Sparks: Exotic creatures of the deep

The last month has flown by and suddenly we are at Sparks' concert #21 of 21, which started with a performance of their latest album, Exotic creatures of the deep.

Musically, it is similar to the last two albums and makes use of Apple-powered multi-tracking.

Sparks make few concessions to this when performing live and use pre-recorded tracks to augment the sound of the band. But this is not a pretence and it also frees Ron to join in the show.

Here, during Photoshop, Ron is pretending to play a keyboard displayed on the screen that is being moved and manipulated by the software.

Other theatrical highlights included the women who came on stage pushing shopping trolleys, pretended to be pregnant men and posed as renaissance angels. And for the elongated finale, Likeable, we saw a display of the 21 album covers in sequence being burnt leaving us with Exotic creatures of the deep.

The second part of the set we were treated to a collection of rare songs, some (all?) of which had appeared as encores in the earlier shows. By then the already very happy crowd was dancing, cheering, clapping and singing with pure joy. Far too soon it ended and Sparks got a long and very enthusiastic reception from the crowd.

The encore opened surprisingly with the final two tracks, Batteries Not Included and Whippings And Apologies, from their second album A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing (1972). I particularly liked this as they were the first two Sparks songs that I ever heard, played on the radio by John Peel, of course. This was followed by a rocking version of Change, a stupendous crescendo to the evening.

But that was not it. The cheers, claps and stomps brought Sparks out for a second encore which just had to be This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us.

So that's it, all 21 concerts have been played and while it was a phenomenal success it is unlikely that anybody will trying anything quite like that again. I am just very glad that I was there when Sparks did it.

Sparks: Balls

Sparks' 21 concert marathon started drawing to a close with Balls from 2000, their 18th album.

Balls was some five years after their previous album of original material, Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins, but it has much the same feel to is. Which is a good thing!

Performed live, the songs bounced along happily like a primary school outing, but without adults in charge to anybody from being too silly.

This was the first time that I had heard most of these songs but, as with Music you can dance to, several of the tracks stood out on a first listen.

One of the most memorable songs was It's a Knockoff, originally written for a Jean Claude Van Damme film, which is hardly the most auspicious genesis for a pop song.

I'll soon know all the songs a lot better as I've just ordered the album from Amazon!

Sparks: Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins

Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins is not only a great name for an album, it is also a great album so I could not miss the opportunity to see Sparks perform it live.

This was concert 16 in the series of 21 and it brought us up to 1995 with a bang.

Sparks are never really in the limelight, and never really out of it either, but Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins can be seen as a sort of come-back album.

It demanded attention through majestic, dance-along, songs like When Do I Get To Sing 'My Way', (When I Kiss You) I Hear Charlie Parker Playing, and Frankly, Scarlett, I Don't Give A Damn (pictured here).

Played live these songs had us all bopping from the very start to the very end and even though most people there had been to several Sparks concerts over the last couple of weeks, we were all left wanting some more. In my case that's on Sunday!

Sparks: Music That You Can Dance To

Sparks' 14th concert in their series of 21 was their relatively obscure album Music That You Can Dance To from 1986.

The concert was a bit of pot-luck for me as I did not know the album at all, nor did I make any attempt to, and I simply relied on the ability of the Mael brothers to deliver.

They delivered.

The music was of it's time and, as the title suggests, was music with a strong dance flavour. There was also a clue in the title of the last song, Let's Get Funky.

But it was definitely Sparks too and it bounced along joyfully for an hour or so. I was hearing these tracks for the first time but a few impressed immediately; enough to want to buy the album but that is proving to be difficult and it only seems to available from obscure sites in the USA.

Another mystery about the album is the track listing. The discography on the official Sparks website includes the track The Armies Of The Night but not the single Change that is on the version of the album available from Amazon where the title of the album is given as The Best Of Sparks - Music That You Can Dance To.

In the end we got the best of both worlds as Sparks performed Music That You Can Dance To as described on their website and also gave us Change as a well deserved and much enjoyed encore.

And just to make the evening complete, I treated myself to the tour t-shirt which I will be wearing to the three Sparks concerts that I am going to in the next ten days :-)

Sparks: Propaganda

Propaganda (1974) was Sparks' fourth album and so was the fourth concert in the current series where they are playing all 21 of their albums, in order, in London.

It was also my first concert in the series, I am (only) going to 5 of the 21.

Sparks are using support acts for these concerts, because their own sets are shorter than usual, and the opener for Propaganda was dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip, an interesting and fun mix of serious beats (delivered by a MacBook Pro) and rap (delivered through a long beard). Surprisingly good.

Sparks played Propaganda with a four-piece backing band which updated the sound from the whimsy of 70s electro-pop. Some of the songs were also elongated slightly, simply by repeating the chorus a few more times. Repetition has always been a big part of Sparks' music so a little more of it is a good thing.

Apart from that it was very much Propaganda as I first heard it in 1974, which is just as well as that is what the fans wanted and we all left happy (if slowly, why was only one door open?!).

Sparks "tour" 2008

Most bands when they do a tour visit several venues and play much the same set every night but Sparks are going to play the same venue for 20 nights and will play a different one of their albums each night.

Then on the 21st night they are moving to a bigger venue and will launch their 21st album.

The concerts are in May/June next year and went on sale at 9am this morning. So far I have bought tickets for Propaganda, Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins, and Balls.

I am so looking forward to this :-)