Cool Places - Sparks in Finland

              

 

                                                 Cool Places: Sparks in Finland

 

             Finland is a very cool place in many respects, not least because there are many Sparks’ fans there! However, the brothers’ official visits to Finland have been somewhat sporadic: there was, in fact, a lengthy gap between their first gig there in 1975 and their next appearance in 2008.  Nevertheless, the recent 2022 concert in Helsinki, as part of the European leg of an extensive Spring tour, showed that there is a loyal and enthusiastic fan base there, with members old and new.

 Early Days

             Sparks first came to Helsinki for a gig on 2 October 1975, as part of a brief European tour prior to their lengthy U.K. series of dates throughout the autumn. Ron and Russell were accompanied on that occasion by their British band members Trevor White (guitar), Ian Hampton (bass) and Dinky Diamond (drums).  The concert took place at Helsinki’s Kulttuuritalo (or House of Culture), a modern building designed by the renowned Finnish architect Alvar Aalto. The band played in the semi-circular auditorium in front of a simple bank of lights, Russell resplendent in long curls, red braces, short-sleeved white shirt and dark pants while Ron wore his customary formal white shirt and tie. The band were also dressed casually. The varied set list included songs from the 1974 albums, Kimono My House ('Talent is an Asset', 'This Town', 'Falling in Love with Myself') and Propaganda ('Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth'), and showcased new songs from the recently released Indiscreet (September 1975): 'Look, Looks, Looks', which opened the show, 'Get in the Swing' and 'Without Using Hands'.  For this last number, the band employed a dramatic device that was to bear fruit decades later as the concept behind the Two Hands One Mouth show: at the end of the song, the lights gradually dimmed to two spotlights, and then to one spot only on Ron's hands as Russell softly repeated the closing lines.  For an Encore they played 'Happy Hunting Ground' and 'How Are You Getting Home?' (Indiscreet) as well as 'Girl from Germany' from A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing (1972). This range of material is a reflection of the astonishingly prolific nature of this period in the early career of the young Maels, and this gig, despite a microphone problem for Russell at one point, already demonstrated the characteristic energy and power that fans have come to associate with Sparks' shows. 

 Interviewers beware!

             The day before the live show, Sparks took part in an interview for Finnish television that became increasingly surreal. The very young-looking band are sharing a large chocolate cake while Ron talks seriously about what he perceives as the current fashion for conservatism. Pressed on this by the interviewer, he claims that the age of idealism is over, and there seems to be nothing to be in favour of any more. When he stresses that this is not meant in the political sense, Russell interjects that Sparks are certainly not political, a strategy that, with a few notable exceptions, has remained largely true to this day. Ron’s assertion that perhaps the new fashionable movement is hedonism prompts Russell to indicate the chocolate cake as proof! When the discussion moves on to differences between America and Europe, Russell asks whether ‘Finland is part of Europe, in a Finnish person’s mind?’, a somewhat surprising (although possibly philosophically profound!) question that elicits a curt ‘Yes’ from the interviewer. The interview takes an even more surreal turn as, at the moment that they are asked about their project with the famous French star Jacques Tati, the chocolate cake slowly collapses, enabling Russell to say that that precisely sums up the state of the project. This interview was not shown on the next morning current affairs and entertainment programme Tasavallassa Tapahtuu as planned, but was shown on another entertainment show, Iltatähti, on 21 October.  Sparks were clearly already showing off another of their undoubted talents: wrong-footing unwary interviewers!

 Some years later….

             Finland was not blessed with another live concert until 16 June 2008, when Sparks appeared at the Tavastia-Klubi in Helsinki. Videos on YouTube of some of the concert begin with a shot of the imposing doors of the club. Finland was one of the first countries in Europe, along with Estonia and Lithuania, to see live performances of songs from Exotic Creatures of the Deep (2008) after its première in London at the Shepherd's Bush Empire on 13 June at the culmination of the 21 x 21 Sparks Spectacular. Before the show, Ron did an interview with journalist Hannu Björkbacka, who tells us that he was the only journalist left after an extended sound set-up delay, and admiringly describes Ron as ‘a friendly and humble craftsman’. Against a background hub-bub of activity, Ron is remarkably relaxed and forthcoming about Sparks’ mission of ‘pushing the limits of what pop music can do’. He describes how, prior to Lil’ Beethoven (2002). they threw away about twenty songs because they felt that they were ‘going through the motions and not pushing themselves’, which he found painful, because each song is his ‘little baby’. They then went into the studio without any songs to explore a new sound, a writing process that they have followed ever since. Bjӧrkbacka, referring to the song ‘Strange Animal’, asks about the ‘emotional core’ of a song, and Ron agrees that their music always strives to work on two levels. When asked whether he sees Sparks’ music as entertainment or art, he reveals that he looks to Cole Porter and Gershwin for inspiration in achieving a blend of simplicity and sophistication, rather than contemporary pop. Inevitably, the discussion turns to the 21 x 21 Spectacular, which Ron says was inspiring for them on many levels, not least because some of the albums that had not been successful commercially were actually great when performed live, because they had a strong band, and ‘some songs were pretty good’. He also hints that there is hope of a compilation video of the event, because all the shows were filmed from one central camera. (We are still waiting for that one, Ron!). When pressed about future plans, he speaks about the five years they had spent on developing a screen version of the Japanese manga comic Mai the Psychic Girl in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and that there were still hopes that a full-length film might see the light of day. It is impossible not to admire Ron’s calm and kindness in this informative interview which took place at clearly a very hectic point in the day.

         Ron also says in this interview that, as they have not played in Finland for a long time, they have included a number of songs from throughout their career in that evening’s show. Indeed, the generously long and wide-ranging set list included five songs from Exotic Creatures ('Good Morning', 'Strange Animal', 'I Can't Believe That You Would Fall For All The Crap In This Song', 'I've Never Been High' and 'Lighten Up Morrissey') as well as a mixture of favourites and numbers less frequently played live from earlier albums: 'Up Here In Heaven' and, of course, 'Amateur Hour' and 'This Town' from Kimono My House (1974), 'Propaganda', 'At Home, At Work, At Play', 'Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth', and 'Something for the Girl With Everything' (Propaganda (1974)), 'Get In The Swing (Indiscreet (1975)), 'Goofing Off' (Introducing Sparks (1977)), 'Number One Song In Heaven' (from album of the same name (1979)), 'When Do I Get To Sing My Way' (Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins (1994)), 'Suburban Homeboy' from Lil Beethoven (2002) and 'Dick Around' from the 2006 album Hello Young Lovers. This huge and varied programme was not only to encourage Finnish fans, old and new, to explore earlier albums and ‘catch up’, but reflects Ron and Russell's perception of what works well in live performance and the constant innovation and consistently high standard of Sparks' work over four decades.

Finnish treats

             This Helsinki gig also had some further especially memorable moments: the audience were stamping and clapping in anticipation before the start of the show and for the opening number 'It's a Sparks Show Tonight', Ron took to the stage alone and mimed to the song while doing a mini-striptease, throwing his long mackintosh into the audience. He also caused a sensation by appearing for the Encore in a T-shirt embellished with a picture of an elk and the words 'Finnish Playboy'. Russell was, for once, more conservatively dressed in a long-sleeved black T-shirt, with black braces and red pants and a matching jacket that was removed at some point. Russell demonstrated his skill for delighting a crowd by speaking in Finnish, proclaiming his liking for things typically associated with the country; salmiakki (salted liquorice, which is delicious but an acquired taste), Fazer (a make of chocolate), Iittala (Nordic homeware design), the children's book favourite Moomin and, of course, Finland (Suomi). Each item was greeted with cries of surprised delight, admiration and 'Thank you' from the audience. He had clearly been well coached! This strategy, when on tour, of addressing a few introductory words to the audience in their own language, even if only briefly, always creates an affectionate rapport and is another example of Ron and Russell's close attention to the details of successful performance.  This endearing episode, and the closing moments of the gig, as Russell introduces the band, this time in English (Jim Wilson and Marcus Blake (guitars and backing vocals, both from the band Mother Superior), Steve McDonald (bass) and Steven Nistor on drums), can be seen on YouTube. These were the same musicians, as Russell points out, who played the 21 nights of the Sparks Spectacular in London. Their reward for sticking with them throughout that marathon, was to play in Finland, Russell announces to rapturous applause. After the last encore, 'Suburban Homeboy', Russell shouts out 'moi, moi' (bye bye) as the ecstatic audience finally allows the equally delighted band to leave the stage.

 A new venture

             Ron and Russell were back at the Tavastia-Klubi again in 2012, this time alone for a performance on the Two Hands One Mouth tour. There had been a short break since the show in London on 13 June 2012, which they have described as a trial run of the stripped back format, and the tour came via gigs in Latvia and Lithuania to arrive in Helsinki on 7 October. Despite their anxieties about appearing for the first time without a band and the greater exposure and focus on Ron and Russell that this entailed, the tour was going down a storm, and the Helsinki show was no exception.  Beginning with Ron's solo performance at the keyboard of the gorgeous overture, which was greeted with repeated cheering and clapping along with the beat, the show consisted of a massive list of twenty songs from throughout their career including some not so often seen in live performances (notably 'Sherlock Holmes' from Angst in My Pants (1982), 'Under the Table With Her' (Indiscreet (1975)) and excerpts from The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman (2009).  The songs were apparently chosen for their viability in the reduced and concentrated musical medium. In various interviews at the time, Ron and Russell explained that they had discovered that not all of their repertoire was suitable for this treatment, and that they wanted to maintain the same power, aggression and urgency as though they were playing with a full group.  The format was particularly nerve-wracking for Ron, who had to play alone live with neither band nor computer to support the music, which had to be recast for keyboard alone. The new arrangements are, in fact, magnificent. A huge benefit in their view was that the more intense focus on the vocals foregrounded the lyrics and emphasised their wit and subtlety, as well as the amazing range of Russell's voice, as they were not competing with a 'sonic blast'. A specially written piece, ''Two Hands, One Mouth', a song with a fairly blatant double meaning (which was more evident in live performance, as the audience in Finland as elsewhere quickly grasped), brought the show to a close.

Helsinki loves Sparks

Russell, who wore a brown suit with cut-off pants (for which he seems to have a penchant) and black shirt, introduced himself and Ron, in short-sleeved dark shirt, in Finnish and later, addressing the audience as 'Suomi-ystävät' ('Finnish friends'), proceeded again to list his 'favourite' Finnish things. This time, he says, he loves not just Panda's liquorice and Graavilohi (a Nordic speciality of cured raw salmon in dill, which receives an amusingly mixed response from the audience), but a range of celebrated Finnish artists and designers: Esa-Pekka Salonen, the orchestra conductor, Alvar Aalto, the architect and furniture, glassware and textile designer, and Marimekko, the celebrated design house known for its fabrics for home furnishing and fashion. Furthermore, Ron loves Aki Kaurismäki, the screenwriter and director, who with his director brother Mika Kaurismäki, founded a film production company and the Midnight Sun Film Festival. This engaging saunter through aspects of Finnish culture (relatively unfamiliar to most people in Britain) is enlightening, and it is easy to imagine that they might indeed appeal to the Maels' own tastes and interests. The delirium all this appears to unleash in the Helsinki audience only abates when Ron initiates the lush introductory bars of 'Singing in the Shower'. This tour, which was to go on to Norway, Sweden and Germany in mid-October, was, as fans will know, immortalised in the superb live album Two Hands, One Mouth, Live in Europe (2013), although the different locations of the numbers are not identified, apart from Russell's final speech before the title song, which is clearly addressed to 'all our friends in Manchester'.  (Thank you, Russell.)  In an interview with Ron from Helsinki airport published on 15 October in the Sabotage Times, as well as asserting that he was buying cans of reindeer meat on sale at the airport as souvenirs (well, he would, wouldn't he), he spoke about their movie projects, Mai the Psychic Girl and The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, and a new project, work for which was then about a third of the way through. One can only speculate that this refers to the screenplay for the movie Annette, directed by French director Leos Carax and released in 2021, unless there is another major project being kept under wraps.

