SPARKS

[MarkRae]

Note from MrDemotime: The set list was removed in order to keep some surprises for tonight's concert. (Despite the spoiler alert.) You may post it again after Saturday's concert.

[Pim Derks]

Just got back to my hotel. Kinda share your feelings. It was still a great gig, but especially the 2nd half reminded me a bit too much of 2h1m. Great to finally hear Change live though! Hope we'll see more of a regular band performance again soon.

[MarkRae]

No doubting the reaction of the audience, though, and there'll be no-one more delighted than me to be in the minority!

And, contrary to fears on other posts, it was pretty much packed!

[Sparky Rickmaniac]

I couldn't disagree more, the arrangements were superb, R&R more subdued on stage than usual, but that's the discipline of working with "proper" musicians.
The version of No 1 song will live with me forever

Supping wine in aldgate Travelodge at mo
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[Sigita]

I am blown away, it was amazing! I cried a little during Change, No1 and Pulling Rabbits Out Of The Hat and several others... Magic. How can they sound so great as a duo, as a rock band, or like tonight, with an orchestra - nobody else can do that!


Wonderful, wonderful evening.

P.S. Am I the only one to think that Equator in this format sounds very sensual, even sexy? :)
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[aussie]

[lazysunbathers]

I have to disagree with the OP - this was BY FAR one of the best Sparks gigs EVER EVER EVER, and I've been seeing them live since 1994. For me, this was right up there with the first five shows at at 21x21. The orchestral arrangements were achingly good (far better than anything on Plagiarism) - Kimono sounded both familar and fresh, culminating in a DEFINITIVE version of 'Equator' which threatened never to end as the audience refused to stop singing along once Russell had encouraged them to join in. I was alternating between a big soppy grin and tears - this was absolutely the accolade Ron's songs have always deserved (even the man himself was frequently beaming throughout Kimono). The second half was just as strong with an eclectic mix of songs, but the post-Kimono highlights were undoubtedly Looks, Looks, Looks (just as it was meant to be played - and then some!) and The Number 1 Song In Heaven which was simply sublime. These arrangements NEED to be recorded for posterity, but obviously it's not the kind of record R&R can make in their own studio. Maybe it's the kind of thing that a Kickstarter project could finance...?

Does anyone know what the (silent movie? cinema organ?) music was that played during the interval?

[allydodd]

Lazysunbathers you are sooooo right!!

Highlight of the year was last night. And, yes it goes down as one of the great Sparks concerts. No other band has treated their fans as much as Sparks with those exhausting but energy packed 21x21 shows. Playing so many albums to suit every fan's diverse interest is an act of individual enormity that dwarves every initiative by anyone else. But this, last night, was something special. My ears are still in heaven.

The arrangements were truly wonderful but had real edge. They sprung from rumbling dark to lulling to fantastical. Sparks are very film orientated, inspired, and see their music emerging visually. Amazingly to their countless lyric devotees, the quirky poetry flows the great music. Heartening it was to hear that film producers were somewhere in the audience. How awesome were the Excerpts from the Seduction of Ingmar Bergman? The music had a fresh orchestral gusto.

Here in Heaven was as stirring as bits of Ralph Vaughan Williams' Sea Symphony.

Kimono My House has songs that are impossible to sing for tuneful blokes at the height of youth. Yet, evergreen Russell always manages to bring out the suspense of pieces that burst forth on a startled audience forty years ago.

And, yes, the stage persona of R&R, (famously never far from the mischievous), was more subdued. Respectful of the professionalism of the superb orchestral players, they obviously were.

Yes, the music is just TOO GOOD not to be recorded. Thank God Its Not Christmas was finally turned into a glorious Christmas tune, sending shivers down the spine, melting eyes into tears. Such a format seems irresistable for releasing. Ten years after Kimono, Queen who were known to actively take note of Sparks' act, brought out Thank God Its Christmas. Uncanny? I loveD Queen, and truly believe they deserved their stratospheric success. However, the influences of Sparks can be spotted. Sparks are greatest band ever!

