Friday, September 22, 2006
All I Do Is Dick Around
Did you see SPARKS on Jonathan Ross just now? Fantastic. Here's the song they performed - a kind of ode to blogging! They then did This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Both of Us. Virtually everyone I know hates SPARKS. No accounting for taste. If SPARKS hadn't existed, there would have been no Pet Shop Boys, no Erasure.... hmmm, not making a very good case, am I? Still, I have something in common with Jeremy Vine. We both love SPARKS. I've seen them a couple of times live in London. Well worth it. No, really.
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16 comments:
One comment Iain.I have just looked at Guido on X FACTOR and HITCHENS and they are topping 200+ as well as an average of 70 for the rest. Good fun, free speech,expression of views without censorship,topical issues,red hot scoops and no reins pulled in because he is looking for a seat.
You were good before the restraint of political correctness.
Come on lets see some ummmpp in your blog.
Damn. I love Sparks. How could I miss them?
Oh, I know how: I was still recovering from having seen Lembit Opik singing and playing the harmonica on Channel 5's 'talent' show.
I thought they sounded like a cheap Queen imitation ... though both are before my time, so perhaps I'm not best qualified to comment :-)
Oh and Ian ,. please don`t ever say anything about music ever again you obviously know nothing worth knowing about it.I am going to explain to you exactly why your silly attempt to be trendy(you think) is horribly misguided later.
On this as on so much else the world must and will listen to the voice of Newmania . The word for ghastly music related gaffs by politicians could be Minger. Now it is . You are a Minger. In fact you are doubly so despite your absurdly flattering picture
Since when have I said I 'know' anything about music. I know what I like and I know what I don't like.
So you think admitting to liking Sparks is an attempt on my part to be trendy. Just about saums up how much you know about the subject too. Id quit now, if I were you.
And I deleted your previous comment for use of the C word. You now have a yellow card.
Crickey !(ok?)
Yellow card undeserved. I didn’t know there was such a rule and any way I was `quoting `a segment of the supposedly livelier Guido to show how poor the contributions were. The C word in this evidential context is an entirely different matter to my own personal use of it . I agree with the rule and have previously requested more stringent editing (of those who disagree with me) .
I withdraw the unwarranted attack on your manifest physical beauty though . Your lissom form , cascading chestnut locks and aquiline features are loved by women and envied by men . I should imagine that whilst gyrating to (ugh) erasure the effect is …um…beyond description .
…………….And another thing . I understood exactly the sort of `contemporaneity` you were aiming for with the self deprecating Sparks stuff and precisely its relevance in the Dale brands placement . It is in that sense trendy , not the sense I assume you have misconstrued.
Life may be a bit short for this , but if I mention Tony Blair’s similarly self deprecating remarks about his electric guitar perhaps the sort of disingenuous ness I am getting at is clearer .Actually I know a vast amount about music … and pretty much everything else .
Please withdraw yellow card , yellow cards are not to be wagged about this early in the match and if you do I shall dismiss the dark suspicions I have about what reason you might have for not offending that Guido rabble
XXXX
Iain, you can take comfort in a comment that was once made to me about Sparks: they'll never be popular because because they're clever and original, and so you need brains to appreciate them!
By the way, they're on 'Loose Ends' tonight, R4 1815-1900. And there may be some tickets left to see them at the Forum on Sept 30....
Thanks for this Iain,
I am among the many fans of Sparks, especially since I heard Bro.1 say of Bro.2, I paraphrase, 'the illegitimate always makes the songs so difficult to sing just to provoke me into doing better, I, of course, always do' they are fun, musically literate and willing to be subversive at one and the same time. Not people you would choose to listen to, perhaps, on a daily basis, but like Django Reinhardt, someone you must listen to if you appreciate music. I especially liked the amount of ahem, pussy in the audience, which is post-punk-ironic.
STB
p.s. call Newmania's bluff-he's on so many blogs talking more crap than me-he's almost deserving of a Fisk!
Have a nice weekend.
STB
..... is a fisk a free gift or something ?
Well, hello there, Iain. Maybe you could do something about this, as appeared in the news section of the allsparks.com web site:
BBC BAN SPARKS NewsTODAY THE BBC BANNED DICK AROUND.
DESPITE THE FACT THAT RON AND RUSSELL WERE INVITED INTO THE STUDIO AS GUESTS OF THE BREAKFAST SHOW ON BBC LONDON 94.9PM, THE HOST JONO COLEMAN WAS BANNED FROM PLAYING THE SINGLE DICK AROUND
JONO AND HIS CO-HOST JO GOOD WERE OBVIOUSLY EMBARRASSED - PARTICULARLY AS THEY QUITE CLEARLY KNEW THAT THE TERM MEANS WASTING TIME.
