Irriverent, stylish and gleeful, the brothers Ron and Russell Mael, Los Angeles natives, commenced inventing their often-copied, seldom-equaled brand of music back around 1970, when pop was young and brash and the Southern California airwaves awash with a contingent of post-British invasion inspirations like The Kinks, Barretts Floyd, and The Seeds. After becoming Sparks, they almost reached the Hot 100 with the single Wonder Girl; and 1972′s dinky A Woofer in Tweeter’s Clothing signed the band’s cult status. The icebreaker came from across the pond, where the band had been welcomed enthusiastically by Continental types on a brief 1972 transatlantic jaunt. In quick succession the Maels parted ways with their LA compatriots; hopped a plane to Heathrow; recruited a group of London players-about-town to back them; and in 1974 began recording (with producer Muff Winwood) the album that would make Sparks a Kimono-My-House-hold name in the UK. Within 8 months of emigrating, the group had infected the Isles with the melodic diabolism of the #2 hit This Town Aint Big Enough For Both of Us, regularly frightening the nations children with their Top of the Pops appearances …
Read the sparkography and have fun on http://www.allsparks.com/, Sparks’ brilliant site
