The Wild Parochial Boy - ProfilesArchive

About Me

First of all, The Wild Parochial Boy was a song about the Conservative Partys creeping privatisation of British Society, not a person. He was not me. Next, The Wild Parochial Boy was a bunch of more idiosyncratic, leftfield or solo acoustic songs that my band The Ugly Tree didnt want. The Ugly Tree did a couple of acoustic sets supporting a singer-songwriter called Nick Harper, which convinced me to spend an evening doing some live recordings the four Wild Parochial Tunes I had written. The night before I went in I wrote two more. I fucked up the lyrics on those royally and improvised the bridge for one of them during the session, never really expecting to be able to mix them. They were good. And I am seriously not just saying that The Wild Parochial Boy had now become a persona, chaotic yet serendipitous. Feeling like I was cheating on my band, I released these six songs under the title Tribute to The Ugly Tree at a few low-key unplugged evenings in a couple of Dundee pubs. They nicked a couple of the songs back which salved my guilt.
While I was working overseas, The Wild Parochial Boy performed on a fairly regular basis in a un-typically bohemian Southern Italian pub called Umakesh (which became the name of our new band). It was a haunt for the towns most creative people. It was also the only place in town where the bar staff didnt make a derogatory comment when you went back to the bar for your third drink (and we never stopped at three). Working alone meant that most of the songs were written to be played acoustically, especially as I only had my trusty Simon & Patrick with me and no access to my amp, effects and electric guitars. The roster swelled to about twenty original tunes, two or three in Italian, with a few John Denver, Violent Femmes and Red Hot Chili Peppers covers thrown in to make it to the required two hours.
The thing is, The Wild Parochial Boy is the Hyde to my Dr Jekyll. Hes arrogant, aggressive, political, politically incorrect and completely unapologetic. He has no shame and no sense of embarrassment. I realised finally who The Wild Parochial Boy was when I played a gig for a mate in Drouthy Neebors in Dundee. The first three songs went down well, so I decided to wade in with a couple of the weightier comic tracks which Id only played to Italian audiences with, at the very best, a functional grasp on the English language. My Dundee audience had a mostly excellent grasp of English and enough of them had had an irony bypass to render the remainder of my half-hour slot uncomfortable. The joke about the brothel and the national anthem kinda pissed them off a bit, and The two Drunk Expatriate Scot's Laments twisted the knife. Maybe they were patriots? You ever seen Back to Future? I felt like Marty McFly when he did his Van Halen style solo to Johnny B Goode. Still, I dont think any of us were really ready for that Wild Parochial Boy, though, a large enough amount people at that gig got the joke and were confirmed as longstanding Wild Parochial fans.
The Wild Parochial Boy finally accepted that in order to survive hed have to be a bit more like me. He was younger than me, only 7 years old. His youthful exuberance made his performances work. His arrogance, however, was costing him in toes every time he shot himself in the foot. We recorded Life in Polaroid together, retaining the edgy irony of his music and shaping it with the rational self-control and audience savvy of someone almost a quarter of a century older. Now I fear that The Wild Parochial Boy is becoming a person. God helps us all.
"Just because you know the name of the place you're standing in, it doesn't mean you have any idea where you are." - some Wild Parochial Wisdom

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 16/07/2006
Band Website: http://www.last.fm/music/The+Wild+Parochial+Boy/
Band Members: On the first CD, Life in Polaroid, the following individuals contributed:
The Wild Parochial Boy on guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, fridge, kazoo, vocoder, tambourine, glockenspiel, handclaps:
Stewart 'The Coo' Cowie on bass:
Jordan Palmer on drums, vocals and handclaps:
Mairi Lafferty on guest vocals:
Iain and Susan Murray, & Pauline Scott as the Wild Parochial Boyettes...

On the current work in progress there will be drums once more from the ever brilliant Rt Hon Jordan Palmer, and violin from Miss Louise Cuthbert. The latest contributor is "God", aka "American" Matt Davis. Other guests will be announced when they've done their bit. We did lose some ground breaking work from a grade 8 "Jangly-Banglist" as a result of drunkenness and rhythmic challenge...

