SPARKS

This topic is a question in today's Thursday Quiz in the Guardian; Ron features as a possible answer in another question, so Martin Belam has spoilt us today.

TLDP played live on the Jo Whiley show (BBC Radio 2) last night. The band's reviews often mention Sparks (TLDP's debut LP is very good, by the by); their session included an energetic and faithful cov ...

I sympathize, waterloosunset. It does seem barmy. I can't say I'm a fan of RSD. I get the intent behind it - get people to go into their local record shop - but I live miles from the nearest town with ...

In truth, Oscar, it went on the pile of two dozen or so books I've yet to read! Have just dug it out to have a skim through.

139 pages, covering 15 albums - so more than the Sparks book - with som ...

Just to add to the general confusion...

I've got it ordered at my local bookshop [in the UK] and their supplier still has the publication date as 29 March. Looking at a couple of online stores, Bla ...

I think my favourite (at the minute) cover/collaboration has to be Gemma Ray's version of Eaten By the Monster of Love, which gives the song a completely different vibe. Agree with Alex about the Melu ...

And so to our final consideration?

Yonks ago I bought a cdr with the Growing Pains tracks on. There’s seven of them, and it’s a somewhat different tracklist to Steve & highersynth’s list (the l ...

Hi Oscar, I can't find where on the FanMael site I saw Ruud's reference to the article, but the newsletter's available for download on the Fan Club section of this site.

Thanks again to highersynth - as Alex says, it's been interesting - and enjoyable.

I'll lead off on Mai, then. Four tracks, with a total running time of less than ten minutes, are all we have avail ...

At least there's someone out there who recognises the importance of this anniversary - the excellent Rosalie Cunningham is doing a Kimono My House 50th tribute in Stockton on Tees on 4 May. Tempting . ...

“Those mysteries/I don't even know what I don't even know”

Not from the Nöel/Noel/Noël LP, to be sure, but it sums up something of the enigma that is this R&R project which has intrigued me for ...

“Hello, won’t you join our big show?”

A while back, Oscar said that he wished that R&R would release the demos properly. I suppose it might not only be up to them (who does own the rights – R&a ...

Thanks for the heads up, Bryan. I've had this on order from our local bookshop since early last year - the publication date keeps on being put back, goodness knows why.

“Two hands, one mouth/That’s all I need to satisfy you”

Alas, for me – no. I’m afraid that this is my least favourite Sparks album, and the concert I attended on the tour my least favourite concert ...

“Henry, Henry we’ve had enough”

I’m not at all sure where to start with Annette. With Seduction we had the radio musical in its entirety; with Annnette we have the soundtrack album (extended versio ...

“And the seduction failed/As anyone can see/They mispronounced his name ...”

For those unfamiliar with Seduction, I’d strongly recommend the excellent Wikipedia article on the project. I learnt muc ...

For those who have access to BBC Sounds, Joseph Walllace (animator for Edith Piaf & TSB) was interviewed by Sparks fan Mark Kermode on Friday evening 's Screenshots (Radio 4). Some short clips fro ...

Ron at Glasto makes the list:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2023/dec/28/2023-favourite-portraits-in-pictures

The people (well, some at least) have indeed spoken. Despite people weighing albums differently, and perhaps scoring slightly differently as they went along (I think I fall into this category) it does ...

It's just struck me that Two Hands, One Mouth should really be on the list. But I wouldn't be upset by its omission, as for me it's an album I really cannot warm to at all!