It is 1973. Bronzed Californian showbiz twins troll over to the UK, replace their existing Sparks band members with Brits and make an album. They get some hits and replace most of the new British band with more accommodating Mole-lovers. When it all stops, they go back down the trans-Atlantic burrow. 45-odd years later, it all comes around again.
More Essential Mole-Facts
- Sparks pix gallery
- Sparks press from the archive
- Dave Thompson’s Sparks biography
- Daryl Easlea’s Sparks biography
- Popular mole myths
- Richard Digby Smith engineered ‘Kimono My House’, and came up with those gunshots.
- Only 41 years late, a gold disc for ‘Kimono My House’. Gotcha credit card, squire?
- Sparks manager John Hewlett spills the beans
- Selected (i.e. one album) Sparks discography:
- Kimono My House
- Session notes and overview from the KMH recordings
- 40th birthday edition – new information comes to hand!
- As indeed does my H&H amp, last seen in Fulham in 1974…
- Stalin ‘Tis an Asset! Aux barricades, comrades!
- Sparks gig report in Mojo by MG; not too bad…
- Breathless fly-on-the-wall account of early Sparks auditions, from Reinforcements magazine, in which our writer gaily projects all over the participants and, where he doesn’t know, he just makes it all up. These days, he’d get his own reality TV show.
- The Rickenbacker 4001 bass: it lasted until the first Radio Stars tour with Eddy and the Hot Rods. It ended up (quite legally) in the hands of their bassist Paul Gray, before it fell to bits, so he says.
- Sparks press from the archive
- Sparks overview
- Original promo video with helpful subtitles for Mole-lovers:
- Sparks’ (deceased) guitarist Adrian Fisher gave an interview in 2000
- As does (also deceased – is there a spooky pattern here?) drummer Norman ‘Dinky Diamond
- Adrian Fisher was earlier in Toby, with former Free bassist Andy Fraser:
And Finally
- Mojo – ‘Hello, Goodbye’
