Talent Is an Asset- The Story of Sparks

by Daryl Easlea

  With the album’s critical support and its encouraging sales, Gut gave the green light to release another single. Great expectations were held for ‘Dick Around’, released as a double A side with ‘Waterproof’, which in itself suggests that there was possibly some initial reservations about putting a single out with the word ‘dick’ in the title. Ron and Russell admitted to Mojo’s Johnny Black that they were hoping for a chart position. “In our minds, that’s the perfect hit single. We’re still optimistic and we believe a song like that, in its spirit and sensibility, has the same thing that ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us’ had in 1974. It should be a hit here and we’ll be very disappointed if it isn’t.” The Gay Times called ‘Dick Around’, “Philip Glass played by A Night At The Opera-era Queen. No, really.”

  The Maels appeared on BBC Radio London’s Breakfast Show on September 25, but the station refused to play the single, allegedly objecting to the title. This, of course, gave the brothers and the promotional machine an opportunity for a bit of old-fashioned smoke and mirrors. “The BBC has officially killed off our new single ‘Dick Around’,” a press release said, “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.”

  That the record may not have been commercial enough to the ears of the 2006 programmers was neither here nor there; here was an old-fashioned piece of hokum, straight from the Joseph Fleury stable.

  Sue Harris is still furious. “It was ridiculous. We were promoting the single and then they said we’ll have to play the previous single, ‘Perfume’. We were told it was because of the word ‘dick’. Then the presenter realised what was going on so it became this farcical conversation about how many times can they all say ‘dick’. It’s not about a penis; it’s about a guy fooling around. It was embarrassing. Don’t ask an internationally respected pair of musicians to come on a show and then insult them.”

  That said, it’s no wonder that the remaining stiff-shirted BBC types may have been a little suspicious of a track from a record that makes a pun regarding ‘invading your country’ and from a group whose 2000 album was called Balls. Despite all this and predictable strap-lines in papers such as The Glasgow Extra (“Sparks fly after Beeb ban new single”), the single could not manage to make it into the Top 75.

  It did, however, conclude a year that saw not only Hello Young Lovers make it to number 48 in the Mojo year-end polls, but the group’s profile remained steady, with the Motown compilation and, in November, Universal Music Catalogue’s release of superior ‘21st Century Editions’ of their four Island albums. All had bonus material, essays by four sympathetic writers and memorabilia supplied by Sparks authority Auke Lenstra. All sold well, in the (chronological) order one would expect. The inner trays all advertised Hello Young Lovers, indicating that Sparks were still very much about the present.

  At the start of 2007, another singer clearly influenced by Sparks appeared on the UK scene. Mika, a stunningly good-looking chap of Israeli descent, not only sounded like a hybrid of Russell and Freddie Mercury but, visually, he resembled Russell as well. While he was at the top of the charts, it was all good for business sending people back to Sparks’ catalogue, most of which was now available on iTunes.

  As the band completed their Hello Young Lovers touring commitments, Ron and Russell returned to Russell’s studio to start work on the next Sparks album. On January 20, 2007 BBC Radio 2 presented an hour-long documentary, This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us — The Story Of Sparks, hosted by Mark Radcliffe with a variety of contributors from Giorgio Moroder to Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand.

  Russell took a break from recording to make a rare solo performance on September 21, 2007, when he played in Milan on a bill alongside Jarvis Cocker, Beth Orton, Peter Murphy and Alex Chilton — supported by the band Baby Lemonade and augmented by the London Sinfonietta. The concert, It Was 40 Years Ago Today, was a birthday tribute to The Beatles’ Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Russell sang ‘When I’m 64’. The year closed with the November release of Dee Vee Dee, an enthralling visual souvenir of the group’s September 30, 2006 gig at the Kentish Town Forum.

  Hello Young Lovers had been another successful campaign, and for the first time opportunities were not missed in following up a key album. Writing in The Times back in early 2006 David Sinclair had said that “the recent revival of ‘This Town…’ by Justin Hawkins of The Darkness, under the alias British Whale, has doubtless jogged a few memories while an efficient PR campaign seems to have done the rest — although the album’s entry into the chart at No.66 was something of a reality check after all the flattering profiles and glowing reviews.”

