'What is the meaning of this strange obsession? It’s said that a man is defined by his work and friends. To me, a man is defined by his record and book collection. And, of course, the appreciation of the right type of fabric at the right time and place — Levi’s button-up 501s with the cuffs up an inch (enough to see the sock) — that’s pretty much all that’s needed for a man in the twenty-first century, right? Well, that ... and the twenty-one albums by Sparks.
'So, when I hear that my all-time favorite group (or obsession) — Sparks — is doing a series of twenty-one shows in London, each night devoted to a different one of their twenty-one albums, I think there’s absolutely no way I can miss this. But when I sit down to see what the trip might cost, it’s obvious that there wouldn’t be any possible way to make it. Then, just to be sure, I check again. Then again to be triple sure. By now, I’m quite secure with the fact that I can’t possibly afford to go to London for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I consider myself a responsible adult with a full-time job at a bookstore that my tax guy calls a hobby, and my publishing empire, TamTam Books. So, figuring my job and my additional career as a publisher of contemporary French literature that ninety-five percent of the population doesn’t care about, I realize that I really don’t make enough money to make this happen no matter how hard I try to convince myself that it could happen.
'Have you ever worked at a bookstore? Not counting a time when you worked part time while you were in school or abstractly as a writer immersing yourself in the atmosphere of books — but as a professional bookseller working full time to support yourself because that’s the career path that you’ve chosen? It’s the kind of life that can be counted as seasons go by — literally—because that’s how professional booksellers go through life ... by the catalog seasons that books are released. Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Fourth of July, Halloween, and then the ultimate season for the book buyers — Christmas. One measures the whole year and the four seasons when working full time as a professional bookseller. I really don’t have the time for twenty-one days in London to hear and see twenty-one nights of Sparks.
'Aside from Sparks, though, the number twenty-one keeps me attached to the idea of going. It seems to be a magic number that is calling out to me. And it dawns on me all of sudden that I live in the twenty-first century. (For whatever reason, my head is really into the twentieth century.) In the U.K., the twenty-one gun salute is especially marked for royalty; for the city of London, it is always a twenty-one gun salute. There are so many songs and book titles that have the number twenty-one (hardly any with twenty or twenty-two). And when I think of Sparks having twenty-one albums and doing twenty-one shows, man, that really stands out. It just rolls off the tongue and seems impressive. And the truth is, it really is impressive for a group to have twenty-one albums in their career and still carry on as if there’s no end in sight.
'I am also fascinated with the idea of writing about this experience of seeing Sparks. And it is obvious to me that I need to capture this experience on the page. A reasonable person, I guess, might fantasize about going to the shows, taking a few pictures, and jotting down a few notes. But I am an obsessed fan, and a book person. I need to explore all of this in words, book-length words. Sure, a picture can capture something that may take a thousand words to convey, but it can also be misinterpreted. Words expose the space between the letters and the joining of our careers as musicians (Sparks) and booksellers (Me).
'There just has to be a way to make this happen. I need to sacrifice all, go into debt, and jeopardize the stability of my life. But it all slowly reveals itself as an inevitability. I speak to my wife, Lun*na. She says: “You have to go, Tosh. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.” Those were the exact words I needed to convince me that I am not delusional (even though I am). Lun*na knows me like she knows every cinema house that’s playing Yakuza flicks in Tokyo. And that phrase ... once-in-a-lifetime. It’s dangerously similar to putting a red flag in front of an angry bull.
'So, do I go? Or do I falter and shake in front of mommy/daddy faith? Again, I look at the calculations on paper that scream at me: No way you can afford to do this! You’re insane to even consider it! With that logic running through my head, I choose to do what any reasonable person should do in this situation: Go! To do otherwise would be non-participatory with the world of greatness.' -- Tosh Berman
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Tosh Talks
Art your grandparents wouldn't like
'Gainsbourg Inside'
Frank O'Hara
'Mozipedia: The Encyclopedia of Morrissey and the Smiths'
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Further (Tosh Berman)
Tam Tam Books
Tosh Beman @ goodreads
Tosh Berman @ Soundcloud
'Exotic Creatures: Tosh Berman on Sparks'
Tosh Berman 'Fantômas, My Love'
Tosh Berman interviewed by Kristian Goddard
'Agent Provocateur: Tosh Berman gets under the French skin'
'american rive gauche: an interview with tosh berman' @ 3AM Magazine
Book: Tosh Berman 'Wallace Berman Support the Revolution'
Buy 'Sparks-Tastic'
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Ron Mael Giflery
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Further (Sparks)
The Official Sparks Website
Sparks Official @ Facebook
Sparks Discography
Sparks documentary film made from found footage
Sparks interviewed @ The Quietus
Sparks Fan Blog
Fuck Yeah Sparks
puncture, Sparks, boom!
