Sparks
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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 ...
Audio interviews
Interview by John Tobler, Rock's Backpages audio, Fall 1977
From writing manuals for oil tankers to Radio Stars, Martin Gordon on his life in music: playing bass in Sparks, being heavily involved with Kimono My House; getting sacked for refusing to play a Fender Precision; the group becoming a dictatorship; forming Jet with two of John's Children and the chaotic David O'List; getting screwed by CBS, then leaving... plus his involvement with Milk 'n' Cookies.
File format: mp3; file size: 30.4mb, interview length: 31' 43" sound quality: ***
Interview by Ira Robbins, Rock's Backpages audio, July 1990
The more severe-looking of the duo runs down the band's history, song by song. Oh, and talks about being banned by French TV for looking like Hitler!
File format: mp3; file size: 58.9mb, interview length: 1h 04' 20" sound quality: ** (phoner)
Interview by Ira Robbins, Rock's Backpages audio, July 1990
The pretty half of the eccentric duo looks back to their time as Halfnelson, on food stamps and playng American Bandstand; their Anglophilia; moving to England and signing to Island. Then he takes us through their extensive discography — the songs and associated stories.
File format: mp3; file size: 77.7mb, interview length: 1h 24' 50" sound quality: ** (phoner)
List of articles in the library
In New York City, Rock has Created Things that Reach from Obscenity to Musical Vomit
Report by Roy Hollingworth, Melody Maker, 21 October 1972
New York Report by Roy Hollingworth ...
Sparks: Food First, Music Second
Profile and Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc, 25 November 1972
"Too many groups we know are into music." ...
Sparks: A Woofer In Tweeter's Clothing (Bearsville)
Review by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 23 June 1973
I ONCE found myself involved in a curious argument with one of Detroit's more-respected rock writers concerning his contention that Sparks were dangerous to the ...
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 13 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 ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 18 May 1974
ONE WAY or another, 1974's turning out to be quite a year for rock 'n' roll. ...
Sparks: Nouveau Riche Sweet Young Brats Strike Sparks
Interview by Nick Kent, New Musical Express, 25 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 ...
Interview by Pete Makowski, Sounds, 1 June 1974
LOOK AT those two, aren't they cute? Who are they? Why they're the Mael Brothers. You know, Ronnie's the one who looks like a crossbreed ...
Sparks vs. Sweet: The Battle for Britain
Review by Ron Ross, Phonograph Record, August 1974
The Sweet: Sweet Fanny AdamsSparks: Kimono My House ...
Sparks: Russell — I Hate Kids And Animals!
Interview by uncredited writer, Melody Maker, 28 September 1974
"HI", SAID dapper Ron Mael, rummaging in his shoulder bag. "Here — a present we brought back from Hamburg. It's a marzipan ham." ...
Review by Ian MacDonald, New Musical Express, 26 October 1974
PEOPLE WHOSE tastes are rooted in the Blues did not, apparently, find what Ron Mael was doing with rock on Kimono My House either interesting ...
Sparks: Hometown Heroes At Last
Interview by Harvey Kubernik, Melody Maker, 2 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 ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 9 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 ...
Review by Alan Betrock, Phonograph Record, 1 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', ...
Report and Interview by Max Bell, New Musical Express, 21 December 1974
CONTRARY to popular belief, Santa Claus – alias Saint Nicholas – is alive and well and living in Amsterdam. ...
Island Records: Treasure Island
Profile by Lenny Kaye, Hit Parader, January 1975
GIVEN THE commercial restrictions of the business we call music, it is the rare record company that is willing to lay itself on the line ...
Profile and Interview by Richard Cromelin, Rolling Stone, 30 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 ...
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, 24 April 1975
ON THEIR NOW obscure Warner Bros.' albums Sparks's intriguing lyrics and immaculate conceptions were undermined by inadequate musical constructions. ...
Review by Chas de Whalley, New Musical Express, 11 October 1975
OKAY, SO YOU'VE heard it all before: ...
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, 30 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: No. 1 In Heaven (Virgin)
Review by Ian Penman, New Musical Express, 17 March 1979
COME OUT, come out wherever you are! It safe now! Those critics'll love yez all again! ...
Sparks: Too Much Too Soon Again
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, 7 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, 9 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Interview by Mark Leviton, BAM, 8 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 ...
Interview by J. Kordosh, Creem, October 1983
YES, THEY still look strange. In 1977, Robert Hull said "Sparks is just plain weird," but I believe he was referring to their music as ...
Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, December 1997
Dynamic duo revamp their quirky oevre with wit and irony ...
Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, October 2000
FIRST ALL-NEW flurry since 1994's Gratuitous Sax And Senseless Violins ...
Review and Interview by Ian MacDonald, Uncut, November 2002
THIS IS SPARKS' 19th album, the follow-up proper to 1994's Gratuitous Sax..., and one might be forgiven for saying "So what?", since their work after ...
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 ...
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, The Times, 11 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 ...
Interview by Johnny Black, MOJO, September 2006
Ex-child models at war with pop convention, the siblings of Sparks are bloodied but unbowed. But what underpins their ever-baroque edifice? Brotherly love? "We don't ...
Live Review by Tim Cooper, The Independent, 5 October 2006
MORE THAN three decades after their child-scaring Top of the Pops debut with 'This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us', Sparks remain one ...
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... ...
Sparks Are Getting Their Revenge on North America
Profile and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Rock's Backpages, 6 November 2013
NOTE: A different version of this story appeared at http://www.blurtonline.com. ...
Jim Sullivan's top ten albums of 2017
Review by Jim Sullivan, Cape Cod Times, 8 December 2017
"I HATE WRITING year-end top-10-best-albums lists." ...
Ron Mael discusses new Sparks album A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip…
Profile and Interview by Steven R Rosen, Rock's Backpages, 15 May 2020
… and reveals details of two upcoming movies involving the duo – an unusual musical and a long-awaited documentary. ...
see also Jet (UK)
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