Hip Parade: Gingerness, Sell-Out Shows and Fame

Exclusive Interview with Glasweigan Orange Unsigned Act Finalists

Jan 24, 2009

Suite 101 catches up with Hip Parade's charismatic frontman ahead of Sunday's concluding final with Tommy Reilly and the Scarlet Harlots.

It’s not often that Suite 101 turns jelly-kneed following an interview with potentially the next big thing, but Rob from the Scottish indie rock band Hip Parade, finalists in this year’s Orange Unsigned Act Competition, achieved the feat with aplomb.

Not only have Hip Parade achieved increasingly positive comments from judges Lauren Laverne, Alex James and Simon Gavin throughout the competition’s progress, but they have consistently proved to be the most lively, energetic and free-spirited of this year’s final acts. Suite is willing to put money on the likelihood of their winning this year’s competition and the coveted deal with Universal and the £60,000 advance.

Suite 101 caught up with the band’s charismatic frontman backstage at the live TV show ahead of Sunday’s final.

Ginger of the Week

Suite 101: Rob from Hip Parade, hi! I hear on the grapevine that you’re Ginger of the Week? Tell me more.

Rob: [laughing] Apparently so! Yeh it was for Scotland’s Real Radio, apparently the biggest independent radio audience in Scotland, so they have a lot of listeners. There’s a really nice guy there called Steve McKenna who runs a show called ‘Ginger Love’ which has all kind of features in it like ‘Hug a Ginger’. He basically started off because he fancies ginger girls, but now he’s now swayed it towards an anti-bullying campaign across schools, so it’s actually really great. They got me on, and they played one of our songs, it was amazing!

Suite 101: Awesome! I’ll give you the opportunity now to say once and for all, are you ginger or are you ‘strawberry blonde’?

Sell Out Glasgow Show

Suite 101: Very nice, very creative! Last week Suite 101 interviewed your friend and rival Tommy Reilly, who was telling us how cool it was that you guys played a sell-out show together. What was that like for you?

Rob: Well we’ve done sell-out shows in Glasgow before, but they’ve always been small venues that we knew we could sell out. But the ABC2 where we played with Tommy, that’s a really big venue. We turned up and we sat backstage, and they’d paid for all this food and stuff, so we were sitting enjoying it. Then me and Tommy went outside, just to meet someone who we wanted to have tickets, and we walked around the corner and saw this huge queue, going all the way down the street. And we started freaking out, and people started shouting ‘Tommy!’, ‘Rob!’ We thought, “this is really weird” and we went back inside. And when we walked out on stage as well, both of us are used to walking on stage and then setting up the guitar, and then speaking through the mic, that’s normally when everyone actually notices and goes “oh yeah there’s a band”. But we walked out at the ABC2 and everyone was screaming. They sang every single word of every single song. It was really scary but so good!

Coping With Fame, Getting into the Final

Suite 101: Went you went outside were you a bit worried that you might get mobbed for the first time?

Rob: No. I don’t think I’ll ever think that. I still get confused when people stop me in the street. Once I was walking through the train station with my headphones on, and someone tapped me on the shoulder. I thought I must have done something wrong, and he said “Can I get a picture?” and I said “Aye if you want!” [he laughs] It’s still hasn’t caught up with me yet, it hasn’t sunk in that we’re in the finals.

Orange Unsigned Act concludes on Sunday on Channel 4’s T4, where the winner will be decided by public vote.