Hip Parade
With the Orange unsignedAct with Sony Ericsson winners title in sight, Hip Parade are the only band left in the competition, and with incredible performances week after week, they are strong contenders to bag the ultimate prize.
With their only real rival being fellow Scotsman Tommy Reilly, I managed to drag front man Rob away from band practise for a couple on minutes to chat about the experience so far, and what the future might hold for them.
So what are you up to at the moment Rob, anything super exciting?
Nah, nothing much, I have been reading your stuff that you’ve been writing; it’s such a cool website; I don‘t want to lose my macho credibility though!
Don’t worry Rob, you’ll always be a rock ‘ard Scotsman to us. So how excited are you now it’s getting close to the final.
So excited that I even forgot it was Christmas! Someone told me and I was like “Are you kidding me on?†I just can’t stop thinking about Orange Unsigned.
Aww, that’s the cutest thing I ever heard. So other than yourselves, who would you like to win the competition?
It’s got to be Tommy Reilly, we have to stick up for our country!
So to anyone who hasn’t been lucky enough, or cool enough, to have been watching the show, can you sum up your band in five words for them?
Energetic, Cheeky, Loud, Explosive and Fiery.
Woo, they are great words! So what do you think makes you guys stand out from the rest?
I think the fact that we have all been doing this for a long time and have all dabbled in different genres and we all have really different tastes in music and I think that eclectic taste means that when we all collaborate we get something that is quite pop sounding and people seem to like it so it’s cool.
So other than your amazing cover of Blue Monday that you did on the covers show, which other song would you love to cover?
Ah, we have always dreamed of covering a Led Zeppelin song but we don’t think we are cool enough to touch it! [FF: That’s what Alex James said about you’re last cover! So do it!] Yeah, but Led Zeppelin are completely untouchable; we made Blue Monday our own but if we copied the original we would have never been able to have pulled it off.
Who are a few of your musical inspirations.
Definitely Led Zeppelin. We all like different music; the guitarist is into nineties bands such as the Stone Roses and Oasis and the bass player is more into Metallica and things like that. The drummer’s favourite band of all time is Biffy Clyro
Biffy are MY Favourite band! I think your drummer is officially my new best friend! So after that bombshell, tell me who you would love to go on tour with?
Ooh, right now I would have to say The Strokes or Kings Of Leon because they are amazing bands and we all really love King Of Leon at the moment; so it would be great if you could organise that for us!
Haha, I’ll get my little black book out! So what would you like to do when the show ends, whatever the result?
Hopefully we will get to do it full-time and be in a band as a job rather than just a hobby. We have been doing this for about seven years now and it’s always just been for the fun of gigs and playing in front of our friends. We never really took it that seriously until we got into the competition and found that people actually like us and now the idea of doing it as a career is just amazing.
Well you are always welcome at our house, we have a big garden you can play in!
Love it, for tea and biscuits?
I think we can stretch to that! So if you could only listen to one CD for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Hmm, it would have to be something really weird that I would get bored of. It would have to be a compilation album I think. [FF: no way! That’s cheating!] No! I can’t just listen to one band, it would drive me crazy. Although I suppose it would depend on how often you had to listen to it for day. Would it be on repeat all day every day for the rest of my life?
Ohh, Rob, now you’re reading into it. I think it would be, whenever you think, oh I need some music in my life, every time you turned some kind of musical device on, that CD is what would be playing.
Oh, I’m a shuffle kind of person. I have an iPod shuffle, and all the time I go ‘skip, skip, skip.’ If I have to choose something, I’d go for something really bad, I’ll have to go for Simply Red.
Eew! Okay, well you’re ears aren’t in for much of a treat. But how are your ears, and the rest of you, coping with fame and getting recognised?
It’s really weird actually. The first time it happened we were travelling down to play one of the Unsigned gigs and we got lost so I got out of the car and went walking to a bus stop to ask for directions and there was this guy standing there and he looked horrified. I was wondering if he thought I was going to batter him because of my accent!
Anyway, so I asked him if he knew where the Student Union was and he just stood with his mouth wide open looking at me. So I asked if he was okay and he said; “Are you the guy from Hip Parade?†and I was like yeah, but I thought that he must be from Orange Unsigned and we were pretty close to the gig but he said; “No I’m just standing here!†It was funny and we got him on the guest list and he came to the show.
Since then it has happened more often and people tend to just want pictures and us to sign things. I feel like, why do you want a picture with me? I’m just me!
Aww, you’ll be headlining Wembley in no time! But now, to ask you three questions to test your grey matter, well sort of; If you could go back in time and prevent a huge catastrophe, what would it be?
That’s a pretty heroic question, I have to be careful now. [FF: Get your Gladiator clothes out!] Haha, well I would have to go back as far as possible, because all the other ones happened because of the one before. I’ll go back to the Big Bang and prevent that then the whole human race wouldn’t happen and then no catastrophes would ever happen.
