Angry Young Things

White Light Parade
Genre: Indie / Punk
From: Bradford, United Kingdom

"We can talk of riots and petrol bombs and revolutions all day long, But if we fail to organize we'll waste our lives on protest songs"
The late, great Joe Strummer

Music usually responds to troubled times in two ways escapism or anger, dressing up or dressing down, becoming more self centred or more politicised. The economic problems of the 70s lead to the angry nihilism of punk while the destructive of the early 80s gave birth to the escapism of the New Romantics.

Ok maybe the world isn't quite as black and white as this simplistic analysis suggests. The escapism of glitterball disco coincided with the rise of punk and the anger of 'Ghost Town', Billy Bragg and The Redskins coincided with the pretty rich boy funk pop of Duran Duran. But it's certainly true that the harder the times the angrier the music.

It's a little early to tell how music will respond to the current troubling economic times but if White Light Parade have anything to do with it then we're heading for an era of righteous anger rather than hedonism. But the four-piece band from Bradford, fronted by brothers Danny and Jono Yates, are not peddling the negative, fuck you all, self absorbed nihilistic anger of the Sex Pistols theirs is the comrades in arms, together we are strong, let's make a difference, let's kick the music business up the arse anger of The Clash (before they signed to CBS naturally !).

The high octane phlegm 'n roll of 'Riot In The City', which you can hear on 'Grand Theft Auto IV' (how punk is that??), is the point at which the Jam and the Clash meet, as you might expect from a title that echoes tracks by each band. By way of contrast last single 'Wait For The Weekend' is a little more commercial and radio friendly bringing to mind a pre-Celebrity Big Brother Ordinary Boys.

There's a touch of the Enemy, a band that unsurprisingly they've supported, about White Light Parade and they've yet to fully find their own angry voice to chronicle the rapid descent from Cool Britannia to Breadline Britain but the Clash started as a pub rock band and look where they ended up!

Go Try

MP3 - White Light Parade - Wood For The Trees
If anyone from the IFPI is reading these tracks are published with the permission of Cannonball PR so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright.


Go Visit

White Light Parade - Myspace // Website

Go View
White Light Parade
Riot In The City