Equator, as speculated in my wee poll, was going to sound superb. Rich tones of a sax, not overpowering but with slinking sensitivity, made it especially enchanting. By then, the audience was in the palm of Russell's hand, engaging a singalong endless and overwhelmingly feminine.

Russell paying tribute to the musicians who had played on the original album: Martin Gordon, Adrian Fisher and the great Dinky Diamond, struck a particularly resonant note with all the fans regardless of age.

Russell seemed more relaxed in the second half, perhaps assured by the rousing reception - standing ovation no less - of the audience at the interval.

Throughout the concert, I homed into sounds from particular musicians, whether brass, woodwind or the carefully co-ordinated strings. Percussion was brilliantly booming at times then divinely delicate; one player seemed to be rushing from one instrument to another at one point.

The second set-list reflected forty years of genre defining or defying songs that just HAD to receive the orchestral treatment. Subconsciously or maybe even consciously, rather a lot of us have been longing for Sparks' work to be delivered by the most magnificent mechanism of music that is an orchestra.

Thank you Ron, Russell and all your collaborators for an evening I hope never to forget. See you tonight.

[dinky]

Magnificent performance, suspect Russell was struggling a little bit healthwise, not that you'd have heard it in his vocals.

Orchestra was wonderful,but if the mood will allow just one dissent,Thank God It's Not Christmas was done way too fast and Dick Around which already sounded like a 78 rpm, was so fast as to be almost inaudible

Nitpickings from an otherwise flawless night

[Spyke]

That's a very well written and heartfelt review, Allydod. Thanks for posting it!
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"but we can hear what others can't hear..."

[Alex Robertson]

A truly incredible show....and I'd like to add my request to the others asking that we have this out on CD...like yesterday!!!

[lazysunbathers]

No Alex, not another live CD - these orchestrations deserve a proper studio recording!

All day I've been fantasising about other songs from Sparks' vast catalogue that I'd love to hear orchestrated by Nathan Kelly:

Tearing The Place Apart
Goofing Off
You've Got A Hold Of My Heart
Miss The Start, Miss The End
Tits
Moon Over Kentucky
Fa-La, Fa-Lee
Arts and Crafts Spectacular
Alabamy Right
Change
I Married Myself
Now That I Own The BBC
Let's Go Surfing
Big Bands
Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth
Don't Leave Me Alone With Her
Something For The Girl With Everything
Sherlock Holmes
Popularity
Suburban Homeboy

a 2CD set featuring Kimono My House, plus Looks Looks Looks, The Number 1 Song In Heaven and as many of the above as would fill up both CDs. A man can dream...

[deadcalm]

Only Thing I guess that makes an Orchestral Version CD more difficult is the Royalty Issue .Ie The Cake gets Sliced a Lot. Excellent Gig Though . Enjoyed it.
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I Think that went very Well

[Kermit]

