The Times – DVD review

Sparks: Lil’ Beethoven Live in Stockholm (E) Out to buy: On DVD Thirty years ago, Ron and Russell Mael, aka the Sparks, were pop’s oddest couple, a kind of prototypical Pet Shop Boys and a Californian Roxy Music rolled into one. In June this year, three months before wowing an audience half their age at Morrissey’s Meltdown festival, the spookily ageless LA glam-pop veterans recorded this terrific show, running through their latest album in performance-art cabaret style. Still sporting a pencil moustache and perpetually glazed stare, Ron remains an amusing flesh-and-blood sculpture, at one point even pretending to play his keyboards with extended fake arms. New tunes such as Your Call’s Very Important to Us tend towards techno minimalism, while wry monologues such as Ugly Guys With Beautiful Girls and Suburban Homeboy work as smart social satire. Nor have old-school fans been forgotten — the bonus tracks include several vintage hits, from a stately Number One Song in Heaven to a stripped-down This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us. Even today, the Maels remain grandmasters of vivid spectacle and alien glamour. [img align=left]http://www.allsparks.com/newsscript/newspicts/4star.jpg[/img] DVD extras Backstage footage, audience vox pops, Sparks fact file. Stephen Dalton [url]http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7946-1203621,00.html[/url]