  At least it got into the chart, however — the first Sparks album to get a chart placing since No. 1 In Heaven, and that was approaching 30 years ago. The great thing with Hello Young Lovers was that they had actually built on the success of a preceding album, and for the first time since Kimono My House, it actually sold more than its predecessor.

  This was due in large part to a combination of Ron and Russell making some of the best music of their career and Sue Harris’ management and promotion skills.*

  Sue Harris: “They’re the genius. It’s my job to help communicate that to the world. Sometimes, as with great art, it doesn’t happen immediately — Sparks simply don’t make the musical equivalent of Athena posters that will paper everyone’s walls. They make great art that is extraordinary. And sometimes it’s going to be more eagerly received and sometimes you are going to have to make a louder noise to get people to pay attention to it.”

  * Hello Young Lovers was the first Sparks album to be released solely under the wing of Republic Media.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “A toe-tapping, rib-tickling delight” 21 Nights and Exotic Creatures Of The Deep

  “It became worldwide news — no one had ever done anything like that before.”

  Sue Harris 2009

  After Gut Records folded, Sue Harris, as an unstinting champion of Sparks, went around the UK record labels with their new album to find another deal. “I heard Exotic Creatures Of The Deep, like Hello Young Lovers, when it was all done, mixed and mastered,” said Harris. “I don’t need to see the ultrascans of a baby — give me the finished child and I’ll proudly show the world the most beautiful baby. How do we get attention, that was the big question? With Hello Young Lovers it was a matter of what labels do we talk to, with Exotic Creatures Of The Deep, it soon became a case of ‘Shall we do this ourselves?’ It’s the industry discussion — you might get some better short-term results to give it to a label, but the long-term results will be better on your own. It’s fabulous to have the might of a major, but it may come with a sting in its tail.”

  That said, Exotic Creatures Of The Deep was seriously considered by the tailor-made Universal Music Catalogue label, W14. Label MD and industry veteran John Williams saw the synergy between Sparks and some of his other roster, most notably original fan Siouxsie Sioux, who had recently struck out on a solo path. After serious and protracted discussions, the deal was not to be. Again, the band decided to release Exotic Creatures Of The Deep through their own Lil’ Beethoven imprint. However, the album, scheduled for a May release, wasn’t just issued; it positively shot into orbit thanks to the marketing strategy devised to promote not just the group’s new album, but their entire career.

  The idea — more like an event and a half — came out of a summer 2007 brainstorming session in Moscow.

  Sue Harris: “We were in Russia and we’d just finished a show and we were talking about how to promote Exotic Creatures Of The Deep. Having just worked on the run of dates supporting Hello Young Lovers and presenting it in its entirety with a supporting greatest hits set, the crew and I started talking about what we could
do logistically to present the new album in a live setting.”

  For an act with longevity but without stellar record sales to generate huge budgets, it was a case of getting maximum attention for a modest outlay. “We were saying that you can’t just keep playing the new album and some hits,” Harris continues, “but what if you take it to the next level and just play all the albums in their entirety? Everyone laughed. Ron and Russell don’t just sit and stare back at their career and pat themselves on the back. They are always looking forward — they are not a retrospective band at all. The thought of them going on a ‘Here And Now’ tour; you simply couldn’t imagine anything further from what they represent. The concept of revisiting the past has always been alien to them. So the idea of playing the whole catalogue — is it completely preposterous or is there some kernel of feasibility in there? I put the idea to Russell, and he chuckled.”

  After Russell passed it by Ron they thought the idea through. If something this audacious could be done to promote the new album, then it could be a fascinating proposition. “It was almost the scale of it that made it appealing, which gave them a reason to do it,” Harris adds.

