Latest / Booked On Rock with Eric Senich / Charting the Career of Sparks 1969–1979 [Episode 234]

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Charting the Career of Sparks 1969–1979 [Episode 234] · Booked On Rock with Eric Senich

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We're totally booked rock and roll. I mean, I'll leave you.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: You're reading Little Hans says, it's time to rock and
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  Speaker 1: roll rock band roll Out a totally booked.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome back to Booked on Rock, the podcast for those
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  Speaker 2: about to read and rock online. It booked on rock
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  Speaker 2: dot com. Every episode is there an audio and video
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: got exclusive video segments of blog latest rockbook releases. All
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: there at Booked on Rock dot Com. Author Chris Sutton
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: returns to the podcast. This time he's here to talk
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  Speaker 2: about his latest book. It's called Sparks nineteen sixty nine
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  Speaker 2: to nineteen seventy nine. Every album, every song part of
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  Speaker 2: Sonic Bond's excellent on track series. Beginning as a five
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  Speaker 2: man band, the duo of Ron and Russell Miles retained
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  Speaker 2: the name and spent much of the seventies working with
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  Speaker 2: a succession of sidemen and collaborators. He ended the seventies
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  Speaker 2: on a high note with the collaboration with Italian composer
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  Speaker 2: and producer Giorgio Moroder for the top twenty UK hit
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  Speaker 2: number one and Have It. Many who worked on Sparks
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  Speaker 2: records have shared their thoughts in this book. The popularity
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  Speaker 2: of Sparks has grown over the decades. In twenty twenty three,
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  Speaker 2: they sold out two nights at the Royal Albert Hall.
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  Speaker 2: So we're going to get to all that with Chris now.
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  Speaker 2: You can also find a playlist of Sparks music in
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  Speaker 2: this episode's show notes. Chris, welcome back to the podcast.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's great to be back Eric again for number five.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: I think number five. Yeah, so what do we have?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: We have two Alice Cooper's who was one in the seventies,
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  Speaker 2: one of the eighties.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Sabbath and the seventies, ACDC, every song, every album,
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  Speaker 1: and now we're back for Sparks sixty nine to seventy nine.
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  Speaker 2: This is interesting for me because I didn't know about
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: this group, Sparks, so it's an introduction for me. So
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  Speaker 2: that's these books are great for I think all types
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: of fans, including myself, who are aware of a group,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: get to learn about them, listen to them, and I
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: really enjoy their music. There's one particular album I'm a
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: fan of. Now I'll let you know as we go
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: through these. Yeah, tell me about it. When did you
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: become a fan of this group? When did you discover them?
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Well? I could remember the day. I remember the minutes,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: the second, the moment and what it was. Back in
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four in Britain, the only music programs on
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: were Top of the Pops, which is on on a
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Thursday night, and the old Gray Whistle Test, which was
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: a late night program, and you had to kind of
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: watch what your parents watched. But everybody watched Top of
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the Pops. That was the weekly half hour slot of music,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: and you got everything. You couldn't fast forward or rewind,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: you know, you watched it live and you had all
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: sorts of bands. Some were good, some were terrible, but
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: you put up with it. But Sparks came on in
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  Speaker 1: the ninth of May nineteen seventy four and it was explosive,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, with this tan and big enough for the both.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: It was just like a jaw dropping what the what
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: was that? I know? The apocryphal story, probably true is
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: John Lennon had them recorded the shows and sent to
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: him in America where he was living, and he apparently
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: rang Ringos Star and said that you want to see
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: Top of the Pops. They've got Mark Bowling on with
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Adolf Hitler.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: You read the mustache, Yeah, and this.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Is the thing You've got Russell Male's falsetto in his
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: hair and preening at the camera. Rob Males sort of
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: Darth Vader death stare and his sort of chappliness looks
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: maybe perhaps in the mustache. And it was just like
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: it was like watching a complete film score in about
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: four minutes. It just came at you like an onslaught
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and you thought, what was that? And every I'm not joking.
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  Speaker 1: Next day, everybody I knew who was into music, everybody
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  Speaker 1: was talking about that performance.
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  Speaker 3: Wow, that song.
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  Speaker 1: It was that big. I mean, they could have been
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  Speaker 1: like quirky one hit Wonders. It was that kind of
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: vibe perhaps really, but they, you know, there was more
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: to them than that, and they did manage to carve out,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: as we know, a long career out of it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, huge in the UK and then ran up into
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: or recently they had this huge resurgence of interest. But
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: yet here's a group from Los Angeles. Give us the backstory.
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  Speaker 2: They start out as a five piece and then dwindled
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  Speaker 2: down to the two guys and two brothers, Russell and
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  Speaker 2: run Well.
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  Speaker 1: They grew up in the Pacific Palisades area in Los Angeles.
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  Speaker 1: I'm talking like I know the earlier, but I don't.
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  Speaker 2: You might, I don't know, somewhat familiar with it, never
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  Speaker 2: been there, but yeah, art.
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  Speaker 1: School students Ron and Russell Mayld there two brothers at
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  Speaker 1: the heart of sparks all through the decades. And they
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: met up with a guy named Earl Manke who you
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: may know as a producer engineer with the Runaways the
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  Speaker 1: Beach Boys in later times, and he was a bit
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  Speaker 1: of a sort of a tech buffing and the recordings
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  Speaker 1: and so on. So they did a demo album of
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  Speaker 1: music with Earl Manky the three of them. Also appearing
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: on the demo album were a guy called John Mendelssohn
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: you might know as a rock critic. Yeah, absolutely not
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  Speaker 1: the name, and a guy called Ralph Oswald. He played
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: some bass on that demo album they did, I think
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: it was one hundred copies packeted up in boxes and
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: sent them around to various people they thought might be interested.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: And a guy who eventually heard their recordings was one
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  Speaker 1: Tard Drundgren, probably influenced by the fact that his girlfriend
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: at the time was should we say, a close friend
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: of Russell's as he turns out, and he ended up
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: getting them signed to Bearswell Records after the demo album,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: which was in sixty nine, which is why the book.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: I couldn't leave that demo album out. It was a
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  Speaker 1: gem which turned up in fan circles about twenty five
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: years ago. It was rumored to exist, but then it
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: finally turned up and caused a bit of a stir
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: amongst all those of us who loved the original band.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: In seventy one, the first official album was released little interest,
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  Speaker 2: very low sales. It's not even under the Sparks name,
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  Speaker 2: at least not at first, right.
