Sparks announce live tour in support of new studio album
January 30th 2023. Having previously announced 2 nights at London’s Royal Albert Hall and 3 performances at Primavera Sound Festival in Spain and Portugal, Sparks announce a run of dates in Europe, North America and Japan.
Starting in Oxford on May 23rd and running through to July 25th in Tokyo, the tour will see the band play some of the largest venues of their 50+ year career. The venue for the hometown show in Los Angeles will be revealed soon. Speaking about the announcement Ron and Russell Mael said:
“We are thrilled to be back on tour again and to be able to share our joy with so many Sparks fans around the world. See you all soon!
It’s a Sparks show, a Sparks show, a Sparks show tonight!”
The tour announcement follows the recent news that the band have re-signed to Island Records, the label that released their astonishing breakthrough record Kimono My House in 1974, for the release of their 26th studio album. Described by the band as a record that is “as bold and uncompromising as anything we did back then, or for that matter, anytime throughout our career” the new album, ‘The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte’, will be released on May 26th.
Tickets go on general sale Friday, February 3rd at 10AM.
All ticket links allsparks.com/#tour
Pre-sales:
Sparks Fan Club – Tuesday, January 31st at 10AM
Maeling List – Wednesday, February 1st at 10AM
Tour dates
| May | 23 | Tue | UK | Oxford | New Theatre |
| May | 24 | Wed | UK | Liverpool | Royal Philharmonic Hall |
| May | 26 | Fri | UK | Glasgow | SEC Armadillo |
| May | 27 | Sat | UK | Manchester | The Bridgewater Hall |
| May | 29 | Mon | UK | London | Royal Albert Hall |
| May | 30 | Tue | UK | London | Royal Albert Hall |
| June | 2 | Fri | Spain | Barcelona | Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona |
| June | 8 | Thu | Spain | Madrid | Primavera Sound Festival, Madrid |
| June | 10 | Sat | Portugal | Porto | Primavera Sound Festival, Porto |
| June | 13 | Tue | France | Paris | Le Grand Rex |
| June | 14 | Wed | Netherlands | Utrecht | TivoliVredenburg, Grote Zaal |
| June | 16 | Fri | Denmark | Copenhagen | Store Vega |
| June | 18 | Sun | Germany | Berlin | Tempodrom |
| June | 20 | Tue | Belgium | Brussels | Cirque Royal |
| June | 27 | Tue | USA | New York | Beacon Theater |
| June | 28 | Wed | USA | Philadelphia | Keswick Theatre |
| June | 30 | Fri | USA | Washington DC | Lincoln Theatre |
| July | 1 | Sat | USA | Boston | The Wilbur Theatre |
| July | 3 | Mon | Canada | Toronto | Danforth Music Hall |
| July | 5 | Wed | USA | Chicago | Copernicus Center |
| July | 6 | Thu | USA | Milwaukee | The Pabst Theater |
| July | 8 | Sat | USA | Kansas City | Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland |
| July | 9 | Sun | USA | Boulder | Boulder Theater |
| July | 12 | Wed | USA | Dallas | Texas Theatre |
| July | 13 | Thu | USA | Austin | ACL Live at the Moody Theatre |
| July | 16 | Sun | USA | Los Angeles | to be revealed |
| July | 24 | Mon | Japan | Osaka | Namba Hatch |
| July | 25 | Tue | Japan | Tokyo | Line Cube Shibuya |
About Sparks
Most other musicians, when they’ve been working for over half a century, are resting on their laurels, basking in the warm glow of their heritage, accepting the odd Lifetime Achievement Award, playing the odd Greatest Hits tour and concentrating on shifting their back catalogue. But Sparks are not most other musicians. They are utterly unique.
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.
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 synthpop, 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 acrobatic vocals 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 recognised by successive generations of artists from Joy Division to Duran Duran to Depeche Mode to Bjork to Beck to The Darkness and beyond. Their influence on music cannot be overstated – as super-producer Jack Antonoff recently declared “all pop music is re-arranged Sparks”.
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, which almost swept the board in France at that year’s César and Lumières Awards with eight wins and seven nominations across the two ceremonies, including the César for Best Original Music, and also fared well elsewhere, with a Golden Globes nomination for Cotillard, and ‘So May We Start’ shortlisted for Best Original Song at the Oscars. Focus Features have recently announced the studio is developing X-Crucior a musical epic written by Ron and Russell.