Sparks Spectacular Available For Sponsorship

Sparks Spectacular Available For Sponsorship

Sparks fans - personal and corporate – now have the chance to "own" a piece of Sparks by sponsoring one or more of the record breaking Sparks Spectacular shows.

The Sparks Spectacular is taking place in London from May 16 - June 13 and will see Sparks playing 21 albums in 21 nights. The first 20 albums, starting with the 1971 album Halfnelson and running through to 2006's Hello Young Lovers, will be performed one album per night at the Islington Academy. On June 13 Sparks will relocate to Shepherds Bush Empire for the first live performance of their new, and 21st, album.

Through a silent auction fans can get involved and show support for their band who have produced nearly four decades of groundbreaking music.

The sponsor of a show will

• Have his / her details included on the relevant page in the Spectacular programme.
• Receive two tickets for the show
• Receive a Spectacular programme signed by Sparks
• Meet Ron and Russell Mael before the show and, subsequently, receive a souvenir photograph of the sponsor with Ron and Russell.

The auction is being held on the band's website www.allsparks.com

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THE SEARCH IS ON FOR SPARKS’ SUPPORT ARTISTS

THE SEARCH IS ON FOR SPARKS' SUPPORT ARTISTS

Pop innovators Ron and Russell Mael are offering 20 bands/artists/performance artists/entertainers (new or established) 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)

Artists who would like the chance to support Sparks should upload a live performance video to youtube and send the link of the video to info@republicmedia.net with information about the artist Entrants will be added to the video channel at youtube.com/republicmedia. The successful artists will be notified no later than April 30. Artists will be responsible for their own costs

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

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Sparks official website
Category: Music

Sparks' official website has had a face lift. Check it out at www.allsparks.com

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SPARKS LIVE! SPECTACULAR – 21 ALBUMS IN 21 NIGHTS

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AMAZING SPARKS NEWS COMING SOON
Category: Music

ASTOUNDING NEWS REGARDING LIVE CONCERTS WILL BE ANNOUNCED VERY SOON. ONCE AGAIN SPARKS WILL RE-WRITE THE RULES.

PLEASE NOTE THAT FAN CLUB MEMBERS WILL HEAR ABOUT THE NEWS FIRST...AND HAVE FIRST OPTION ON TICKETS SO PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR MEMBERSHIP IS UP TO DATE AND YOUR CONTACT DETAILS ARE ACCURATE!

FAN CLUB MEMBERSHIP IS AVAILABLE FROM http://www.allsparks.com/store/

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Introducing Sparks - CD release
Category: Music

SPARKS

'Introducing Sparks'
Album Release – November 5th 2007
On Lil' Beethoven Records
www.allsparks.com

Introducing Sparks, originally released in 1977, is the seventh album by Sparks and the only one of their 20 long-players not available on CD. Until now – the duo's own label, Lil' Beethoven Records, are putting it out in November. Finally, you can hear the much-discussed but rarely heard transitional album from Ron and Russell Mael's near-40-year career.

David Bowie wasn't the only chameleonic figure in '70s rock. And so Introducing Sparks finds the Mael brothers, together with an array of top session musicians (mirroring Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan in this respect), caught between the innovative glam-prog-pop of their four early-to-mid-'70s Island albums (Kimono My House, Propaganda, Indiscreet, Big Beat) and the audacious proto-electro of their 1979 collaboration with Giorgio Moroder (No 1 In Heaven).

Introducing Sparks was their first and only album for Columbia, who pushed the boat out at the time by releasing it on red vinyl. They also spared no expense when it came to the recording, allowing or perhaps encouraging Ron and Russell to engage the cream of LA's backing singers and session guns for hire. Just as the front and back cover of the album presents our heroes as faux matinee idols, all soft focus and airbrushed perfection, so Introducing Sparks has a polished, slick, sophisticated big-budget sound that reflects the record company's desire to get the Mael's music on the radio.

Heard today, Introducing Sparks sounds less like made-for-heavy-rotation AOR and more like a comment on, or rather series of pastiches of (alright, then: acerbic attacks on) daytime US radio-fodder: imagine Randy Newman as programme controller in charge of America's airwaves for some idea of this satirical yet highly commercial meta-rock.

A Big Surprise allies Russell's quasi-operatic falsetto to classic Beach Boys harmonies while Over The Summer could be an outtake from the sessions that produced California Girls. Girls On The Brain furthers the idea of this album as a warped, late-'70s take on early-'60s summer fun and romance while Ladies namechecks everyone from Joan Of Arc to Eva Braun and the guitar solo on Goofing Off outdoes all-comers in the masturbatory '70s axeman stakes. Occupation and Forever Young have infectious melodies as well as a contaminating worldview that soon spreads throughout the rest of Introducing Sparks. Finally, Those Mysteries is a ballad that seduces as it scythes its way through the maze of modern social and sexual mores. How brilliant. How Sparks.