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  Speaker 1: Well the name they were called half Nelson, which is
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: a wrestling hold for any who doesn't know. By this time,
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  Speaker 1: Ron and Russell and Earl have been joined by Earl's
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  Speaker 1: brother James Mankey, who you might know later from Concrete Blonde.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps Yeah, he joined on bass and also played guitar,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and a real powerhouse drummer, Harley Feinstein, a terrific drummer.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: And Rundred produces the first album for Bearwood and for
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  Speaker 1: Bearsville Sorry Records. And it does nothing, as you've said,
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  Speaker 1: but it's a fabulous album full of unusual, witty songs
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  Speaker 1: about things that nobody else was really writing songs about
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  Speaker 1: it all, you know, So then you had the idea
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: came that perhaps the name was a problem, So the
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: name was then the band was then changed. It was
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: going to be Sparks Brothers, but they thought that was
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: a bit too like Marx Brothers, and it became just
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Sparks and the album was reissued with a completely different cover,
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: possibly a better cover. It's the one of them standing
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: against the brick wall looking like men and moody. But
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: I do love that first album very much, Eric, I
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: still think it stands up today.
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  Speaker 2: How would you describe the sound of Sparks.
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  Speaker 1: I think it would say it's very British. Perhaps, I
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: don't think there was anybody else. Thaddeus James Lowe, who
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: engineered the album, he couldn't think of anybody else around
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  Speaker 1: that time as sounded like that. And I think it's
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: a band who's trying to try lots of different things,
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  Speaker 1: different sounds, different songs, and I just doesn't seem to
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: be almost an influence on what they're doing. It just
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: is Sparks. The songs.
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  Speaker 2: It's early alternative, I would say early new wave, maybe
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  Speaker 2: a little Yeah. I think they might be giants as
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  Speaker 2: a band. Like the little quirky. The lyrics are not
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  Speaker 2: mainstream type lyrics.
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  Speaker 1: Good God, no, yeah, that is the thing Eric on
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  Speaker 1: that first album is that you put it on and
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  Speaker 1: you constantly think of what is this, what's going on?
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  Speaker 1: I mean Biology Too, which is a monkey song about chromosomes,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: gene paul and so on. It is still one of
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: the most bizarre things I've heard on a record in
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: my life. There's some interesting tracks on there. That Fletcher
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: on Her Armor, which is about a man who's dying
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  Speaker 1: and passing away and almost gets to attend his own
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  Speaker 1: funeral before it happens because he hasn't quite gone. You know.
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  Speaker 1: It's just such an unusual album. I would recommend it
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  Speaker 1: to anybody who likes things they're a bit quirking, a
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  Speaker 1: bit different. But of course I don't know how it goes,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm assuming that fundamentally that if you're an arty,
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  Speaker 1: kind of unusual band, then you've got a fair chance
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  Speaker 1: in New York and Los Angeles perhaps, which is where
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  Speaker 1: Sparks are probably biggest in America.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: Podcast will be back after this.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Don't go away, gentlemen, we may need all of you.
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  Speaker 2: Tad Rundgred almost produced this seventy three album A Wilfer
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: in Tweeter's Clothing, which features some key songs from the
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Sparks catalog, which you mentioned in each album throughout the book.
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  Speaker 2: And this one Girl from Germany, Moon Over Kentucky, Do
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: re Me and Whippings and Apologies. James Lowe produces this one.
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  Speaker 2: This album for you is a masterpiece. You created a
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  Speaker 2: lot of this to the fact that the band had
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: been gigging a lot.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: Well, it's really interesting. The first album is to say,
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  Speaker 1: he's quite quirky and off the wall, and it's great.
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  Speaker 1: But from the first five to ten seconds of Girl
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: from Germany that opens woffering Tweeters Clothing, you can tell
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: it's a band that's been a bit more drilled, and
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: he is a band. I think they just sound so
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: more rocky. It's more of a band vibe perhaps than
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: they originally had. And James Lowe was a joy to interview.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: That's one of his favorite albums still, so the two
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: of us were there talking for an hour. Why isn't
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: this album amongst one of the best known albums in
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: the world. You know, for those who don't know, the
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: woofer is a bass and a TWI is a treble,
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: so it's a bass. In troubles Clothing is where they
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: got that from. But again, the songs are actually more
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: lyrically more obscure, I think, than they were on the
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: first album. The Loover is about a statue in the
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: louver which has actually got a real person inside it.
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: So you're looking at this stone statue, but there's a
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: real person looking back at you who can't get out.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Moon Over Kentucky's to me almost like a prequel drama
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: to this time. And they're big enough for the both
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: of us, and that's a phenomenal truck as well. And
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: I've got to say I'll hand on heart. I love
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: their and Fetamine sort of cover of do Rey Me.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: I mean when they lock into that groove at the end,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Harley and Jim on bass and drums, I never think
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: they're going to make it to the end of the song,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: such as the frantic pace of it. But it's still
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: one of my favorite albums ever. Were for in Tweeters.
