** Apologies for the delay with this review. Personal issues have put me behind **
“Throughout all the years I’ve been making music, if you get on a tour bus with a bunch of musicians, eventually the conversation will go to Sparks.” ~ Beck (The Sparks Brothers — 2021).
A major one from the tick list, and far overdue as it’s 50 years since Sparks first entered my radar. I mean, I have 26 albums and listen to them all, so this one was special.
Sparks have always been ahead of their time, influencing many bands, probably without those bands realising it. And never ones to play safe either, as was shown at The Halls in Wolverhampton. Yes, it would be easy to rely on more commercially successful numbers, but when you have a career with a duration as Sparks, averaging an album every two years, it’s an insult to Ron and Russell Mael to expect them to only stick to songs popular between 1973 and 1979.
What you get from Sparks is a full spread of repertoire. Only This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us is represented from their biggest album, Kimono My House. But that doesn’t matter, because those present are diehard fans who for them the most recent is as important as the first. This was shown by the atmosphere as even the ageing legs amid a sea of grey hair eventually got up on mass, dancing in the seats and aisles. And nice to see the audience allowed to do this without stewards asking them to sit down as some venues do. Although I suspect this was probably due to the fact there were very few stewards. I certainly couldn’t find one to direct me to my seat when I first arrived at the recently revamped Wolverhampton Civic Hall.
Entering the stage, Russell began with the question So May We Start, from the motion picture, Annette before launching into the title track from the amazing latest album, The Girl is Crying in Her Latte. Also from this were five others, proving the outstanding quality and originality is still there. Nothing is as Good as They Say it Is makes my top ten Sparks tunes already, and We Go Dancing is classic Sparks. The final track of the album also ended the main set, appropriately titled, Gee, That Was Fun. I cannot stress how good this latest album is. It’s been on loop in my car for weeks now. Go and buy/download it, you will not be disappointed.
Russell stays energetic as ever at 74 years old while Ron is still deadpan (almost throughout) at 77. I only hope I’m still behaving that way when I reach the same age.
Music That You Can Dance To, All That, Angst in My Pants, Balls and When I’m With You are all top tunes. Then there is When Do I Get to Sing My Way from 1994s Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violence. Awesome track. The Number One Song in Heaven brought the house down and My Baby’s Taking Me Home was just phenomenal.
An incredible, feel-good show. I’m so glad to have finally seen this amazing duo (albeit with fantastic backing band) and wonder will I ever get the chance again? I truly hope so.
Cheers.
Antony N Britt - Author 