Sparks. Live May/June 2008 in London. EVERY album.

that's insane. you gonna go?

Had I more money/vacation time, yes. As it stands I will admire from afar.

This is unprecedented.

wow

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK

MAKE LONDON HERE

:( :(

There is nothing more OTM than this for any band, period.

Wow, this might be a good enough reason to come to London!

Which one is going to sell out the fastest? Kimono My House? No. 1 Song in Heaven? I'd say one of those. I'd make some smart-ass comment about some of their lesser albums, but I bet they'd put on such a great show that even the biggest dud they recorded would be more fun to see then most bands at their best.

There is nothing more OTM than this for any band, period.

-- Mackro Mackro, Tuesday, November 20, 2007 11:01 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

this comment, in turn, itself the most otm

Plagiarism should be a popular one - basically a greatest hits show with tons of guests. I wonder if they will recruit the same folks that were on the album. Jimmy Sommerville will probably be available anyway.

I know Suede did this, didn't they?

Five night run at the ICA, yeah.

The info on the link has been taken down temporarily because of contract issues being worked out, but AFAIK the plan is still good to go.

so do y'all think they'll cheat and use sheet music for some of these? I can't believe they would actually be able to remember everything.

I know Suede did this, didn't they?

Let me guess, the last two gigs were the last to sell out?

the last one was just Brett and some stewards

that's a lot of rehearsing!

Suede ain't Sparks.

They can mime to the CDs and still put on a great show. When I saw them do Lil Beethoven in it's entirety in Central Park, they had 2 other musicians but most of it was run off tape/sequencers. Was still one of the most fun shows I've ever seen.

I would like to see 'Propaganda' now.

AT HOME AT WORK AT PLAY!!!!

Omg I so want to see Angst in my Pants live!!!

http://www.zshare.net/audio/35280893c10492/

in celebration here is SPARKS - TRYOUTS FOR THE HUMAN RACE (LONG VERSION)

I know Suede did this, didn't they?

I think Cheap Trick did too recently, but stopped after the first four albums

This whole live series wouldn't be nearly half as interesting if Sparks kept to one kind of sound throughout their career more or less.

But Sparks changed phases more often than Bowie, which is why I'm even pondering a stay in London just for this. (I doubt I'll have the time or money though, which makes me really sad.)

In a way, this is a great alternate universe question about asking about one's favorite album by Band X, except you're choosing which favorite album to see live and not just hear... and there's about two weeks of shows to choose from! So on this level and variety, this is completely unprecedented.

I really would love to go -- and I wouldn't be surprised if there's some way to stream the shows, at least. Why not?

I'm thinking of all the songs that'll get aired for the first time in decades -- or maybe even ever!

am I missing something?

Sorry - we don't have any Sparks tour dates listed in the UK at the moment.

oh, you already answered that upthread. nevermind

And the thing is, having been able to catch them pretty much at every LA area show since 1998 or so -- they can still bring it live, no matter what backing they're using. Russell's got some insane energy for a guy pushing sixty (or older, I can't recall!) and Ron is, well, Ron.

xpost -- yeah, as mentioned, they're working out the details so the link was a bit premature, but it's still on.

I would buy the DVD collection if these were video-recorded.

Technical difficulties, mess ups, and all...

http://www.allsparks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5578

+

21st night here on June 13th:
http://www.shepherds-bush-empire.co.uk/listings.php

and from that same forum page:

http://www.uncut.co.uk/news/uncut/news/10685
http://www.nme.com/news/32672
http://www.cdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=4726
http://gaffa.dk/nyheder/view.php/news_id=20164

Here's me having a wish that BBC4 cover *all* of this.

OK, maybe just a 'best of every night' type coverage?

I would go if they recreated the key scenes from the film Rollercoaster.

As just posted via the mael-list:

---

THE SEARCH IS ON FOR SPARKS’ SUPPORT BANDS

Pop innovators Ron and Russell Mael are offering 20 bands/artists the opportunity to support them at their record breaking gigs entitled the Sparks Spectacular.

Taking place at the Islington Academy in London between May 16 and June 11 2008, these twenty shows will see Sparks performing their first 20 albums – one album per night, commencing with the 1971 album Halfnelson and concluding with 2006’s Hello Young Lovers. On the 21st night Sparks will be relocating to the Shepherds Bush Empire to perform their new album for the first time (NB there will not be a support for this gig)

Bands who would like the chance to support Sparks should upload a live performance video to youtube and send the link of the video to i✧✧✧@republicme✧✧✧.n✧✧ with information about the band. Entrants will be added to the video channel at youtube.com/republicmedia. The successful bands will be notified no later than April 30.