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: Clothing, Yeah, but they did get the commercial success the
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: next album nineteen seventy four. This is where they are
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: catapulted to huge success thanks to the single this Towny
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: big Enough for both of us. Other songs of note
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: from this second album Immateur Hour, falling in Love with
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: Myself Again and Talent is an Asset and this is
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: the album Kimono My House, Yeah, That's that's yeah. Under
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: Island Records. Of this was a difficult decision for the
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: brothers to make well.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the first two albums had bombed. To
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: put it mildly, they had toured like gigs in Britain
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: and Europe in nineteen seventy two. At the end of
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: the year they managed to make get the money out
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: of Bears Film to go over to Britain and they
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: did the old whistle test where Bob Harris to present
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: and didn't reckon much to them. But having gone back
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: to Los Angeles to regroup, I suspect that there would
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: already been some feelers maybe put out for them to
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: come over to Britain. And Ron and Russell came over.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Muff Windwood, who was in the Spencer Davis crew and
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: was a and R at Island Records and was in production.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: He reckoned. He told me that there was never anything
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: on the table about the rest of the band coming
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: to Ireland, just Run and Russell. But there is this
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: post guard which James Low dug out for me, which
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: is in the book where Ron does say that we're
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: attempting to get the other three guys Jim and el
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Maanke and Harlie Feinstein on the deal with Ireland and
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: if he doesn't work, or pick up some British musicians.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: But from that point on, effectively Sparks is the two
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Americans running Russell and three British guys. What is curious
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: here is is Martin Gordon, who is the bass player
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: on Kimona My House. He felt he was joining a
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: band in all intents and purposes a band, and what
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: in the effect it was with Sparks was effectively running
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Russell Malt with three three backing musicians. That's what becomes clear.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: It's not a band. In saying the van Halen sort
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: of ways. I know you're a fan of them, it's
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: not in that way at all. So it's very much
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: their kind of their bag really And kim On in
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: My House the title is a pun on the rose
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: from your Clooney song Come Under My House, which you
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: may have heard of. Oh yeah, that's where that comes from. Okay,
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: but you've got it's interesting this fantastically brave cover. Whether
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: you've got the two Geisha girls on the cover, not
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: a mention of the album title, not a mention of
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: the band, not a picture of the band or the
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: males at all at the front cover. You go into
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: the shop and you see that lime green kind of
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: cover with the Geisha girls, and it just draws you,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: you know, what's that? What's that album? And the single
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: as well coming before the album. In my god, that
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: didn't have to drum up some sales for the album.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to ask you about that one. Yeah,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: very intricate in its structure, a lot of things happening,
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: yet it all comes together so well. I think Bohemian
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Rhapsody very much like that. To talk about that. Also,
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: there's a Elton John Bernie Taupin that's important to know
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: because they influence the decision to release it as a single.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: They didn't even want to release it as a single.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: Well, we all know how singles go and how it's
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: supposed to work, and then occasionally something will come through
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: over in Britain, maybe not in America. Someone like Kate
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Bush's Wuthering Heights, you know, goes to number one and
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: becomes an enormous single when many other times it wouldn't. Well,
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: this time named big enough. Certainly you can see why
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: im muffling Woods thinking an intense production, a lot of
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: tracks used to record it, gunshot sounds as well. And
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: then he get to that point where he's thinking, hang on,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: we're going to put this out and try and ship
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: this and make it a big hit and sell the album.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: Is this actually really a single? You know with a
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: chorus and verses and so on. Elton John and Bernie
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Topin were over at his house and he said, what
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: do you think? And they reckoned it would be an
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: enormous hit, sparks themselves. I mean you reference points by
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: now you can see that bands perhaps it's been suggested
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: like bands like Quinn might have been listening to those
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: high pitched harmony vocals and the operatic nature of the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: song and the structure which is quite complicated. The other
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: thing is Ron Mayo has swapped his keyboard as well.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: He plays the far feasta on the first two albums.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: On this album he's playing an Rami piano electric piano,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: and he's also using I think it's an echo plex
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: on it. So that's why you get that slightly wobbly,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: almost shimmery sound on the intro and if any of
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: the listeners for some haven't heard this time a big
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: and if you play that intro and I think instantly
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: it hooks you in Ron Male's piano line.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and people can listen to the song as well
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: as the songs that we're talking about in this episode
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: and a lot of those songs that you highlight throughout
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: the book. I put together a playlist so you can
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: go to the show out flick the link and there's
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: a Spotify there. Yeah. That song was within the top
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: ten in the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK. Reached number
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: two actually in the UK stayed there for two weeks,
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: so that's become their highest charting song on the UK
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: Singles Chart. The follow up album is nineteen seventy fours Propaganda,
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Key Songs, Propaganda Into at Home, at Work, at Play,
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: Never Turn your Back on Mother Earth, Don't Leave Me
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Alone with Her. What a great album cover. The Mile
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Brothers hid napped and spired it away on a speedboat,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: but there was another idea for a cover.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean they actually do look scared, don't they
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: on the cover. I mean that looks very very very
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: very genuine cover.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's an actual photo. That's not trickery, any
• 16:43
  Speaker 2: photo trickery, No green screen one of that stone.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: No, we didn't have that sort of trickery back then
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: at all. I mean, the original plan was, I think,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: was I don't actually understand what he's going on with this,
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: and I tried to get to the bottom of this
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: of the band, but they didn't understand Ivory and the
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: album's called propaganda and clearly this is about being kidnapped
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: and so on and so forth. And the original plan
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: with them to jump out of an airplane for the cover,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: and they would have had to do that for real,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: as you're saying now, It would have just been photo shopped,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: wouldn't it with them looking scared about two feet off
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: the ground, But they would have had to jumped out
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: the plane for that cover. Instead, they end up on
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: the back of a speed about doing it what looks
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: like one hundred miles an hour and a cold day
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: around Bournemouth or somewhere, you know, right.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: On hands and feet. You can see that they got
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: a gag over their mouth and they look like they
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: look like they're freaking out. It sounds like a scene
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: out of a James Bond.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: They do, I mean, in effect propaganda, not to not
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: sound like I'm putting it down. It is almost a
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: part two a kim own of My House, and the
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: two albums are actually being re released in a package
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: called nineteen seventy four in about a month's time, so
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: that they're being loved together on that. What is extraordinary
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: is Ron Male does have some songs he could have used.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: He doesn't use any of them that he definitely had
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: in his locker that were left over from Kimono. He
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: manages to write a whole new album effect in what
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: five months or so and recorded. I mean, those days
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: were just incredible for bands that were out on tour
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: and recording at that pace, that speed.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: They were as I here, critics darling critics seemed to
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: enjoy these albums. They did, or at least this one
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: here that's got some great yeah.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, they did get great reviews, and they were
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: enormous in Britain at this point in seventy four, and
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: in Holland and Germany and France. They started to get
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: over to America and doing some of the shows that
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: you have over there. You know, but I think America
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: is a real tough place to break and again I
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: would imagine there are swaths of the country that wouldn't
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: necessarily want what they were offering.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: And there is trouble behind the scenes during this time.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: Nineteen seventy four talk about that Martin Gordon was fired, Well.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he thought he was in a band to all
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: intents and purposes. If you look at the back cover
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: of kim Ona, you see a big picture of Ronning,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Russell al and the band are down the side. In
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: smaller pictures, there was an original band picture taking them
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: all in the spotlight, which he's got a copy of,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: and that wasn't used. I don't think Ron and Russell
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: I ever thought of it as being a band in
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: that sense. Ever, Ron writes all the songs, with Russell
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: chipping in. Martin could have written songs he started. As
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: he puts it, I think trying to put his points
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: of view forward, and his points of view weren't necessarily
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: coalescing with what the male's view was, so he got fired.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Peter Oxendale, who was going to come in on the
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: tour on keyboards, was then fired. He says for being
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Martin Gordon's friend, so it's a bit tricky. Muff Winwood
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: was quite good about this. His view was, these things
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: happen in music, so what bands change? People leave, you know,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: it's their career and I can see both sides point
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: of view on this. But by the end of Propaganda,
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Adrian Fisher and League guitar, who is stunning on both
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Kimona Mayas and Propaganda, terrific League guitarist, he's also gone
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: as well. In Hampton comes in on bass, and then
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: the male's up for a change. After Propaganda, I think
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: they could see that things were looking perhaps a little
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: bit tricky for them. They felt like they needed to
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: ring the changes a little after Propaganda.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: Podcast will be back after this.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Surely you can't be serious.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: I am serious, and don't call me surely. Arthur Chris's
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: our guest talk about his latest book, Sparks in nineteen
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: sixty nine to eighteen seventy nine, Every album, every song
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy five is Indiscreet. The Males go with
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Tony Viscanti to produce the album. He worked with t
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Rex David Bowie, among others. Hospitality on Parade, Looks, Looks,
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: Looks under the Table with her key tracks on this one.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: But the album doesn't do well, not as much as
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: they'd hoped in America. There isn't much interest outside of
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: LA and New York. Why do you think that was?
