Some short gig reviews

I'm a busy man so I don't have time to review every concert I go to in great depth, but maybe if I throw together several unsatisfying short reviews (with pictures I took myself) they will add up to one semi-satisfying big thing.

Sparks (Vicar Street)

I took no pictures of the popular Mael Brothers, whose concert I was only able to see because Covid struck down successive owners of a ticket. "So May We Start" from Annette makes for a great opener, while the best songs of the night were either "The Number One Song in Heaven" or "This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us", the latter very much gaining form having a full band performing it (last time I saw Sparks it was just Ronald and Russell).

Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets (Convention Centre Dublin)

It was great being back for the first time since Worldcon. This saw early Pink Floyd tunes played by Nick Mason (as you know, drummer and founding member of Pink Floyd) and some of his musical buds (Guy Pratt, Gary Kemp, Lee Harris, and Dom Beken). The setlist featured songs from early singles and1967's Piper at the Gates of Dawn up to 1972's Obscured by Clouds. Like proper oldarse musicians they took a break in the middle of the concert, with things really ramping up in the second half as they opened with the double whammy of "Interstellar Overdrive" and "Astronomy Domine". The light show etc. was all amazing. The tunes were great too. I have a considerable fondness for Pink Floyd, but I maybe go in different directions than other people, tacking considerably towards the early stuff (Wish You Were Here is the latest I go, and I've never really warmed to Dark Side of the Moon), so the selections here were right up my alley. It is worth noting however that the music of Pink Floyd seems to have a negative effect on men's hair. And I was unfit to operate heavy machinery for a long time after the concert concluded.

Luzmira Zerpa (Cafe Oto)

She came from Venezuela to play music in Cafe Oto, which I saw with my bud Colin while I was over for that Nigel Kneale centenary thing. Everyone loved the Latin grooves of Ms Zerpa and her band, which reminded me of music I heard in Cuba for all that Venezuela is a completely different country with its own musical traditions.

Low (Vicar Street)

A date with the new crunchy music iteration of Low. Top notch stuff. I did hear the outlandish claim advanced that the bassist on this tour is one of their sons, but cursory research revealed that the bassist is in fact one Liz Draper. She acquitted herself well, though I do wonder about how many former Low bassists there now are.

More concert photos

SPARKS - live!

Oh yeah, I went to see Sparks playing in the Button Factory. Back in… October, was it? And I never got round to writing about it until now, when I have largely forgotten about it. Er, yes, who are these Sparks again? Er, they are the ones who… well there's two of them, isn't there? And they are a brother and a sister or something, only one is white and the other black? And they are from Scotland and they sing songs with strange vocal harmonies while accompanying themselves on vintage synthesisers?


Oh no wait, that is someone else. The actual Sparks you know full well are the two brothers, Ron and Russell Mael. Ron plays keyboards, Russell sings. They were very famous back in the 1970s, in Britain, when they had chart hits and would be on Top of the Pops all the time. Bouffant-haired Russell would jump around like a poor-man's Jagger, while tooth-brush moustached Ron would stand impassive behind the keyboards, leading to frightened conversations in school about that weird guy on TOTP the night before. Then they became less famous but they kept going, to undergo a bit of a revival in the 2000s as their old music became cool again and they released a couple of albums that people realised were actually very good and not just in a Bowie-style return-to-form. Thus it was that they found themselves ending a tour of Europe or somewhere in Dublin.

They were playing in the Button Factory. No support. The magic of Twitter revealed that in London the night before they had come on very early, so I cautioned all my friends to make sure they got down as soon after the doors opened as they could. We then sat around for ages waiting for Sparks to appear at the same time that bands always appear in the Button Factory.

