock music. They were about as original as breathing but fuck that. They were like Spingsteen and The Smiths and The (pre-bollocks) Manics. They sounded enormous, as though they were trying to condense everything you ever cared about or believed in into a four minute pop song. Check out my profile song. It's called The Craving and it begins with the line "If you want it enough, can a life of hate be saved by love?" It's so bloody obvious but so beautiful.

Maybe the whole wearing the heart on the sleeve thing was what turned people off. You can just imagine the discussion at NME..."Do they sound exactly like The Libertines? Are they pretending to be drug addicts? No thanks. What's this? A song about Jesus Christ?" Yep, the Dawn Parade have a song about Christ (The Passion). It talks about the ultimate message of the guys' life. That of love. It is immense and U2 would sell their Lear jet to write music that sounds so big but so heartfelt.

I will miss the Dawn Parade because there is no other band like them. No one sounds like they give a shit anymore. Upon the demise of Kenickie (another great unappreciated band), the journalist Daniel Booth wrote "they can take consolation from the fact that they were right and the world was wrong." I couldn't put it any better than that.

Good luck guys and thank you. You were The Dawn Parade and you were wonderful. xxx

Rakennus Ash


http://www.myspace.com/rakennus_ash

Buy The Dawn Parade album here