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: The album is quite a mixed bag. I would say
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: it's certainly more diverse than the previous two for Ireland
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: than Kimono and Propaganda. Interestingly, Tony Visconto records a lovely
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: version of a song called never Turn Your Back on
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: the Mother Earth, one of the first eco songs I
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: can think of, and he records a version with his wife,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: Mary Hopkins, who is a folk singer, and she's on
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: backing vocals on the indiscrete album. Well what they do
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: and in discreet is Visconti's just a superb arranger, great
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: musician as well, plays bass, recorder and so on and things,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: and so you get that there's a big band song
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: on it looks looks looks. Ron Male doesn't even play
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: on it. None of the band play on it. There's
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: only Russell on it with the Ted Heath Orchestra, who
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: were famous orchestra going back decades in Britain. And it's
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: an authentic big band track. Then you get a song
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: done with like a string quartet and lots of different
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: sounds going on, and it's it's partly a kind of
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: band album as so Propaganda was, and partly whole different
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: tangents musically. So it comes together as a bit of
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: a mixed bag, a very enjoyable mixed bag. I think
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: if you're already assigned up hardcore fan you can kind
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: of get into that. But I think casual listeners not really.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: No another interesting cover too, I catch it. They both
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: were in the plane that crashes in a rural neighborhood
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: and there on the street outside of a house.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the idea. I think his run has come out
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: of the house. He's been working, he's been working on
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: the on the house or the drive or something, and
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: he's found this light's aircraft crashed with a very happy
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: looking Russell male sat alongside. It doesn't look too bad
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: at all and he's yeah, And of course it's it's
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: very in discrete, this playing crash. The backdrop is actually
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: is a backdrop. It's largually a real street. It's one
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: of those Hollywood kind of things that they use. Yeah,
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: it's an album I do like in discrete. I like
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: a lot of it, but when you play you are
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: aware that it's extraordinarily diverse.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Is it on this album that there's the Beatles cover
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: or is that the next one? I Want to Hold
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: your Hand.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: The Beatles cover. Yes, that's an interesting long story to
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: come to.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's on the It was on the Island
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Masters Bonus Tracks version. I don't know if it was
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: on the original pressing of the album. Was it?
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: Well what happens is after in Discrete, which had see
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: their grip slipping in Britain and Europe, the chart placings
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: are lower, so it's what did they do now? So
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: the males up to go back to Los Angeles that
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: the British band is let go to you the term,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: and that they are in Los Angeles, and somewhat surprisingly,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: the first thing they do is to meet up with
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: old Mankey and recorded one song with him, which the
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: hardcore Sparks fans of the original albums is a joy
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: called England and it sounds exactly like an outtake from
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: Woffering Tweeter's Clothing or the Verst Sparks album and it's
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: just a sheer joy to hear monkey sort of jangling
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: guitar and those tones again, and then comes this strange
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: idea to record a single cover version we Marry and
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: Faithful I want to Hold your Hand, done in a big,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: sort of spanned style, like a Broadway.
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Style, slowed down. Yeah.
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's awful.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Quote unquote, awfully syrupy, as you wrote.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: I remember the first time I heard it, I thought,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: what on earth is this? And I believe I've tried
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: for decades to like this. And it's very difficult to
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: interview the man who produced it, Ruber Holmes, and not say, look,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: I think this is awful. I don't think he'd mind, actually,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: but Marion faith walks away from it. So Russell sings
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: it on his own in this Broadway style with a
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: band no run and Ruper Thurmes delivers this single, which
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: predictably doesn't do anything at all, and then sparks up
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: for a complete gear change. You'll notice this is becoming
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: quite a regular theme of a change, and there's rumbles
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: of something interesting happening in New York around nineteen seventy six.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: As you probably are aware, there's new bands popping up
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: with attitude a bit of punk about them, you know,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: and the mails up to go to New York and
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: start again and do their next album there, which is
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: the one which I'm betting is your favorite, which is
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Big Beat.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: Bing Girl, Big Bat. Yeah, you are correct, You are correct, Yeah,
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: because this is packed with some harder edged rock songs.
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: I really like this album. After almost getting David Bowie
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: guitarist Mick Ronson to produce it, they get, as you said,
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: Rupert Holmes of Pinacolada Escape Theme. If you like, he
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: produces this.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: I interviewed a lot of people for the books, and
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: that these people were all lovely, witty, some of the
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: best people I've ever interviewed, and one of at the top.
