The Dawn Parade

The Dawn Parade was a rock band from Bury St. Edmunds, UK, formed in 2000 initially called The Hip Down. Greg McDonald was the main songwriter, and also provided vocals and guitar. The band performed 200 gigs in the UK, and they issued a number of CD singles as well as one download-only release. They received critical acclaim from Rolling Stone and John Peel, for whom the band performed a number of live sessions. McDonald originally formed the band with schoolfriend Nick Morley (guitar), Barney Wade (Bass), BEN JENNINGS (Drums) and Rob Brown (guitar). The band's name came from Greg McDonald's and Nick Morley's term for their walk back to their village on a Sunday morning as the sun came up, having spent the money needed for a taxi home in bars the previous night. The band released their first single, Good Luck Olivia, in 2001, and their second, Hole in my Heart, in 2002 having signed to Cambridge indie label Repeat Records. It was soon after this the band played its first Peel Session. The second took place in March 2003, and two tracks from these are available on their self titled debut album. The band gigged extensively across the country, but in 2003 this line-up split up, exhausted. Jeremy Jones (lead guitar), Neil Rayson (bass guitar) and Mark Sewell (drums, vocals) formed the second line-up of the Dawn Parade along with McDonald on guitar and vocals again. Neil Rayson was soon however replaced by Steve McLoughlin on bass. The first single of this line-up was a McDonald song about the previous years in which he and the original line-up had fought for fame called The Fortune Line. The band changed its name to The Visions in late 2005, shortly after finishing work on their debut album in Wales with producer Chris Brown. However, by August 2006 McDonald felt "We'd gigged the Dawn Parade set to death, "The Visions" was a compromise everyone hated, and I couldn't write a "Visions" song - we were boring ourselves, and everyone could see it was over." The band split and finally released their debut album in November 2006 on Repeat Records under their original name The Dawn Parade.