Hippopotamus sighted in Finland

            The subsequent Revenge of Two Hands One Mouth tour did not play in Finland although it did reach Sweden, nor, for some reason, did FFS, the inspired collaboration between Sparks and Franz Ferdinand, perhaps because their hugely successful European tour in 2015 concentrated more on appearances at music festivals.  However, Sparks' fans in Finland will have been delighted to be amongst the first to hear songs from the new album, Hippopotamus, live, at the Flow Festival on 12 August 2017.  Of course, we know that this date is Ron’s birthday and Sparks posted a picture of Ron in front of a shop window containing a Moomin toy, and the words, ‘Happy Birthday Helsinki Boy’. On the 15^th, we were treated to a picture of Russell at the Moomin pop-up exhibition at Stockmann, the famous department store in Helsinki. The Flow Festival, founded in 2004, is a celebrated annual urban music and arts festival that takes place in the grounds of the old Suvilahti Power Plant on a number of stages and features not just Finnish and international musicians, but the visual arts, films, design, talks, food and drink. The line-up of the highly praised new band consisted of Zach Dawes (bass), Tyler Parkford (keyboards), both of whom are from the Los Angeles band Mini Mansions, Evan Weiss (guitar, from Junk), Taylor Locke (guitar) and seasoned Sparks drummer Steve Nistor on drums.  Ron and Russell were there as well, of course! Their outfits were coordinated stripes, a look subsequently adopted by many fans. Ron stood out in an elegant striped jacket and tie, while Russell’s striped top worn with loose cut-off pants over bare legs and black shoes with red laces divided opinion everywhere. They played four songs from Hippopotamus ('What The Hell Is It This Time', 'Hippopotamus', 'Edith Piaf Said It Better Than Me', 'Missionary Position') and nine of their best-known numbers. As elsewhere on this tour, the band’s energy, enthusiasm and enjoyment were evident and infectious. They were greeted and applauded as warmly as ever, but shortly after their set the heavens opened for an epic rainstorm.  Fortunately, as we know, Sparks are waterproof so 'nothing of a liquid nature was gonna mess with them'! Or, as Sparks commented on their ‘Helsinki, kiitos!’ post, thanking fans for their warm welcome, ‘Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth’!   At least Sparks-loving festival goers went away happy.  Although the second Hippopotamus tour of 2018 did go to Scandinavia, playing in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, it did not this time stop over in Finland.

New tour, old haunts

Of course, all the dates for the 2020 tour in support of the widely acclaimed new album A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip had to be postponed because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, as did the rearranged dates in May 2021, but Sparks made the brave decision to go ahead with the tours of the US and Europe in April/May 2022. The European leg was extensive, and featured concerts in Oslo, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius as well as in Helsinki on 3 May, at the Kulttuuritalo, where they first performed in 1975. Taking advantage of the extra day between gigs, two pre-show photos on the official website featured once again Russell’s liking for the Moomin stories. This time he is pictured standing before a picture of the mischievous Little My on the window of the Moomin store, and with a large model of the cold, lonely Groke, who has clearly found a friend at last (their expressions in this one are remarkably similar!)  An added bonus was a picture of both Russell and Ron on the stage of the Kultturitalo before the show.

This event surely brought back memories for both the boys and anyone who was fortunate enough to be there 47 years previously!  When Russell referred to this during the concert, Ron bent down and put his head in his hands in disbelief, while a fan at the front of the audience enthusiastically waved his original 1975 ticket, to Russell’s delight. The other members of the superb five-piece band (guitarists Evan Weiss and Eli Pearl, newcomer Max Whipple on bass, Steve Nistor on drums and Tyler Parkford on additional keyboards) were suitably impressed! As elsewhere, Finnish fans were surprised and pleased at the set list, which opened with ‘So May We Start’ (from their recent award-winning movie, Annette), and mixed songs from every decade of Sparks’ career, including ‘Wonder Girl’, ‘Tips for Teens’, ‘When Do I Get To Sing My Way’, and some numbers seldom performed live (‘Under the Table With Her’, ‘I Married Myself’, ‘The Shopping Mall Of Love’, and ‘Music That You Can Dance To’). In fact, two of the latter produced moments cherished by fans throughout the tour: Russell gazing lovingly into a hand mirror in ‘I Married Myself’ and Ron’s spoken narrative in ‘Shopping Mall’, especially the intonation and fist pump of the repeated ‘Yeah’. The Encore finished with an emotional rendition of ‘All That’, which, together with the hilarious ‘Lawnmower’ and the operatic ‘Stravinsky’s Only Hit’, were the only numbers from A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip. The audience were apparently a little reserved though very appreciative at first, but were on their feet dancing towards the end of the show.

There was no co-ordinated band colour scheme this time – Russell dazzled in bright yellow pants paired with a short dark woollen jacket accessorized with a Hello Kitty pin, while Ron wore a sombre outfit of a long, collarless coat and loose, wide-legged pants (with no tie!). The rest of the band were dressed in unobtrusive dark casual wear.  At one point, Russell donned a nautical cap (ylioppilaslakki) worn by high school graduates in Finland which is popular in May Day celebrations. In fact, hats were a bit of a feature on this occasion: guitarist Eli Pearl wore his beret, and Steve Nistor on drums also, unusually, had a hat. Another pleaser for this specific crowd was Russell’s speech in Finnish, once gain listing his particular Finnish favourites. His tastes (for salmiakki, cookies, reindeer and Marimekko) have not changed much over the years, it seems. As usual, the audience were impressed and delighted.

New collaboration, old friend

A long and glorious career stretched between these two Kulttuuritalo concerts, and, with the Edgar Wright documentary, The Sparks Brothers (released in summer 2021) and their own musical movie, Annette, chosen as the film to open the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, Sparks were riding higher than ever in the music firmament. Their activities in 2022 included another link with Finland: the release of ‘Your Fandango’, their collaboration with Todd Rundgren (who produced their first album), is accompanied by a stunning video by Finnish media artist Liisa Vääriskoski, in which an elegant woman in an eighteenth-century portrait comes to life and embarks on an Alice in Wonderland-like excursion through fantastical scenarios. Visually gorgeous and characteristically humorous, the video is a surreal collage of images, including various cameos of Ron, Russell and Todd, that brilliantly complements the complexity of the music.

Latte off the menu

            The European part of the 2023 world tour, featuring songs from The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte, did not reach Finland, perhaps in part because of appearance commitments at festivals and because an extensive programme of concerts in the US and, later in the year, Japan and Australia, lay ahead. It seems, at the time of writing, that the 2025 Mad! tour will not play there either, but it is always possible that new dates will be added. Finnish fans certainly hope to get to see their heroes play live again soon!

 

Penny Brown

March 2025

 

Sparks 'Favoured nation' - Japan

  

                                    Sparks ‘Favoured Nation’ – Japan

 

            If Japan is Sparks' favoured nation, as stated in a Newsletter of 2000 (vol. 19, no. 4), the love affair is entirely mutual. It is not an exaggeration to say that they are lionised there, and their live shows attract large, rapturous crowds. Ron and Russell have made numerous visits over the years, and have many friends there, including the members of the band Salon Music, Hitomi Takenaka and Zin Yoshida, with whom Russell has sung on two of their albums. The same Newsletter announces the first live shows to be played in Japan, in January 2001, and features a picture of the geishas from the Kimono My House cover, one giving a V-sign, with the caption 'We've been waiting for you!'.  This iconic album cover from 1974 is an early example of Ron and Russell’s love of all things Japanese: the two women dressed as geishas in Karl Stoecker’s photo were Michi Hirota and Kuniko Okamura from the Japanese Red Buddha Theatre company that was performing in London at the time. Their pose with smeared make-up, one winking at the camera, has been described by Madeline Bocaro as ‘laughing in the face of album art, while at the same time making history as one of its greatest examples’. Michi later attended the Kimono My House performance at the 21x21 Sparks Spectacular in London on 18 May, 2008 in full geisha attire.

         Ron and Russell’s trips to Japan have been documented in many pictures posted on the official website in recent years: posing outside shops, Russell with a Hello Kitty poster, a Tokyo Midtown Halloween picture complete with bats and masks, Ron behind a line of cardboard Japanese figures, and Russell with an array of suitcases at the airport in 2017 in front of a sign saying ‘Welcome to Tokyo 2020’ (‘You’ll be there (in the future) if you don’t do nothing foolish!’). Of course, we realise now that, sadly, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics advertised here were to be postponed because of the world-wide pandemic. Russell also posted photos from his trip to Japan and South Korea over Christmas and New Year 2019. In the same 2000 Newsletter, it is suggested that the Japanese aesthetic seems to parallel that of the Maels, and hence the mutual attraction, an idea that certainly would merit further exploration. Sparks’ love of Japan emerged fully when, after the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in March 2011, Sparks’ management announced that, because Ron and Russell had been so shocked by events and had many friends in Japan, they wished to help in some small way by donating a month’s income from the Sparks Mart (‘retitled The Shopping Mall of Love) to the Red Cross Tsunami Appeal.

Spreading the word

          The January 1999 Newsletter (vol 18, no.5), entitled 'Sparks Land in Japan. Special Travel Edition,' its cover adorned with Japanese writing, recounts Russell's short-notice visit to Tokyo to spread the word to 'a land as yet deprived of the Sparks experience in the flesh'. In order to remedy this situation and 'spread Sparks’ intelligence over the globe', he had a busy schedule of meetings, interviews, press promotion, and, of course, power shopping and dining. He met with the directors of Flavour of Sound, the company responsible for the distribution of Sparks' records in Japan and was interviewed for Rocking' On magazine by the well-known Japanese pop journalist Hisae Odashima, who surprised him by saying that Sparks were viewed as like that other duo The Carpenters (the first and probably the last time that comparison had been made!). The 1997 album Plagiarism had been widely distributed in Japan with translations of the titles and lyrics into Japanese, and a commentary by Ron. Sparks' newly released back catalogue had also been exported to Japan by Oglio Records and Russell was pleased to find lots of Sparks’ records in the shops. We also learn that his friends from Salon Music filmed him for an hour-long programme on Sparks for Japanese digital T.V., but, unfortunately, I have been unable to find out more about this. Russell was at this time apparently learning Japanese so it is to be hoped that he will be quite fluent by now! There is also an image of him holding a traffic cone with Japanese writing, the caption announcing that this is a limited promotional item for Plagiarism, available in Japan only. Buyers beware!

Early activities

             It is stated in this Newsletter that Ron's and Russell's last visit together was in 1984. They appeared on a television variety show called 'Funky Tomato', broadcast in 1985, which featured a video of 'All You Ever Think About Is Sex' and the boys giving the weather forecast. However, Russell did sing as a special guest on Salon Music's album This Is Salon Music (released 1987) and on a delicious cover version of Soft Cell's hit number 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye' (track 9, featuring Sparks), on Salon Music's 1988 album O Boy. There are pictures of 'Russell's South East Asia trip' in the early 1987 Sparks Sounds newsletter (vol.13 no.1), which display a typical tongue in cheek view of life: Russell outside a Tokyo deli, with the Head of Sparks Japanese Record Company (a large robot), and (close your eyes now if you are of a nervous disposition), 'searching for a bit of nooky in Tokyo's Shimokitazawa district'. Oh, Russell!

 Mai the Psychic Girl

         Fans of Sparks will be aware of the years Ron and Russell spent in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including some time in Hong Kong, devising a movie musical of the Japanese manga comic Mai the Psychic Girl and attempting to find the funding and support to bring it to the screen. Unfortunately, in the highly competitive, mercurial and cut-throat world of movie making, the venture never came to fruition at that time despite attracting the interest of several eminent directors, notably Tsui Hark and Tim Burton.  Little detail is known about the project itself apart from some information given in interviews, and this is largely about the practical difficulties. Of the two hours or so of music written, only four of the songs are in the public domain and can be found on YouTube.  It is not difficult to see why this particular manga with its dramatic plot and stunning, detailed artwork captured the imagination of Ron and Russell, and why it was, and still is, an attractive proposition for a movie given the continuing interest in super-heroes, monsters, megalomaniac villains and evil international conspiracies.  (See my piece on Mai in the Sparks Newsletter 23:1 for further discussion.).  It is still to be hoped that the Mai project might be revived one day (cue Edgar Wright?), especially now that Sparks have gained international recognition for Annette, the movie musical directed by Leos Carax that opened the Cannes Film Festival in July 2021. It would also be good if the rest of the music written for Mai could be made available for fans to enjoy.

 The first live shows …and a collaboration

             Fast forward, then, to the promised gigs in January 2001. On two nights (January 22 and 24) Sparks played in Quattro Clubs, situated above department stores, in Osaka and Tokyo respectively, and on both occasions, were supported by Salon Music. The concerts celebrated the 2000 album Balls, which had been released and widely distributed in Japan by Flavour Records in a much sought-after black jewel case. Ron and Russell were accompanied by Tammy Glover on drums with a background of balloons that changed colour with the lights. If the set list was the same as elsewhere on the tour, it would have consisted of a mixture of several numbers from Balls, including, of course, ‘Bullet Train’, and earlier favourites. Russell demonstrates once more his love of stripes in a pair of baggy pants with wide horizontal strips and an equally baggy sweater.

         A collaboration had been mooted between Sparks and Japanese band Pizzicato 5, whose leader, Yasuharu Konishi, had apparently met with Russell after the Shepherds Bush gig in September 2000. The result was a song called (appropriately) 'Kimono', which appeared on the Çà et là du Japon album released on 1 January, 2001. The female vocalist Maki Nomiya sings in both Japanese and English, and at one point Russell intervenes to say ‘Hi, this is Sparks. Kimono my house’. In the 2000 Newsletter referred to above, this was described as potentially a very useful collaboration, as Pizzicato 5 were influential taste setters in music, media and fashion circles in Japan.

