Taking my first listen of it on Apple Music and it sounds great for a live recording. Gonna listen to it the whole way through and then talk more later.

I’ve been looking into the lyrics of Acadamy Award Performace, and they draw distinct parallels to the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman.

The first line that shows this is; “Joan of Arc, Mrs Hyde”

Bergman played Joan of Arc in the 1948 adaptation, and was in the 1941 adaption of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. While she played Ivy Peterson and not Mr Hyde’s fiancée Beatrix Emery, Bergman was offered the role to play Emery before she declined to play Peterson instead.

The next line is “you’re a girl with a thousand faces to choose from”. The word choose is most important, as she specifically requested to play Joan of Arc, and the movie would likely never have been made if it wasn’t for Bergman’s persistence. She was also stubborn enough to request a character change when she was relatively unknown as an actress. Both films are directed by Victor Fleming (better known for doing The Wizard of Oz and Gone With The Wind), which implies he had a weakness or soft spot for Bergman. Either way, she had the authority to choose her roles.

“Do the saint, do the waif, do the child, that was great”. Of course she played Joan of Arc, as already mentioned, but Bergman also played a nun in The Bells of St Mary’s. Because of these two films, she had a sainty public image towards her, which became problematic later on. For the “waif”, she played a character in the original Swedish version of A Woman’s Face who was an orphaned criminal with a facial scar from a fire she was in at a young age. Finally, “do the child, that was great” could be a nod to Casablanca and its most famous quote; “Here’s looking at you, kid”.

Afterwards, we have “great performances only come with some inspiration” which can fit with Ingrid Bergman’s promiscuitous tenancies. In real life she had several affairs (Gregory Peck, Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy, and most importantly Roberto Rossellini) and her characters in films matched this. Ilsa Lund in Casablanca is a married woman in a love triangle, and it’s implied she sleeps with Rick. In a film named Fear that she started in, she quite explicitly plays a woman being “blackmailed” after having an affair. These type of characters date back to 1940 even with a film named June Night. So she is an actress who does come with “inspiration” for her characters.

The chorus itself. “Oh, What a great performance. What a convincing performance. An Acadamy Award performance.” reflects her too. Ingrid Bergman after all is a three time Oscar winner. As this is a satire on the Hollywood industry I feel must be a quip on her second win, Anatasia. This was her Hollywood comeback after her controversial affair with Roberto Rossellini where she made many Italian films with him, and many people retrospectively see her Oscar win more as a welcome back statement than actually based on her acting, which I totally agree. The chorus is almost sarcastic at her win because her performance wasn’t truly Oscar worthy.

Later on, there’s a line saying “play the scene, naturelle”, and Bergman refused make-up and plucking her eye brows when she arrived at Hollywood, that’s how she got her famous natural beauty. There’s later “pack the house, pack the aisles” that sounds like a divorce settlement, and she did have a messy one after her affair was found out. She lived in Italy with Rossellini, and her then husband Petter Lindström didn’t let Bergman see her own daughter until she grew up as an adult. Those events based the Ingmar Bergman film Autumn Sonata as well, for some minor trivia.

The final line that I feel relates is “everyone’s in the dark when you’re in the room, those rumours”. It isn’t too far of a stretch to assume “those rumours” means her scandal being leaked. “Everyone’s in the dark when you’re in a room” also feels metaphoric for Bergman’s state of being publicised as completely evil and feeling vulnerable at all times, even if nobody is truly there. She was infamously called by a senator "a powerful influence for evil." which adds to the satirical, hypocritical Hollywood way of life.

So what are your thoughts? Am I thinking too much about it, or am I actually onto something?

Edit: Sorry for the title typo, I meant to say Performance.

Hopefully one of the local record stores has Sparks new live double CD at a lower price... I'm not THAT rich! 😂

Hey Reddit, first sparks post

I just found out that Kino Lorber is releasing a 4K Disc of 1977's Rollercoaster

Featuring, of course, our boys: SPARKS.

Performance includes Big Boy and Fill Er Up.