Hum, not exactly upbeat, but I see where you’re coming from. So, if you were elected as the leader of a a foreign country, what country would you like it to be, and what would be your first act?
Does England count as a foreign country to me? In fact, I’ll go for the USA, because they seem to cause all the problems. They are the trouble makers. I would start by pulling out all their armies from all the countries that they are in and then giving the other countries a telling off because I’d have the power to do so, then I would make people make me lots of nice food and do everything thing for me.
Ooh, I love it, I think I should be your second in command! But so I know what not to buy you, what is the most embarrassing gift you have ever been given?
Once my auntie bought me a sinking ship. I was a little boy and my auntie bought me an ornamental boat that was made from metal and I thought it was an actual boat that use could use in that bath, but when I put it in the bath it just sunk to the bottom. I was absolutely gutted. It was the worst present I ever got.
Eek, better luck next time.
Cheers, fingers crossed!
So with many Scottish bands such as Biffy Clyro, Frightened Rabbit and the incredible Twin Atlantic really ‘representing’ their country to the masses at the moment; I think that Hip Parade, winners of the competition or not, are bound for something very big indeed. Good luck boys!
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison
Read our interview with Judge Simon Gavin here
Read our interview with Fangs here
Read our interview with Klaus Says Buy The Record here
Read our interview with SleeperCell here
Read our interview with Scarlet Harlots here
Read our interview with Toby Sebastian here
Read our interview with Tommy Reilly here
With the Orange unsignedAct with Sony Ericsson winners title in sight, Hip Parade are the only band left in the competition, and with incredible performances week after week, they are strong contenders to bag the ultimate prize.
With their only real rival being fellow Scotsman Tommy Reilly, I managed to drag front man Rob away from band practise for a couple on minutes to chat about the experience so far, and what the future might hold for them.
So what are you up to at the moment Rob, anything super exciting?
Nah, nothing much, I have been reading your stuff that you’ve been writing; it’s such a cool website; I don‘t want to lose my macho credibility though!
Don’t worry Rob, you’ll always be a rock ‘ard Scotsman to us. So how excited are you now it’s getting close to the final.
So excited that I even forgot it was Christmas! Someone told me and I was like “Are you kidding me on?†I just can’t stop thinking about Orange Unsigned.
Aww, that’s the cutest thing I ever heard. So other than yourselves, who would you like to win the competition?
It’s got to be Tommy Reilly, we have to stick up for our country!
So to anyone who hasn’t been lucky enough, or cool enough, to have been watching the show, can you sum up your band in five words for them?
Energetic, Cheeky, Loud, Explosive and Fiery.
Woo, they are great words! So what do you think makes you guys stand out from the rest?
I think the fact that we have all been doing this for a long time and have all dabbled in different genres and we all have really different tastes in music and I think that eclectic taste means that when we all collaborate we get something that is quite pop sounding and people seem to like it so it’s cool.
So other than your amazing cover of Blue Monday that you did on the covers show, which other song would you love to cover?
Ah, we have always dreamed of covering a Led Zeppelin song but we don’t think we are cool enough to touch it! [FF: That’s what Alex James said about you’re last cover! So do it!] Yeah, but Led Zeppelin are completely untouchable; we made Blue Monday our own but if we copied the original we would have never been able to have pulled it off.
Who are a few of your musical inspirations.
Definitely Led Zeppelin. We all like different music; the guitarist is into nineties bands such as the Stone Roses and Oasis and the bass player is more into Metallica and things like that. The drummer’s favourite band of all time is Biffy Clyro
Biffy are MY Favourite band! I think your drummer is officially my new best friend! So after that bombshell, tell me who you would love to go on tour with?
Ooh, right now I would have to say The Strokes or Kings Of Leon because they are amazing bands and we all really love King Of Leon at the moment; so it would be great if you could organise that for us!
Haha, I’ll get my little black book out! So what would you like to do when the show ends, whatever the result?
Hopefully we will get to do it full-time and be in a band as a job rather than just a hobby. We have been doing this for about seven years now and it’s always just been for the fun of gigs and playing in front of our friends. We never really took it that seriously until we got into the competition and found that people actually like us and now the idea of doing it as a career is just amazing.
Well you are always welcome at our house, we have a big garden you can play in!
Love it, for tea and biscuits?
I think we can stretch to that! So if you could only listen to one CD for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Hmm, it would have to be something really weird that I would get bored of. It would have to be a compilation album I think. [FF: no way! That’s cheating!] No! I can’t just listen to one band, it would drive me crazy. Although I suppose it would depend on how often you had to listen to it for day. Would it be on repeat all day every day for the rest of my life?