Review: Evening Standard

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 songs of Sparks. The music of the electro-pop duo from Los Angeles is loaded with camp theatrics and catchy tunes, and there’s a back catalogue of 19 mad, hilarious albums to choose from. On the other hand, no one could stage their songs better than brothers Ron and Russell Mael themselves. For this one-off show, they performed a track-by-track rendition of new album Lil’ Beethoven (following Brian Wilson’s faithful live version of Pet Sounds and David Bowie’s of Low and Heathen at the same venue this year) and kept things interesting for those unfamiliar with the new songs by using frequently hilarious costumes and visuals. While Russell did most of the singing in his high-pitched American drawl, keyboard wizard Ron was the stooge of the songs. With his pencil moustache, slick hair and thick glasses, he looks, as he always did, like a man you would do anything to avoid sitting next to on the bus. He willingly allowed himself to look even more ridiculous in the first half, playing the piano with hugely elongated plastic arms for the corny How Do I Get to Carnegie Hall? (answer: “Practice, man, practice!”). He also mimed riding a horse with inimitable style for the operatic nonsense of Ride ‘Em Cowboy, and strolled unembarrassed around the stage with a beautiful girl on his arm for the bitter rock song, Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls. It was a fun set but their new cod-classical sound was also, as one unfortunate fan at the front proved, impossible to dance to. The audience was predictably much warmer towards a second-half greatest-hits show, which included overblown, outrageous favourites such as When I Kiss You and This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us. Here, Ron took up his rightful place, stiff and scary behind the keyboard, and Sparks played the part of a proper band once again.”