Mojo Magazine Raves About Sparks’ Lil’ Beethoven!!

Evening Standard Sparks still fly for duo By David Smyth GIG REVIEW: Sparks at the Royal Festival Hall, 19/10/02 With Queen already established in the West End, and efforts by Madness and Rod Stewart soon to come, it is surely only a matter of time before someone comes up with a musical based on the… Read More

THE GUARDIAN Home entertainment Sparks Interview by Will Hodgkinson Friday November 1, 2002 “This is our selection,” says Ron Mael, the pencil-moustachioed half of Sparks, gesturing to an empty CD rack. “This is what we were listening to when we made the record.” He’s referring to Lil’ Beethoven, Ron and Russell Mael’s 19th album, which… Read More

UNCUT Double visionaries Kooks who pre-empted synthpop go neo-classical after 2000’s lacklustre Balls Sparks LIL’ BEETHOVEN *** This is SPARKS 19th album, the follow-up proper to 1994’s Gratuitous Sax..,, and one might be forgiven for saying ‘So what?”, since their work after their 1970s heyday has am-acted mostly cult attention. The surprise with Lil Beethoven… Read More

TIMES 19 October 2002 Music profile: Sparks – Already into their fourth decade as the odd couple of synth-pop, the influence of Ron and Russell Mael is finally being recognized, explains Stephen Dalton ANYONE who lost their pop virginity in Seventies Britain still has a soft spot for Sparks. Ron and Russell Mael were the… Read More

Brothers of reinvention 17 October 2002 After 30 years, Sparks have made their most remarkable album yet. They talk to Andrew Perry It’s a very rare thing that, after 30 years in the business, a pop band should come out with what must rank as their most challenging work. All the great survivors from the… Read More

THE INDEPENDENT By Simon Price 27 October 2002 “Are Sparks the most underrated band of all time? Ron and Russell Mael may have inspired artists as varied as Suede, The Associates, Pulp, New Order, Hawksley Workman, Siouxsie, Fischerspooner and The Smiths (Morrissey once stalked them, and kept a piece of half-eaten toast from Russell’s breakfast… Read More

The Independent 25 October 2002 Bright Sparks Sparks have come up with the perfect antidote to bland and pointless pop. But, asks Michael Bracewell, can their epic of non-conformism ever make the breakthrough? Ron and Russell Mael, the brothers from Los Angeles better known as the pop duo Sparks, appear not to have aged since… Read More

SPARKS – LIVE IN LONDON!!! OCTOBER 19, 2002 HOW DO I GET TO ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL? Well, some of us got there by tube, some by plane, but Sparks got there by sheer audacity! After a career spanning 30 years of “practice man, practice” the band graced the UK with yet another sold-out command performance,… Read More