Sparks Fan Site
Ask Russell Mael
'Swan Song: Russell Mael'
Another Sparks Fan Site
Buy the albums of Sparks
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Sparks live in London 2008
'Angst in My Pants'
'The Decline and Fall of Me'
'Mickey Mouse'
'Eaten by the Monster of Love'
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Interview
Garrett Caples: As a younger music listener, how did you react to how radically the group would change its sound from time to time? Did you ever find a new period of their work off putting or were you always up for their new material?
Tosh Berman: Over the years, two things don’t change: Russell’s voice and their songwriting abilities. Not every song they wrote is a masterpiece but every album has a “masterpiece” moment or two. In the mid-’80s to the late ’80s their albums were so-so with some incredible highlights. It wasn’t till the ’90s they got on a groove that never failed them. When you are a fan of a band or artist you have to take the whole catalog in consideration. When you look at one’s entire career, a weak album is just a stop sign or rest stop. They rested at the rest stop and then went on to make incredible themed albums. In my opinion as they got older, they made more interesting and totally new sounding albums. In that sense, they remind me of Scott Walker, in that I think it’s a mistake to separate Scott’s early recordings from the later stuff. It’s all one work, and in a way Sparks-Tastic conveys or takes notice that Sparks is a lifetime work.
GC: For the 2008 concerts in London, did you have a “golden ticket” to see them perform every album or did you attend select shows? What was it like to see modern-day Sparks rip through their vintage material like Kimono My House or Propaganda? Can you pick a favorite show or shows from the entire run?
TB: I went to every show. At first I was just going to go to the first or second show, but realized that this is probably the most important series of shows ever in my life, and therefore I have to go to all of them. No matter how much it will hurt me financially or the pressures on my family life. It was then that I decided to write a book on my experiences which turns out to be Sparks-Tastic. The most memorable shows, strange enough, are the albums that I didn’t care for. Seeing and hearing them doing songs that I thought were weak at the time was a real eye-(ear)-opener for me. A recording is a recording, and live music is a totally different medium. My re-introduction to hearing the albums live like Interior Design (1988), which I didn’t like that much, all of sudden became one of my favorite albums.
GC: How did you wind up becoming friends with them? And, without meaning to pry, can I ask, what sort of things do you guys discuss, if not music? Art? Books? Film? Are they Wallace Berman fans?
TB: I was working at Book Soup and Russell came in to get a book wrapped as a gift, and at that time I was putting together the final touches to the Serge Gainsbourg novel, Evguenie Sokolov for my press. I needed an afterword and I thought, “Why not ask him to do it?” So in that weird 10 seconds, I said to him, “You are one of my favorite singers and would you be interested in writing something on Serge Gainsbourg for my press?” He was kind of enough to say “Thank you and sure.” And he wrote a beautiful piece for that book. Some months later I met Ron at a Jacques Demy screening in Santa Monica. What we have in common is a great love for Japanese curry. It’s kind of weird but I also saw them in Tokyo. I plan vacations around their schedules! Luckily they never had me arrested or put out a restraining order on me (yet).
Both Ron and Russell have a great appreciation for the visual arts, so yes they knew/know who my father was/is. The great thing about Ron and Russell is that they are very much Sparks-like. They’re very mysterious and I never want to break that mystery. The mystery is a big appeal for me. I write about that in the book.
GC: What made you decide to turn this experience into a book? Can you describe the project a bit? (Obviously it’s more than just an account of going to concerts.)
TB: The book idea came right away to me. It was one of those moments when I thought “I am going to London and going to every show.” The second thought that came seconds later was “I am going to write a book about this.” Sparks is very much part of my background for the past 30-something years. I wanted to write about that as well. But also I have a deep interest in London and its culture. As well as Paris. And with this book, with the focus on Sparks, I can comment on my life, as well as my deep interest in those two European cities. It is not just Sparks’ music but also people like French filmmaker Jacques Tati, Charlie Chaplin, The Kray Twins, Hitler, and Walt Disney, among others. But all of that is filtered through my eyes/ears while listening to Sparks. I think a great artist conveys a bigger world through their work—and Sparks lead me to Tati, and to re-think Chaplin’s work. I am also interested in brothers that work together. Everyone from Ray & Dave from The Kinks to the deadly Kray Twins. Ron and Russell are unique because to me they work as one. The book I have to point out is not a band biography, but more of a memoir with side trips into London and Paris culture. But all of it is filtered through the Sparks aesthetic and influenced by their work.