The Barbican Hall is such a great venue for concerts. The acoustics are great, the seats are comfortable and the staff always very helpful. Tonight's first blasting of the orchestrated Kimono & more being a special Xmas treat. My favourite album of all time being duly honoured. I remember hearing "This Town" on the radio when I was 14 and thinking "what the heck is that?". I'd never heard a voice like it but it was good stuff and when I saw Sparks on TOTP I knew this crazy bunch of guys was going to be my band. Sod the Pilot fans!! LOL. I'm glad I made the right choice and spotted true talent!
Every track tonight was played in a new, old orchestrated style and slightly teased with maybe an extra added or changed intro or outro. My personal favourite was definitely "Thanks God it's not Christmas" with the added sleigh bells and tubular bells. Turning the once very un-Christmas song into a proper Christmas belter! A touch the re-release for this years Xmas single could have benefited from. "Amateur Hour" & "Complaints" were the other two best worked songs IMO. The songs sounded the same yet weren't at all!! It was such a stark difference though going back to the 21 in 2008 where the whole audience were singing along to every song, note & word perfect too. It was hard to imagine that happening tonight with such a diverse audience. Getting the Barbican audience to sing "Equator" was more difficult tonight than in Islington where they just wouldn't stop and tore the roof off! Yes it would be great to have a proper studio recording of the album, as many have said, as it did make for a truly different experience. If not, it was a truly memorable night non the less. What for the 50th anniversary?......maybe a totally Moroder-esque electronic version of it!! I've heard various dance versions of "This Town" over the years so why not? (even though we might be dancing in our bath chairs by then!!)
The second half was as much fun as the first but went by far too quickly. "Looks, Looks, Looks" & "Get In The Swing" lending themselves perfectly to the sound of course and for me "Let The Monkey Drive" & "Pulling Rabbits Out Of A Hat" being it's highlights. (30th Anniv of that Rabbits LP too)! "My Way" being included, a possible nod to the 20th anniv of GS&SV. So much to celebrate! Nothing from "Propaganda" though, also 40 years old, which was a surprise. My only complaint was having "Change" as the only encore which we have heard many times before stripped down and to me a bit of an anti climax. I would have much rather loved a good horned up sing-a-long "Suburban Homeboy" to finish off with. That would have left us all singing down the street in a jolly Christmas stylee. It was quite delightful to see Ron positively beaming from ear to ear at the end's bows, not something us Sparks fans get to see that often!
All in all though a fabulous night not just for yet another brilliant Sparks gig but also great to see so many faces from the old 21 crowd again. Some making journeys across the seas once more for the weekend's performances! It was wonderful to see you all!! It's so nice to see that those friendships made back then are still going strong. I'm very proud that I had a small hand in getting you all together and for spending the best month of my life with me! (You know who you are!)
Merry Christmas to Sparks, Sparks management and fans everywhere. I'm sure 2015 is going to be very interesting indeed!!

[unprinted]

There have been some very poor orchestral versions of pop hits over the years, but these were great.

A number of things happening since the summer did make me wonder about selling my second row ticket, but I am so glad that I did not. As it turned out, I was immediately in front of Russell. This meant not seeing Ron when he was at the piano, but I could practically count Russell's eyebrow hairs!

The sound there wasn't quite balanced - being at the front meant the orchestra was louder than I suspect it would have been for most of the hall, so the vocals made up less of the sound mix than normal, but you could hear almost every word.

There were plenty of mics around the orchestra, so who knows what will happen with a live album? It deserves one, because so many of the tracks worked extremely well. It was very interesting to see which ones were the most work for the orchestra too, with some very impressive finger movements from the cellists in some of them.

Are the two geishas (second row centre) here? Or the pair who turned up in the second half of KMH because they expected there to be a support band and Sparks to start rather later than 7:30? But even they thought they'd had their money's worth at the end...

[Alex Robertson]

[aussie]

some great clips of the shows on youtube
I enjoyed watching from the land of oz,
thank you
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I HAVE WON LOTTO [again]

[Sparky Rickmaniac]

Great review, as always, Ally, thanks also to Kermit.
I too thought dick around was taken at too fast a lick, but that would be my only quibble.
Russell's singing voice sounded as good as ever but he sounded a bit rough on the little he said so I'm guessing he has some health issue too

On a sartorial note, R&R entered from opposite sides of the stage wearing kimonos, Ron kept his silver one on for all of the first half, Russell quickly disposed of his to reveal a longer length mandarin collared black shirt, what looked like the mid-calf trousers he wore for the THOM gigs, teamed with black leggings and PE pumps. Second half he added a shorter length boxy black jacket and Ron was in traditional white shirt, tie and smart trousers. The orchestra were in all black throughout.
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[Eric Murray]

Surely the concert of the year

How about a Saturday night TV program " An evening with Sparks performing Kimono"

The British public do not know what they are missing

[Billy Stevens]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pah3mMxFffI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vomilJDszWY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmgrswxITSo
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Don't let it get me!