The Maels were playing without other musicians, so their tracks had a fairly stripped down musical palette. Some of the songs that would have had guitar, bass, drums and so on were now re-arranged just for piano sound-alike. Others sounded a bit more full on synthpoppy, but I think these were from some of Sparks' more synthpop-oriented records.

i.e. they did not look like this:

The concert was enjoyable, but the reduced line-up seemed to favour some songs over others. 'The Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us' seemed a bit thin without the drums and guitar kicking in after the break. On the other hand, other tunes seemed to be perfectly acceptable with the smaller line up, particularly the ones I was hearing for the first time. My beloved reckoned I was just not missing elements that were on records I had not heard.

I reckon there were two highlights to this set. First of all, there was the excerpt from Sparks' bizarre opera about a fictional visit to Hollywood by Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish film director. Then there was the even more bizarre bit where the Maels swapped places. Russell took over the keyboards (now largely programmed to stop him fucking them up) and Ron came centre stage, not to sing but to dance! He proves to be a surprisingly groovy mover and still looks like a dapper lunatic.

Apparently this was their first time playing in Dublin. I hope that one day they will return.

The Brothers Mael

Black and white band image

Sparks "Exotic Creatures of the Deep" [2008]

This is an album by Sparks. I bought this at their recent live appearance in Dublin, partly at random and partly because it has the track 'Lighten Up, Morrissey' on it. A friend who likes Sparks recommended it, but then he recommends almost all Sparks albums.

I think of Sparks has having two periods - Classic Sparks (the time when they used to appear on Top of the Pops when I was small) and Recent Sparks (anything from the last ten years or so). The stretch of time between these two periods is disturbing and interstitial. Exotic Creatures of the Deep is from the second period. It is the album that comes after Hello Young Lovers, a record that gave them a new lease of life to people like me, establishing them as a band still making interesting music and not one trading pathetically on former glories.

The sound is a lot less rock than classic 1970s Sparks, being more based on keyboards and the mannered vocals of Russell Mael. It has three tracks that particularly stick in my memory. 'Good Morning' feels like the opening track, though it actually comes second after a short intro. The lyrics, sung largely in falsetto, are from the point of view of someone who is astonished to wake up in the morning next to someone very sexually attractive, realising that they must have engaged in unremembered drunken copulation the night before. Blimey. Then there is 'Strange Animal', which is less jaunty, featuring the very high falsetto refrain of "what strange animals we a-a-are". The overall lyrics make less impression on me, but the song drills into my subconscious.

The last of the Three Notable Tracks is the afore-mentioned 'Lighten Up Morrissey'. Lyrically it is about this guy whose girlfriend will not shag him because she is so into Morrissey, so the guy reckons that if only Morrissey would lighten up he would be able to convince the girlfriend to put out. Irene has pointed out that a problem with the song is the idea that Morrissey needs to lighten up - as the great man is well known to discerning listeners for his wry sense of humour.

Also, why would Morrissey lightening-up persuade his lady admirer to put out? Surely she would still be saving all her love for Mozz? But to me these questions are irrelevant. It is the song's jaunty sing-a-long quality ("Lighten up, Morrissee-eey! Lighten up Morrissey!") that carries it along and makes it one of my new favourite songs.

The rest of the album is arguably less memorable.

Hello, Young Lovers

image source

Sparks "Hello Young Lovers"

This is a recent album from the crazy Mael brothers. It is very lushly arranged, with loads of strings and keyboards and stuff counterpointing Russell's perhaps somewhat treated voice. On a first listen or two I was maybe a bit confused by this, but it is something of a grower. One thing I thought about it from the word go – this is not an album by a band who had a big hit 30 years ago and are now content to tread water, chase trends, or plod through rehashes of past greatness. Even if you do not like this record you will have to acknowledge that Sparks are still reaching for the prize.

I remember seeing Sparks on Top Of The Pops in the 1970s, though I did not know their name and just thought of them as that-band-with-the-weird-keyboard-player. Much later I discovered that they were the band Sparks and heard 'This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us' etc. I think it was Frank's APA Andrew bigging these guys up so much that tipped me over into buying their record (er, my beloved actually bought it, but I made her do it using my psychic powers).