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Book
Tosh Berman Sparks-Tastic: 21 Albums and 21 Nights in London with SparksBarnacle Books
'Sparks-Tastic chronicles Sparks and their infamous 21-night "Sparks Spectacular" May-June 2008 residency in London playing 21 successive nights and each of their albums in chronological order. In 2008, Tosh Berman—author and publisher at TamTam Books—got on a plane with a single motive: "Sparks Spectacular." It was announced that the band would perform all 21 of their albums in a succession of 21 nights in London…a monumental experience for any Sparks fanatic. Part travel journal, part personal memoir, Berman takes us through the streets of London and Paris, observing both cities' history and culture through the eye of an obsessive Sparks fan's lens, Including an album-by-album review of all the works by Sparks.'-- City Lights Bookstore
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Excerpt
Angst In My Pants (1982)
May 30, 2008
Encore: “Minnie Mouse”
I spent the early afternoon walking around Camden Lock, the Melrose Avenue of London. One boring hippie-dippie shop after another. When I first came here in the eighties it was fun, but now it’s pretty much the same merchandise in every shop, and the marketplace got bigger.
The only good thing about my walk (besides the exercise) is that I found a used copy of Richard Allen’s novel Glam. Allen wrote a series of books dealing with youth cultures such as mods, skins, and glam kids. The books are basically pulp nov- els geared to their subject matter. I also found a seventies paperback copy of The Gary Glitter Story by George Tremlett at the used bookstore in Camden called Black Gull Books.
I thought Glitter’s story would be interesting so I bought it. I would read this book before going to bed—it seemed to be a reasonable book to read while in London. Glitter, according to this biography, is not interesting at all. But because of his interest in underaged girls, the public liked to keep tabs on him. Gary Glitter is interesting to me because of his history as a pop singer before glam made him popular for a few years. Like Bowie and Marc Bolan, he struggled for years before he found his magic and became the Glitter King. His downfall in Vietnam doesn’t interest me that much. His sexual taste is not what makes him interesting, but his showbiz history is something else.
Tonight, the night of Saturday, May 31, there is great fear in the media regarding a new law that, as of June 1, drinking will no longer be permitted in public, including in the tubes and on the buses. This sounds logical to me, but apparently is not logical to the British population. There are plans for drinking parties in various tube stations and on buses. Going to the Sparks show tonight is not going to be the most pleasant experience, is it?
That said, Sparks is on fire for Angst In My Pants and there was again a totally new audience there that evening. Older fans are disappearing and young university students are replacing them. This is the first show where I have noticed that the audience does not fit with the date of the album’s release. Did they come to the wrong show by accident? No. They know all the songs. It seems that youngsters pick up on something about this album as their own. Some Sparks material never ages. Never part of the world, yet always wanting to have some part of the world. Sparks is the perfect place for us misfits, because the music expresses the world that we want but can’t have. Come to think of it, that’s a perfect place for youth to occupy.
Throughout The eleven shows so far, faces have come and disappeared, but there is a girl who has been to every single one. Tonight she is dressed like Minnie Mouse for the song “Mickey Mouse,” which is on this album. My attention is on her because she reminds me of an old girlfriend from my more pathetic school years. The girl I see at the show looks like she walked out of my distant memory into real life. There is something either very sweet or very dangerous about her. She has been to all of these shows and is always by herself.
I sense a lot of the people here in the audience are loners by nature. One can tell because they bring a book with them and read it in the hall before the show starts. When I see this particular girl or the book fiends here I realize that I belong to this crowd that belongs to no one. There was a tinge of an urge to talk to the Minnie Mouse girl, but the fact is I don’t really have an interest in her that much or care to know her world. The fact that she’s here and will likely be at the other shows as well was a warm feeling for me. Why destroy a perfect moment of bliss? I will never be disappointed and therefore always will be in an afterglow.
I have a very strict dress code for this trip. All black. Not original, I know, but very practical. Before I left for Paris I purchased seven long-sleeved black t-shirts, one pair of black Levi’s, various underpants from Muji Paris, a black hooded sweater, and a pair black and white Converse. I also cut my hair very short. I didn’t want any hair problems or to even think about appearance while I was on this trip. I am here on a mission and therefore I must dress appropriately.