Hello Young Lovers

             It was to be five years before Sparks' next formal visit to play in Japan, when the 2006 Hello Young Lovers tour arrived in Tokyo (20 October at Shibuya-O-East) and Kyoto (at the P. Hour festival, Kyoto University Seibu Hall, 22 October). This album built on the critical acclaim of the radically innovative Lil' Beethoven (2002), and Sparks had announced in a press release in 2005 that it would be 'elaborate, excessive, adventurous, more extreme, with lots of vocals', with 'much more diversified instrumentation'. The energetic live band consisted of Steve McDonald (bass), Josh Klinghoffer (guitar) and Steven Nistor on drums. At the first show, Sparks were supported by Netsuzo and the intriguingly named Spank Happy, featuring Maki Nomiya, and at the second, by Watts Towers and Spank Happy.  As in London, the show was in two halves, the first featuring the Hello Young Lovers album in its entirety, and the second a Sparks Show of favourites ('This Town', 'Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth', 'Something For The Girl With Everything', 'Tryouts For The Human Race', 'Suburban Homeboy' and some surprises (including, to delighted acclaim, Russell's masterpiece 'Pineapple'!) The stunning visual effects were an outstandingly innovative feature of the Hello Young Lovers tour; the marching soldier boys (Ron and Russell), the cat headed figures, and, perhaps most memorably, Ron fighting with a screen version of himself for 'The Very Next Fight', and playing a constantly shape-shifting virtual organ for 'When I Sit Down To Play The Organ at the Notre Dame Cathedral'.  Both Ron and Russell and the band, who were behind a black mesh curtain, wore dark clothing for these gigs, not to distract from the visuals, although Russell added a red scarf in the second half.

             The DVD of the Hello Young Lovers show at the Kentish Town Forum, London, on 30 September 2006, called, unsurprisingly, Dee Vee Dee, has an interesting extra feature entitled 'Highlights of the Japan tour'. This includes footage of Ron at Tokyo airport and consulting a map, and of a somewhat bewildered Russell in the street. Shibuya is an area of Tokyo known for its youth culture, glamorous stores, restaurants and night life, and one of its most iconic images is the Shibuya ‘scramble crossing’, an extraordinary intersection deemed to be the busiest in the world, with multiple pedestrian crossings in all directions where hundreds of people can cross at the same time. Surrounding the crossings is a dazzling array of huge screens and advertising signs. Russell is also seen in the countryside at what appears to be a temple, and with a small group of elementary school children who proudly declare their names in English (‘who don’t like kids?’). Their journey to Osaka on a bullet train (what else?) is documented, with some grumbles about carrying their own luggage ('Did the Beatles have to carry their own bags?', asks Russell) and views of the rapidly passing scenery. We are also shown the boys arriving at a meeting in Tokyo and the signing of records and the Sparks Guide Book (discussed below) at Tower Records in Osaka. Finally, there are brief glimpses of the show, which clearly played to a packed audience.

 A Sparks Guide Book

             The year 2006 was an extremely productive one for Sparks in terms of promotion, as it also saw the publication of a Sparks Guide Book (1971-2006) edited by Yuichi Kishino. Containing a variety of material - essays, cartoons, games, photos, discography - with text in Japanese and English, this book has recently been made available again through the Sparks website. Although occasionally frustrating for non-Japanese-speaking fans, the translated essays and interviews, including Ron and Russell interviewing each other (in English, of course!), contain a number of interesting moments. For example, the Japanese translations of their song titles are sometimes a little strange: 'Angst In My Pants', was allegedly translated roughly as 'Elephant's Dilemma' (although this may be one of Ron's legendary deadpan jokes). The extended interview by Ayesha Keshani and Yuichi Kishino draws out many useful insights about the process of writing and recording. Ron and Russell speak eloquently and honestly of their belief that there is strength in the very ambiguity of where they fit in the musical scene just as there is depth in the ambiguity of some of the lyrics; that they tend to see things cinematically and their songs as three to four minute movies without the visuals; that they strive always for freshness and new forms, including an ambitious stage musical; that they dislike the musical and lyrical predictability of current pop music, preferring unexpected juxtapositions and 'quick cuts'. The last lengthy piece, again by Ayesha Keshani, 'Drama Without Equal...In Its Strange Intensity', is clearly the work of a super-fan, coining the term 'Sparksjoy' for the 'greatest pop band the world has ever seen' and focussing on their self-presentation, citing Sparks' strength in their 'polarity, unity and impeccable self-parody'.  One might add constant self-reinvention and sheer genius to this, of course. Also interesting is an A-Z of people name-checked in Sparks' songs, which produces some bizarre juxtapositions: Scarlett O'Hara, Sergei Eisenstein, Shaggy, Sherlock Holmes, for example. The brief comments by Ron are often tongue in cheek if not downright hilarious: for Emmanuel Kant, for example, he writes 'Philosopher, but more a name that gives an adolescent band a chance for a double entendre'.  Indeed.

Introducing Exotic Creatures of the Deep

             Shortly after the mammoth achievement of the 2008 21 x 21 Spectacular in London, Sparks flew to Japan to play at the Fuji Rock festival at the Naeba Ski Resort, Yuzawa, on July 26. This is Japan’s largest outdoor musical event, drawing more than 100,000 fans over three days in a stunning mountain setting about an hour and a half from Tokyo by bullet train. Organised by concert and festival promoters Smash, the festival consists of seven main and several minor stages, with beautiful walks between them. Japanese fans were therefore amongst the first to hear songs from the new album Exotic Creatures of the Deep.  Sparks' manager Sue Harris has described the atmosphere at this show-stopping performance at the Orange Court Stage: 'You looked out and there were thousands and thousands of young Japanese fans just going crazy'. Thanks to their label and a great promoter, Japan was really 'getting Sparks', she adds. They put on a full show of numbers from Exotic Creatures of the Deep and ten other songs. The band consisted of Steven Nistor on drums, Marcus Blake and Jim Wilson on guitars and Steve McDonald on bass, and the show employed all the projected images seen elsewhere. Videos of both 'Good Morning' and 'Suburban Homeboy' can be seen on YouTube.

             Exotic Creatures returned to Japan in April 2009 with the same line-up, with Sparks playing three shows to 'totally appreciative and freaked-out crowds' as guitarist Jim Wilson recalled. This time a different approach was taken: the first night (April 23) at the Shibuya O-East, Tokyo, was entitled ‘Exotic Kimonos’ and featured Kimono My House in the first half and Exotic Creatures in the second, for the next night (‘Heavenly Creatures’), they performed Number One Song in Heaven and Exotic Creatures, at the same venue, and for the third at the Sun Big Cat Club in Osaka (‘Then and Now’), a mixture of songs from the past and present. As a tribute to the occasion and the locality, six geishas were hired to parade the stage for 'This is the Renaissance'.  The boys do love a kimono or two.

 Fashion favourites

             On that subject, the Maels’ fondness for Japanese clothes and artefacts is evident. Recent images of Russell at home reveal several Japanese iconic ornaments in his house (including a picture of Mai the Psychic Girl and a model of Astro Boy, characters from Japanese manga comics) and both Ron and Russell have spoken of, and demonstrate in their outfits their liking for Japanese fashion. Russell has been captured on camera with a Hello Kitty phone case and for the fortieth anniversary of Kimono My House in 2014, both came on stage wearing kimonos. Of course they did. Russell has said that he prefers the yukata, a casual shorter summer kimono, and at the BBC One Show in 2017 he appeared in what looked like an hakama, loose floor-length pants (like a divided skirt), as worn by the samurai. These were customised in a uniquely Sparks way, however, teamed with a black and white checked jacket, striped sweater and long scarf, and certainly created an interesting effect when he performed!

An idea born in Japan

            A new direction for Sparks began to take shape when in January 2012, Ron and Russell were invited to perform at Tokyo's O-West club as guests at Yuichi Kishino's birthday concert, which Ron described as an informal affair, like playing in someone's living room. They played only a handful of songs ('Propaganda', 'Dick Around', 'Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth', 'This Town', Change', 'Something for the girl with Everything' and 'I Married myself'), and the experience of performing alone without a band apparently gave rise to the concept of a whole stripped back show with just the two of them, with no added instrumentation, backing vocals or special effects. Thus, the wonderful Two Hands One Mouth was born.

             In January 2013, Two Hands One Mouth arrived for shows at the Shibuya Club Quattro in Tokyo (8 January) and at the Umeda Club Quattro in Osaka (9 January) where it played to enthusiastic audiences. After the marvellous Overture, played by Ron alone on stage at his keyboard, wearing a dashing beret, Russell bounded on in a brown suit with cut-off pants and striped socks to sing a lengthy set of twenty numbers from different stages of their career, including of course the standard favourites, a few surprises (the brief 'Wedding of  Jacqueline Kennedy to Russell Mael', 'Under the Table With Her') and excerpts from their 2009 pop opera The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, for which Ron played Bergman. This range of material was a superb demonstration of 'the essence of Sparks', highlighting the core elements of their work and their uniqueness in an intensely dynamic way.  Ron's and Russell's ability to do more than justice to songs that originally demanded more complex arrangements allowed the listener to focus more directly on Ron's interpretation of the melodies and Russell's energetic delivery of the lyrics, no longer having to doing battle with a ‘wall of sound’. The shows concluded with the exquisite, specially written 'Two Hands, One Mouth', a typical Sparks song with ambiguous lyrics which clearly delighted audiences everywhere. The shows were a triumph; as the video of 'Rhythm Thief' on YouTube reveals, there is no reserve on the part of the audience, their cheers reaching almost manic proportions at the end. This format proved so popular in Japan that Sparks were invited to appear again as a duo at the 2013 Fuji Rock Festival on 26 July, a date that interrupted an unusually lengthy tour of the USA.  For the festival, the set list differed to include 'BC' and 'Angst in My Pants'.  Around this time, a brief video was made of Russell in a karaoke bar in Tokyo, hat clamped on his head and tambourine in hand, singing along to ‘This Town’. He keeps his eyes on the TV screen (fearful, obviously, of forgetting the words!) and nearly falls off his stool striving for the final high note. What one would not give to have been present on that occasion!

A collaboration that certainly worked

             Upon the release of the Two Hands One Mouth Live In Europe album in March 2013, Sparks suggested that this would most likely be followed by a move in some new and, hopefully, surprising direction. Their next venture succeeded on both counts: the collaboration with Franz Ferdinand that produced the super group FFS, a superb album and hugely successfully live shows. The formula for the live shows was a winner: a combination of new songs from the FFS album and covers of songs by both groups that produced intriguing new versions. Russell and Alex Kapranos shared vocals on all the numbers with Ron on keyboard as usual, backed by members of Franz Ferdinand: Nick McCarthy (guitar), Bob Hardy (bass), and Paul Thomson (drums). A highlight was ‘Collaborations Don’t Work’, which paradoxically demonstrated that on this occasion they definitely did. One of the many festivals played was the Hostess Club All Nighter on 15 August, 2015 at the Summer Sonic festival, in Chiba, Japan. The only concession to eccentric stage gear for this show was Russell’s striped poncho. The next day, the Tokyo Reporter review claimed that FFS were ‘the real highlight of the night’, and that for the first time that night, the event really felt like a festival. It also describes the set as a little like ‘drunken karaoke’ (!), and that ‘Russell could hardly contain his excitement at playing in front of a large crowd of kids’.  There are videos of ‘When Do I Get To Sing My Way’ and ‘Call Girl’, and Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Do You Want To’, on YouTube, but the quality is poor because of the lights and crowd.