Show dates below:

At Carling Academy Islington, N1 Centre, Islington, LONDON, N1 0PS
www.islington-academy.co.uk

MAY
16th Halfnelson/Sparks (1971/2)
17th A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing (1972)
18th Kimono My House (1974)
20th Propaganda (1974)
21st Indiscreet (1975)
23rd Big Beat (1976)
24th Introducing Sparks (1977)
25th No.1 In Heaven (1979)
27th Terminal Jive (1979)
28th Whomp That Sucker (1981)
30th Angst In My Pants (1982)
31st In Outer Space (1983)

JUNE
1st Pulling Rabbits Out Of A Hat (1984)
3rd Music That You Can Dance To (1986)
4th Interior Design (1988)
6th Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins (1995)
7th Plagiarism (1997)
8th Balls (2000)
10th Lil’ Beethoven (2003)
11th Hello Young Lovers (2006)

JUNE 13th WORLD PREMIERE OF SPARKS’ 21ST ALBUM (2008)

At Shepherds Bush Empire, Shepherds Bush Green, Shepherds Bush, LONDON, W12 8TT (NO SUPPORT)
www.shepherds-bush-empire.co.uk

INDIVIDUAL TICKET PRICE: £20.00 PER SHOW

3 NIGHTS OR MORE BOUGHT TOGETHER: £18.00 PER SHOW

GOLDEN TICKET – ALL 21 SHOWS - £350.00 (includes signed poster and exclusive Sparks song on CD). This offer is exclusive to Ticketweb.

www.ticketweb.co.uk cc line 0844 477 2000

TICKETS SUBJECT TO BOOKING FEE

The blocked e-mail is info @ republicmedia. net

Wonder if Jook are interested?

Will be streamed live on video even. Works for me!

A good audio rip for the first few nights would be, um, nice.

I made an iCal of when these are on for myself, which I though I'd share:

Handy, that -- right now for me it's just remembering that it'll always be 1 pm my time.

(And yes, it starts today, first show in...six hours.)

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2051/2460665028_ceb5cb2783.jpg?v=0

Yeah, heard about that as well, would love to see it!

Bumping again as this is due to start shortly.

And it was pretty great -- lo-fi audio mix from the audience, doubtless intentional, and a pretty basic one camera setup, but you could still catch everything well, and it was great fun to see/hear them do stuff like "Fletcher Honorama" and "No More Mr. Nice Guys." Steve Macdonald from Redd Kross is still in on bass.

Woofer yesterday was great fun, Kimono in an hour and fifteen minutes!

Guess I missed it.

I got "Propaganda" on a TV show from Sparks, back in the day.

Nice.

Damn! Sits down, ready, connects:

Day off tonite!

Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya...

nice little observer piece here for the non UK types:

http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/story/0,,2279766,00.html

interesting bit:

OMM Which album are you most looking forward to playing?

Russell Apart from the new one, the Eighties albums are going to be fun: Angst in My Pants, or Whomp That Sucker. They did well in the States but they were less visible in the UK, so it will be fun to show people what was going on then.

I was wondering about those myself. Right now the ones I'm definitely the most interested in are the lesser albums, or those seen as such (including me, admittedly!) -- Introducing, Terminal Jive, Music That You Can Dance To, Interior Design. I'm definitely wondering how they're going to do Plagiarism!

They're going to hire Franz Ferdinand to take over for the night.

I found a couple of reviews from the inkies: The first night "Halfnelson" plus "England" as a bonus b-side encore, and "Kimono" with "barbecutie"...

It seems they are doing one b-side/obscurity as each night's singular encore. Wonder if they'll fit in "I want to hold your hand" the withdrawn cover version?

Is anyone covering this blogstyle, do you know?

They've done "Barbecutie", "Lost and Found" and "Gone With the Wind" so far. They had some horns and strings for Indiscreet last night. Really pretty good. Would have thought if they were gonna do "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" it'd have been last night when they had the extra musicians.

Exhibition's going well; R and R seemed pretty impressed wi-

My pictures:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterstringbender/2513660712/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterstringbender/2513661338/in/photostream/

No actual blogness?

No live um, captures?

Nice coverage of the first five nights with photos here:

http://habloennui.blogspot.com/

But to my money it's been the last three shows I've really enjoyed -- much better versions of The Big Beat and Introducing than the recorded ones, plus a stellar rip through No. 1 in Heaven yesterday.

As for (ha-hem) live captures, they're out there...

Also, drummer Steve Nistor's blog for Billboard.

Excellent blog, definitely worth reviving for that.

And not for this:

Sparks Music
Sing your own versions of your favorite songs. Be discovered!
www.xxxxxx.com

Some very interesting news via the Sparks mailing list -- apparently Russell just gave a brief interview to a Swedish publication tying in with their upcoming radio theater production in the country (really!) and supposedly "there indeed is a 21 dvd edition on its way, when all the legal problems are solved."