SPARKS

Sparks Moderator UK · Site Admin Joined: 17 May 2004 Posts: 79

3rd June

themightybishop · Certified Fan Joined: 04 Dec 2007 Posts: 73

Just watched the autons. Very good indeed. Lots of 80s synth influences combined with a bit of punk rock electric guitar. Good start to the evening.

unprinted · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:09 pm Post subject:

Argh, one site not broadcasting 'yet', the other underwater (again).

rainerx · Groupie Joined: 25 Jun 2002 Posts: 110

And www.livevideo.com/liveshow/allsparks ...?

unprinted · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:31 pm Post subject:

rainerx · Groupie Joined: 25 Jun 2002 Posts: 110

This quality deforms the music! :-(((

unprinted · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:37 pm Post subject:

Bobby Muir · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:43 pm Post subject:

Sound quality on justin.tv is awful but know what? I'm happy just to have something.

Ron doing Shopping Mall Of Love like Pinky and Perky gargling brake fluid has been the best bit so far closely followed by Russell doing Fingertips while being held by the ankles with his head in a bucket of water with his balls in a vice.
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But when I trimmed it real small my Jewish friends would never call.

jidlomonster · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:12 pm Post subject:

It's a shame that the sound quality was no better tonight, 'cos I think that this album is in more need than most of a re-assessment. It's hardly likely to get one when it all sounded a tone too high and as if my cat was purring all the way through. But as the only person on the planet who LOVES this record and thinks it is the best Sparks album of the eighties, I'd like to defend it here - specially in its UK version. 'Armies' is a cracking song, 'The Scene' is blistering and 'Lets Get Funky' so hilarious and inventive. Through all the bad sound, it still seemed as if Russell was at his peak tonight. I hope all the people who turned out to cheer on this maligned little album had a great time and are glad that they went - only sorry I could not be there myself!
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You must be just around the bend

Andy · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:22 pm Post subject:

Crappy sound again, here is about 1 minute of the encore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5tiwpRMHyI

Enjoy
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when shit turns to gold, the poor will be born without arseholes

Ennui · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:29 pm Post subject:

rainerx · Groupie Joined: 25 Jun 2002 Posts: 110

> But as the only person on the planet who LOVES this record

No you are not alone!!!

soupcrusher · Newbie Joined: 03 Jun 2008 Posts: 12 Location: Atlanta, GA

yeah, watching on justin.tv sounded horrible compared to the cdpulse stream. BUT, getting to see Ron hop up and start dancing during the title track might be the best thing i've seen so far. so sweet.

Micke · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 5:49 pm Post subject:

Noisy Boy · Power Groupie Joined: 20 Feb 2006 Posts: 292

Setlist:

Music That You Can Dance To
Rosebud
Fingertips
Armies Of Night
The Scene
Shopping Mall Of Love
Modesty Plays
Let’s Get Funky

Change

Band:
Ron
Russell
Marcus Blake (Bass, Backing vocals)
Steve Nistor (Drums)
Jim Wilson (Guitar, Backing vocals)

Support:
The Autons

A nice surprisingly full gig. Really enjoyable stuff, and well received by the attendees (not least some pillock near me who’d had too much to drink and got in everyone’s way, then spilt beer all over my trousers). The album itself isn’t terrible, but simply lacks the firepower to make it a classic. Nonetheless, it seemed to be a favourite with a large percentage of the people there who were enthusiastically dancing throughout, though the call & response for Fingertips was a bit of a non-starter (incidentally, does anyone know why they decided to cover this early Stevie Wonder classic? It just seems so incongruous!). The sound was uniformly great, and Russell’s vocals were as clear as I’d ever heard them. Even with the sequenced tracks that they were playing to, a lot of great ‘band’ moments really shone through – Rosebud was particularly excellent, as was The Scene, not to mention Ron’s dancing! The only letdown was Armies Of Night, but its placement in the set prepared us for the true classic on the album, which was the wonderful Change (worth the entrance fee alone, although I’ll admit I got into this one free!). Before that however, was The Shopping Mall Of Love, another great moment worthy of the ultimate encore list, should anyone be so inclined. Ron, despite his evident cold, deadpanned his way through it, after spilling his bottle of water over the mic, then the floor, even gallantly mopping up his spillage afterwards! The end of the song was met with a cry of ‘GO SOLO!’, to which he raised a stoic eyebrow… We also had to endure Let’s Get Funky, which possibly qualifies as my least favourite Sparks song (not least due to the overuse of ORCH5 sample), but the keyboard/ kick drum playing was really tight, and I certainly appreciated that, as did most of the crowd. Overall then, another triumph!

MarkRae · Groupie Joined: 11 Mar 2008 Posts: 199 Location: London

Just back, and drenched! North London is currently under a deluge...

Anyway, MTYCDT was probably as good as any gig could be, given the music... Definitely my least favourite Sparks album, but the band played and sang it extremely well nevertheless. Anyone care to lay odds that the second half of the ECOTD gig won't include anything from this album...?

The Scene was pretty good, though, and it was great to hear Change live again.

One slight worry is that Ron is apparently unwell and, from about ten feet away, Russell sounded and looked distinctly under the weather at the end of the gig...

Robin Davies · Certified Fan Joined: 16 Jun 2004 Posts: 64

No problems with the keyboard sound tonight - it blew our flippin' heads off!!! Great stuff. Not one of my fave albums but the show was one of the best so far. Ron's dance and lead vocal were great fun too.
I just pray that Russell doesn't catch this bug. It would be tragic if they had to cancel any shows.

Andy Whelan · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 7:41 pm Post subject:

The sound was great again, glad to see that the earlier sound problems do seem to have been resolved - at least for those of us who are actually going to the gigs. The underwater sound online was probably a result of someone recording the performance whilst standing outside the venue, there was a deluge in London N1 tonight.

Another marvellous show, topped off by a fantastic rendition Change at the end, but I thought The Scene rivalled it for the song of the evening. Ron's turn as one of the "principal singers" (per Russell) on Shopping Mall Of Love also worked very well.

One question - why has Russell taken to saying "Thank Ya" over the last week or so? Has he been saying this before and I haven't noticed? It sounds odd to me, but then I'm from the home counties...

Charlie Bucket · Certified Fan Joined: 11 Dec 2007 Posts: 54

The Scene and Change sounded immense!!! I had wondered if, with so much work, that they might take the easy option and perform Change in the usual piano style as it would be an encore track, how silly of me. They went above and beyond the call of duty on this one, superb stuff!! Only niggle would be Russell seemingly losing his way before the breakdown on Armies Of The Night, the gripe being that Id been happily singing along then ended up doing that thing my Dad does when a song comes on the radio in the car that he likes but doesnt know the words to so makes these strange noises where half the last word of a line actually gets sung just after. Does anyone elses Dad do that? Please tell me Im not alone???? It drives me mad!

Other highlights: A second outing for the Ron shuffle and of course Rons lead vocal on Shopping Mall Of Love, when Ron took center stage I had a slightly worried flashback to Under The Table With Her but all was good and the sound again was fantastic!

Quite simply a brilliant gig that just like every one of them so far seemed to last about 5 minutes. Only 7 left now, where has the time gone???? hopefully they'll do this again for their 365th album, what a year that'll be! ;)

straightlookingenie · Groupie Joined: 18 Jul 2006 Posts: 128 Location: Pluto