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: Rupert Holmes, was such a gentleman. He talked to me
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: for a couple of hours about this album. I mean
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: the guy, he's a legend, and they're in a mess. Really,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: I mean, Mick Ronson manages to he goes and does
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: to Bob Dylan Rolling Thunder review tour and can't do
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: the Big Beats album or the tour. So the left
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: with Saltmaida, who they've picked up a bass player, being
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: with Rocks and Music and various other bands. They've got
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: a guy called Hilly Michael's on drums, and it's a
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: guy who made a knows a guy called Jeffrey Salen
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: who played in Tough Darts, and Jeffrey Salen agrees to
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: play guitar on the album. Now what happens is Rupert
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Holmes has to deliver this album in next to no
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: time at all. The cover was already been shot. He
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: was asked to do a sequencing for the album before
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: they'd actually really recorded it, so we had to do
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: a finished sequence of an album that they were still
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: trying to record. They told him they wanted it to
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: be kind of tougher, louder, a big beat, and he said,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: if that's what you want, that's what I'm going to
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: give you. And I don't know what you thought about this, Eric,
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: when you put it on. It must have been quite
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: a shock for you if you were working through these
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: albums and having a bit of a listen, suddenly you
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: get this loud drums and guitar coming at you.
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: It definitely was. It wasn't something I was expecting. I
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: was pleasantly surprised. But as I go through each of
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: the tracks, I'm waiting for myself to maybe say this one,
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: I don't like this one, I mean don't like maybe
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: this one's more like previous to. But I liked all
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: the tracks on the album as you go through it.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: Great production, great sound, guitars. Yeah, this is yeah, definitely
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: definitely surprised. Wasn't expecting this big boy nothing to do.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: I bought the Mississippi River great.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Well, that one Mississippi River, you can tell sounds like
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: an older sparks of saying discrete or propaganda that's been
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: kind of toughened up a bit, has that similar vibe
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: to it. But do you notice that Ron Male is
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: right down in the mix. These keyboards are almost not
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: there on most of the tracks. You can hear him
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: if you try. But Jeff silent my got you run.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: I was gonna say credit to him, man, I'm guitar
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: great guitar war. Jeff salin Man.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: Runs Riot, absolutely riot on that album.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Heley Michael's on drums seal. I think it's pronounced
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: Mada on bass mm hmm. But the album band that
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: shocks me.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: They did so. They told her the Patti Smith Group,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: And there are two kind of good, really good live
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: recordings that they're on YouTube worth listening to. And the
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: band really cooked. They really really did. Astonishingly good band
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: they were.
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: And I think the the the label was trying because
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: they were putting They put him in the movie Roller Coaster.
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: Get some some some notice there. They're the band performing
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: in the theme park of that movie. By the way,
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: but one of the one of the last dates they
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: played in LA features an opening band by the name
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: of Van Halen.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what happened to them.
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't know if they ever made it.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: They opened, Yeah, they opened for Sparks.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's yeah, I know, I can't quite believe it's true.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: But there was so adamant that this had happened, that
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: Van Halen had played there, and Eddie van Helen was
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: so grateful. But I've never heard that come from a
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: van Halen fan, that this this happened.
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah. That that new book by Alex van Helen, by
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: the way, I urge everyone to go out and buy.
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: It's a great book about those early days. He does
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: talk about those early days, what it was like opening up,
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: playing clubs, playing backyard parties.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: But does he mention playing with Sparks.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Does he mention how about that? You know, were you
• 30:33
  Speaker 2: open for this one? Being that was just amazing. Sparks
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: now didn't but yeah then album band, why do you think?
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: I think that one of the things with Sparks, which
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: for anyone who's aware of them, you kind of buy
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: into the band and you're in for the ride, and
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: when did these tangents come along? You go, yeah, okay, okay,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: this is what Sparks do, this is how they are.
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: But for casual listeners, I think it's difficult to plug
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: into that, even as a British fan when I got it,
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: because we had no warning back in those days. You
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: didn't know what the album was going to sound like.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: You just put it on and you're like, okay, this
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: is what we're doing now. Then, I think they they
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: didn't tour all of America, and they didn't even tour
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Britain at all or Europe whatsoever. There was no funding
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: for them to go into in the usual places where
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: they would have gone down well. I think with that
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: album could have been more successful if it had been promoted.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised if people thought they were a
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: brand new band.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: I would imagine in America they would do. I don't
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: think the cover helps, to be fair, I think that
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: kind of street, punky loud vibe. They're going, I don't
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: think the cover is the right one for where what
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: they were trying to.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: Do the black and white one. Right, They're both on
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: the cover black and white and one of the guys
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: is bare chested.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: That's running the shirts and tie and Russell's the bay
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: chest did one.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Columbia and possibly the Miles decided great ideas to
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: get top class musicians to back the band on the
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: next album, nineteen seventy sevens introducing Sparks a baffling title
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: we just talked about. There are people that thought they
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: were brand new. I don't know, maybe that's what they
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: were thinking, but that did baffle you and your fellow
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: Sparks fans in the UK.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Well, I think they thought it was ironic, but it
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: was certainly baffling. And Columbia's I do and you can
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: see what the thought process is. I'm guessing is you've
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: got these guys, what if we put the big top
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: flight session musicians, give them all that arrangement power and
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: so on, and sort of mainstream it a bit, then
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: maybe that might pick up sales by making them a
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: little bit more accessible, a bit more normal. If that's
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: the right word to use.
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, not the best album cover either. Looks like Barry
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: man Alow on the cover, Oh oh god run and
• 32:57
  Speaker 2: the cover Russell on the back and they're doing the
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: same Poe is. They're kind of looking at you with
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: a blank stare.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: It's a shockingly bad cover. Club Now, russ Ron and
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: Russell have generally never been kind about this album. It's
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: fair to say. Rupert Thomas going back, he always felt
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: that if anybody said the Big Beats so there was
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: a great album, they go, oh, yeah, fantastic, Whereas if
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: somebody said to them, don't like a big big much,
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: they go, oh, that was a producer's fault.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: That was his kind of Yeah.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: But when you look at the guys who are playing
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: on Introducing Sparks, I mean this is like an a
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: list of session musicians.
• 33:44
  Speaker 2: Lead guitar.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Oh my god. Now we had Jeff Saiden last time.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: This time we have Tom Rattella. He plays one of
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: my old time favorite guitar solos is on this album.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: I mean that's I mean, Russell Mayle admitted that's an
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: extraordinary piece of work that he plays. When they did there.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Later on they did their twenty one albums in twenty
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: one nights sort of thing residency in London when they
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: were that they on the last show. One of the
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: highlights of the last shows was this version of goof Enough.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: Now I remember having an extraordinary happy time at the
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: front and leaping around of all these people to that
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: terrific song, goof Enough, which is about the drudgery of
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: the working week and then the release at the weekend.
