Playlouder - Music is the Network

And so to album 21, Exotic Creatures of the Deep. Sparks have been enjoying new success thanks to the operatic and orchestral fancies developed on their acclaimed Lil Beethoven and Hello Young Lovers albums. Exotic Creatures suffers in comparison, as it retreads some of the same territory, but it does reintroduce normal synth sounds back into the mix and if not amongst their best it does stand as a strong work that displays all the style and wit lacking in so many of their peers past and present.

The finale to their 21 night extravaganza is at Shepherds Bush, it’s a near if not a complete sell out; more Sparks fans than I’d ever seen before and more excited than I’d seen them once before this tour and the crowd wasn’t close nearly so intense. They feel this one is special; the climax, the final big blow out.

Their recent concept albums have a stylised show to go with them so it was no surprise when the curtain rose to find the band performing behind picture frames and Ron lying asleep in a bed. Angelic figures enter pushing trolleys, howling the album intro before sliding away. Then Ron springs out of bed (the first song is Good Morning) and they’re off.

The restraint on the new record becomes a real regret when compared to the big push it’s given live. The sound is bigger and bolder and the crowd are crazy for the new songs in the way they seldom are for other artists. The dancing troupe return to portray a gang of pregnant Rons for She Got Me Pregnant and then as statuesque figures for This Is The Renaissance. Only the slight glitch is the throwaway The Director Never Yelled Cut which weighs down the end of the album.

Now the encore - the fan request encore. The sound isn’t quite right when they leap into Moustache but it soon picks up. The choices didn’t seem to match the online vote results, but they did Dick Around so there were no complaints from me. And they did Goofing Off from Introducing… and the crowd went f****** nuts. It was like a compact stadium crowd in their.  

It was tiring keeping up with the applause; the Maels’ seemed unsettled at the levels of adoration, unsure how to handle such a reception. They’d run out of thank yous to give, they just seemed a little puzzled, maybe even a little smug. But for a fan it was paradise, I was in a state of exhaustion, gorged on Mael goodness. By the final stroke of This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us I had overdosed. By the time I tore my feet from the gum soaked floor I couldn’t have taken anymore. My mind was in a haze, over two hours they’d been on.

The 21 night marathon was over. Few bands would go out of there way to do something like this for their fans* and for that, and the sheer energy of their performance and their bands performance, they deserved every round of applause and every cheer they got. This night was an achievement well earned.

*An article in the Financial Times quoted their management as saying that they didn’t expect to make a profit.