 The Hippo years

         And so, we come to Hippopotamus, yet another reincarnation of Sparks as a live band, and the album that took them to number seven in the UK charts, for the first time in forty years. Once again, Sparks demonstrated their ability to produce something fresh, dynamic and incredibly varied both musically and lyrically in terms of wit, emotion and drama, with echoes of elements of different stylistic periods. The hippo came to Tokyo for two nights, 24 and 25 October 2017, at the Kinema Club, Tokyo, where the audience was as enthralled as they had been everywhere else on the tour. The new band, consisting of Zach Dawes on bass, Tyler Parkford on additional keyboards (both from L.A. group Mini Mansions), Evan Weiss and Taylor Locke (guitars) and Steven Nistor on drums, were superb and the coordinated striped outfits were a nice touch. Ron's striking striped jacket and tie contrasted nicely with Russell's striped sweater, Japanese-style loose cut-off pants and bare ankles above formal lace-up shoes. The by now iconic drawing of the hippo was featured on the big drum.  Unlike the Lil' Beethoven, Hello Young Lovers and Exotic Creatures of the Deep shows, the new album was not performed in its entirety, but mixed eight new numbers with earlier classic favourites. 'What The Hell Is It This Time', galvanized audiences everywhere from the start, and the wistful 'Probably Nothing' was followed by 'Missionary Position', 'Hippopotamus', 'Scandinavian Design', 'I Wish You Were Fun', and 'Life With The Macbeths'. It was a treat to find FFS's 'Johnny Delusional' included in the Encore. The audience can be seen in YouTube videos to be revelling in this thrilling blend of rock, synth pop and opera, bouncing up and down and clapping along delightedly. The second Hippopotamus tour also reached Japan in summer 2018, after a further tour of the U.K. and Europe, with two shows, 18 August at Summer Sonic once again and 20 August at ‘Summer Sonic Extra’ at the Shibuya club, Tokyo, with a partially new line-up of Evan Weiss and Eli Pearl (guitars), Patrick Kelly (bass), Alex Casnoff on additional keyboard, and Steven Nistor on drums. A glimpse of Russell addressing the audience in Japanese is featured in a video from this gig. Is there no end to the man’s talents?

After the pandemic

         Because of the cancellation of concerts for two years because of the pandemic, it was to be 2022 before Sparks returned to Japan.  In the meantime, of course, the release of Edgar Wright’s documentary The Sparks Brothers and the acclaimed Sparks’ authored movie musical Annette had significantly increased their international profile. Among pictures posted on this trip were Ron and Russell standing outside Shibuya station, their shows advertised on a huge billboard above the entrance. They played three concerts on this visit, two of which were festivals, to a huge crowd at the Chiba Sonicmania  (19 August) and at Summer Sonic in Osaka (21 August) and a standalone Sparks show on 22 August at Shibuya WWX in Tokyo. along with a partly new band line-up: Evan Weiss and Eli Pearl (guitar), Max Whipple (bass), Steve Nistor (drums) and Tyler Parkford (additional keyboards). While the band wore dark outfits, Russell stood out in bright, yellow trousers, and Ron wore dark wide-legged trousers with a stylish long jacket and a dark polo neck top.  The lengthy set list was as in Europe, although ‘Edith Piaf’ and ‘Get In The Swing’ were omitted. Included were two songs from acclaimed Sparks’ authored movie musical Annette (‘So May We Start’ and ‘We Love Each Other So Much’) and three from A Steady Drip, Drip,Drip: : Stravinsky’s Only Hit’,  ‘Lawnmower’, and, as a final song, the anthemic ‘All That’.  The latter, like ‘May We Start’, has now become an iconic part of a Sparks’ show, and forms a very emotional closure.  Russell sang one chorus with only the audience’s clapping as accompaniment before the band joined in again. Also in the set list were songs from various earlier albums, with some welcome surprises like ‘Tips For Teens’, ‘Under The Table With Her’ and ‘The Shopping Mall Of Love’.  There are always many endearing moments in a Sparks’ performance, and amongst them on this tour were Russell sitting on a stool, Sinatra-style for ‘I Married Myself’, during which he produced a hand mirror and said ‘Hi Baby. How you doin’?’ and sang the rest of the song gazing lovingly at his reflection.  Ron’s dance is always a showstopper, with its slowly built anticipation as he carefully removes and folds his jacket, but his monologue in ‘The Shopping Mall of Love’ also caught the imagination of fans everywhere. At the 22 August show, Ron nearly fell over during this song and grumbled ‘small stages’, to Russ’s surprise. At the end, Ron donned a white tee shirt with Japanese writing on ( I wonder what it said?).  On Sat 20 August, there were promotional activities for the Sparks documentary, The Sparks Brothers and Annette in Tokyo including a Q and A where they answered questions asked in Japanese by journalists.

 Instant Latte

             Making up for lost time, Sparks were on the road again in 2023 on a tour that culminated in the ‘dream come true’ performances at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.  Again there were three shows in Japan: 22 July at the duo music Exchange, Tokyo, 24 July at the riverside Nanba Hatch in Osaka, the largest music club in Japan, and 25 July at the Line Cube, Shibuya, Tokyo. They entered, appropriately, to the twinkling notes of ‘Take Me For A Ride’, and the set list consisted of songs from 14 albums, including several songs from the new album: ‘The Girl is Crying In Her Latte’, Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is’, ‘It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way’, ‘We Go Dancing’ ‘Escalator’, and a short version of ‘Gee That Was Fun’. A elsewhere, the audience was surprised and delighted by the unusual choices, some of which, like ‘Beaver O’Lindy’ and ‘Bon Voyage’ and ‘Music That You Can Dance To’, have rarely featured in concerts. The band line-up was substantially the same as in 2022, though without extra keyboards. The combination of Evan Weiss and Eli Pearl on guitars, Max Whipple on bass and Steven Nistor on drums produced a fantastically exciting sound that has been widely praised by reviewers and fans alike. The energy was palpable and the tightness and precision faultless. The buzzing techno background of some of the songs from the new album translated well to the band format and, if anything, some fans felt that the songs were even more striking in live performance. The band also seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely! 

         The outfits of the band, who remained on a slightly raised platform at the back of the stage, were dark and casual. Ron surprised in a pair of wide grey jogger-type trousers with a light stripe down the sides, paired with a white shirt under a dark jacket, and a tie. Once again, the most colour on stage was Russell’s striking two-tone red and black jacket worn with dark trousers and shirt. Russell’s energy throughout was astonishing, his leaps, twirls and skipping covering the whole width of the stage.  The lighting for the shows was sophisticated and stunning, featuring a background grid of rectangles filled with lights which constantly changed to form different patterns, spelling Sparks during ‘So May We Start’ and ‘Beaver O’Lindy’ letter by letter, as Russell spelled it out. The arrangement was particularly effective during ‘Escalator’ as horizontal rows of lights ran up and down behind the band, as were the spotlights, including the highly dramatic blue spotlight on Ron at his keyboard in ‘Number One Song in Heaven. It is heartwarming to see the warm welcome and huge appreciation of Japanese audiences and the love from Japanese fans on fan sites.

In the future

             In early March 2025, Sparks posted an image from a promotional tour to Japan for the new album, Mad!.  Once again, three concerts in Japan are planned, on 8, 10 and 12 of June in Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo, before they embark on the European leg of the tour, so Japanese fans will be amongst the first to hear songs from Mad! live. The response is sure to be as enthusiastic and appreciative as ever. We know that Ron and Russell will be thrilled to be performing again in some of their favourite venues.

Penny Brown

March 2025

Sparks in Sweden - So Important

 

Sparks in Sweden – So Important.

             When Sparks first played in Sweden in the mid-1970s, the significant role that the country was to play in their artistic career was some 35 years in the future. If the 1980s saw huge success in France and the 1990s in Germany, it is Sweden that is linked with an exciting and challenging venture in the first decade of the new century.  As fans will know, Sweden supplied the opportunity in 2009 for Sparks to expand their activities with their fantasy radio musical The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman (of which more later). Moreover, one of their impressive live performance DVDs, Lil' Beethoven Live in Stockholm, was filmed at the Södra Teatern in March 2004.  Stockholm, and the Södra Teatern in particular, are special places for Ron and Russell: in October 2012, at the Stockholm gig for the Two Hands One Mouth tour, Russell told the audience that the Södra is their 'favourite home from home'. A beautiful and imposing nineteenth-century building with its name emblazoned in huge letters on the roof, the Södra is now a renowned international venue for music performance, boasting restaurants and outdoor terraces as well as several stages. A quick scrutiny of Sparks' tour dates reveals that Sweden has also been privileged to be amongst the earliest countries in Europe to see several new Sparks' albums performed live, including, of course, on the Hippopotamus tour of 2017.

 So, may we start?

             To begin at the beginning: sources indicate that there were concerts in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Lund on 3, 4, and 5 December 1974, following an extensive series of gigs in the U.K. showcasing Propaganda, but I have been unable to find many details of these. However, if they followed the format of the show at the Olympia Theatre in Paris on 30 November, accompanying Ron and Russell were Trevor White (guitar) and Ian Hampton (bass), both formerly members of Jook, and Dinky Diamond (drums) and the set list would have included songs from Kimono My House (1974), and Propaganda (1974) with ‘Girl from Germany’ from A Woofer in Tweeter’s Clothing’ (1973) as an encore. The following year saw Sparks return to Stockholm for a concert on 4 October at the Konserthuset, a grand concert hall fronted by a row of classical pillars, followed by gigs in Gothenburg and Lund, on a brief Scandinavian visit to promote the recently issued Indiscreet album, prior to their third major UK tour.  The slimmed down band again consisted of Trevor White, Ian Hampton and Dinky Diamond. This characteristically energetic show included songs from Kimono My House and Propaganda as well as a selection from Indiscreet (released in September 1975); Looks, Looks, Looks', 'Without Using Hands', 'Happy Hunting Ground', 'How Are You Getting Home', and 'Get in the Swing', which was to become a hit in Sweden. Russell's red braces, already seen in Helsinki two days earlier, had another outing, continuing the trend of unusual stage outfits that has lasted to the present day, contrasted with Ron's more sober shirts and tie (although there were to be notable exceptions to this in later years).

 A long hiatus…

             Their next visit, however, was not until 2003, the first for decades. On two nights, March 23 and 24, the Swedish audience at the Södra Teatern was introduced to the new, radically innovative Lil' Beethoven album, the self-proclaimed 'genre-defying opus', which had been released in October 2002 and premiered at the Royal Festival Hall, London on 19 October 2002.  Ron and Russell were accompanied on this occasion by Dean Menta (from Faith No More) on timpani and guitar and Tammy Glover on timpani and drums, both of whom have made significant contributions to Sparks' albums and live performances over the years.  The brilliance of this album's varied musical styles and the incisive witty lyrics commenting on both contemporary social manners and obsessions ('Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls', 'Suburban Homeboy') and the current state of music ('Rhythm Thief', 'What Are All These Bands So Angry About') were to earn outstanding reviews from music critics. Immediately after the re-release of the album by Lil' Beethoven Records in March 2004 and two London shows, Sparks played three further nights in Stockholm (March 27, 28, 29), once again at the Södra. The DVD Lil' Beethoven Live in Stockholm (released 9 August 2004), was filmed on this occasion. (Reader, if you are familiar with this DVD, please skip the next two paragraphs which offer a brief description.)

 The DVD, LIL’ Beethoven Live In Stockholm

         The show consists of a thrilling and compelling full performance of Lil' Beethoven in the first half, with a 'Sparks Show' of songs from their back catalogue in the second. Ron and Russell are accompanied once more by Dean Menta and Tammy Glover, both of whom contribute backing vocals.  The stage of the luxurious auditorium (seen at the start of the DVD) is relatively small and intimate, and much of the action accompanying the songs takes place on a raised dais at the back. Two large timpani are sited at each side of the stage at the front. The audience is seated and claps along in a sedate manner, although there is a lengthy standing ovation and cheers at the end of the show.  The DVD reveals the stunning theatrical effects devised for the show to accompany, highlight and reflect the originality and innovativeness of the songs. Projected on the rear wall are six arched windows in which fast moving and constantly changing images (faces, words, piano keys) appear. Between songs, a metronome (a MAELzel metronome, no less!) ticks away in the windows. The theatricality of the show is not limited to the projections however: Russell, wearing a reddish-brown suit with a light stripe and a black polo neck sweater in the first half of the show, delivers the songs with an energy and a beguiling intensity that reinforces the drama of the music and the highly perceptive, acerbic and occasionally melancholy lyrics. Ron's physical role in this gig is extremely proactive: he repeatedly rises from his keyboard to interact with the images, attempting to catch up with elusive beautiful female figures in 'I Married Myself', or performing a horse-riding pantomime for 'Ride 'Em Cowboy'.  He delights the audience by playing the piano with immensely long fake arms, for 'How Do You Get To Carnegie Hall?' and parades around with a tall elegant female for 'Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls'. For 'Suburban Homeboy', he strips off his formal white shirt and striped tie to a plain vest and speaks one of the verses.  There are humorous moments too, as always: during the extraordinary 'My Baby's Taking Me Home', an exercise in the emotional power of repetition, for which Russell sings with three microphones, Ron sits staring impassively ahead at the keyboard, studiously ignoring his brother bouncing up and down beside him, and in 'Your Call Is Very Important To Us',  he rises from his keyboard repeatedly to approach the telephone operator (Tammy Glover) on each line only to return stoically to his seat on 'Please Hold'. The first number, the sinister 'The Rhythm Thief', signalling a change from straightforward rock to a quasi-operatic, orchestral style, and accompanied by images of frenzied musicians, was a perfect opener for this concert, which has been judged to be ground-breaking in so many ways. In fact, watching the live performance DVD of this show is a revelatory experience and is a must for those many fans who regard Lil Beethoven as Sparks’ greatest masterpiece.

