Anyone know of this UK band from the 70's and 80's? I recently got into them when the new wave station i listen to on the interweb called live 365 started playing a song called "cool places" featuring Jane Wiedlin. I had to know who it was and I ended up ordering their 12" mixes cd and it rocks. It's full of hot 80's new wave/electro beats! Anyoene else know them??

dancerella said:

BEAT THE CLOCK
WHEN IM WITH YOU
TRYOUTS FOR THE HUMAN RACE

Hey dancerella,

I like Sparks. I own their 1979 album "No. 1 in Heaven." I really recommend picking it up if you ever want to get rooted in early synthsized pop and dance music. Great tracks on there like "The Number One Song In Heaven," "Beat The Clock" and "Tryouts For The Human Race" which is one of my all-time favorite dance songs. It was an alternative album for its time and was executive produced by Giorgio Moroder [who I love]. The album is complete bliss. It's a Computer Disco stomper. And has influenced so much of the dance and synth-pop scene since its release.

BTW, Sparks aren't a UK act, they were from Los Angeles -- my hometown! But they found a lot of their success in the UK and their approach to songwriting and convention were very British, so much so that they pretended to be a British band when they did gigs in the L.A. club scene back in the early '70s.

dancerella said:

The only song I know from them is "cool places". I actually saw them in concert way back in 1994. Well kind of, it was grad night at Disneyland and they were one of the bands. Me and my friends watched them for a while. From what I remember they were not bad.

Mara said:

hey mara, you always manage to impress me with you knowledge on music. i know taht song "no.1 song in heaven" as it's on the 12" mixes i own but "cool places" "dance god damnit" & "i predict" are the bollocks! love those tracks. i may take your advice and check out that album they did with mororder.

oh, i thought they were friom the uk but i guess they were just more successful there.

I adored Sparks!! I had their album Kimono My House and another album of theirs which the title escapes me now. The single This Town Aint Big Enough For The Both Of Us is sheer classic!!

I also had pictures and posters of Russell Mael all over my bedroom wall in my late teens/early 20s!! He was so pretty and sexy!!!

The Mael Brothers were such opposites, with Russells' brother sitting so stoic on the keyboards looking like a cross between Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler!!!

I cant beleive that they are still going all these years later!!

I adored Sparks!! I had their album Kimono My House and another album of theirs which the title escapes me now. The single This Town Aint Big Enough For The Both Of Us is sheer classic!!

I also had pictures and posters of Russell Mael all over my bedroom wall in my late teens/early 20s!! He was so pretty and sexy!!!

The Mael Brothers were such opposites, with Russells' brother sitting so stoic on the keyboards looking like a cross between Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler!!!

I cant beleive that they are still going all these years later!!

dancerella said:

miss dance, I will admit, I got into Sparks through my fascination with Moroder, so I kind of trailed his productions and led to this. And, WOW, it was a find. As far as "Beat The Clock," I prefer the 12 inch version over the album version that I have. It's much more intense musically.

I've been meaning to check out Moroder's other projects around this same Computer Disco era like the stuff he did Munich Machine, but it's so hard to track those discs down.

I wanna check out "Dance God Damnit." That has me written all over it. lol

Yeah, it's no biggie, Scissor Sisters come off as very UK, too and they're a New York band. Even The Killers (a Vegas act) have that whole British thing going on with their sound and style. Can't blame 'em!