RON AND RUSSELL WERE QUITE CLEARLY ALSO EMBARRASSED BUT ALSO APPEARED TO BE INSULTED THAT THEY HAD BEEN ASKED TO 'GET UP AT 6.15AM TO COME AND BE INTERVIEWED AND THEN NOT HAVE THEIR SINGLE PLAYED' AND WHAT SHOULD (AND COULD) HAVE BEEN AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW ENDED UP BEING A 15 MINUTE DISCUSSION ABOUT THE BBC BANNING THE SONG
RON & RUSSELL MAEL'S REACTION:
SPARKS REACT TO BBC BAN NewsRON AND RUSSELL MAEL HAVE REACTED ANGRILY TO SPARKS' NEW SINGLE DICK AROUND BEING BANNED BY BBC
RON MAEL THIS MORNING RAGED: "THE BBC HAS OFFICIALLY KILLED OFF OUR NEW SINGLE DICK AROUND, OSTENSIBLY THROUGH RATHER CHILDISH OBJECTIONS TO THE TITLE, AN INNOCENT REFERENCE TO THE IDLE LIFE.
THAT A PIECE OF MUSIC CAN BE CONDEMNED PURELY BY ITS TITLE WITHOUT THE 'DECISION MAKERS' EVEN HAVING THE DECENCY TO OPEN THE CD CASE IS A TRAVESTY AND AN INSULT TO BOTH US AS THE CREATORS OF THE MUSIC AND TO THE LISTENERS OF THE BBC"
RUSSELL MAEL RESPONDED "THE REACTION FROM THE PUBLIC TO THIS RECORD HAS BEEN NOTHING BUT POSITIVE SO THE BCC SHOULD STOP TRYING TO BE THE MORALITY POLICE WHEN IT IS SO CLEARLY MISPLACED"
As a long-term Sparks fan, all I can say is it's an outrage!, maybe you could help spread this news.
Thank you - Poshgirl from Sparksville
Hi Iain, BBC London have now backtracked on their ban of 'Dick Around', here's their reply:
BBC LONDON REPLIES News
BBC London has replied to the numerous emails sent to the station with the following message:
"The track "Dick Around" hasn't been banned from BBC London; in fact it's already been played on other shows on the station. However, the breakfast team hadn't heard the track - because it's not a music show - and decided to err on the side of caution because of the title, and play the other side of the AA single to illustrate the interview."
Sparks management has subsquently replied thus:
"Firstly I would point out that a copy of the single and album was sent to the production team on 19th September which was more than adequate time for them to listen to the CDs
Secondly the AA side of the single was not played. Perfume was played which was released in February this year. Waterproof is the AA side.
The situation could have been handled in a much better way had the issue been raised with us last week and not on arrival at the station. Similarly the embarrassment for all concerned (including your hosts) would have greatly reduced had you played the correct AA side."
how extraordinary to judge a piece of music purely by the title on the outside of the case, rather than by the work contained within
The moral of this tale is: Never underestimate the power and strength of Spark's dedicated fan base (Even the Radio 2 message boards were closed down last night because of the weight of complaints) 'Wake up and smell the coffee BBC London breakfast team'
.....Power to the 'Sparks' people'....Yours, Poshgirl from Sparksville
Love Sparks. To the guy who said Sparks sound like a cheap Queen rip-off, Sparks were around first. They played together, and intruigingly, only then did Freddie Mercury take up falsetto. Sounds like Queen are a cheap Sparks rip off. Love the new single, now go and buy it!
Yes and to the person who think Sparks are a Queen rip off let it be known that Queen actually supported Sparks way back in the early 70's at the Marquis club when "This Town" was a hit.
Sparks are legends!
lol - queen ripoffs?
you are showing your age, and i'm not jealous, this time.
queen "reportedly" opened a few early sparks gigs.
years later down the spiral road called rocknroll avenue, brian may was very close to rocking out sparks style by "reportedly" almost joining sparks.
they have a great song titled Miss the Start, Miss the End (album: Indiscreet) ... i'm wondering since you're too young, you may have missed the start, but if you don't do nothing foolish you most certainly will see the end. and while a lot of "reportedly"s don't add up to much, the Sparks catalogue is a masterpiece of which few bands even come close to. they have 20+ albums, how many did Queen have? all of queen songs are used, abused and worn out.
and their #1 player is dead. sadly, but that is cold fact. no pun intended.
i don't want to be the one to hand your ass back to you on a platter, but to make a comment like this is almost as ignorant as NEWMANIA calling liking sparks "trendy". nobody would take that risk without looking completely retarded in the process. they are not a band you get in the que at the record store and purchase one piece of their pie. rather, they are a collective thought process and that transcends those stupid little ties they wore in the 80's... and the gap in production in those wretched Interior Design days.
buy one and understand none, buy them all and you will know your were right all along.
there might be a philosophy a listener either gets or you doesn't. sparks and queen came from a very incredible piece of reality, a moment in time- completely separate of one another with entirely different career objectives and completely opposite sensibilities.
sparks stories are beyond rock stardom, they transcend maybe because they never could find a wide audience, but why would such a great band WANT an overly wide audience? nobody knows their gone even when they are around.
your pal,
jsmrite @ gmail . com
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