                    For the second half of the programme, the atmosphere is lighter without the overtones of menace hovering over some of Lil' Beethoven . Russell wears a light green shirt patterned in pink and white with a yellow tie and light-coloured pants, while Tammy dazzles in a sparkly, strappy dress. Ron, this time, is attired formally with white shirt, dark waistcoat and bow tie. This set presents thirteen songs including perennial favourites 'No 1 Song in Heaven', 'Amateur Hour' 'When I Kiss You (I Hear Charlie Parker Playing)', 'When Do I Get To Sing My Way' and a few songs less often performed live: 'Here In Heaven', 'Nothing To Do' and 'The Ghost of Liberace'. And a little number called 'This Town', of course. It would be interesting to know whether these choices relate to a perception of which songs will go down best with a particular audience, or whether Ron and Russell just like to vary the fare at different venues. The audience members of all ages interviewed in the bonus feature on the DVD clearly reveal that Sparks have a loyal, knowledgeable and hugely enthusiastic fan base in Sweden: the best answer to the question ‘what do you think is special about Sparks?’ has to be ‘Well, they are Sparks!’ There is also a humorous bonus feature in which the band are seen backstage in white bathrobes performing a version of themselves as eccentric and pampered stars needing their own fruit trees imported from California. Ron explains their demands while a young woman massages his hand and Russell, Tammy and Dean sit silently eating. Interestingly, he points to photos of Ingmar Bergman on the wall, a foreshadowing, unrecognized at the time, of what was to come a few years later.  The DVD was reviewed as 'Prime Sparks in all their gleeful glory' and as 'The number one DVD gig in heaven'. The Times offered unconditional praise of Sparks as 'the grandmasters of vivid spectacle and alien glamour', while Mojo magazine reached for the superlative in calling Russell's voice 'simply angelic'.  

 Hello Young Lovers

             A similar use of inventive and entertaining graphics made the 2006 Hello Young Lovers tour a stunning visual as well as auditory spectacle, reviewed in The Independent as one of gloriously camp effervescence', and which was to take Sparks not just to Europe but to Australia, Japan and the U.S. This album got to No. 48 in the Swedish charts in February and the band played in Sweden for two nights, 23 and 24 February, once again at the Södra Teatern, following a series of UK dates. The band consisted of Steve McDonald, Tammy Glover and Jim Wilson (for part of this tour Josh Klinghoffer alternated with Wilson because of conflicting commitments).  As always, the show demonstrated the power, wit and exuberance characteristic of a Sparks performance, beginning with the forceful 'Rock, Rock, Rock', which featured Ron as a manic guitar-playing rock star responding to Russell's lament that 'soft passages ... get you in trouble'. As with the Lil' Beethoven concert, this was a show of two halves, the first showcasing the ten songs from the Hello Young Lovers album and the second, a 'Sparks Show' of a further fourteen numbers. Apart from the 'must have' classics, this part of the show also celebrated less often performed numbers: 'Achoo', 'Pineapple' and 'Happy Hunting Ground'. It is a delight to see these performed live decades after their original appearance. Videos from the Swedish gigs can be seen on Youtube, and, of course, the 30 September Hello Young Lovers concert in London was immortalised on Dee Vee Dee. Sparks at the London Forum. The combination of the music and dramatic visual backdrops (described accurately enough on the DVD cover as 'an audio-visual attack on the senses') was brilliantly conceived and executed. Particularly striking are the scenes of marching figures that accompanied 'Baby, Baby, Can I Invade Your Country', and the cat-headed figures for 'Here Kitty'.

 The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman – a truly Swedish venture

             Exotic Creatures of the Deep was not played live in Sweden, but, early in 2009 Ron and Russell were contacted by Marie Wennersten of Sveriges Radio, who had seen Sparks in concert and was interested in commissioning a musical radio drama. There was one stipulation: that the piece should have some connection with Sweden and the Swedish language. As Russell and Ron have explained in various interviews, they were initially reticent about the project, since their knowledge of Sweden was limited to Volvo and Ikea and coloured by the gloomy human and scenic moods of Ingmar Bergman's films.  They had both been fans of Bergman in their days at UCLA, when it was apparently cool to like foreign films (and, according to Ron, something of a chic magnet), and Ron came up with the idea of a fantasy scenario transporting the Swedish director to Hollywood. Eight months or so later the world première of The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman took place at the Södra  on 14 August, and was broadcast simultaneously on Sveriges Radio. A limited edition CD was issued on the same day, and an English version was released in November. The latter, Sparks' twenty-second album, was broadcast on BBC Radio 6 Music on 8 November.

             The drama, in 24 subsections and lasting about an hour, was played to an audience in front of a screen showing just a large profile portrait of Bergman. Because it was conceived for radio, the piece depends entirely on the music, the voices and the sound effects for atmosphere and story progression. The plot is built upon the delightfully surreal concept of Ingmar Bergman finding himself transported to Hollywood after his success at the 1956 Cannes film festival by powers wanting to recruit him to make blockbuster movies, exploiting his fame in exchange for unlimited resources. His struggle, both internal and external, is how to resist the corrupt blandishments and temptations of the moguls and hirelings of an imaginary unscrupulous Hollywood movie studio in order to retain his integrity and stay true to his artistic vision. This is a sophisticated piece that incorporates references to Bergman's films as well as being both a homage to Hollywood musicals and a satirical portrayal of the movie industry. The trials that Bergman undergoes, including being pursued by the LAPD with dogs and helicopters, until he is rescued on a beach at Santa Monica by Greta Garbo (who else?), are conveyed through a breath-taking variety of musical styles (with echoes of synth pop, classical, polka, jazz, vaudeville, Kurt Weil and Sparks' own oeuvre), instruments (piano, keyboard, guitar, drums, orchestra), witty and dramatic lyrics and impressive sound effects. Although Ron and Russell have said that the story was not intended as a personal statement, it is easy to see how the central theme of artistic integrity versus commercialism could apply to their own career, as they have consistently taken pride in pursuing their own vision, sometimes at the expense of commercial success, instant celebrity and large financial reward. The BBC review of the album made the connection explicitly, alluding to Ron's and Russell's often declared European sensibilities, and describing the story as one of 'cultural European intelligence, resisting the bland homogenising influence of corporate America to carve its own idiosyncratic path – does that remind you of anyone?'

             In his post-show speech at the Södra (available on YouTube), after Ron has paid homage to Bergman as an 'incredible inspiration to anyone with creative aspirations' and hopes that 'wherever he is, he can receive SR', Russell describes the difficult logistics of recording the piece in both Swedish and English, and the necessary close collaboration, joking that nobody understands Ron's lyrics in English, so the translator had a challenging task. He introduces the actors who played Bergman (Jonas Malmsjö) and Greta Garbo (Elin Klinga), both of whom had worked with Ingmar Bergman, and explains that the other musicians involved in the project (Jim Wilson and Dean Menta on guitar, Marcus Blake on bass, Tammy Glover and Steven Nistor on drums), could not be present because they were back in Los Angeles.

             In the same speech, Russell announces that they have plans for a movie version of The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman as well as a theatrical performance. The former, unfortunately, has still not become a reality but a theatrical performance of the English version took place on 25 June 2011 at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Los Angeles at the L.A. Film Festival.  A new cast, with Finnish actors Peter Franzen as Bergman and Ann Magnusson as Garbo, performed in front of spectacular projections that brought together vintage images from Sweden, Los Angeles and Bergman's films as well as snatches of the lyrics. Ron and Russell were prominent, of course, playing a sycophantic but sinister limo driver and tour guide (Ron)and cynical studio boss (Russell), and band members played other parts, including Tammy Glover as the seductive 'Hollywood Welcoming Committee'. The link with a potential movie version was effected by the involvement of the Canadian director Guy Maddin who read stage directions and filmed the action from the side of the stage. The dedicated website for The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman is an excellent resource which has much fascinating detail about the project, including all the music and lyrics and the projected images. Although this project has been regarded by some fans as a side step in Sparks' career, Ron and Russell have always insisted that it is as much a Sparks venture as any of their albums.

 Stripped down Sparks

             A Sparks' venture of a very different sort arrived at the Södra on 9 October 2012 as part of the Two Hands One Mouth tour, which featured just Ron and Russell alone, without backing instrumentation or vocals. Once again, Scandinavia was early on the list of concert venues, with Helsinki on the 7^th and Oslo on the 8^th, preceded by dates in Latvia and Lithuania. Despite their anxieties about this 'stripped back' presentation of their work which involved the recasting of the songs for keyboard alone, the tour was a triumph and the reception at the Södra was as warm as ever.  The show began with the marvellous piano Overture, in which Ron, alone on stage, tantalised the audience with refrains from well-known Sparks’ songs, and the set list was composed of eighteen numbers from throughout their catalogue ('Sherlock Holmes', 'Metaphor', Singing In The Shower', 'My Baby's Taking Me Home', Under The Table With Her', and extracts from The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, which gave Ron an opportunity to leave the keyboard and play the voice of Bergman).  The show finished with the specially written 'Two Hands One Mouth (That's all I need, to satisfy you)', the potential double meaning of which was clearly as apparent to the Swedish audience as it was elsewhere. Russell, whose outfit was a typically playful take on a classic style – a brown suit with cut-off trousers and striped socks – demonstrated that he had lost none of his physical or vocal energy as he leapt around the stage delivering the songs in flamboyant style. The critically acclaimed outcome of this format was that, in the absence of loud instrumental accompaniment and visual special effects, the focus remained intensely on Ron's interpretation of his music, on the wit and subtlety of the lyrics and on Russell's passionate and clearly articulated communication of them. This tour was captured on the Two Hands One Mouth Live in Europe CD, a compilation of recordings from various venues, which demonstrates what an inspired project this was. 

             The success of this format generated an offspring, Revenge of Two Hands One Mouth, which reached Stockholm for another Södra gig on 12 December 2013, following dates in the U.K., France and Spain. This time the show included fifteen songs that had not been heard the previous year (or, as Russell explained it, 'for virgins of Two Hands One Mouth') and the audience was treated once again to relatively rarely performed numbers ('Nicotina', 'Those Mysteries', 'Academy Award Performance', 'Katherine Hepburn', 'Falling In Love With Myself'). At the end of the show, Russell announced that Ron, 'the hardest-working man in show business' had written another new title song, 'Revenge of Two Hands One Mouth' to honour the concept.

 The Hippo arrives in Stockholm

                Sadly, for Swedish fans, Sparks' next venture, a highly successful collaboration with Franz Ferdinand to form the supergroup FFS, did not reach Stockholm, but they had the opportunity to be amongst the first to hear songs from the new Hippopotamus album, even before its release on 8 September 2017. Sparks played in Stockholm on 10 August, followed by an extensive European and UK tour. Ron and Russell's new and widely admired band consisted of Evan Weiss and Taylor Locke (guitars), Zach Dawes (bass), Tyler Parkford on additional keyboards (both from L.A. Group Mini Mansions), and Stephen Nistor on drums. This time the venue was not the Södra, but the Skandiascenen, a modern addition to the late nineteenth-century Cirkus Djurgarden building, with its striking curved steel and glass façade, ('time and space intertwined, elegance, simple lines'). The coordinated dress theme was navy blue and white stripes: Ron looked extremely spiffy in a striped jacket and tie, while Russell wore a slightly eccentric combination of striped top with loose cut-off pants and bare legs and formal shoes with red laces. Among the songs from the new album that featured in the generous twenty-one numbers set were 'What The Hell Is It This Time', 'Missionary Position', 'Hippopotamus', 'Edith Piaf Said It Better Than Me', 'Giddy, Giddy', 'I Wish You Were Fun, ‘Probably Nothing’' and (of course) 'Scandinavian Design'. The latter must surely be something of an affectionate tribute to this special place! In any case, fans in Scandinavia were the first to hear it, and their appreciation for the show as a whole was evident in the ovation at the end and rave reviews on social media.  The scene was set fair for a triumphant tour, during which Sparks were rewarded with the news that Hippopotamus had reached number seven in the U.K. album charts, for the first time in forty years! An amazing achievement.

             The 2018 Hippopotamus tour also played two dates in Sweden (16 and 17 June), at the Cirkus in Stockholm, a large venue originally used as a circus, and the Kulturbolaget live music venue in Malmӧ, with a slightly different line-up: Evan Weiss and Eli Pearl (guitars), Patrick Kelly (bass), Steve Nistor (drums) and Alex Casnoff (additional keyboards). This time, there were six songs from Hippopotamus in the eighteen-song set and the others included ‘Tryouts For The Human Race’, ‘B.C,’ ‘Propaganda, and ‘At Home, At Work, At Play’. Before singing ‘When Do I Get To Sing My Way’, Russell sang a verse of the classic ‘My Way’ (‘And now, the end is near’, etc), which must have caused surprise and some brief consternation amongst the audience. For this tour, Russell wore an elegant and much admired military style jacket in pink, while the band wore pink denim jackets. Ron sported a pink tie which, as elsewhere, was thrown into the audience after his dance during ‘No 1 Song in Heaven’, to be retrieved by some lucky fan. He went through a lot of ties on this tour! He also daringly descended into the audience, although what he did there is unfortunately obscured on the YouTube video by the delighted crowd rising to its feet to take pictures. If anyone was there, please let me know!