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: So the drudgery of the working week is in the
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: slow kind of verses and then it lets fly and
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the chorus for the weekend.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: That one forever young, these mysteries. Great tracks on there.
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: There is some good tracks on there. I don't think
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Run is on it as much as perhaps he might be.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: This two or three keyboard players credited, and it a
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: little bit diluted, but there are some great songs on
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: there that get through. That goofing Off is one occupation
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: always makes me laugh when it covers all the various
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: occupations that people might have. Ladies is quite amusing. Those
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: mysteries is a good song. So there is some good
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: stuff on there. Definitely, Again, I think let down by
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: the appallingly bad cover booked.
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: On rock podcast, We'll be back after this, I mean.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: Out, come out wherever you are.
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately, I'm sure they saw this coming. They tried to
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: stop it, but I'm sure they weren't. Shock there. Dropped
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: by Columbia after the failure of introducing Sparks nineteen seventy eight,
• 35:34
  Speaker 2: tough year for the brothers. This is where Italian composer
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: and producer Giorgio Moroder enters the story. He produces well.
• 35:42
  Speaker 2: He did produce singles for Donna Summer during the mid
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: to late seventies disco era. He produced love to Love
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: You Baby, I Feel Love, Last Dance, all those great hits.
• 35:52
  Speaker 2: He just started a career composing soundtracks, did Midnight Express,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: American Jigglo, Superman three, Scarface. He's a big name, you
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: write quote. The extent of Marouder's influence has never been
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: clearly established, but there are plenty of clues that it
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: was considerable to talk about what he does with the
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: songs on this album and some of the technical challenges
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: he had too making it number one and having right.
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to get the real credit here. Having
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: been let go and finished with introducing Sparks, they came
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: up with a lot of demos some of which are
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: known as the Arista Demos, which is probably the consignment
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: that Arista Records gotten. Somebody leaps out into fan circles
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: and whatever, and those songs all sound quite like introducing
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: Sparks really those similar sort of songs. Marauder agreed to
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: work with them, and he will have been famous to
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: all your listeners for his work, predominantly Donna Summer. I
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: would say that's I Feel Love and so on, and
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: the males were extremely big fans of his work with
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: Donnas particularly, So what Marauder was bringing to the table
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: would have been a synth kind f heavy loops, kind
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: of sequencers kind of style, which they felt would be
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: an interesting dynamic to see how Ron and Russell would
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: fit into that world. The brilliance I think of Marauder,
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: He's using his regular drummer, Keith Forzy, who plays, you know,
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: like a real drum kit. So you've got all these
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: sequences and all these loops and all these synths going on,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: and in the heart of that, you've got this guy
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: who's literally battering his kit, and I think that really
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: helps give it an organic heart to the sound. He
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: really really does. Virgin Records, who got a real reputation
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: over in Britain for breaking new ground. They give lots
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: of acts a chance and they were putting out a
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: lot of very diverse output. It landed on their desk
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: and they signed up Sparks for the number one in
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Heaven album, which had already been recorded, and it did
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: extremely well in the UK. There was an initial little
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: bit of a backlash to it having a kind of
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: a disco sound to it. For a long time Sparks
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: fans you were kind of thinking, oh, now we're going
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: down the kind of a disco route to the sound.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: But there are some three of Spark's biggest songs of
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: all timer on their number one in Heaven, Beat the Clock,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Try It for the Human Race would be the big.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: Three that album, Number one in Heaven. It did put
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: them back on the map. So it was a good
• 38:32
  Speaker 2: move for them to get in Giorgio Moroder for that
• 38:34
  Speaker 2: album three big singles, number one song and Heaven number
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: fourteen in the UK. Beat the Clock when top ten
• 38:40
  Speaker 2: in the UK. Tryouts for The Human Race number forty five.
• 38:43
  Speaker 2: Indy Warhol almost ended up on the song beat the Clock.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they couldn't afford him.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it couldn't afford and that was funny. But the
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: album did, it did do well, So put them back
• 38:53
  Speaker 2: on the map, right it did.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, Virgin were past masters back in the late
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: seventies of lots of different colored vinyls, picture discs, different packaging,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: twelve anything that would get the sales up for records,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: and they did the works on Sparks and it really
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: did get them up. You saw them back on top
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: of the pops and they hadn't been on there for
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: a considerable you know, like five years or so, and
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: here they were again. Okay, Ron's hair is now a
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: bit curly perhaps, you know, but it's still recognizably Sparks.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: And once you get past the kind of the I
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: remember some fans at the time didn't like the disco
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: e feel. That was a bit of a stretch because
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: disco wasn't thought of as being, you know, like a
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: quality musical form by a lot of people back in
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: the late seventies. So they weren't like the next book
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: much either.
• 39:43
  Speaker 2: To like their new look though, Chris talk about that
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: because you say, there have been a fair few acts
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: who are adept to the Miles for inventing a new
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: look yeah.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: I think the sound was the big thing was that
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: they were embracing kind of the disco form and playing
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: around of it. Now what they got was the two
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: of them now on top of the pops with a
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: session drummer David Kenricuz come on and he's drumming with them.
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: And then years later, as Russell Mill actually predicts, we
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: start to see people like pet Shop Boys, you know
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: in Erasia, who very clearly it seems that they've just
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: adopted the kind of the Sparks form from those years
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: and taken it and run off with it. So they
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: were massively influential. I think this era of Sparks number
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: one in Heaven era was extremely influential, certainly in Britain
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: and Europe. I don't know about in America, but other
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: bands were popping up who had been taking note. New
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Order were another one Joy division who had been certainly
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: been watching the males, and also Virgin gave him these
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: other two interesting opportunities. They did this record with Adrian Munsey,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: you know, say Sheep, where they have the noises of
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: sheep in a field over a lovely backing track played
• 40:59
  Speaker 1: by run Mail. That came out which was quite bizarre
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: and then they did a full on disco album with
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: a singer from Los Angeles name Nol, which has just
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: been re released in the last few months or so,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: and that really does sound like something that probably more
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: disco even than Donna Summer would have been up to.