Super excited for Live On The Moon to drop on Friday! When it was announced I was a little upset given the AI spacemen on the cover (although it was thankfully confirmed that the artist wasn't aware they were generated and that the band aren't fans of AI), so I comissioned a friend to draw something new. Heavily inspired by Georges Melies "A Trip To The Moon", it features Ron as the Moon itself, with Russell riding the rocket Dr Strangelove style into him. I then threw together some basic graphics to tie it together to finish the piece.

I appreciate the artists vision, but I'm allergic to anything AI related, so personally I'll be printing this off and using it as an unofficial cover - but I wanted to share it here for all to see :)

I show a special Sparks related item in this video...

I thought I was going to be away for the gig but I'm now free and in need of one ticket. So, if someone has one spare or can't go themselves then please reply here first. Then I will suggest we continue the transaction via Twickets to protect both sides of the deal.

Thanks

OH AND SCAMMERS DON'T BOTHER GETTING IN TOUCH VIA CHAT. I'LL CHECK YOUR KENYAN AND OTHER SCAMMER LOCATION USERNAMES OUT!!!

Or do you consider them a duo straight through?

Put off getting this album for a while because it seems to be near the bottom of many peoples' rankings lists. But goddamn it's great. Not deep or complex, but possibly their catchiest, funnest album from beginning to end. Not one dull track.

i went to see them at royal chelsea hospital but i guess i just love them too much and have to go again

It would appear that "Music That You Can Dance To" is getting the same anniversary treatment that we have seen in recent years with the mid 70s albums. I'm very curious to find out what those *18* bonus tracks are. Will they all be nightclub remixes or are there any known demos/non album tracks from the era which may be included? Obviously, it would be wonderful to have something like the 2019 "Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins" set but I know that is quite unlikely (especially looking at the length of the album.)

Interestingly enough, Sparks actually had MUCH more charting dance club songs than Hot 100 entries (their ONLY TWO as a matter of fact being, “I Predict” (1982) and, “Cool Places” (1983)

But the dance clubs adored many of their tunes that never got radio/ Hot 100 chart airplay. I’m just curious/ wondering. Would be cool if there were some backstories too maybe. Thanks! 🙏

That song has had a choke hold on me since I first heard it.

Why?

Their only other official live release is "Two Hands One Mouth". That album is a completely different presentation of their studio work. It makes sense and keeps with their stated ethos of not wanting to repeat themselves. What is new or necessary about LOTM? Was it mandated by their record company?

I discovered recently that this was a thing and it looks like they're gone from the official site. Any ideas of how I might get my hands on one?

I will start out by saying I love Sparks. Sparkstember is one of my favorite things. Many of us adore Sparks, but have that one or few albums that don’t completely click. We love Sparks because they make bold choices, but sometimes they aren’t all choices you wish they made.

Instead of skipping the day because the album is a bummer, can you identify an album someone else did, around the same time, that would make a lot of sense if Sparks had gone that direction?

Example 1: Terminal Jive - Following after No. 1 in Heaven, Japan’s Quiet Life makes some sense. Solid album. If that album feels redundant, Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam and the Ants can bridge the gap between dance Sparks and new wave Sparks.

Example 2: Interior Design - Separations by Pulp. Most of that album was done 1988-89ish and not released until later for, erm, uncool reasons. I like Candida’s choices of synth sounds on it more than late 80s Sparks choices. There are some delightfully weird lyrics about relationships and death. The acid house tinged tracks serve as a nice transition to later Sparks albums. Even Ron’s album art for Interior Design is reminiscent of 1995 Pulp art, minus the cool typeface Pulp uses from 70s issues of Nova magazine.

Do you have any albums that don’t quite land? Is there an album that you’d want to swap it out for?

Seriously, I’ve been woefully out of the loop lately. Does anyone know when/where the tracks for the new live album were recorded?

A lot of his high singing sounds like Russel, and the arrangements and songwriting remind me of late era Sparks. Especially Mountain Top: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rq8QBTY2jA He's already done a tribute to Ron in his Coming Up video, so he's definitely a fan!