A new decade of Sparks

        The 2020 tour for the new album, A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip was to have included a gig in Stockholm at the intimate Annexet venue on 12 June, but, of course, all tours and their 2021 rescheduled dates were postponed because of the continuing global coronavirus pandemic.  However, on 29 April 2022, Sparks did arrive at the Annexet, as part of a massive tour that also included Denmark, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Before the tour, Sparks’ management put out an announcement that certain Covid restrictions would be in place, requesting fans to wear masks to protect the band and other fans and not expect to get autographs before or after the shows.  Accompanying them was a partly new band line-up: Evan Weiss and Eli Pearl (guitar), Max Whipple (bass), Steve Nistor (drums) and Tyler Parkford (additional keyboards). While the band wore dark outfits, Russell stood out in bright, yellow trousers and, occasionally, matching waistcoat over a dark top, prompting remarks that he had borrowed a ‘high-vis’ suit. Ron wore dark wide-legged trousers with a stylish long jacket and a dark polo neck top. As elsewhere in Europe, the lengthy set list included two songs from Annette (‘So May We Start’ and ‘We Love Each Other So Much’) and three from A Steady Drip, Drip,Drip: : Stravinsky’s Only Hit’,  ‘Lawnmower’, and, as a final song, the anthemic ‘All That’.  The latter, like ‘May We Start’, has now become an iconic part of a Sparks’ show, and forms a very emotional closure, with the auditorium spangled with phone lights as fans sway to the music.  Also in the set list were songs from various earlier albums, intended, no doubt, to appeal to old fans and introduce new fans to their vast catalogue, and they were often greeted with surprised delight by the audience, notably ‘Tips For Teens’, ‘Get in the Swing’, ‘Under the Table With Her’ and ‘I Predict’.  Russell’s energy was astonishing throughout, and his gestures (especially the iconic waving pointing finger) were eagerly copied by the fans. There are always many endearing moments in a Sparks’ performance, and amongst them on this tour were Russell sitting on a stool, Sinatra-style, for ‘Rhythm Thief’ and ‘I Married Myself’. During the latter, he produced a hand mirror and said ‘Hi Baby. How you doin’?’ and sang the rest of the song gazing lovingly at his reflection.  Ron’s monologue in ‘The Shopping Mall of Love’ was also a big hit this time. His facial expressions, chuckle, and the repeated dead-pan ‘Yeah’, accompanied by a small fist pump were greeted with amused cheers.  Russell’s closing speech spoke of their current work on a new album and another movie musical.  After the grimness of the previous couple of years, it was clearly exhilerating and emotional to be seeing Sparks in concert again and to hear that more exciting events were to come.

             Sweden did not feature on the itinerary for the shorter Latte European tour (celebrating the new album The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte, released May 2023), but it has recently been announced that there will be a concert in Stockholm in 2025 on the Mad! tour. Fans will no doubt be thrilled to welcome Sparks back to the country that has a special place in their hearts.

 Penny Brown

March 2025

 

                       

 

 

Sparks in Germany: Doing it their way.

 

Sparks in Germany: Doing it their way.

  

            If we associate France with Sparks' biggest European success in the 1980s, it was Germany in the 1990s that produced a whole new audience for the Maels. Their single 'When Do I Get To Sing My Way' (from the album Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins, 1994, released by BMG through the German company Logic) was the top airplay record in 1994, sold over 650,000 copies and topped the charts in Germany. There were also a number of interviews made for German TV during the decade that can still be viewed on YouTube and reveal fascinating glimpses of their thinking and self-presentation during that period. Although Sparks had spent time recording in Germany at the Musicland Studios in Munich (for Whomp That Sucker (1981) and Angst In My Pants (1982)) and there had been some gigs in the country before 1990, there were relatively few live performances compared with this significant decade.

 So, may we start?

             As a brief aside, a rare piece of footage of Sparks' appearance on Hits-A-Gogo on Swiss/German TV in 1972 has to be compulsory viewing for fans. With their original band line up of Earle Mankey (guitar), Jim Mankey (bass guitar) and Harley Feinstein (drums), and the audience sitting on scaffold structures around them, they perform 'Wonder Girl', the opening track on their first album, released by Bearsville in the U.S. in 1971 under the name Halfnelson, and re-released in '72 as Sparks. This clip reveals much about the group's early self-presentation in terms of appearance and performance style: their smart suits contrast with their long flowing locks, and Ron's afro perm together with a moustache and heavy eyeliner creates a stirringly bizarre note well before 'This Town' astonished (some say traumatised) the British viewing public on Top Of The Pops in 1974. There is much prancing and posing in the manner of British bands of the time: Russell, one hand on hip, looking endearingly like a startled fawn practising moves like Jagger, while Earle Mankey sidles suggestively around him. Observant fans will also note the early appearance of Russell's pointing and waving finger, a performance mannerism still in evidence today!

             The next live appearances were on 2 December 1974 in Hamburg and on 12 December in Munich with a whole new British band: Trevor White on guitar, Ian Hampton on bass and Dinky Diamond on drums. On the latter occasion there was also an after-gig phone interview with fans, organized by Bravo magazine. They performed songs from Kimono My House and Propaganda, both of which had been released in Germany that year. There were also appearances on German TV programmes that reveal how the band’s look and performance was developing: on Germany's popular Musikladen show (5 February 1975), they performed five songs; 'This Town', 'Amateur Hour', 'Something For The Girl With Everything', 'Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth' and 'B.C.'  Russell's performance is hyper-energetic: dressed in a red and white patterned winter sweater, red woollen gloves and a floor length red scarf, he cavorts around the stage, brandishing the microphone in all directions and taunting an impassive Ron, who is now sporting a short sweptback haircut.  An early example of Sparks’ flair for a humorous and dramatic presentation can be seen in an entertaining video of 'A Big Surprise' (from Introducing Sparks (1977)) on German TV in 1977:  Ron is seated at a white grand piano, with a Liberace-style candelabra, a wine glass and a reclining blonde woman, while Russell appears to be standing on rocks behind them. At the end of the song, Ron goes ‘berserk’, smashes the glass and proceeds to smash up the piano stool too, in a parody (or homage?) of Pete Townshend of The Who. A big surprise indeed!

              Amongst the singles released in Germany at this time was, perhaps surprisingly, 'Girl From Germany' (1974), from A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing released in Germany the previous year. This song recounts the singer's anticipation of the horrified reaction of his parents, still in the grips of post-war paranoia, when he tentatively introduces his new girlfriend from Germany, knowing that they will be imagining stormtroopers on the lawn but hoping that things might work out.  As far as I have been unable to ascertain, this song has not however featured in the German live shows, presumably because it might be viewed as culturally insensitive.

 Into the ‘80s

                    A rare live appearance in Germany in the 1980s was a four-song set at the Circus Krone, Munich, for the Rock and Pop Festival, broadcast on the radio station Bayerischen Rundfunk on 9 December 1981.  The Circus Krone was the first permanent circus building in Germany and, at this time, was a concert venue that had hosted The Who and the Beatles. The new Sparks band now consisted of members of the group Bates Motel: Bob Haag (guitar), Leslie Bohem (bass), David Kendrick (drums), and Jim Goodwin (keyboard). An informal video of the soundcheck on this occasion provides an insight into the pre-show preparation necessary to ensure a slick and trouble-free performance: it shows Ron with a yellow guitar and the setting up of a set of gold-coloured drums. Russell, in a grey jacket and red pants, repeats parts of 'Wacky Women' and 'This Town'.  The set list for the show also featured 'Upstairs' and 'Tips for Teens' (like 'Wacky Women', from 1981's Whomp That Sucker). Video footage of the gig itself has several interesting features: the band members are hyper-energetic, Russell, looking uber-handsome in a sparkling gold suit and shoes and a wing-collared shirt, his hair a curly mullet, slings his arm around Ron's neck as he sings ‘Tips For Teens’ (shades of David Bowie and Mick Ronson) and later introduces 'My big brother Ron Mael', as he still does today, as the one who does almost everything in the band. We see how interaction between the brothers was becoming part of the image: Ron’s facial expressions as Russell claps in his face or shakes his microphone at him are hilarious, especially the wince as Russell hits a high note in ‘This Town’ and a sad shaking of the head with puzzled glances. We are also treated to the sight of Ron leaving his keyboard during ‘Tips For Teens’ to stand and conduct the band to a flourishing finish. At the end of this show, all the participants apparently joined together to play 'Give Peace A Chance' in tribute to John Lennon, who had been gunned down in New York the previous day.  Also in this decade, in 1986, Ron and Russell had done a promo tour in the U.K, France and Germany for the album Music That You Can Dance To, and performed the title song on the TV show Na Sowas with a totally different, casual modern look. They are dressed casually, Ron in a short-sleeved tee-shirt and Russell in a blue denim jacket and white pants, and they are surrounded in an exotic green and gold set by apparently naked painted women decked in metallic masks, necklaces and belts. Is the fact that the women don't move, let alone dance, at all a wry comment on the song and on disco fever itself?

 Fame explosion in the ‘90s

            The next live show was not until December 12, 1994, at the elegant Schmidts Tivoli in Hamburg to promote the very recent Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins, released in November on the Germany-based Logic label, after a period of self-imposed exile from the pop world while they were working on the projected movie project Mai the Psychic Girl.  Ron and Russell were now touring with just Christi Haydon on percussion and backing vocals. (Much of this concert can be seen on YouTube.)  It begins dramatically with raking spotlights and footlights against a plain backdrop. Their attire is strikingly contrasting: Russell swings in wearing a baggy multi-coloured sweater and check pants, while Ron sits at his trademark Ronald keyboard in formal white shirt and tie and Christi bounces sensually in her early Hollywood style black dress and long black gloves. The generous set list of 21 numbers included seven from Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins ('I Thought I Told You To Wait In The Car', 'Frankly Scarlet, I Don't Give A Damn', When I Kiss You (I Hear Charlie Parker Playing)', 'Now That I Own The BBC', 'The Ghost of Liberace', 'Let's Go Surfing', ‘When Do I Get To Sing My Way?’) and the songs that had been big hits in France, 'When I'm With You' and 'Singing In The Shower'. Apart from the fact that the Gratuitous Sax songs would have been new to many in the audience, this show was particularly noteworthy for two new departures: there were two brief interludes entitled 'Ron's piece', during which he stands centre stage while, in the first, a disembodied female voice lectures him on positive thinking and, in the second, assails him with a chat-up line; the concert also introduced Christi doing a surprise turn as main vocalist, singing the delightful 'What Would Katherine Hepburn Say?', while Russell strenuously plays percussion. 

           They returned the following year, 1995, for a series of gigs throughout May in Hamburg, Berlin, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne and Linz, and further concerts in Munich (6 July) and Hanover (22 July) interspersed with visits to the U.K. and Holland.  Some of the July Munich concert at the Alabama Halle has been preserved in a six-part video: Ron, in a white shirt and pink and black striped tie, Russell in an oversize yellow jacket (jettisoned after a few numbers), baggy black sweater and loose black and white striped pants and Christi in her now trademark black dress and gloves and swinging bob perform in front of a crowded stage set of classical pillars, ivy-clad broken columns and an ornate fountain with running water, inspired by a scene in the video of 'When Do I Get To Sing My Way'.  This elaborate background, which appears in Sparks' other televised appearances at this time, is, of course, before bands routinely used projections of complex graphics and films to accompany their music, such as Sparks were to deploy some years later for the Lil' Beethoven show. The set lists seemed to have varied somewhat during this year's tour, but the Munich programme consisted of numbers from Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins interspersed with some favourites including 'Number One Song in Heaven', 'Angst In My Pants', 'Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth', and 'This Town'. The audience appear to stand quietly for most of the set, but become more animated for 'When Do I Get To Sing My Way' and cheer when the unmistakeable introduction to 'This Town' begins. The filming of this gig is professional and original, with repeated close-ups of each of the three performers, including some great shots of Ron's hands on the keyboard, shown from above and beneath. It is a hugely energetic performance: Russell bounces and twirls between verses (contrast his 1970s moves), while Christi plays the drums and tubular bells with gusto and Ron tap dances before the band launches into 'When I Kiss You...’, a new dancing skill he was keen to show off in another context (see below).

