Sparks Announce Two Shows At London’s Royal Albert Hall

Sparks – Ron and Russell Mael – have announced two shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 May 2023.

Having recently teased both a new album and tour for 2023, the Los Angeles brothers have revealed the first dates saying: “Since we first started playing music, the Royal Albert Hall has been the pinnacle of British music venues for us and a place we’ve always aspired to play. These shows are a dream come true!” Tickets for Sparks Albert Hall shows go on sale on Friday, November 25 at 10am local time.

Levels of interest in the work of Sparks are at heights unsurpassed in their 50+ year career, with the ultimate cult band now centre stage in the full beam of the spotlight. Having played an extensive world tour in 2022, Sparks’ renaissance continues with the announcement of the band’s largest headline UK shows to date.

Most people, with even a passing acquaintance with Sparks, will know the basics by now. How Californian brothers Ron and Russell Mael, both students at UCLA, began making music together in the late Sixties, originally under the name Halfnelson. How their Top Of The Pops debut with “This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us” stunned a generation and nearly scored them a UK No.1. How their career moved through many phases, including (but not limited to) art rock, glam, big band swing, electro-disco, new wave and synth-pop, taking in collaborations with Todd Rundgren, Les Rita Mitsouko, Tony Visconti, Franz Ferdinand and Giorgio Moroder.

How keyboardist and songwriter Ron’s intricate staccato arrangements combine with the hysteria-pitch falsetto in which Russell delivers his brother’s always-on-point lyrics. How Ron’s stillness and stern, intimidating visage contrasts onstage with Russell’s hyperactivity. How their popularity has spiked unpredictably in different territories at different times: Britain, France, Germany, Scandinavia, Japan, and their homeland the United States. And how the influence of “the greatest band you’ve never heard of,” or “your favourite band’s favourite band,” has been recognized by successive generations of artists from Joy Division to Duran Duran to Depeche Mode to Bjork to Beck to The Darkness and beyond.

Now into their sixth decade of making music, Sparks have never been more relevant. Once more Top 10 regulars, with studio albums Hippopotamus (2017) and A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip (2020) both reaching No.7 in the UK and receiving global acclaim, the lauded career-spanning documentary film The Sparks Brothers, directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver) and released in 2021, brought an awareness of Sparks to parts they previously hadn’t reached.

Sparks’ 2021 film musical Annette, directed by Leos Carax and starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, was showered with awards, especially in France where Carax won Best Director at Cannes, and where the film won three Lumières Awards and five César Awards including Best Original Music for Ron and Russell. Focus Features have recently announced the studio is developing X-Crucior a musical epic written by Ron and Russell.

Listen to the best of Sparks on Apple Music and Spotify.