#russell mael
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The Revenge Of Two Hands One Mouth - O2 Academy Bristol (November 27, 2013)
by Adam Gasson
After 11 years of not finding a single photo from this show, I found these yesterday! I can not begin to express what this means to me, I nearly cried and I couldn't sleep last night. I was still a rather new fan and this was my first time going to a show in the UK, the first show I went to see with a friend, and my first time meeting that friend, too. And these above photos are SO GOOD! Not much was preserved from this show at all, there was no recording allowed (no charcoal drawings either), and to my knowledge not even the full setlist for this specific show was preserved anywhere. So better late than never, but here's what I remember (with some help from these photos!) and the things I've puzzled back together:
If there was opening music or an opening act, i don't recall, but Russell entered the stage alone. It was dramatic and impactful, and it went quiet as he gave an intense stare into the audience and did a drawn out "ahhh" into the microphone. After a little moment of quiet, it turned out the microphone had been connected to a sequencer which now started repeating "ah ah ah ah ah ah". Suspense, excitement. Russell added: "Hold, hold, hold, hold". (...I was definitely freaking out.) While that started looping on top of the ah ah ah sequence, he made stop signs with his hand as we all listened. A few repeats passed. "I'm getting mixed signals, mixed signals - mixed, mixed, mixed signals".
^ the only seconds of this show I recorded as I didn't yet know it wasn't allowed - security signed at me and I put the camera away. It was fine. (Here's a recording of it made during the US tour later that year - recording seemed to be less frowned upon at that point.)
I don't recall when Ron entered the stage at this show, whether it was during the song or after, but what a way to open! And what an amazing song choice!
The performance that left the biggest impression on me at this show though was Nicotina. It was a choice I didn't see coming, but also the way Russell sang it! Falsetto heaven. (Sadly not a single video is to be found of Nicotina from this tour. But for your falsetto heaven needs, I hope you can find a video of Here In Heaven that they also performed on this tour, because that will also kill you.)
As everyone here probably knows I am quite big on Bergman, which at the time was heavily promoted during the tours, and, the excerpts they played on this tour were different from what they played during Two Hands One Mouth! They played "I Am Ingmar Bergman", The Studio Commissary (my favourite song on Bergman), Limo Driver (but sang by Russell, and HOW!) and "Oh My God". (Here's a video of it from one of the American shows. It's extremely good. People who've been around for a while have seen me lose it over this video many times.)
The most unexpected song choice was probably Katherine Hepburn. Me and my friend had been joking for absolute months that we were going to see Sparks and they'd play Katherine Hepburn (as if that would ever happen, we were obsessed with that song though!). And here we were, and they were playing Katherine Hepburn right in front of our eyes. (What is reality.)
Falling In Love With Myself Again had me losing it over the organ sounds, always a fan of Ron on organ, and I LOVE that song. Russell sang a line in my direction (I died), and he managed to throw another line at me during Those Mysteries ...I died a few times that night. As you might expect. That was kind of the whole THOM/TROTHOM experience anyway. Lots of dying. But the variety of dying where you end up in heaven. (You're at a Sparks show after all.)
They wrote a song especially for this tour, which was not released but only ever played live: Revenge Of Two Hands One Mouth. What a thing to experience! A very dark song, but wonderful. (REVENGE! REVENGE REVENGE!)
At the end of the show Ron took a photo of Russell with the audience. I don't really remember that happening, but the photo exists and it really was not a thing they did often back then. We had been a good audience :)
Here's all the songs that were probably played that night in random order:
Your Call's Very Important To Us. Please Hold., B.C., Good Morning, Here In Heaven, Academy Award Performance, Those Mysteries, Falling In Love With Myself Again, Big Boy, Nicotina, Popularity, This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us, excerpts from The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergman, Tryouts For The Human Race, Katherine Hepburn, Revenge Of Two Hands One Mouth. They likely also played The Number One Song in Heaven, When Do I Get To Sing 'My Way' and Suburban Homeboy. (I see mentions of How Are You Getting Home? and How Do I Get To Carnegie Hall? in setlists for this tour as well, which they very well might have played but I very sadly have zero memory of ever hearing those songs live.)
