Sparks light the fire …

08/06/2008 by AJ.

2008 seems to be fast becoming one of those years where I get to revisit previous parts of my life with a new 21st Century perspective. And the lovely thing about it is that in almost all cases it wasn’t a case that the stuff that meant something to me all those years ago was a victim of rose-tinted spectacles. The return gigs have reminded me exactly WHY I was fired up about them all those years ago, and that I was right to hold them in such esteem to do this day.

A first-ever visit to Los Angeles in April/May this year served as a reminder of why television as a medium is still an important part of my life. Fact is, though, the honesty comes in appreciating that what I really want to do is be making it, taking part in some way, not just celebrating its “Greatest Hits”. That’s a personal thing, it’s not really adding to what has gone before, which should be everyone’s goal.

The other couple of incidents were music related. The first was seeing THE HUMAN LEAGUE in concert again, for the first time in nearly a decade. The first time I saw them was back in 1981, at Bingley Hall, Stafford, with the stage set featuring a backdrop of a huge number of 35mm slide projectors, spewing out images that supported the messages of the songs. Yes, HUMAN LEAGUE songs DO have a point to them. It’s not all funny haircuts and plinky plonk synths!

Seeing them in the 1990s was NOT the same experience - gone were the cultural-reference backdrop of images, and it felt very much like a shadow of what had gone before. HOWEVER. When THE LEAGUE toured to celebrate their album DARE earlier this year, back came the backdrop of images. Except no longer were we talking projectors and screens - now we had a bank of huge Plasma screens, elevating and descending, all helping tell the stories of the songs once more. Hairs on the back of my neck stood on end - the LEAGUE I knew were back.

One band I never saw live until this year was SPARKS. As if it were yesterday I remember in 1979 going into GOULD’S in Wolverhampton Mander Centre and purchasing the LP of NUMBER ONE IN HEAVEN. A splendid luminous see-through yellowy-green vinyl slab of glorious electronic disco pomp. Probably the album I have played more than any in my collection over the years.

I’d first seen Sparks many years earlier on TOP OF THE POPS, performing THIS TOWN AIN’T BIG ENOUGH FOR THE BOTH OF US. Ron Mael’s Hitler-esque social disconnection at the keyboards, brother Russell’s inability to keep still on-stage - it was just something that burned like a laser into my memory.

So, when the announcement came that Sparks were taking up a residency at the Carling Academy Islington to play 20 concerts featuring their first 20 albums, rounding off with the debut of their 21st at Shepherd’s Bush on 13th June, I simply had to turn up to the pivotal albums from their output - as far as I was concerned, that is.

So, on 25 May, Sarah and I went to see the performance of NUMBER ONE IN HEAVEN in its entirety. On the following Tuesday, we went to see TERMINAL JIVE get its airing. At both, and showing how small the world is (and how common our collective interests are) there were even regular CULT TV FESTIVAL attendees also present to savour the experience!

However, yesterday, 7 June, was the performance of PLAGIARISM. A unique album, in that it has a huge number of tracks, and is basically Sparks doing their own ‘tribute album’ - revisiting some of their greatest hits, giving them a dust-off and applying to them a different style to what we had previously experienced.

As it was such a long album, there was no support act (Thank God, as the two previous ones, well, I simply cannot think of anything kind to say about them!). But we’d had an email to tip us off that Sparks were likely to be onstage for 8.30pm. Well, okay, technical difficulties meant that this actually ended up as 8.45pm, but then again given what we had in store for us, that is entirely forgiven.

The first clue that this was to be no ordinary evening was the arrival onstage of a string quintet from Trinity College. Three violins, a cello and a double bass. All played by some of the most gorgeous ladies I’ve seen onstage for some considerable time (for some reason I keep thinking of Bill and Ted’s ‘Medieval Babes’, even though they were all demurely dressed in black T-shirts sporting the cover of PLAGIARISM, in a square on the front). Couldn’t make up my mind whether the double bass lady or the first violinist were the most attractive. Or was it the violinist right in the middle who seem to spend her entire ‘downtime’ onstage staring lovingly at Russell???

Anyhow, as there is a lot of orchestral arrangement on this album, they were certainly kept busy throughout the evening. And for the track “Change” an entire brass section, again from Trinity, crowded the stage to add even more impact to the evening. Fantastic!

But the crowning moment came with the “reprise” of “Number One Song in Heaven” - this is a reworking of the first half of the extended version of the song, which is all dreamy and otherworldly - before we get into the second half which is some of the most upfront rock disco ever created. Now, there’s a problem doing this live, mainly as the version on PLAGIARISM has guest vocals from JIMMY SOMERVILLE, formerly of Bronksi Beat, and known for his high vocal range.

So, Russell begins singing the one part of the song … and then out of nowhere appears none other than JIMMY SOMERVILLE!

It’s one of those moments you remember for the rest of your life. The song becomes a duet, and the duelling vocalists give it their all. A tear in my eye as I realised that these are the sort of set pieces which can make an evening iconic.

An encore of the rare track “Looks Aren’t Everything” sped by afterwards, as did the long train journey home. The night had fired up my creativity, and puzzles on various projects got solved as if the answers had been obvious all along. Two hours travel passed in the blink of any eye.

Anyhow, check out more about the band at www.allsparks.com and, if you’re lucky, do anything you can to get a ticket for the premiere of “Exotic Creatures of the Deep” at Shepherd’s Bush on Friday 13th ….!

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