Hear Graham Parker & The Rumour Create Early English New-Wave in 1979

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On April 9, 1979, English rocker Graham Parker brought his distinct and emerging new-wave sound to San Francisco’s Old Waldorf, where his group Graham Parker and The Rumour performed a few weeks after releasing what would become Parker’s most acclaimed record, Squeezing Out Sparks. The album would win the 1979 Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll, beating out higher-profile releases like Neil Young’s Rust Never Sleeps, Talking Heads’ Fear of Music and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ Damn the Torpedoes. Despite being a relatively cult figure, Parker paved the way for other early new-wave artists, especially those from his native England—Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson soon launched careers of their own, expanding and defining the beginnings of the genre along with Parker. Citing Otis Redding as an early influence, Parker exudes a kind of soulfulness on some of his earlier songs in this performance like “Watch the Moon Come Down” from 1977’s Stick to Me, as well as packing the vibrancy and newness of the tracks on Squeezing Out Sparks, like “Protection” and the raucous opener “Local Girls.” Hear Graham Parker at the brink of his popularity with The Rumour in this recording from the Squeezing Out Sparks Tour on this date in 1979.