Sparks at Bournemouth International Centre

Seeing every possible Sparks gig in London was not enough to I went to see them in Bournemouth as well. The timing worked well with my sister's birthday and we dragged her along too as part of a celebratory weekend.

But first we had to get to Bournemouth and while the trains worked well (Richmond to Clapham to Bournemouth) the station is just outside of the town and we had to walk the mile and a bit in. For that I used GoJauntly to find a pretty route and that worked well.

We had to eat somewhere and failing to find anything along the way we went to Elevate Brassier and Bar within BIC which was excellent with good food, great service and superb value. If I ever make it back to BIC I will eat there again.

 

I had not been to BIC before so the seating arrangement was a surprise. We were in row E (£75.25) which was a level area; normally that would worry me but the stage was high enough for the tall people not to worry me.

The photo, taken during Ron and Russell's duet in Let's Get Funky, shows how good my view was.

While this was a seated area people kept getting up to dance and after a few false starts we all were. The video my sister supposedly took of me dancing is fake.

The setlist was the same as it was a few days earlier in Chelsea, as expected, and it was just as good musically this time round and the better seat made it a better show.

Stand-out songs were the usual singalongs When Do I Get to Sing "My Way", The Number One Song in Heaven and the closer All That. Of course they played  This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us which went down a storm but, oddly, it is not one of my top favourites of theirs. It was also good to see the very political and (still) very topical  (Baby, Baby) Can I Invade Your Country from 2006.

Sparks always entertain mightily and I hope they live up to their promise of touring again soon.