I started seeing them just before Lil Beethoven (2001 I think?) and even since then they have developed live. It was all backing tapes and horrid guitar back then. In '04 they had a full 5 piece electric band to play Kimono My House in it's entirity for Morrissey's Meltdown fest. That was AMAZING! And of course the 2008 gigs in Islington were amazing. All 21 albums over the course of 21 gigs!
I started seeing them just before Lil Beethoven (2001 I think?) and even since then they have developed live. It was all backing tapes and horrid guitar back then. In '04 they had a full 5 piece electric band to play Kimono My House in it's entirity for Morrissey's Meltdown fest. That was AMAZING! And of course the 2008 gigs in Islington were amazing. All 21 albums over the course of 21 gigs!
I got to know them in 2006, just before the release of Hello Young Lovers. Lil' Beethoven indeed is excellent, shame they haven't revisited it live. Would love to see it.
It was quite something live. I think I saw it twice before the album was out and was slightly disappointed by the record (as is sometimes the way!) I've got most of these gigs on minidisc - I should dig them out.
Awesome, would love to hear them :)
Would've been an ideal job for the long bank hols! Might make a start today.
Hi there Dysan
Any chance of two copies mate? I would also be very interested in getting hold of some special live shows like that.
PS Happy to reimburse for CDs etc. I don't use mini discs.
http://graphikdesigns.free.fr/sparks-kimono-my-house.html
I'll just upload them somewhere if there's enough demand then - in this thread if no one objects?
Certainly not me. Thanks!
Thanks to microwave for that link too.
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[b]brENsKi wrote: [/b] no chance. freddie had a vision - since he was about 12
[/QUOTE]
Any detail on this- do you know of any literal vision?
or just general ambition?
dysan wrote:
Although if we're doing parallel careers, it's possible Sparks would've stayed in the UK if Brian had joined and their chart run hadn't dried up. Tanatalisingly, Mick Ronson nearly joined them when they moved back for the Big Beat album in '76.
Although there is a school of thought that if the Kimono line up wasn't fired as soon as the record was out, they would've become a band to equal Queen in terms of stadium rock. One of the great rock injustices that Sparks dropped their bundle when they hit it big.
I imagine if Queen were guitarless in '74, someone from Mott the Hoople may have joined (maybe Ronson himself?) as they got through personnel pretty quickly.
Let me know how you get on with Kimono.
Hi there Dysan
Some interesting speculation. Would Sparks success have been modifed with Brian on board? I think not all that much because they had their own ideas on what was required and that seems to have been the reason that their own guitarist got sacked after Kimono My House (ie his ideas were different to their's).
To me Sparks seem to have been a very melodic band where the music virtually is always used to support the singer (based on my 7 albums worth anyway). The Sparks I have also seem to be focussed on producing something that is fun clever and entertaining. That is also true of Queen to some extent although albums like Queen 2 seem to traverse a broader range of styles and evoke a much broader range of emotions in me when compared with Kimono My House.
