SPARKS

lilywearsmoschino · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 5:00 pm Post subject:

Fab videos Lauren, thanks for putting them up on YouTube MiniPop

Here are some photos from the BBC website - great pics of R&R, I look hellish in the "audience" one!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/music/connect/2008/photos/sparks/
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PETER RAWCLIFFE · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 5:26 pm Post subject:

thanx Lauren and Lily,you looked to have got prime position there lily!!lolwhat a young audience as well,great pictures,not sure i would have got to sleep on that bed! at least the one at Shepherds Bush looked comfy,nice one.

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lilywearsmoschino · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 8:04 pm Post subject:

lilywearsmoschino · Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 8:19 pm Post subject:

cygnenoir · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 12:56 am Post subject:

Help!

Can someone please record and post the BBC interview video from this page?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/music/connect/2008/

It's not accessible to those outside of the UK. <pouts>

Bobby Muir · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 9:44 am Post subject:

What a fantastic day and an excellent festival. Mud everywhere though. Not a good day for wearing white trainers!

Good company too. I spent the day with Ally and Lilly and introduced them to the delights of Ladytron (who are Sparks fans).

Lilly cracked me up by leaving the Ladytron set before 7pm to get down the front for Sparks, who were on at 11. And Ally, a man of few (spoken) words who gets home and writes a review the length of the bible!

Then met Lauren (great to meet you wee barra) and Calum with his proud father Douglas. Respect to you for getting a 9 year old into Sparks. And he loved every minute.

Also said hello to Sin and Loreley, 2 far travelled Sparkettes. Sin admited to having an afternoon kip in her tent after being up since 3am. Met one other big red headed bloke with a Sparks t-shirt. Didn't get your name buddy but it was good to speak with you.

Highlight of the day about 8pm Ron and Russell came round to see their stage and I managed to say hello and shake my muddy hands with them both. Then later I spotted Jim, Steve and Marcus having a walk round the festival site so managed to say hello and get a blurry photo of them. Not a bad day - spoke to 5 out of 6 Sparks.

On stage Sparks were immense. As a live act they just get better and better and the crowd loved it. Worth getting home at 4am for!
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Bobby Muir · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 11:05 am Post subject:

Here's a great review from the Sunday Herald:

FRIDAY'S BANDS
SPARKS How strange that it should take the two oldest men on any of the stages today to inject Hydro Connect with the youthful energy that has sometimes been lacking on the musical front. At 58 (or as close as biographical estimates have it), Russell Mael of Sparks gives it his all in the Unknown Pleasures tent for the full hour up to midnight. He has come prepared for a festival in a humid forest setting by the side of a Scottish loch, and soon is wiping sweat mixed with midge repellent from his eyes.

Throughout the set, his elder brother Ron sits stone-faced at a bank of keyboards at the front of the stage, or wanders around, interacting with the background projections, unsettling the audience with his unblinking stare. With his trousers hitched too high and his disapproving mouth drawn in tight, he's the most frightening maths teacher you never had. Like Bez of Happy Mondays, he can become the band's sole focal point even when he's contributing nothing specific to the music of the moment.

Truly, the Mael brothers are the Gilbert and George of pop music. They deliver the highlight show of day one, a theatrical slice of performance art that's crammed with fabulous musical hooks. Most of the crowd doesn't recognise the majority of songs that make up the set, but they're transfixed by every single note. When Sparks do play a big hit - This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us or a high-energy version of Number One Song All Over Heaven - it's as if the three decades between the songs' creation and their performance tonight have evaporated; they're fresh, vital and utterly brilliant.

It would be impossible to describe what Sparks sound like to anyone who hasn't heard them before. They're Sparks crossed with Sparks, with a bit of Sparks thrown in for good measure. Russell Mael's voice soars up and down into falsetto register with the smooth ease of a kid on a playpark swing, while his backing band skip from Weimar cabaret to 1970s disco to thrash metal in the blink of an eye. Strange Animal, second song in, is magnificent, with its spooky film backdrops of black-and-white tree-lined avenues and Nosferatu shadows. But it's Dick Around that has become the anthem of the day: "The sun goes up/The moon goes down/And all I do is dick around" - a festival itinerary for each and every one of us.
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lilywearsmoschino · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 2:16 pm Post subject:

Alex Robertson · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 2:24 pm Post subject:

God it all sounds so great,cracking pics too...damn pity I couldn't make it.
@ Lilly.....Pear cider?? for shame....lol

sparksfanlm · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 2:40 pm Post subject:

sparksfanlm · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 2:48 pm Post subject:

sparksfanlm · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 2:58 pm Post subject:

Alex Robertson · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 3:07 pm Post subject:

There was a sale on at the Bed Warehouse the weekend before too...
could've got a sealy posturepedic with memory foam mattress for only £399....YES...£399

jill · Sub-Deity Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 1281

PETER RAWCLIFFE · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 4:51 pm Post subject:

Jill,its a 9 minute interview,but ithink you would know most of what was discussed,they was asked about finitribe and how that came about in 1994 as finnitribe were a Scottish band,They was asked again about `will there be a collaboration with franz ferdinand` which still had the same answer as two years ago (they dont know,but they would be up for it),I didnt think the interviewer was very good to be honest,It is a shame its only available to the uk as there is a great page that is being updated with bits from all the bands,just hoping a bit of Sparks live stuff will be put on now.As i say though Jill its all stuff you would already know that was discussed.It looked like a little portacabin they were filmed in,Ithink they interviewed all the artists in it..Hope that helped a bit Jill.
MiniPop

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jill · Sub-Deity Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 1281

Of course it helped, thank you, Peter!
Was Ron wearing the same tie with little guitars on it? :)

Here's a snippet of Dick Around - The Sparks (=from someone who probably was seeing them for the first time - that's good...)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SPMXIAFQOE
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lilywearsmoschino · Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 6:20 pm Post subject:

Can't see a way of downloading/saving the interview. Tried to download it onto RealPlayer but wouldn't work! Here's a screen capture from the interview - don't ask me how I did it

Will try and do a transcript later. MiniPop

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jill · Sub-Deity Joined: 18 Jun 2008 Posts: 1281

You rock :)
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