• 41:22
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, this is interesting to work with Harold Faltemyer
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: as well on the live album Terminal Jive. Harry Waltemeyer
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: famous for the Beverly Hills Cops soundtrack Axel F, big
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: hit in the eighties.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in the eighties they kind of regroup again and
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: they start to become more of They work with a
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: bank called Bates Motel as a pickup band on their
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: early eighties material, so they go back to that kind
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: of vibe again. And there's a whole run of albums
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: in the eighties that Sparks worked on in America which
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: actually didn't get released over in Britain, so we were
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: kind of unaware of what they were doing over in
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: America at the time, but none of them was really
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: successful in terms of big sales. It's only really been
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: since the turn of the end of the nineties that
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: the males have really started to pick up and get
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: maybe the credit they deserve, and certainly the sales have
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: picked up. They've started to get top ted albums back
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: again in Britain and so on.
• 42:22
  Speaker 3: Book Down Rock Podcast will be back after this. We're waiting.
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: The resurgence of recent years is fascinating. Their popularity. They're
• 42:36
  Speaker 2: probably more popular than ever. They're playing the Glastonbury Festival,
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: they saw our two nights at Royal albert Hall, and
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: they wrote and produced a soundtrack for a net. Actress
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: Kate Lynchett was in the video for one of their
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: songs in twenty twenty three. What do you think has
• 42:51
  Speaker 2: led to this resurgence for the Brothers and Spirals.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: It's a difficult one. It's as though the world was
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: caught up with them. Maybe that's the case that soddenly,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: the enormous back catalog, the nature of the males that
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: they will just keep going and doing something that's different
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: to the norm now seems to fit better than it
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: used to. You know, back in the seventies you knew
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: who's going to be big and who wasn't you know.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: You know, over in America we look at bands you've
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: got like Boston and Van Halen and so on, you
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: could see exactly why those bands were so colossally popular
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: in the way that they were, and you could also
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: see why guys like Running Russell, Mell and Sparks were
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: not going to be as colossally popular. But I think
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: in this more fragmented world of music that we have now, well,
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: it is difficult to be big on that sort of scale.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: There's more room for people like them, and they're now
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: I mean they've been around a long long time now,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: Running Russell, and it's now understood for many years now
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: that they could play with anybody as long as there's
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: two of them. Are there is Sparks, which is a
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: big advantage to have. Definitely, the Sparks were of this
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: documentary that that was done. There's been a huge help.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: And you mentioned their soundtrack and film as well, which
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: is something they always wanted to do as a film soundtrack.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: And they're always interesting. I mean, this is what I
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: would say to your listeners, if you look at the
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: next album, I have no idea what will be on
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: the next album. I know it'll be interesting and that
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: certainly the song titles alone are generally quite amusing and fascinating,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: aren't they. I'm sure you've looked at those, Yeah.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: And this book gives people a great insight into those
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: early years right up through the end of the seventies,
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: kind of sets up where they go into the eighties
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: and introduce them to a bigger audience, hopefully here in
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: the States. The book is out in the States December twentieth,
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: but in the UK the book is out right now.
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: Sparks nineteen sixty ninety, nineteen seventy nine, every album, every song,
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: so we could get it at burning shed dot com
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: in the UK through Amazon here in the US. Final
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: thought on the book and Sparks, what do you think
• 45:03
  Speaker 2: they're How long do you think they can keep this going?
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: They're in their seventies now.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: I don't think they will stop. I think they're amongst
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: those people at the very least they could just not
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: tour or go out and just carry on pumping out material.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: And I think they're finding it difficult to even think
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: of stopping. They don't have the pressures of say, you know,
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: like Bruce Springsteen or somebody's got where he's going out
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: and doing these marathon tours, or you know, in your
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: Sammy Hager or somebody who's out there touring they don't
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: have to do that. They can just do short tours,
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: short residencies and get away with that. So I think
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: they will just carry on. I could see it in
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: the carrying on for another five ten years yet, definitely.
• 45:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you're seventies. I'm guessing.
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean the books that I've done, and maybe
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: it's because I've done a few now and I don't know,
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: but I've had more interest in this book than any
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: of the others in terms yeah, honestly, really in terms
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: of people. I'm doing the signing session in a couple
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: of weeks here, and I've had people asking about when
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: that's going to be. I've had emails asking me when
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: the book's coming out, why it was delayed and so on.
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: So the fans are absolutely so partisan for this band,
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: and it's a joy because you want to write something
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: that hardcore fans will get something out of that they
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: didn't know. That's what you want to do. But you
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: also want people who are more casual to particulum go.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know that album so well, I
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: haven't heard that One's me. I'll give that one a go.
• 46:32
  Speaker 2: And people here in the States.
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean you've certainly had an experience, so
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: I can tell having gone through those albums, and I
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: suspect you've listened to most of the albums all the
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: way through.
• 46:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did put together the playlist. It gives me
• 46:44
  Speaker 2: a chance to familiarize myself with their catalog in this instance,
• 46:49
  Speaker 2: particularly from seventy to seventy nine, that first album, right
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: up through the end of the seventies.
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, from the listeners points of view, what
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: was your first reaction.
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: I don't think I took to them right away. I didn't,
• 47:02
  Speaker 2: but but again, I'm so open minded. I welcome all
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: types of music, particularly all types of rock and roll music,
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: so I'm very open minded when it comes to this
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: type of thing. I enjoyed it. I kind of wondered
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: why I never knew about this group, And again going
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: back to that one album that is my particular favorite,
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: The Big Beat, I wish they could be more of
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: those albums. But at the same time, you know, I
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: certainly enjoy listening to this the body of work that
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: they put together. I wish they would come around here.
• 47:33
  Speaker 2: I don't even know if they do any dates around
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: here on the East Coast and in the US or
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: any US dates at all. I can look it up,
• 47:40
  Speaker 2: but yeah, uk, no they do.
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: You'd be looking at New York, Los Angeles has been
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: somewhere they would do definitely.
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, just for a few dates, but yeah no major
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: tours say no, no.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: They don't do that. And it is interesting because when
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: I got into them, is that top of the appearance,
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: And I think if you could see that that appearance
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: has been white. But you can see the Christmas Show
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: Top of the Pops appearance from seventy four where they
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: do this timeent big Enough And if you watch that,
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: then you imagine yourself as like ten eleven, twelve thirteen,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: and you've got this happening and that in front of you.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: That'sweek what sold it to us? Listening to them and
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: not seeing them, I can I can imagine how that
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: must have been quite a lot of information to take in.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: They're songs you kind of might grow into more than
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: hit you immediately, aren't they?