Introducing Sparks will be available with two catalogue numbers:

LBRCDRON – Ron Mael on front cover

LBRCDRUS – Russell Mael on front cover

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Sparks BBC Radio Documentary

BBC RADIO 2 Saturday 20 January 2007

This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us –
The Story Of Sparks
Saturday 20 January
8.00-9.00pm BBC RADIO 2



In the Seventies, Sparks crash-landed on Top Of The Pops with high-velocity operatics and deadpan derangement that caused consternation in the nation's living rooms. Presented by Sparks fan Mark Radcliffe, this documentary charts the life and times of one of rock's most enigmatic bands.



Over their 35 years together and 20 albums, Sparks – Ron and Russell Mael – have intrigued and influenced performers as diverse as Morrissey, the Ramones, Justin Hawkins of the Darkness and Franz Ferdinand.



Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos says: "We'd love to do a collaboration with Sparks at some point. We're huge fans of their albums ... they had a really oblique, dangerous attitude and they are eccentric about it."



Ron and Russell are famously private offstage but, with exclusive access to Sparks' first-ever demo and other unreleased studio and live recordings, this programme offers a closer look at their relationships and their work, with Ron talking and playing through the composition of their biggest hit, composed on a borrowed piano in a flat in Clapham.



The show also features a rare interview with reclusive disco producer Giorgio Moroder, who turned Sparks on to the emerging disco electronic sound and collaborated on their hits Beat The Clock and Number One Song In Heaven, a benchmark which gave disco a new credibility.



Presenter/Mark Radcliffe, Producer/Nick Low

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"Dick Around" on KROQ

KROQ radio, 106.7 in Los Angeles, played "Dick Around" as their Pick of The Day, on the Jed The Fish show at approximately 3:45, Tuesday , November 14. KROQ is THE most influential radio station in America, so please request the song again so that we can get it added to their playlist:
1-800-520-1067. Or fax requests to: 1-800-520-1FAX.

Let's get a hit in America with "Dick Around!!!"

4:13 PM - 14 Comments - 21 Kudos - Add Comment

BBC BANS "Dick Around"
Category: Music

TODAY THE BBC BANNED DICK AROUND.

DESPITE THE FACT THAT RON AND RUSSELL WERE INVITED INTO THE STUDIO AS GUESTS OF THE BREAKFAST SHOW ON BBC LONDON 94.9PM, THE HOST JONO COLEMAN WAS BANNED FROM PLAYING THE SINGLE DICK AROUND

JONO AND HIS CO-HOST JO GOOD WERE OBVIOUSLY EMBARRASSED - PARTICULARLY AS THEY QUITE CLEARLY KNEW THAT THE TERM MEANS WASTING TIME.

RON AND RUSSELL WERE QUITE CLEARLY ALSO EMBARRASSED BUT ALSO APPEARED TO BE INSULTED THAT THEY HAD BEEN ASKED TO 'GET UP AT 6.15AM TO COME AND BE INTERVIEWED AND THEN NOT HAVE THEIR SINGLE PLAYED' AND WHAT SHOULD (AND COULD) HAVE BEEN AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW ENDED UP BEING A 15 MINUTE DISCUSSION ABOUT THE BBC BANNING THE SONG

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SPARKS REACT TO BBC BAN

RON AND RUSSELL MAEL HAVE REACTED ANGRILY TO SPARKS' NEW SINGLE DICK AROUND BEING BANNED BY BBC

RON MAEL THIS MORNING RAGED: "THE BBC HAS OFFICIALLY KILLED OFF OUR NEW SINGLE DICK AROUND, OSTENSIBLY THROUGH RATHER CHILDISH OBJECTIONS TO THE TITLE, AN INNOCENT REFERENCE TO THE IDLE LIFE.

THAT A PIECE OF MUSIC CAN BE CONDEMNED PURELY BY ITS TITLE WITHOUT THE 'DECISION MAKERS' EVEN HAVING THE DECENCY TO OPEN THE CD CASE IS A TRAVESTY AND AN INSULT TO BOTH US AS THE CREATORS OF THE MUSIC AND TO THE LISTENERS OF THE BBC"

RUSSELL MAEL RESPONDED "THE REACTION FROM THE PUBLIC TO THIS RECORD HAS BEEN NOTHING BUT POSITIVE SO THE BBC SHOULD STOP TRYING TO BE THE MORALITY POLICE WHEN IT IS SO CLEARLY MISPLACED"

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