  Ron and Russell got in touch with the band. They knew that if they were to pull off such a bold feat, they would need a great deal of loyalty and time from the players. They were aware that because of various commitments, Dean Menta wouldn’t be able to do it, and Tammy Glover could only play certain shows. They also found that due to Redd Kross’ tour dates, Steve McDonald could only make the early shows. Jim Wilson, fan-turned-guitarist, takes up the story.

  “When Russell told me about it I thought that it was never going to happen. I just couldn’t see myself in a room with Ron going over ‘Whippings And Apologies’. I had mentioned to Ron and Russell that Marcus [Blake] could play the other nights if they needed a bass player. Marcus came down and played Introducing Sparks, which was the first one that Steve couldn’t do. We played’A Big Surprise’. Marcus and I were doing the background harmony vocals with Russell” Blake was in, playing every show in a utility role, either on bass, guitar or singing harmonies.

  London, the city that had been so receptive to Sparks over the years, seemed the most suitable venue for this undertaking. Harris spoke with the band’s agent, Dan Silver, at Value Added Talent, who then talked to the Academy group. The 800-capacity Islington Academy, a perfectly sized venue in the area’s N1 shopping precinct, was ideal to play the 20 albums, while the magnificent 2,000-seat Empire Theatre overlooking Shepherd’s Bush Green in West London, just around the corner from where the band recorded Indiscreet, was the choice to premiere Exotic Creatures Of The Deep.

  The shows were booked in blocks of threes and twos to give the band a chance to rest. Each Sparks album would be performed in its entirety, adding in a period B-side or rarity as an encore. The first in the run was due to begin on May 16, before climaxing with the live unveiling of Exotic Creatures Of The Deep on June 13, 2008.

  ‘21 Nights’ — or ‘The Sparks Spectacular’ as it became known — was announced on November 28, 2007. For £350, there was a golden ticket, granting admission to all 21 shows as well as a poster and a CD single with a specially written track, ‘Islington’. “We will be performing all 21 of our albums, which will mean a grand total of over 250 songs or 4,825,273 notes,” Russell announced. “We counted twice just to make sure,” added Ron.

  “It became worldwide news,” Harris said, “no one had ever done anything like that before.”

  The band began a strict regimen of practice. “They finished the album completely in the second week of January 2008 and then the next day started work on rehearsals,” says Harris. “And then, they rehearsed for four months pretty constantly. The musicians were amazing — they weren’t on the records, yet they embraced the challenge enthusiastically. They pulled the old albums apart and then put them all together again.”

  Wilson and Blake had a reputation for being hard-working, straight players — just like their bosses: “That’s why they hired us to do the job,” Blake, who has been friends with Wilson since the age of nine, says. “There are no drugs involved or anything like that, we’re always on time and we do the job as best we can. If they want us in the studio at a certain time or on stage at eight, then we’ll be there. We learnt all about professionalism early on from when we played with Henry Rollins. It was a good preparation for Sparks. It was an incredible experience. We were such big fans of their music to begin with; we wanted to treat the music with respect. So we rehearsed our butts off and I hope it showed.”

  Wilson found the first two albums the most unusual to come to terms with: “They were the craziest. Earle and Jim Mankey obviously grew up together, so it wasn’t like session guys where you had to learn what kind of style they’re playing. They were making up their own shit, so those songs were really unconventional and quirky. I spent hours trying to get the guitar right at the beginning of ‘Nothing Is Sacred’. The first two albums were pretty hard to do together… we did it, though.”

  Drummer Steven Nistor agrees that the early material was the most interesting: “‘The Louvre’ from A Woofer In Tweeter’s Clothing for me was my favourite from the process and the most difficult to learn. I couldn’t get that song out of my head the entire four months we rehearsed for the ‘21 Nights’ run.”

  Unlike Wilson and Blake, Nistor did not have an intimate knowledge of Sparks’ repertoire. “I’m embarrassed to say that I only had Kimono My House and the Mael Intuition collection, so I had a surface knowledge of their catalogue,” he says, laughing. “My love for it grew through being part of their rehearsal process, for the 21 Nights run in London.” Nistor was to play on all but one of the nights; Balls featured Tammy Glover playing alone. On Lil’ Beethoven and Hello Young Lovers Nistor played percussion.

