SPARKS

[PETER RAWCLIFFE]

thanx Jill for the video link,looks as though lily is goner be your saviour!

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WRITTEN OF COURSE BY THE MIGHTIEST HAND

[hyburn]

Just back from Hydro Connect this afternoon as was staying nearby (not camping) ... very tired after long muddy walk from site on Friday and via road on Sunday. Am freelance journalist & was covering festival for local newspaper. Deadline noon tomorrow. Have been Sparks fan since 1974. By the way Ron - you appeared at Glasgow Apollo in 1974 and 1975!

FRIDAY WAS GREAT SEEING SPARKS IN THE UNKNOWN PLEASURES TENT. And I still can't believe I got to meet the guys afterwards backstage - shook both their hands and told them how great they were as they left. They played a blinder of a set. Lucy (from Republic Media bless her) got them to sign my 21x21 programme and I got all the other guys to sign too 'cept Marcus - oversight on my part. Sorry Marcus.

Have to say they are a fine bunch of guys. Ron is so self effacing and sweet and Russell is - well - so Russell. They were not travelling in a monster truck (as if) but in a mini bus from a Paisley hire company. The guy said he would have sent a luxury coach had he known who his passengers were. It just makes you love them all the more to know how reasonable they are not making rock star demands or having crazy dressing room riders. And they had some chilled white wine in their dressing room not beer.

They have the energy and dedication of guys half their age and Russell & Ron worked the crowd like the pros they are. I don't know how they do it.

I'm just wondering when we can expect SPARKS - THE MUSICAL. And I'm not kidding.

[jill]

@ Peter - Well, so far she was indeed - I was dying to know how the gig was and she was the first one to post videos
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[allydodd]

Sparks, the musical... No, too simple for R&R who have spent nigh on 40 years pioneering and emulating to perfection every pop genre in their wake.

Maybe if they get killed in a plane crash (reference Indiscreet cover) like the great Buddy Holly, the fans will do a Sparks musical with all these brilliant songs. These guys are genius, after all.

One of my most favourite CDs and films in the world is the Who's Tommy, and I'd always hoped that some more recent band could nearly come up with a fresh rock opera. Anyone who could knock off something half as good would be worshipped in this day and age. There are plenty of bands who well perform their greatest hits on stage in front of a few thousand Carling swilling fans in the sunshine. But how many of them would be able to write a story which could be as thoughtful or thorough as creating a theme involving a self perpetuated disability as an extreme reaction against the disturbing events of a childs' life, in an album of around twenty related songs? Respect for Mr Townsend, Daltrey and the other late great band members. That was a long sentence but it had to be.

Too simple for Sparks, it would be. They would have to do their own story all three, or four dimensional. And, you wouldn't understand it straight off. Yes, they'd direct the movie as well... And it would be multimedia. You'd find someone dangling down in front of the movie screen on pinoccho wires...it would probably be a "Ron" or a "Russell" too! guaranteed to be very funny though!

Sorry not to have been able to identify you, hyburn, as I'd hoped to see you for a chat after an exchange in the chat room of Justintv... during "Pulling Rabbits Out of A Hat", or was it "Music That You Can Dance To". In the crowd, I was the bearded one (sort of a less handsome & relatively weedy version of Russell Crowe in Gladiator) flanking my friend Lilly for a while at the front... until the Crystal Castles fans started to use my shoulders as a banister for bouncing.

After someone seemed to think I had to be some sort of drug dealer to put up with all that (I actually enjoyed the boiteressness), I made regulary ventures to the beer tent to numb the niggling nip to my self respect.

Glad to be lost in a great performance afterwards. As always.

[hyburn]

I was at the front to the right of the very blonde haired young guy - I think Lily was kinda in the middle so to my left - sorry I missed you too. It is always nice to meet fellow Sparks fans. Also a fine bunch of guys and gals.

It was over too quickly but the band were all great - they are fitting together like a glove now after all the touring they've done this summer - and all the practice.

I saw other bands at the festival and I am not being biased but they have half the energy and stage presence of Ron n Russ. Guess they've had plenty practice.

I reckoned a musical or opera if you will bec lots of their songs tell a story - I am especially fond of clever word play. Maybe a musical soap opera then ... just kidding.

[sin-is-quite-the-thing]

What a great weekend and what an amazing performance!!

Lovely to meet both Bobby and Jill! :)

Can't wait for the tour, hopefully they'll play a little closer to home this time
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-Up Here In Heaven Without You.-

[jill]

It's good to know that there is a Jill who made it to the festival :)

Another pictures:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13565693@N06/page2/
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Entertainment or art - one should know from the start

[MrMonte]

I believe that Sparks has already done a rock opera - called ECOTD. I remain convinced that this album tells a cohesive story and sure, it could be put on film. It would be a masterpiece, like the album itself.

