The Grand Parade

"It’s never been done before,” says Philip Taggart, bass player with Colenso Parade. “It’s the most exciting thing you’ll ever hear. Four boys meet at school, get into music at the same time and decide to go off and form a bad. Very original, what?”

You can’t help but like this lot. Sure they seem unmoved by the prospect of reinventing the wheel, and yes – there’s little in their scuffed four-four-two indie that will attract interest from Sigur Ros fans. But some well worn templates survive for a reason. And you don’t need to spend much time in their company to recognise that the Omagh band are that most likeable of prospects: a collection of mates, with an all-too-apparent love of music (they break off from their answers to argue amongst themselves about the identity of the person singing The Beatles’ cover on the in-house CD), and blessed with a sensibly wry take on the business of being in a band.
Starting off as a covers outfit in their home-town, then veering into hard-rock territory while in thrall to a youthful AC/DC fixations, the boys began writing their own material, primarily as an out-let for their creeping admiration of the usual suspects (Fabs, Libertines, Stone Roses), but also, as guitarist, Mickey McCullagh reveals, “to save us from having to play ‘The Gambler’ every time we went on stage.”
On decamping en masse to University in Belfast, it wasn’t long before they started introducing themselves to audiences in the city’s usual haunts. However, as they started to earn their musical sea legs (and began comparing themselves to some of their contemporaries) they also became aware that in order to look like genuine contenders, some radical action was necessary.
“Last year we took all our old songs, every one, and decided to dump them,” says Philip. “Got rid. Threw them down the stairs.”
“My mum’s still trying to get me to clear them up,” chirps in singer Fergal Lindsay. “She keeps tripping over them.”
“We realised we had to up our game and start taking things a bit more seriously,” explains drummer, Paul Mellon, “So, the intention was to write a load of new songs. Songs with a bit more depth to them that reflected the kind of stuff we were listening to. And it turned out really well. I think we even surprised ourselves. It was like – well there’s one, there’s two, there’s three, four, five.”
In a confident frame of mind, the band decided to act; and headed for the studio in double quick time. A few unhappy recording experiences had made the boys suspicious, but this time, in Broken Studio, Portstewart, things worked out far better than they had expected.
“It’s such a big deal when you hear your songs recorded well for the first time,” says Mickey. “We’ve gone to studios and sat and stared at the back of the producer’s head for the whole time we were there. You know – trying to start a bit of craic, just trying to build up some relationship – but they weren’t interested. We were just one of many to pass through their studio. We went to the studio and met Paddy Trolan, and it was completely different. He listened to us, talked through the options, took his time, had a laugh. It was a great atmosphere and I think we all responded to it really well.”
Morale is evidently good at the moment and Colenso Parade have been busy taking advantage. They’ve played shows in the UK (and are preparing for a pre-Xmas jaunt to Liverpool), turned in a fine set at a recent Hard Working Class Heroes Showcase, and, as we speak, are recovering from an encouraging show at Belfast’s Limelight.
There’s even talk of leaving these shores to launch a proper offensive.
“That’s what we’re looking at next year,” admits Fergal. “To maybe move to Glasgow or Liverpool or somewhere like that. Although we’re so hopeless at organising ourselves, we’ll probably miss the boat.”