This tour had a real air of mystery, possibly even more so than Two Hands One Mouth, as the lack of existing footage definitely adds to it. But luckily some of it *is* out there, and I am so grateful for these photos :) On top of the songs I especially mentioned above, I would also advise people to look for recordings of Tryouts For The Human Race and Popularity from this tour, because the arrangements are probably not going to be the way you expect them to be. And as you might expect: B.C. is stunning live. (I could start a whole rant about Good Morning and Suburban Homeboy live but I think I sufficiently screamed about both in my personal notes on THOM the year prior.) Final note: I know Russell had some sort of dance move for Big Boy because me and another friend couldn't stop talking about it for months. I don't remember what he did, but both THOM and TROTHOM were wonderful for Russell dances <3
#I really needed to get that out of my system and onto the blog :)#I may do one of these posts for all shows I've seen at some point.#(I know I've yet to put my notes from 2023 on here and I've been working on them!)#sparks#sparks (band)#russell mael#ron mael#the revenge of two hands one mouth#trothom#bristol#november 27 2013#2013#10's#i was there#I put the whole story under a read more so that you don't have to deal with that if you just want to look at photos :)
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Round one
My Bloody Valentine
Formed in: 1983
Genres: Shoegaze
Lineup: Kevin Shields – guitar, vocals
Bilinda Butcher – guitar, vocals
Colm Ó Cíosóig – drums
Deb Googe – bass
Albums from the 80s:
This is Your Bloody Valentine (1985)
Man You Love to Hate – Live (1985)
Geek! EP (1985)
The New Record by My Bloody Valentine EP (1986)
Ecstasy (1987)
You Made Me Realize EP (1988)
Isn't Anything (1988)
Propaganda:
Sparks
Formed in: 1968
Genres: New wave, art pop, disco rock
Lineup: Russell Mael – vocals
Ron Mael – keyboards
Albums from the 80s:
Terminal Jive (1980)
Whomp That Sucker (1981)
Angst in My Pants (1982)
In Outer Space (1983)
Pulling Rabbits Out of a Hat (1984)
Music That You Can Dance To (1986)
Interior Design (1988)
Propaganda:
#round 1#my bloody valentine#sparks band#sparks#Kevin shields#bilinda butcher#colm ó cíosóig#Deb googe#russell mael#ron mael#the hottest 80s bands tournament#The hottest 80s bands tourney#tumblr polls#poll
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this is the album cover of all time, ron & russ u guys were craaaazy for this one
#sparks#russell mael#ron mael#sparks band#kimono my house#album cover redraw#fanart#70s#sparks fanart
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Top Sparks Headlines
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sparks- funny face (1981)
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Aaaaayyy
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'Shine and Dazzle in Sparky Fashion!': Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks, models and dog photographed for Mirabelle magazine, 1974
#oh mirabelle you never disappoint#i dont even know what the fuck sparky fashion is supposed to be i am crying#and what the dog doin#seriously why is there a dog.#ron wishing he could escape in the 3rd pic#again thank you to the person on fb who is posting these scrapbook clippings#spars#sparks#ron mael#russell mael
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Resuming my loving trawl through the frames of The Sparks Brothers documentary to post stills I haven't seen on tumblr yet.
#Sparks#Sparks band#Ron Mael#Russell Mael#they're shopping :')#(and I have so many screencaps to post!)#(so many pictures I hadn't registered while watching it without pausing before)
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The Ten Types of Sparks Songs
Song You Think Is About Sex Until You Read The Lyrics
Autobiography of Inanimate Object
Song You Didn't Think Was About Sex Until You Read the Lyrics
Jaunty Song About A Horrible Thing
I Guess This Is The Single
I Had Sex With A Foreign Girl
Hifalutin Song About A Silly Thing
Sing This Song About My Feelings Of Inadequacy You Bambi-Eyed Little Shit
Ron Mael Is Horny And He Wants You To Know About It
Oh No Actual Feelings
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some screenshots i took from the sparks brothers
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allsparks.com (2008 - 2014)
Screen recording of what the website used to be like. Not everything loads the way it's supposed to anymore, and the recording is rather speedy. Every time you return to the home screen there would be a different lyric on the typewriter, which I thought was really fun, and I love the sound effects! Unfortunately the discography section doesn't work at all anymore though, that was one of my favourite parts. It used to have a carousel where you could flip through all the albums, you could read the lyrics and also play some of the songs.
#sparks#sparks (band)#ron mael#russell mael#allsparks#sparks website#you can load it using the wayback machine if you've installed the Ruffle browser extension#a previous version of the website will also still partially load! Which is exciting as I had never seen it :) (may upload a video later)#there's one version from before that as well but I haven't gotten that to work. (yet?)
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Happy 50th birthday Edgar Wright!
I love Ron's pose in these!
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as posted by MOJO, I hadn't seen this one!
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A curated collection of Ron sitting like that
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✨🎶Sparks Fairground Organ🎶✨
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