Chris Parry

John Christopher Parry (born 7 January 1949) is a New Zealand record producer and former musician, known for being the former manager and producer for the Cure and for founding Fiction Records.

Early life Parry was born in Lower Hutt, New Zealand; the son of Virginia and Thomas, who was British. He grew up with ten siblings: five sisters (Virginia, Margaret, Josephine, Annette and Helen) and five brothers (David, James Richard, Robin and Peter). In 1966, Parry was a management trainee at Philips Electrical.

Career In 1967, whilst studying at Silverstream College, Parry auditioned as drummer for a band called the Sine Waves, who later renamed themselves the Fourmyula. He has stated "I got the job because I had a truck driver's licence". Within a year, the band had hit the charts, reaching number 2 in New Zealand with "Come with Me" and reached number 1 in 1969 with "Nature". The band made two trips to the UK, but were not so successful there. After the band split in 1971, Parry returned to England and spent two years obtaining a diploma in marketing and advertising from the College for Distributive Trades in London. He then found a job in the International department at Phonogram Records, under fellow New Zealander John McCready.

In 1974, Parry was offered a job at Polydor in A&R. His first signing was the Chanter Sisters. Punk was in its early days but it was clear that it was going to be big, so Parry went to check out some of these bands. His requests to Polydor in 1976 to sign the Sex Pistols and the Clash were rejected. However, in January 1977, he got a tip from future-Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan to check out the Jam. Parry was convinced and signed them to Polydor in February. He also co-produced the Jam's first three albums as well as the eponymous sole album by the Jolt who he also signed. Later in 1977, he helped convince Polydor to sign Siouxsie and the Banshees after listening to "Hong Kong Garden" from the BBC's John Peel sessions. Soon after, Parry signed Billy MacKenzie and Alan Rankine, who went on to form the Associates. Along with engineer Mike Hedges, Parry then recorded the Cure's first album Three Imaginary Boys at Morgan Studios, which was released in May 1979. The next four studio albums released were Purple Hearts' Beat That!, the Passions' Michael & Miranda, the Cure's Seventeen Seconds and the Associates' The Affectionate Punch, all in 1980.

Personal life In 1971, Parry first married a woman from Scotland, saying "we were way too young".