 Some (crazy) interviews

             The mid-1990s also saw a flurry of reviews, press articles and numerous interviews and appearances on German television shows like Damals und Heute, Hallo Halberg, Musikladen, Fernsehn Garten ZDF and Loloroso WDR, capitalising on their new-found success there.  This discussion can only attempt to consider a few of the most noteworthy or unusual examples, but there are many interesting insights into this period of Sparks’ career. In December 1994, the TV show Rock Archiv dedicated a full hour to Sparks, with interviews, vintage footage, and live performances of several songs from Gratuitous Sax. At an appearance on Stars 95, they are presented with a gold disk for 'When Do I Get To Sing My Way', which Russell announces will be donated for auction to the cause to fight Aids. The upcoming major tour of Germany ('our first ever') in May 1995 (discussed above) is also announced here. The dates and venues appear on the highly imaginative brief video commercial for the Gratuitous Sax album, in which the cover images 'come alive' and Russell casts eye-flutteringly quizzical looks at the changing images of his brother's accusing pointed finger. On March 31, Logic Records had celebrated the success of 'When Do I Get To Sing My Way' with a 'Gold Party' at Frankfurt’s Europaturm, a giant telecommunications tower with revolving bars. Sparks were now definitely big stars in Germany.

             Some of the interviews are characteristically both informative and humorous (and occasionally surreal). Apart from the usual comments about their past career, Ron and Russell talk about issues central to their thinking at this time, particularly the discovery of a new young audience. Warning: as often in Sparks' interviews, a liberal sprinkling of salt has to be taken with some of their answers! In fact, a sense of fun and irreverence pervades all the interviews: the following description of a full-length Sparks special for Jam Viva Germany, broadcast in early 1995, for example, fully conveys the flavour of many such occasions. In several scenes, Ron unaccountably tap-dances on a bar counter while Russell addresses the camera.  Conversely, while Ron comments in deadpan manner, the occasional twitch of Russell's lips suggests that perhaps the remarks should not be taken at face value. This same programme, which contains clips from videos and live shows, actually begins by featuring the wrong birth dates and names for the boys, perpetuating the myth that they were the sons of Doris Day. This false trail, laid at an early stage in their career, was intended as a publicity hook to intrigue the public, but had clearly still not been put to rest at this stage. However, Ron and Russell have serious things to say on subjects ranging from their inspirations and influences, their writing process, their uncompromising determination to avoid pop clichés and their shared vision and goals for Sparks, to their personal image, the role of music videos in enhancing the mood of a song, and the advantages of having their own home studio. Russell, introducing here his own technical role in their work, describes the studio as a 'playground' in which they can explore the potential of working with innovative electronics like drum machines. Their discussion of other bands they have admired (or who admire them), particularly British bands, includes clips of performances from the Rolling Stones, The Who and The Kinks, and more recent bands like Pet Shop Boys, Erasure, Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, Human League and, of course, Morrissey.  They also describe how their love of film has informed their work, in that they regard each of their songs as a miniature scenario telling a story, and they cite the number of films and artists name-checked on Gratuitous Sax.

             While emphasising their delight at the inspiring response of young audiences to their work, they stress that they make no compromises for a mixed audience. They also joke about other consequences: Russell tells of being mobbed by young screaming females at gigs, while Ron follows up by commenting on the different types of fan letters they get: serious ones on artistic matters from intelligent girls for him, and marriage (and other less formal) proposals for Russell. On their unusual image, a perennial topic in interviews, Russell clarifies that in reality they also like normal things like shopping in the supermarket for cookies, and that the perceived eccentricity is not an artifice, but 'just the way we are'.  He is keen to stress that they have no need of drugs because they get their high from performing, but admit to loving food and fashion. This programme certainly attests to the latter, as each section presents a different sartorial image: Russell's silvery grey silk waistcoat is particularly striking and his long-lasting love affair with stripes is amply apparent here. Lastly, they depict their pet likes and dislikes about Germany: German girls and coffee (likes), and traffic on the autobahns and smoking (dislikes): 'Das ist nicht gut', Russell earnestly informs us. Above all, they express their affection for Germany, their 'new home', and Ron makes the point that their current manager, Eric Harle, is of German origin. Unfortunately for non-German speakers, the discussion in this fascinating, wide-ranging and lively programme is overlaid with a simultaneous translation into German so that much of the dialogue is obscured, but viewing is still immensely worthwhile.

             Many of the issues raised here are repeated and developed in other interviews of the period. In another 1995 interview for VH-1, the sensitive question of similarities to other contemporary bands (notably The Pet Shop Boys) is raised again, and Russell's diplomatic answers are couched so that nevertheless, the 'public can see the chronology of events' as he puts it. When the same issue arose in a 1994 VH-1 interview in respect of Roxy Music, Russell had reminded the interviewer that Sparks had already released two albums before Brian Ferry's band hit the scene and in 2000, in a Sparks Special Kuno's programme, he asserts that Sparks were creating effects like stacking up vocals before Queen's monster hit 'Bohemian Rhapsody' appeared. The comparative lack of massive commercial success and formal recognition for their constant innovation and their status as forerunners of so many musical trends must have been a constant irritation to them, as indeed it is incomprehensible to fans. On the same Kuno’s show, they comment on their musical career album by album leading up to a discussion of Balls, and present the different colour covers, inviting the viewer to collect them all. The orange one, designed for promotion only, is apparently the most rare (and hence most desirable), any lucky owners please note. At the end of this programme, they are asked how long they think they will go on. The answer; ‘well, hopefully, a long time....’!

             In the 1995 VH1 interview, the subject of fashion comes to the fore: Russell sports a rainbow sweater of thirteen different colours, bought from an upmarket Hamburg shop, the uniqueness of which is commented upon at length, until Ron's deadpan contribution that he wears a shirt from C & A. The contrast in stage clothing and general appearance between the flamboyant (and sometimes bizarre) and the soberly classical has, of course, long been an iconic feature of Sparks self-presentation, and is nicely encapsulated in this exchange.  Ron is also at his most modest: when after a clip of 'When I Kiss You (I Hear Charlie Parker Playing'), he is asked if he is a fan of Charlie Parker, he tells us that he likes music that he himself can't do (notably jazz and classical). However, the huge variety of styles, motifs and arrangements of his later compositions testify, on the contrary, to his musical versatility and brilliance. It is noticeable in several of these interviews that Russell talks a lot more in answer to questions while Ron is comparatively silent. Occasionally he even looks a little put out (although this is probably an act), and in this interview, he writes ‘Next Question’ on a piece of paper and ‘Overlong Answer’ while Russell holds forth.

             In a 1996 interview with Tobi Schlegl for Viva, Russell highlights how the discovery of an enthusiastic young audience had led to the idea of presenting their earlier songs in a new way to introduce them to their past catalogue. Thus, Plagiarism (1997) was born. Again, for non-German speakers, this interview is slightly disorientating because of the simultaneous translation. One moment needs no translation however: a picture from a book called Pop Stars in Underpants is displayed, and Russell obligingly gets up to show off his blue and white checked underpants to the camera. Other jokes abound: after a clip of 'Now that I own the BBC', they describe their fantasy of a station that plays nothing but Sparks’ music. They also take phone-in questions, where they touch once more on the topic of influences on their work: Ron, channelling a French café musician in a black beret and blue-tinted glasses, mentions their early love of the The Kinks and The Who, while Russell chips in with the enlightening offering that Ron writes their songs, while he only poses in his underpants! He repeatedly characterises their professional relationship in similarly humorous and self-deprecating terms, more recently in the interview for Radio London in August 2017, were he claims that Ron writes the songs while he watches.  Ron remarks that 'it's called collaboration'! One that, of course, certainly does work!

 On Plagiarism

             The concept behind the new album Plagiarism is developed in an interview on VH1 in 1997. The same excellent bilingual interviewer as in 1995 both chats with Ron and Russell and communicates their responses directly to the German viewers.  Using 'This Town' as an example, they explain their feeling that their songs are not easily dated since they were always felt to be ahead, or on the side of, the times. Their hope was that Plagiarism, which presents many of their best-loved numbers in new and sometimes surprising guises with innovative orchestration and collaborations, would be seen as contemporary, while at the same time initiating new listeners into their past work. This album, which features the sensational version of 'This Town' with a heart-stopping sweeping orchestral accompaniment and the memorable collaboration of Russell with Jimmy Somerville on 'The No. 1 Song in Heaven’, was certainly a bold and exciting venture to delight fans both old and new. This same interview reveals Ron's love of Nike Air Jordan shoes because of his admiration for Michael Jordan of the basketball team the Chicago Bulls, and, even more exciting, perhaps, for voyeuristic fans are the shots of Russell’s collection of models of Elvis, superheroes, monsters and other figurines and the discussion of their liking for souvenirs acquired on their many overseas visits. Unforeseen humour is caused when the interviewer is momentarily confused by the discussion of Ron's collection of snow domes, which he mishears as 'snowballs'.  As he queries the problem of the climate in their home town, Russell hastens to clarify that a more typical dome for Los Angeles would contain black, swirling fog. In further L.A. shots, the pair show off their cars: Ron's boxy black German car and Russell's beloved 1956 Ford Thunderbird (in 'willow green', he explains proudly).

             Also in 1997, Ron and Russell presented a programme on Hogh 5 VH1 of their choice of five favourite music videos, with a brief commentary. Their selection is interesting, compared with their choice of tracks for the more recent BBC Music Radio 6 programmes (Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service) in 2015 and 2017. For German TV, they chose 'Wuthering Heights' by Kate Bush, because they too like to include literary and cinematic references in their work, Public Enemy's 'Fight the Power', Faith No More's 'Easy', Kraftwerks 'Trans Euro Express' and one of their own, the video for 'Number One Song In Heaven'. This video, with its stunning ferris wheel sequence, they say, is specially for people in Vienna, who will immediately grasp its significance: the giant wheel in Riesenradplatz was featured in the iconic movie The Third Man, and was placed on the list of Treasures of European Film Culture by the European Film Academy in 2016. By way of sign-off, Ron, in typically laconic fashion, tells viewers that if they didn't like their choices, they can 'piss off'. (Could viewers have imagined then that he would one day write a song called that?)

 Sparks move into the new century

             The next flurry of activity in Germany came at the end of 2000, with a substantial tour in December to promote the new album Balls, taking in Bielefeld, Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Heidelberg, Mainz, Marburg, and Munich and finishing with a spot at the stunning New Year's Eve concert at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.  If the German shows followed the same pattern as the September London gig at which the live video, Sparks in London, was filmed, the set lists were a mixture of numbers from Balls ('Aeroflot', 'Scheherazade', 'More Than A Sex Machine', 'How To Get Your Ass Kicked', 'Bullet Train', 'The Calm Before The Storm', 'The Angels') and favourites including 'When Do I Get To Sing My Way', especially to please German fans. Ron and Russell shared the stage with their new drummer Tammy Glover, who debuted as a member of Sparks in 1997, surrounded by helium balloons that change colour with the lights. Russell now has a shorter hairstyle and is wearing a baggy top and matching pants in horizontal stripes (no, it is not a prison outfit!) Later he changes to an equally baggy white sweater, while Ron coordinates with a striped tie. For this show, Ron also performs two brief 'dramatic pieces', to roars of approval: 'Waiting for Godot, with Rex the Wonder Dog' and 'Ron levitates Baby Leroy' in which a plastic doll, introduced as his illegitimate son, rises from his hands on a clearly perceptible string. Maybe not as dynamic as some of the interactive performances that were to come later with Lil' Beethoven, but, like his eagerly awaited solo 'dance', they are evidence of Ron's enthusiasm for performing centre stage, as well as behind a keyboard.  Footage of the New Year's Eve Silvester Party show Ron, Russell and Tammy performing on a huge open-air stage before banks of lights to an enormous audience (500,000 were estimated to be at the event, with a further 6 million watching the broadcast on television). Dressed for the cold, Russell wears a thick white polo neck sweater and striped pants and Ron a beige suit, but Tammy is the sartorial star of the show in red leather trousers, a fake leopard skin coat and high-heeled boots. To close the show, they play 'The Calm Before The Storm', and their new single, 'The Angels' (minus the profanity), for which the three of them stand front of stage and wave sparklers to wish the crowd a Happy New Year. It must have been quite an occasion.

 Enter new technology

         While guests on the NBC Giga TV show in 2000, to promote Balls, Russell demonstrated their new website, which included a brief history of Sparks in 18 albums, an 'Ideosyncracies' section featuring a moustache game, and a glimpse of the animated video for 'The Calm Before The Storm', thought by many to be the best song on the album. This video, made in Paris by animators Olivier Kuntzel and Florence Deygas, won the German Internet 'Best Video of the Summer' accolade.  Clearly Sparks were keen early on to exploit the potential value of this technology in promoting their new ventures and communicating with their growing, world-wide fan base.

Where did the groove go?

