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Rain Parade are set to return with their first UK and European dates since disbanding in 1986, hitting nine countries including a stop-off in Manchester at Night & Day Cafe.

Rain Parade are a band founded in Los Angeles, California in 1981 that quickly gained notoriety as a leading member of LA?s fabled Paisley Underground music scene. The band?s signature sound combines hypnotic, melodic songwriting and 60s psychedelia-inspired instrumentation ? chiming guitars, eastern-inflected motifs, multi-part vocal harmonies ? with 70s punk influences and a darker lyrical approach fully informed by late 20th and early 21st century themes.

The Rain Parade?s debut album, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, (Enigma Records US/Demon Records UK), featuring the songwriting, vocal, and instrumental talents of founding members Matt Piucci, Steven Roback, and David Roback in equal measure, was released in 1983 and is internationally recognised as a masterpiece. Rain Parade?s second album, Explosions In The Glass Palace (Enigma Records/US, Demon Records/UK), recorded after David Roback?s departure, received the same high praise as their debut, with the band?s reputation growing ever since.

Sid Griffin, leader of The Long Ryders has said: ?We were in the Paisley Underground with Rain Parade back in the 1980s... Explosions In The Glass Palace is and will forever be the BEST recording from a Paisley Underground band, be it us, The Dream Syndicate, The Bangles, The Three O?Clock or whomever.?

Both records directly influenced bands such as My Bloody Valentine, Ride, The Stone Rose, Teenage Fanclub, Charlatans and naturally Creation boss Alan McGee. And Rain Parade songs have been covered by The Bluetones, Buffalo Tom, Bangles and a host of others. During the mid 80s, the band toured the UK and Europe extensively, and made multiple appearances on the BBC Whistle Test TV shows. ?Rain Parade was the one that changed me like an explosion in my mind, I saw them perform ?No Easy Way Down? on TV, and it was like, ?Here is something I can fully get behind.? It?s just incredible, and I have to say would have been pretty influential on the early Ride sound for sure? Andy Bell of Ride

Guitarist John Thoman joined Piucci and Roback in 1984 and went on to record on the band?s third and fourth LPs, Crashing Dream and Beyond The Sunset - Live in Japan (Island Records 1985/86) before the band broke up the following year.

Since then, the band?s reputation and diehard following has only grown, which led them to reuniting in the US for several well-received one-off shows in California, Atlanta, and Austin, and eventually recording 3 songs for the 3x4 album (Yep Roc 2018) with their friends The Bangles, The Dream Syndicate and The Three O?Clock. And most recently recording this year?s new album, Last Rays Of A Dying Sun, which manages to sound both like a lost classic and the groundbreaking work of unknown new artist, emerging from their secret lair with a record ready to change the world. As MOJO puts it, ?there?s little rain on their new parade.?

Wrapping sweet nuggets of pop confection in swirling clouds of interstellar psychedelia, Last Rays Of A Dying Sun is a record at once eminently engaging and delightfully ornate. Everything old is new again, and it?s very easy to see the line that runs from the Summer of Love and the chiming tones of Jangle Pop to mid-eighties SoCal Paisley Underground of which Rain Parade was a pivotal component, through to the late-90?s Elephant 6 Collective, straight to the neo-psych indie rock of today.

Last Rays Of A Dying Sun features the original 80s members Piucci, Roback and Thoman alongside guitarist Derek See (the Gentle Cycle / Dean & Britta (Galaxy 500) / Chocolate Watchband), drummer Stephan Junca (The Hellenes, Billy Talbot, Boatclub), with vocalists Debbi and Vicki Peterson (The Bangles). Last Rays Of A Dying Sun is out on Flatiron Recordings, on their imprint Label 51. Flatiron Recordings.

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From “Two sausage and chips please, mushy peas with one of those, ta”, to “Meg! Meg! Don’t hit her too hard”. It’s been a thoroughly unconventional trip. Once Meg White had donned those boxing gloves Night & Day Café’s most unique upbringing felt complete.

An initial chip shop - stage - piano combo quickly gave rise to a traditional Amsterdam style ‘brown bar’ and artistic hub; the venue’s journey mirroring, and in no small part contributed to, Manchester’s move away from its baggy era heritage cum baggage.

Like a younger brother who could play guitar much better than you, but had no mates to play to, Night & Day grew out of a barren musical spell in Manchester back in 1991. When the city offered little else except a chrome mating hell, or a look back nostalgiafest. The homely feel and startling quality of the acts brought into the city by the venue made Night & Day the focus of the areas more discerning crowds of the area thereafter.

So much so that the last 20 years have read like a who’s who of Manchester’s continuing creative legacy…

Guy Garvey practically used it as an office, Johnny from I A Kloot worked there, Johnny Marr, Delphic and The Courteeners rehearsed there, Badly Drawn Boy wrote songs there and Mark E Smith’s been known to behave very strangely indeed there.

The walls have withstood the barrage from over 26,000 bands from all over the world. Some of the many, many stand outs have to be a naked Damo Suzuki, The Dirtbombs having to stop and towel down after one song, Meg White vs The Bar Staff, Keanu Reaves popping in to watch some bands, buy a t-shirt and get mobbed, and The Kaiser Chiefs first incarnation getting chucked offstage early.
But, let us not look back to deeply.

Certainly, preaching to the converted has never been the venue’s style or raison d’etre and currently, there are signs of another resurgence in the city’s musical fortunes. Young upstarts such Money can be found regularly hanging around causing botheration and a certain singular Liam Frey can be oft found planning his next lyrical barrage in the labyrinth of corridors downstairs.

Here’s to another 20 years!

26 Oldham Street,

Manchester,

Greater Manchester,

England,

M1 1JN.

0161 236 1822