Then there's Mai...I've been listening to the Mai tracks (at least the few that were made available) and I'd sure love to see this happen. I remain strangely, weirdly, perhaps foolishly...optimistic...but no real reason to think so. sure would love to hear additional tracks from that someday.

Monte
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Check out my new YouTube show all about Sparks and their fans! It's at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QvkUP_P9O0&ab_channel=MonteMallin - thanks!

[sin-is-quite-the-thing]

[PETER RAWCLIFFE]

whos a silly billy getting jill mixed up with lily!lol

glad you had a great time Sin,I agree with you that i hope hope they come nearer to home on the next tour,heres hoping.

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WRITTEN OF COURSE BY THE MIGHTIEST HAND

[sin-is-quite-the-thing]

I know blonde moment...
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-Up Here In Heaven Without You.-

[sparksfanlm]

Here's some pics I took, sorry the quality ain't great but like Lilly said the lighting was awkward:

http://www.bebo.com/PhotoAlbumBig.jsp?MemberId=5092245307&PhotoId=8776539513&PhotoAlbumId=8776470297
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"I hope it's just your laugh that is infectious."
http://www.last.fm/user/LaurenMcNairn/playlist/

[allydodd]

Great Lauren - these certainly convey the sense of an action packed performance from R&R.

Hyburn, when I think about the darkness and deafening volume in the front row, its little wonder how I didn't get chatting to folk. A big sorry too to Loreley, whom I hoped to catch with after the show after having to instantly abandon our chat.

MrMonte, now that I review my own over imaginative ramblings, I have to confess you're right about Exotic Creatures of the Deep being Sparks opera. And, they could do a film over and above the brilliant stage show; I believe that Tommy the film didn't happen 'till years after its initial peformance.

[Loreley]

Just got back home, after a delayed flight and a million buses.

HOW MUCH FUN WAS IT TO SEE SPARKS AGAIN, HM?

Gosh, I'm still on fire. I couldn't believe I'd missed them so much.
I'm going to live of this a while, hopefully until Sparks go on tour.

Really fun to read the concert reviews and see pictures.

And Ally, I was trying to find you after the gig, but obviously it's impossible to find people around that tent. (I think I spoke with four different people who'd lost the people they were with around that tent.
I suppose we all look the same in the dark.)

And Sin; Thanks for a fantastic weekend, complete with beetles and mud and everything. And dry shampoo!
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Not so suave.
YouTube.
twitter.

[sin-is-quite-the-thing]

[PETER RAWCLIFFE]

Lauren,liked the photos,The one with Ron grinning doing the dance is awesome,Also Morrisseys quiff in the background while Russ sings lighten up is funny,nice one.

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WRITTEN OF COURSE BY THE MIGHTIEST HAND

[jill]

Liked the photos too, good job!
The festival bracelets sparkling on their wrists are so nice
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Entertainment or art - one should know from the start

[lilywearsmoschino]

Here is a transcript of the Connect interview, for those who couldn't watch the video -



SPARKS INTERVIEW : CONNECT FESTIVAL, INVERARAY
FRIDAY 29 AUGUST 2008

Interviewer –

Could you tell us how important Scotland has been in your career?

Ron –

Well we have memories going back of playing the Glasgow Apollo probably in ’75, so maybe there is a kind of dispersed history, but there is a history of us playing and every show that we have played the reaction has been amazing.

Russell –

Seems that our appearances seem to be more in Glasgow than in Edinburgh for some reason. I don’t know why this is, but the Glasgow shows have always been amazing. The Glasgow audiences are incredible.

Interviewer –

So, appearance wise, you have been coming here for over 30 years, but I have been reading up on you and what you have been up to and never known that Finitribe have done stuff with you. Finitribe obviously were an Edinburgh-based band.

Russell –

We had done a song called “National Crime Awareness Week” and we recorded it in LA and we were looking for somebody to give another treatment to it, and a mutual friend knew of them. We had no knowledge of Finitribe at that time and so we heard some their stuff afterwards and said we could have a go at it, so we took this song and kinda reworked it a bit, and the version that actually came out that was released as a single was their production really, and they actually had a little complex where they had space to do a video as well, so they did a video for us as well, so we really liked what they did, and liked the whole conceptual thing of having their little mini empire in Edinburgh.

Interviewer –

Speaking of Scottish artists, there are big rumours around saying that you are going to be collaborating with Franz Ferdinand. Can you corroborate any of these rumours?

Ron –

Well, we had a conversation with them in Los Angeles about 2 years ago now, so every time that that’s mentioned it sounds sort of more and more like a lie but actually there were discussions and we have been in touch about doing some sort of collaboration whether it be a song co-written by all of us, or something that we supply or they supply, so it isn’t even into any sort of specific stage but we have talked to them about that.

