Sparks Spectacular - June 2008 |
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Originally Sparks were formed under the name 'Halfnelson', the name of their debut album, but if you're reading my website you'll know that wikipedia has a good page devoted to Sparks and their history. As I mentioned on the previous page devoted to Sparks, at the end of 2007 there was an announcement that the Mael brothers would be performing their entire back catalogue of albums in 2008. In February 2008 the Sparks website, www.allsparks.com announced the tour dates. I was excited to read that there was a sponsorship option! The website said:
We are delighted
to announce that the online auction to sponsor the Sparks
Spectacular is now open. Receive two tickets for the show Receive a Spectacular programme signed by Sparks Meet Ron and Russell Mael before the show and, subsequently, receive a souvenir photograph of the sponsor with Ron and Russell. I watched the auction in anticipation, eventually bidding on two nights 'No.1 in Heaven', and 'Balls'. A day before the auction ended I received an email advising that someone had placed a higher bid on the nights I was interested in. I decided not to increase my bid on 'No.1 in Heaven', but I increased my bid on 'Balls' and added a bid for the last night, the first performance of their new album 'Exotic Creatures of the Deep' (or ECOTD for short). The next evening, after the auction had ended, I received three emails advising me that I had one all three nights I had bid for. This was rather strange as I had supposedly been outbid on one night. An email exchange with Lucy Wiggington of Republic Media, the management company, initially did not go well. I politely explained that I had not expected to win all three nights and would pay for 'Balls' and 'ECOTD' but would like another bidder to have the opportunity to sponsor 'No.1 in Heaven'. Lucy sent a rather terse email insisting that I must pay for all three nights. This made me mad and I said that I wouldn't pay for any, suggesting she explain to her manager what this would mean in terms of lost revenue. Looking back I sometimes wish I hadn't paid for the nights. Later, when I had calmed down, I sent Lucy a copy of the email I received regarding the higher bid on 'No.1 in Heaven' and we reached an agreement that I would pay for 'Balls' and 'ECOTD'. However, having contacted a number of other sponsors, I suspect that Republic Media may have deliberately engineered the auction to 'persuade' bidders to increase their bids. I wonder if my increased bid on 'Balls' was really necessary, I feel I was ripped off by Republic Media. Lucy sent a number of confusing emails, with different times for collecting tickets, meeting the band and collecting a signed poster and CD; that never materialised, as they were for Golden Ticket holders only. I suppose that people who pay to sponsor the Sparks concerts aren't considered as important as the people that buy tickets to every concert night, although it would have been less expensive to buy a golden ticket. My first concert night, the 8th of June, approached. It was very quiet on the door at the Carling Academy Islington and collecting my tickets took just a moment. I brought a bunch of flowers for Lucy to help the evening go smoothly. In good time Lucy came out to meet me and explain the details for meeting the band. At around 8.30pm I was taken with my guest behind the stage to wait for the guys. Meeting the guys in a stairwell had a rather 'grubby' feel to it, but as a friend suggested, it's all very 'rockstar' in the best tradition of Spinal tap. Russell came up the stairs in a very fancy suit and we shook hands. He thanked me for sponsoring the night. Russell then kindly signed the programmes for the evening and we chatted while waiting for Ron to make his appearance. I guess Russell was a little shy or nervous as when I said I had a question he looked quite worried! I asked him if he'd ever considered working with producer Trevor Horn, one of my favourite producers, as I though a pairing of my favourite band and producer could be very interesting. Ron arrived and while the photographer took some pictures we chatted about their brief interview and performance on BBC TV before Ron kindly signed the night's programme. It was Ron, with a cheeky grin and a twinkle in his eye, that seemed to be the 'bad boy' of the pair. It is interesting to note that Ron was 60 at the time of the concerts. The concert was a blast, although there was a slight technical hitch as Russell's radio mic died in the middle of one of my favourite tracks - Aeroflot. He shrugged off the problem with a little light humour and he carried on with a wired microphone. I have a video of the opening title track 'Balls' on youtube that you can see here.
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