  Steven Nistor: “The sheer volume of the catalogue alone kept me awake for many a night. We’re talking upward of 270 songs, so that was very intimidating. For me, there were also some technical challenges. I wanted to go above and beyond and be able to electronically trigger some of the signature sound effects live to make the performances sparkle. Like the gong hit you hear at the beginning of ‘Falling In Love With Myself Again’. Triggering became essential with the records of the late Seventies and Eighties. I was triggering everything from the maracas on ‘A Big Surprise’ to the electro toms on ‘Tryouts For The Human Race’ to the crushing of the soda cans on the intro to ‘All You Ever Think About Is Sex’. It was quite an undertaking.”

  Nistor was well aware of fans’ love for former occupants of the Sparks drum-stool (“Sparks has had so many great drummers, so for me, at least academically, it has been a fantastic education to try and get inside the heads of ‘Dinky’ Diamond, Hilly ‘Boy’ Michaels or David Kendrick”) and of following Tammy Glover, one of Sparks’ most popular ever members. “It’s tricky. We’re totally different drummers. In a way, she reminds me of Larry Mullen Jr. from U2. They’re both from a snare drum background, almost a marching kind of style. I’m from a jazz background, so it took a little while for me to adapt the drum parts from Hello Young Lovers to my playing. But that also worked to my advantage, as was the case with ‘Perfume’.”

  As the first date got nearer, the whole thing then became an interactive circus, masterminded by Ron and Russell and Sue Harris, who had become Joseph Fleury and John Hewlett rolled into one. With each album being little more than an hour long, a support act would be needed. Requests went out on the allsparks.com site, which became a story in itself. Groups such as The Rumble Strips, The Young Knives, beat merchant Dan Le Sac with the Essex Gil Scott Heron, Scroobius Pip, and The Electric Soft Parade were found. Harris and her assistant Lucy Wigginton also drummed up the fan base to the band’s advantage — a street team was put together of fans working to promote the shows.

  There was a full-on media onslaught — radio and TV coverage, as well as a gallery show of Sparks’ photographs on London’s Brick Lane. Not every story was quick to acknowledge t
he graft involved in such an ambitious undertaking. The Guardian Guide showed its customary wit in May 2008: “This month, [Sparks] are playing all their albums live over 21 nights, a great conceit, though any right-thinking person would take a mini-break in Guantanamo Bay rather than going the whole distance.” It showed that, like their first UK press feature all those years ago that Roy Silver had to smooth over, Sparks were at least getting the column inches.

  Arriving in London, Ron and Russell went on BBC’s The Culture Show. “We were looking for some conceptual way to put some focus on the [new] album and so we thought what is it that Sparks can do that probably no other band in their right mind would want to undertake, and that was to do live in concert all the 20 albums that led up to the 21st,” Russell told hostess Lauren Laverne. “From song number one to song number 256. It was like going back to being a cover band doing Sparks songs.” It was almost as if it had to keep being said out loud just to believe it was really happening.

  While the brothers resided at their usual Kensington hotel, the band found some rooms in Islington.

  Jim Wilson: “It was down the street from the venue. The band got to stay in a house. We each had our own room. It was like The Monkees. Get up in the morning and someone’s making breakfast. It was pretty cool.” The band had a whale of a time on their occasional rest days. Wilson went back to the States with 60 vinyl albums bought from second-hand shops in the area — pride of place was the UK pressing of Sparks’ first album. One dealer was a huge fan and attended all of the shows.

  There was little partying; the band were focused solely on the work, and the brothers often shunned any after show activity and took to wearing surgical masks to keep potential germs at bay.

  Jim Wilson: “We had to finish a show and go to bed because we were very tired. We couldn’t stay up and party, because we had to do this again tomorrow. You can’t pose through it, you’re dependent on it. We’d go to bed and then next day, I’d wake up and go to Starbucks listening to the album that I had to play that day on my iPod.”