• 48:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, they grow on you over time. I mentioned
• 48:36
  Speaker 2: the band They Might Be Giants kind of reminds you
• 48:38
  Speaker 2: of they might be Giants, a band that very quirky.
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: You listen to them and it's like there's something about
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: it that makes you want to come back and come
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: back again, and it grows on you. And Ron's got
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: that funny dance now on stage.
• 48:52
  Speaker 3: I think that's yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: A robotic dance that he does. Everybody loves that.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: When they sort of came back up over here because
• 49:00
  Speaker 1: they've been gone for a while. They came back in
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: nineteen ninety four with the Gratuitous Saxon Senseless Violins album
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: and I went to see them at Wolverhampton near where
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: I lived in Birmingham, and I knew most of the
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: front stalls people at that gig, and these were people
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: I hadn't seen in many, many years. It was like
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: we'd all come together again. I looked around. There's people
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: have been to school with that I hadn't seen, and
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: there we were. And every kind of song they did
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: it was like someone scoring a goal or something.
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I remember this one. Yeah was like.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: Whoa, whoa and yeah and so always a hugely entertaining band,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: sparks and they It's interesting because I suspect it will
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: take hold of you somewhere along the way. You'll be
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: out somewhere doing something at a football game or something,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: and these songs will start to pop into your head.
• 49:58
  Speaker 2: That's what I think will happen. There is certain Thanks
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: again for coming back on this is visit number five.
• 50:03
  Speaker 2: We look forward to visit number six. Where can people
• 50:06
  Speaker 2: find you online? Where can people connect with you?
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm on Instagram and I'm linked to you, so
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: that's an easy way. If anybody wants to email me,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: feel free to pass my email on Eric if they
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: contact you, that's great. One of the joys I had
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: doing the book was I spoke to James Lowe and
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: it was kind of like a support group in a way.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: The two is because I confessed to him and I
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: went out in the line and said, I've spent decades
• 50:36
  Speaker 1: listening to one of their songs, a song called Fala
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: falais on their first album, Sparks, and Jim Mankey plays
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: a little bas lick at the end of each kind
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: of verse, you know, and then at the end of
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: the song he plays an extended version of this bas lick.
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: That's just fabulous. And I've spent decades still listening to
• 50:59
  Speaker 1: that song and still feeling as overjoyed as I did
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: the first time I heard it, simply because of this
• 51:04
  Speaker 1: guy's basically and I end up interviewing James and I
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: tell him this, and it's just like, well, I'm glad
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: I've pleased you, and that's it. I've gone decades.
• 51:18
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's amazing. You have to wonder that maybe inside
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: he's he's got to be loving. I don't know, because
• 51:25
  Speaker 2: to me, it's like when you touch that many people
• 51:27
  Speaker 2: with your art, whether it's music or painting or whatever
• 51:30
  Speaker 2: it is, you know, you just so many these artists
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: don't realize how many people their music affects them in
• 51:36
  Speaker 2: the way it does. I was driving back from a
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: football game last night and I just started cranking Van
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: Halen as I often do, and I just think of
• 51:44
  Speaker 2: my I'm like, how many times can I hear these
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: songs and still be affected the same way. It's it's
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: just music is so awesome in that in that way.
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, James was great. This is he plays le guitar,
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: and some of the tracks on the first two albums
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: as well. There's a track called No More Mister Nice Guy. Yes,
• 52:01
  Speaker 1: Alice Cooper did borrow that title. Oh yeah, yeah, they
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: actually wanted to use allegedly, could we have to say allegedly,
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: don't we? They wanted to borrow a line from a
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: song on the second album with her I'm the the
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: girl in your head and the boy in your bed.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: They wanted to use that line.
• 52:23
  Speaker 2: Wow. Interesting.
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: So yeah, he was a certainly fan. But I mean,
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: James Mankey Place is kind of fuzz wow, epic guitar
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: solo and normal mister nice guys on the first album,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: which is fabulous, fabulous. I think it was cream. I
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: think as you said that at times the early Sparks
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: sounded like Marlena Dietrich and the third Reich combined and
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: at the end of each album normal mister nice guys
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: and whippings and apologies. You have that as a double
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: A side. It's and that's an Eric Senich playlist.
• 53:02
  Speaker 2: There you go, all right, Yeah, that playlist by the way, again,
• 53:06
  Speaker 2: people can find it in the show notes and also
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: in the show notes a link to pick up the
• 53:11
  Speaker 2: book in the US in December, but it can get
• 53:14
  Speaker 2: it through the UK outlets, burning shed dot com. And
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: we have to also, yeah, we also have to give
• 53:20
  Speaker 2: a shout out to Sonic Bond because they have a
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: great series, the on Tracks. Yeah, so any others that
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: you have planned for the an Track series or other
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: series that Sonic Bond has.
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: The two I've got that I'm working at the moment.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: I'm finishing off Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio.
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: Okay, just the albums that.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Runnie did, and the ones We Heaven and Now as well,
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: and the one that is nearly nearly finished, hugely ridiculously
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: ambitious one. This is breaking news the Steven Lamb because
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: even he doesn't know ambitious. He's the guy Sonic Bond.
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: It's the Shek organization.
• 53:58
  Speaker 2: Oh wow. Okay, and that's.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: All of the albums that Cheek did for themselves and
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: with Sister Sledge, David Bowie, Diana Russ, Johnny Mathis, Madonna
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: and so on and so on, And it is ludicrously
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: ambitious because I've reviewed every song on all of those
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: albums excellent.
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: So that means you're coming back on at least one
• 54:23
  Speaker 2: more time, if not twice, for those books, then it
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: is great.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I always look forward to talking to you, Eric,
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: and I have to say your listeners are very kind
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: because they seem to find their way through to me.
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: So whether it's you or they're just good at working
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: it out, but I do get nice feedback so that
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: to everyone out there, thanks pretty much for your support.
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: It's great. Thank you Chris. We will talk to you
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: again soon and always thanks for being on.
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Eric. Take utsma.
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: That's it. It's in the book. Sh