Sparks

Sparks: Angst in My Pants

Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, July 1982

SPARKS' HIT STREAK in the mid-'70s produced America's best Anglophiliac rock ever – so good, in fact, that English teenyboppers made them tops of the ...

Sparks: Bright Sparks

Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, April 1974

IT HAD TO BE said. The gentleman with the black, slicked-back hair, Charlie Chaplin moustache and thoroughly English cricket pullover, in no manner resembled a ...

Sparks: Nouveau Riche Sweet Young Brats Strike Sparks

Interview by Nick Kent, NME, May 1974

TALK ABOUT BEING short changed! The way I heard it, these Sparks whizz-kids take great pride in escorting the press cognoscenti to the finest hostelries ...

Sparks vs. Sweet: The Battle for Britain

Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, August 1974

The Sweet: Sweet Fanny AdamsSparks: Kimono My House ...

Sparks: Hometown Heroes At Last

Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, November 1974

IT WAS a typical day in Los Angeles, hot and smoggy. 18-year-old Jeff exclaimed with glee clutching his autographed Sparks album, "They went to my ...

Sparks

Report and Interview by Max Bell, NME, November 1974

THINGS COULDN'T really have got off to a worse start for Sparks. First their coach broke down in Barnsley – of all places – which ...

Sparks: Propaganda

Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, December 1974

SPARKS IS ONE of those aggregations that people seem either to be attracted to or repulsed by. For the first few months of their 'comeback', ...

Sparks

Report and Interview by Max Bell, NME, December 1974

CONTRARY to popular belief, Santa Claus – alias Saint Nicholas – is alive and well and living in Amsterdam. ...

Sparks: Instant Darlings

Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, January 1975

LOS ANGELES – It was several months ago in London that the disc jockey on Capitol Radio, BBC's commercial rival, was revealing the results of ...

Sparks: Propaganda

Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, April 1975

ON THEIR NOW obscure Warner Bros.' albums Sparks's intriguing lyrics and immaculate conceptions were undermined by inadequate musical constructions. ...

Sparks: Indiscreet

Review by Chas de Whalley, NME, October 1975

OKAY, SO YOU'VE heard it all before: ...

Sparks: Indiscreet

Review by Richard Cromelin, Phonograph Record, November 1975

INDISCREET, THANKS to a production approach which digs a wide gulf between it and previous Sparks albums, could well win over some new fans for ...

Sparks: Big Beat (Island);Sailor: The Third Step (Epic)

Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, October 1976

SPARKS: Big Beat (Island ILPS 9445). Russell Mael (vocals), Ron Mael (keyboards), Jeffrey Salen (guitar), Sal Maida (bass). Billy Boy Michaels (drums). Produced by Rupert ...

Sparks: Too Much Too Soon Again

Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, April 1979

Sparks discover disco – but did the critics discover it first? HARRY DOHERTY smooths the ruffled curls. ...

Sparks: A Woofer In Tweeter’s Clothing (Bearsville)

Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, January 1980

The all-time weird American art-rock LP, Spark’s second album was, at first encounter, impenetrably arcane and smug. After cranking up the volume, adjusting to the ...

Sparks: Terminal Jive (Virgin) **

Review by Betty Page, Sounds, February 1980

D.I.S.C.O. HOW many of you recoil in horror at the word? Are you one of the legion of Sounds readers who would venomously denounce it ...

Sparks

Interview by Jon Young, Trouser Press, October 1981

THAT OLD saw about prophets without honor in their own land has a ring of truth even today, as Ron and Russell Mael, known as ...

Sparks

Interview by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, November 1982

After 11 albums over a decade of stylistic evolution, Sparks — that is, Ron and Russell Mael with collaborators — have achieved legendary status despite ...

Sparks

Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, April 1983

THE BEVERLY CENTER IN LOS ANGELES is a mod-a-go-go kind of shopping mall, acres of parking, chock full of stores devoted to video equipment, "intelligent ...

Sparks: Plagiarism

Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, December 1997

Dynamic duo revamp their quirky oevre with wit and irony ...

Sparks: Balls

Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, October 2000

FIRST ALL-NEW flurry since 1994's Gratuitous Sax And Senseless Violins ...

What A Difference The Days Made: Sparks Look Back

Interview by Daryl Easlea, Record Collector, Summer 2003

FOR OVER 30 YEARS, Sparks have always been a glorious musical anachronism. To think that their genesis is on the American West Coast at the ...

Sparks

Interview by Rob Chapman, unpublished, June 2004

SPARKS ARE IN London to play the Meltdown Festival at Morrissey's request. Outside in the stifling heat the capitol is experiencing its own 90 degree ...

Sparks: Talkin' About My Generator

Interview by Bob Stanley, Times, The, June 2004

SPARKS PUT the fear of God into preteens with their debut Top of the Pops appearance. As pretty boy Russell Mael flashed his baby blues ...

Sparks: Sparks Will Fly

Interview by Nick Coleman, Intelligent Life, Spring 2008

Sparks are to begin performing their entire oeuvre next week in Islington. Singer Russel Mael tells Nick Coleman it's like buying pork futures... ...