Interviewer –

You have achieved kind of cult status. You are name-checked by lots of types of bands. While I was reading up about you I had a whole new type of respect for you, because you name-checked Public Enemy and they’re my favourite band!

Ron –

Oh really? People somehow think that first of all it’s incongruous that we would like Public Enemy, and also that we’re being somewhat ironic by namedropping but in particular “It takes a nation of millions” and also “Fear of a black planet”, those to me were like the equivalent of ”Sergeant Pepper” for me. They were so dance … and so many things going on, and I also like the idea – maybe I’m prejudiced – of a band where you have two distinct personalities like that. Those albums in particular of theirs are the ones that I like before it was necessary to clear samples, I think they could kinda pile on millions of different things into a jumble, and now things are a little bit more sparse. But I love those albums, those 2 in particular.

Interviewer –

The music industry, talking about sampling, has moved on leaps and bounds. How would you feel if people sampled your own music? Are you quite precious about it?

Russell –

As long as they pay us, we’re not precious. (laughs)

Interviewer –

So you’d want to be paid? You wouldn’t give it away for free?

Russell –

First of all we’d be flattered if somebody wanted to use our music in the context of what they’re doing, and as an artist all you have in your life is your creation, so it’s like any creative person or any person at all – you’d prefer to be paid for your work. The flipside is we’d be flattered having people sampling us.

Interviewer –

So you’re 21 albums deep. How much more can you churn out do you think? Ron, how many more lyrics can you keep coming out with?

Ron –

Not much more!! (laughs) Every time when you finish an album you kinda think that there’s nowhere else that you can go, but we have such drive that I think that that’s kinda what propels us and that puts us in a position to try and top each thing we’ve done, and we’ve been very fortunate with the reaction of the new album. If it hasn’t been totally gangbusted because of sales then the critical reaction, the reaction of lot of people even at festivals has been really strong, so there might be something in the future (smiles enigmatically).

Interviewer –

BBC Radio 2 has been playing it a lot. It’s one of the biggest radio stations in Europe. Does that suddenly come as a shock to you that all of a sudden one of the biggest BBC stations is playing your album?

Russell –

We’re happy about it because, despite the complexity of the music that we’re doing, we also think that it’s commercial music too and throughout the history of the band there has been commercial success, but on our own terms. The song “This town ain’t big enough for both of us” wasn’t what you’d call a commercial song typically. Now, in hindsight, you’d say oh yeah it’s commercial because it’s so neat and so special but when people first heard it, it was like “what is that”? So on our own terms we think that what we do also is commercial but not giving up any of the uniqueness and personality of what we’re doing.

Interviewer –

There’s an up-and-coming Scottish band called “Danananackroyd” who are currently in New York recording an album, and their drummer is probably the biggest Sparks fan I’ve ever met in my life. I told him I was coming along to interview you and he was sick ‘cos he couldn’t be here, so he emailed me a question to ask you. For Paul Carlin, if you could just let him know, how on earth did you end up on the Gilmore Girls, which is a US sitcom?

Russell –

It was as surprising to us as it was to anybody, but the producer and director and the main writers and creators on the show are huge Sparks fans, and for the one episode they wanted to use a couple of their favourite bands within the context within the storyline of that particular episode, so they had us on a street corner doing a version of a song of ours on our last album called “Perfume”, so it’s just Ron and I playing on our own. They’re fans of Sparks, and they’d actually used some Sparks music in other episodes of the Gilmore Girls as well so it wasn’t the first time that they utilised Sparks.

Interviewer –

People can see this on YouTube obviously and other clips. One of the clips you can see on YouTube is of you on “Top Of The Pops”, one of your first appearances, and apparently the BBC got complaints because of Ron’s appearance. Have you ever had complaints anywhere else Ron for your appearance? I think you look quite stylish and dapper.

Ron –

The main negative one that I’m aware of – around that time, maybe it was like the late 70s, there was a French variety show that we were going to do and we were sort of bounced from the show because of my moustache. Maybe I was naïve, but I never really realised the impact that that moustache might have on some people. I always saw it in a Chaplinesque way or maybe just in a general silent movie kind of way. I never saw it in a dictator sort of way, so from that point on I kind of decided to change the moustache style because I didn’t want it to get in the way of people just hearing what we were doing musically.

Interviewer –

Thank you very much for speaking to us, and I hope you have a great festival.


[END OF INTERVIEW]
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http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=678905447

[cygnenoir]

lily,

thank you thank you thank you for typing all that up!

[jill]

Many thanks, Lily! I liked it... they're gracious as always!

New videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd9ogB9-GlQ (No 1 Song in Heaven)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jna8xHp9HD0 (Propaganda & At Home, At Work, At Play)
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Entertainment or art - one should know from the start