Sparks Spectacular: Plagiarism (1997)

By Michael Pearson

It’s 8 p.m. on the seventh of June and I’m sitting in a bar just across the road from the Carling Academy in Islington. Sparks are due on stage in little under half an hour but I’m perfectly relaxed. I had chosen tonight’s album—Plagiarism—partly because being the money-conscious person I am it is amongst the lengthiest of Sparks’ canon, but also because I was sure there would not be too many people there. On entering the venue I immediately see how wrong I had been. The place is almost packed and the best spot I can get is standing right next to the bar.

Plagiarism of course, is Sparks’ reworking of several of their older songs, be it slowing them down, speeding them up, or adding strings. The additional musicians for tonight’s show enter the stage and sit there somewhat embarrassed for what seems an age before they are joined by the Mael brothers and their supporting band. Launching into “Pulling Rabbits out of a Hat” it is immediately evident that the whole band is again relaxed and confident. Everything works beautifully: the techno-thrash of “Angst in my Pants,” the beguiling strings of “Something for the Girl with Everything,” and the extended “Propaganda” after which Russell is visibly delighted to have got through word- and note-perfect.

About half-way through the show I look up at the balcony and spot a diminutive figure dancing away and clearly having a whale of a time. It looks like. . . Could it be? Indeed it could. Shortly before the end of the show the figure is no longer there but it reappears on stage in the guise of Jimmy Somerville, performing a wondrous duet with Russell on “Number One Song in Heaven.” In time to the words, “Written of course by the mightiest hand,” Jimmy falls to his knees and bows to Ron. Amen to that!

The following review was originally published on Cult TV and is being used here with the kind permission of the author and publication.

By Alex J. Geairns

2008 seems to be fast becoming one of those years where I get to revisit previous parts of my life with a new 21st Century perspective. And the lovely thing about it is that in almost all cases it wasn’t a case that the stuff that meant something to me all those years ago was a victim of rose-tinted spectacles. The return gigs have reminded me exactly WHY I was fired up about them all those years ago, and that I was right to hold them in such esteem to do this day.

Read the rest at Cult TV.