I'm also looking for a bunch of low moraled shot-drinkers to contribute to a recording based on an artfully performed drinking game. Also, in association with American Matt (see the video below or the link in my friends) there's talk of making the first ever Wild Parochial Showreel which will of course be available from this site, and ultimately in hard copy with the next Wild Parochial CD. I'll be casting for a number of actors to fill a number of roles, so if you're interested... There will also be a live recording of a new Wild Parochial Tune which will be videoed for the occasion in my Living Room, as is the plan on the drawing board at the moment. Visit You Tube and check out "oopsitripped" for more info about Matt's work.

I saw this next one years ago and boy did it make me laugh. Admittedly, this is in the honeymoon period of their romance. I hear their new song is going to be a cover of The Prodigy's "Smack My Bitch Up".

Do you remember this character? He's one of my greatest influences.

Influences: Violent Femmes, Ani DiFranco, David Bowie, Frank Zappa, Gogol Bordello, Mundy, Nick Harper, Ben Harper, La Famiglia Rossi, techno-folkster Tiromancino, Laura Veirs, M Ward, Tenacious D, Johnny Cash, Joanna Newsom, Antony and the Johnsons ... Most recently I've been listening to Bright Eyes, Death Cab for Cutie, Martha Wainwright, Tegan & Sara and Tilly and the Wall. Even though, I've been trying not to, I even find myself liking The Libertines, which admittedly I've been listening to belatedly! But how have I managed to survive this long without Regina Spektor in my life? She is so cool and she likes soup. That's a biggie for us Scots...

To see what I'm listening to at the moment, have a look at me Last.fm weekly top ten or visit my user page at www.last.fm/user/umakesh2003. This is a great wee site for expanding your music awareness. You can't download from the site, but you can see what people with tastes similar to you are listening to. If you sign up, come and be my friend and we can be one big Internet Music Geek Hippie Commune! If you're a musician, you can set up your own online "label" and get your stuff played alongside other established artists on the Last.fm player radio station. It's really worth it. I'm not on commission by the way. We just know how hard it is for any musician to be heard above the clamour in this information saturated universe.

This is what I've been listening to most recently from my iTunes:

And these are my top artists from the last week:

Sounds Like: The secret illegitimate love-child of Bowie and Zappa, brought up on a strict diet of Violent Femmes and John Denver. Most of my stuff is based around acoustic instruments, mixing in some electronic touches to add that cheeky dimension of the surreal.

Come to my new online store and buy your own Wild Parochial Tunes. There's two new track from the forth-coming CD "Quick! Hit the self-desctruct or we might just make it out of here alive..." and two from my first CD "Life in Polaroid". Enjoy.

Record Label: The Wild Parochial Brand

My Blog

Unabridged Socratic Dialogue from "On the Mountain Top"

This is what we wanted to say but did not have enough time in the song. Thanks to Matt for playing the voice of God on the dialogue (here called Socrates but anyway). Enjoy!Plato: Tell us about kno...
Posted by on Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:00:00 GMT

If you're bored on MySpace...

Check out these MySpace buddiesGenevieve Little from OzSadie Rix from CaliforniaLuva Anna from DundeeTranscollective from EdinburghGoldfish from Glasgow (this guy will have you peeing with laughter)Si...
Posted by on Sun, 01 Apr 2007 12:24:00 GMT

This podcast will self-destruct

Hey folks, It's almost done! It goes by the title "Quick! Hit the self-destruct or we might just make it out of here alive..." A podcast containing snippets of each song should be available for dow...
Posted by on Sun, 18 Mar 2007 11:32:00 GMT

Punctuation

Just a point to note ... I do know how to use apostrophes. They just don't seem to work in my browser!!! Happy New Year
Posted by on Sat, 06 Jan 2007 12:46:00 GMT

Wild Parochial News

3rd DecemberDear Fraggle Rock,In my travels in outer space I have seen many interesting things... Sorry coudn't resist a little nostalgia trip there. Things are moving apace with the new album. Five...
Posted by on Sun, 03 Dec 2006 03:30:00 GMT

Working titles - opinions please

Hey folks, You excited about next week? It's going to be a good gig, different from both The Wild Parochial Boy and Umakesh. Definitely no compromise though. Come along on Saturday 2nd to Drouthy's...
Posted by on Sun, 27 Aug 2006 01:23:00 GMT

The beatification of Johnny Cash

OK I've been trying to find people who've been miraculously cured of diseases after receiving a visitation from Big JC. This far no luck, though my mate Andy McKillop said he was once visited in a dr...
Posted by on Sat, 22 Jul 2006 19:27:00 GMT