The love parade - Dream Academy

The Dream Academy never got much recognition beside their greatest hit 'Life in a northern town', but obviously there was more to the band than just the one song. They released three albums and twelve singles, but only three singles ever made the UK singles chart. 

One of them was 'The love parade', released in early 1986 as a track from their self-titled debut album. It reached number 68 in the UK singles chart but fared a bit better in Belgium where it peaked at number 30. In the American Adult Contemporary chart it even reached number 13. 

'The love parade' is the only song on the Dream Academy's eponymous album not to be produced by David Gilmour. Instead, the band recruited Alan Tarney to work with them on the track. Tarney was brought in at the suggestion of Rough Trade Records founder Geoff Travis to work on the song. "What happened was, we had a pretty good demo for 'Love Parade' and we loved it, and when we made the record with David, somehow we never got 'round to it". Lead vocalist Nick Laird-Clowes noted that Tarney brought some "real special techniques" to the table: he tracked the vocals "12 or 15 times" during certain portions of the song. 

My collection: 7" single no. 7144
Found: Record fair, Rijswijk, 3 March 2024
Tracks: 'The love parade' / 'Girl in a million (for Edie Sedgwick)'