   Despite the German-linked conceit of the career of Lil' Beethoven, a fictional Sparks' invention that was to become the name of their own label, there appears to have been no live presentation of the album that bears his name in Germany in the first decade of the new century. However, the Hello Young Lovers show did reach Hamburg in February 2006 and, as everywhere, was very warmly received. On this tour, the new band consisted of Dean Menta (guitar), Josh Klinghofffer (guitar, alternating with Jim Wilson), Steve McDonald (bass) and Tammy Glover (alternating with Steve Nistor) on drums. The set list comprised the songs from Hello Young Lovers in the first half, and a Sparks Show of earlier material in the second half.  As the DVD of the live show (called, unsurprisingly, Dee Vee Dee), filmed at the Forum, London, reveals, Sparks’ investment in stunning projected video images, including cat-headed figures ('Here Kitty'), guitars and umbrellas raining down for 'Waterproof' and a thousand marching Rons and Russells in uniform for 'Baby, Baby, Can I Invade Your Country', adds an hilarious and uniquely Sparks-like element to the performance. Ron displays his talent for drama, already seen in 2004 for Lil' Beethoven, by interacting dynamically with the videos, fighting with a projected image of himself for 'The Very Next Fight', and playing a gigantic cartoon organ for 'When I Sit Down To Play The Organ (In The Notre Dame Cathedral)'.  Russell is more formally dressed than usual in a natty red and black striped jacket over a white sweater, but in the second half, the jacket is jettisoned and his sleeves rolled up as he gets down to the business of delighting the audience with old favourites.

             The live shows for Exotic creatures of the Deep (2008), also gave Germany and many other European destinations a miss, perhaps because of festival commitments in the summer following the epic and doubtless exhausting 21 x 21 Spectacular in London in May-June, and the start of work in 2009 on The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, commissioned by Swedish radio. However, the Sparks website announced on 1 October 2008 a 'German Renaissance', listing a huge number of press accolades and media plays of Exotic Creatures, which was released in Germany on 4 October 2008, and became record of the month on WDR2, the biggest radio station in West Germany. The same announcement also alerts fans to interviews in German publications and on radio stations WDR2 and 3, so the German fans were certainly not being ignored.

 Stripped back Sparks

             The extensive 2012 tour that took Two Hands, One Mouth across Europe saw gigs in mid-October in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Bochum.   As elsewhere, the stunning experience of being able to appreciate Ron’s piano interpretation of his music and focus closely on Russell's interpretation of the lyrics, was ecstatically received by the German audiences, many members of which would not have seen Sparks perform live for some time. The set list for this tour featured a range of material from their back catalogue, including 'Suburban Homeboy', 'Something For The Girl With Everything' and excerpts from The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman (with Ron playing Bergman) and concluding with the specially composed 'Two Hands One Mouth' song. The Overture, a seamless mixture of well-known hooks played by Ron alone at the keyboard, delighted audiences everywhere on this tour, as did Russell's stylish plus four style pants and striped socks and Ron's famous dance to 'Beat the Clock'.

 Fun in Berlin

          Recently, Berlin seems to be a favoured venue in Germany. Sparks’ collaboration with the members of Franz Ferdinand (Alex Kapranos, Nick McCarthy, Bob Hardy and Paul Thomson) in the super-group FFS, produced a superb album and an extensive and hugely successful tour. As well as their hugely successful show at the Gloria Theatre in Cologne, a former 1950’s cinema, on 1 July 2015, they played at the Lollapalooza Festival held in the park of the old Berlin-Tempelhof airport, now a venue for fairs, festivals and other events, on 12 September. The set lists for these shows included three of Franz Ferdinand’s songs (‘Do You Want To’, ‘Michael’, ‘Take Me Out’) and three Sparks’ hits (‘When Do I Get To Sing My Way’, Number One Song In Heaven’, ‘This Town..’) and songs from the FFS album, concluding, hilariously, with ‘Piss Off’.

         Two years on, on the same date, 12 September, Hippopotamus arrived at the Columbia Theatre, the Modernist concert hall in Berlin, for what, according to reports on social media, was another joyous occasion. Sparks' new and dynamic band consisted of Evan Weiss and Taylor Locke (guitars), Zach Dawes (bass), Tyler Parkford (keyboard) and experienced Sparks' drummer Steve Nistor. The band was kitted out in Breton-look navy blue and white striped tee-shirts, while Russell wore a striped sweater (replicated by a number of the audience), and a rather eccentric combination of cut-off pedal-pusher pants and formal black shoes with red laces and no socks. On this occasion, Ron shone in a striped jacket and matching tie, which combined his usual sartorial style with the overall look of the band. They performed six numbers from Hippopotamus ('What The Hell Is It This Time', 'Edith Piaf Said It Better Than Me', 'I Wish You Were Fun', 'Missionary Position, 'Scandinavian Design', and, of course, 'Hippopotamus') and nine other songs, including the perennial crowd-pleaser 'When Do I Get To Sing My Way'.  The band made a surprise return to Berlin on 6 October at the Schwuz club for a gig in the Arte Concert series, which was streamed live. A slightly overawed Russell began the event with the words, 'Good Evening Berlin, Good Evening the World!' before the full set as elsewhere was performed.  Sparks and the Hippo returned in June 2018 for gigs in Munich, Cologne and Hamburg with a new line-up and a new look. The equally strong and enthusiastic backing band were Evan Weiss and Eli Pearl (guitars), Patrick Kelly (bass), Steve Nistor (drums) and Alex Casnoff (additional keyboards).  The fashion theme this time was pink, with the band in pink denim jackets, Russell in an elegant pink military-style jacket and Ron in a pink tie which was thrown into the audience at the start of his dance. (Perhaps you have one??) The 18-song set list differed slightly this time, with six songs from Hippopotamus and older songs including ‘Tryouts For The Human Race’ and ‘B.C.’  Before the (almost obligatory) rendering of ‘When Do I Get To Sing My Way’, Russell sang a verse of the classic ‘My Way’ (‘and now the end is near..’), an unusual departure that may have sparked fears for a brief moment, of an imminent retirement announcement. No Way!

         The reception of the Hippopotamus shows in Germany demonstrated once again the faithful following that Ron and Russell enjoy there, and the continuing appeal of their blend of pop and high culture to audiences of various ages. It is no wonder that Germany can be added to the list of places they feel to be a home from home.  Moreover, in 2019, sites in Germany were chosen to film scenes for the movie musical Annette, written by Sparks and directed by French director (and Sparks’ fan) Leos Carax. Any fortunate sharp-eyed fans may have glimpsed Ron and Russell, as well as Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard and Simon Helberg filming in Münster, Cologne and Bonn.

After the pandemic, new acclaim and sell-out shows

Of course, the planned 2020 tour for the next album A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip had to be postponed because of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, as were the revised dates for 2021. However, Sparks decided to go ahead with the tours of the US and Europe in April/May 2022.  This was obviously a brave decision and a source of anxiety for many, as the Covid 19 pandemic was far from over in Europe. The issue of the safety and well-being of the band and the audience was foregrounded, with a plea from Sparks HQ on the official website for the wearing of masks and repeated in venue information and announcements before each show.  Some concert pictures showed a sea of masks in the audience, but at some venues, the response was, frankly, disappointing to say the least. 

 

On 24 April 2022, Sparks were at the Metropol in Belin, and on the 25^th, at the Mojo Club in Hamburg, along with a partly new band line-up: Evan Weiss and Eli Pearl (guitar), Max Whipple (bass), Steve Nistor (drums) and Tyler Parkford (additional keyboards). While the band wore dark outfits, Russell stood out in bright yellow trousers, prompting remarks that he had borrowed a ‘high-vis’ suit. Ron wore dark wide-legged trousers with a stylish long jacket and a dark polo neck top. The lengthy set list included two songs from Annette (‘So May We Start’ and ‘We Love Each Other So Much’) and three from A Steady Drip, Drip,Drip: : Stravinsky’s Only Hit’,  ‘Lawnmower’, and, as a final song, the anthemic ‘All That’.  The latter, like ‘May We Start’, has now become an iconic part of a Sparks’ show, and forms a very emotional closure, with the auditorium spangled with phone lights as fans sway to the music.  Also in the set list were songs from various earlier albums, with some welcome surprises like ‘Tips For Teens’, ‘Get in the Swing’, ‘Under the Table With Her’ and ‘The shopping Mall of Love’.  There are always many endearing moments in a Sparks’ performance, and amongst them on this tour were Russell sitting on a stool, Sinatra-style, for ‘Rhythm Thief’ and ‘I Married Myself’. During the latter, he produced a hand mirror and said ‘Hi Baby. How you doin’?’ and sang the rest of the song gazing lovingly at his reflection.  Ron’s dance is always a showstopper, with its slowly built anticipation as he carefully removes and folds his jacket, but his monologue in ‘The Shopping Mall of Love’ also caught the imagination of fans this time. His facial expressions, and the repeated dead-pan ‘Yeah’, accompanied by a small fist pump were a great hit as the number of social media shares showed.  The good-natured rivalry between the brothers was apparent in Hamburg, when Russell sang an impromptu verse of ‘Gone With The Wind’ at the end, after mentioning the songs he personally had written, while Ron stood behind him waving just three fingers in the air. Russell’s closing speech spoke enticingly of their current work on a new album and another movie musical. A small incident in Hamburg during ‘So May We Start’ captured attention on social media: there was a brief altercation between Russell and a photographer standing too close at the front of the stage. After a few warning kicks in his direction, Russell appeared to either slip or jump off the edge of the stage, still singing, of course, while Ron appeared to be grinning in glee. After the grimness of the previous couple of years, it was clearly exhilerating and emotional to be seeing Sparks live in concert again, a delight enhanced by the wide acclaim of Edgar Wright’s film The Sparks Brothers and the Sparks’ own movie musical, Annette.

Making up for lost time, Sparks were on the road again in 2023 on a tour that culminated in the ‘dream come true’ performances at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.  Promoting the new critically acclaimed album, The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte (released on 26 May 2023 and the first on Island Records since 1976), the tour featured 18 dates in Europe, and, on 18 June, arrived at the Tempodrom in Berlin, an exciting venue shaped like a circus tent, paying homage to the original use of this site. They entered, appropriately, to the twinkling notes of ‘Take Me For A Ride’, and the set list consisted of songs from a number of albums, including several from the new album: ‘The Girl is Crying In Her Latte’, Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is’, ‘It Doesn’t Have To Be That Way’, ‘We Go Dancing’ ‘Escalator’ (which replaced ‘Veronica Lake’) and a short version of ‘Gee That Was Fun’. The audience was surprised and delighted by the unusual choices, some of which, like ‘Beaver O’Lindy’ and ‘Bon Voyage’ and ‘Music That You Can Dance To’, have rarely featured in concerts. The combination of Evan Weiss and Eli Pearl on guitars, Max Whipple on bass and Steven Nistor on drums produced a fantastically exciting sound that has been widely praised by reviewers and fans alike. The energy was palpable and the tightness and precision faultless. The buzzing techno background of some of the songs from the new album translated well to the band format and, if anything, some fans felt that the songs were even more striking in live performance. The band also seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely: at one point, Russell shouted ‘I told you it was gonna be fun in Berlin!’!  Eli won a lot of fans (and hearts) with his dance moves, especially during ‘Music That You Can Dance To’.

The outfits of the band, who remained on a slightly raised platform at the back of the stage, were dark and casual. Ron surprised in a pair of wide grey jogger-type trousers with a light stripe down the sides, paired with a white shirt under a dark jacket, and a tie. Once again, the most colour on stage was Russell’s striking two-tone red and black jacket worn with dark trousers and shirt. Russell’s energy throughout was astonishing, his leaps, twirls and skipping covering the whole width of the stage.  The lighting for the shows was sophisticated and stunning, featuring a background grid of rectangles filled with lights which constantly changed to form different patterns, spelling Sparks during ‘So May We Start’ and ‘Beaver O’Lindy’ letter by letter, as Russell spelled it out. The arrangement was particularly effective during ‘Escalator’ as horizontal rows of lights ran up and down behind the band, as were the spotlights, including the highly dramatic blue spotlight on Ron at his keyboard in ‘Number One Song in Heaven.

A special mention must be made of the support act, Mr B, the Gentleman Rhymer, who has opened for Sparks in the past. He told us that he felt that he shared a sensibility with ‘the chaps’, in that they were all extroverts on stage and introverts off stage, and paid a surprise homage to that affinity by opening with his version of ‘Here Comes Bob’, and, after a couple of his own witty and catchy pieces, performing a medley of Sparks songs in his own inimitable style. An EP of this is now available to download, which is certainly a little bit like fun.

In the future

The dates for the 2025 tour, celebrating Mad, the appropriately named album for the current state of the world, have been announced and are to include a return to Cologne. As Sparks’ triumphant success continues to ride high, it is sure to be sensational.

 

 

 

 

Penny Brown

March 2025