The Hit Parade is a group who make pop records. They started life as a suburban three piece from South Bucks, in the American state of England UK. Their first single 'Forever' was a tribute to Phil Spector. Their next one sounded like 'The Byrds'. And so on. Now they are older they reference Philip Larkin and civic architecture. Girls usually feature prominently in the average Hit Parade song.

The group is essentially a trio of three schoolfriends Julian Henry, Raymond Watts and Matt Moffatt. Over the years they have been joined by Cath Carroll, Harvey 'Festive' Williams, Amelia Fletcher and others. Now they record with Iain Catt, producer of St Etienne.

Their records are released on their own JSH label and come pressed on 7" vinyl with brightly coloured sleeves. In the 1990s they became trendy in Japan and released a sequence of albums firstly for an indie label, and then for a Japanese major company, and went on to have a top 20 hit in the indie chart there with 'Hello Hannah Hello'. They toured Japan several times, appeared on TV, opened record stores and generally enjoyed themselves before getting bored of the routine.

Back in the UK they were picked up by Sarah Records, and in the US by Minty Fresh. In 2006 they released their fifth album called 'The Return Of The Hit Parade'. Their sixth album 'Cornish Folk Songs' is due out in 2009. Today the band spend most of the evenings in the Richard Steeles pub in Belsize Park London arguing over which songs should be played at their funeral.


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