It’s interesting to see how the audience interacts with the music onstage. Most know all the words to the songs and they are totally into the show and nothing else. They’re not chitchatting (thank God) with each other, except to make a quick comment on what’s happening onstage. Sparks fans are unique in that there is something private about them, like the Minnie Mouse girl who is dressed up that way not for someone else, but for herself. She is a person who is totally lost in her private world; I presume Sparks supply the soundtrack to her life. A Sparks fan just gets it. They don’t need to have Sparks to explain their aesthetic.
Walt Disney is an important figure in the Sparks’ world. There are at least two specific songs dealing with Disney — “Mickey Mouse” and “Minnie Mouse.” Disney was a man with a plan. He single-handedly created and transformed a world within a world.
Whether one likes him or not (and I am not crazy about him) he made a place that had its own logic (Disneyland) and a world where childhood never ends. On the surface Disney is a children’s figure, but grown-ups tend to have a strong emotional pull to Mickey & Co. as well.
I have only been to Disneyland once, when I was eight years old. The amusement park is exactly the same age as me, so my existence in a sense has always been tied to Disneyland. I can’t imagine a world without Disneyland. I remember watching the Mickey Mouse Club on television and playing the soundtrack to Disney’s version of Zorro on a Disney portable record player when I was a kid.
The one and only trip to Disneyland I have ever taken is permanently etched in my brain. I remember going there with my mom and my grandmother, Martha. My favorite part of Disneyland was the gift shop on Main Street where my mom and her mom bought me glass statuettes of Peter Pan and Captain Hook. The size appealed to me at the time because of Tinkerbell, who I had a crush on.
Disney’s Peter Pan was always the most interesting to me. A child’s unwillingness to grow up and take on responsibility affected me well into my twenties. In the beginning of this book, I mentioned my fear of growing up, which is, in many ways, the thing that most attracts me to Sparks. They refuse to grow up in a world not of their making. Like Peter, there is no natural home for Sparks.
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p.s. Hey. This weekend, the blog has the great honor of celebrating a brand new book by the very great writer, publisher, man about town/world, and d.l. Tosh Berman. As an awesome bonus, we also get to celebrate, via Tosh, the very great band Sparks, who are very high in my personal pantheon of all time most genius musical creators. Have a wonderful time, as I'm sure you will, and talk to Tosh of his and your wonderfulness, please. And thank you so much, Tosh, for giving this place the privilege. ** White tiger, Hi, Math. I will remember. I'm seeing her shortly, and I'll report back on Monday with the birthday scoop. So happy for you about the license and everything it indicates, pal. Love, me. ** S., Hey. Kind of a spooky one. Spooky is great. Everyone, here's S.'s new Emo stack to help get you through what would otherwise have been a longer and deprived weekend. Really? Ick? I don't think I've ever had a fish tank, so I don't know. The keeping it clean part seems like ick for sure. I like fish, I think. But even when I ate animals, etc., i.e. pre-my 16th birthday, I never liked eating fish. Yuck. Underwater hotels have an allure for me too, but I don't think I'd actually want to check in. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, David. I think 'Days of Heaven' is third favorite Malick. Or around third. Thirdish. Third or fourth maybe. I did see 'LoA' in 70 mm once, now that I think of it. At the Cinerama Dome. Part of that of 70 mm film series they seem to do every few years. ** Tosh, Hi, Tosh, man of the 48 hours and then of eternity. Thank you so much again for helping me make this weekend a possibility. Interesting about fishes' evil. I'm suddenly much more interested in them. Have a lovely pre-Monday spate of time! ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T. Very excited about the announcement of your imminent Kiddiepunk book, man! The L'Oceanogràfic photos really grabbed me too. I have this feeling that the toppled, sinking illusion might not be so convincing or charismatic in person, but who knows? Yeah, Jeff Hanneman, so sad, so RIP. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi, Ben. I checked that to be sure too, actually, ha ha, hoping that I was right because 29 aquaria sounds too stuffy and pretentious or something. Yep, your art piece is definitely one of those zeitgeist defining and capturing entities. Thanks for the link to the Mike Kelley interview. I don't know I can take the sadness of watching it, but I'll bookmark it, and I'm very happy to have it. ** Steevee, Yuck. That almost if not quite makes me glad I'm uninsured. Don't know about 'Safe House', hm. Obviously, I love your film idea, man, and I hope you do it. ** Chilly Jay Chill, Hi, Jeff. Interesting and cool that Michael Silverblatt liked 'UC'. He has pretty impeccable tastes, after all. I so need to see that, hopefully before 'Primer', but, if the latter is easier to see, no big. No, I haven't read at TG book. Curious about it, though. Bon weekend. ** Sypha, Hi, James! Interesting to read your take on that TG book. ** Paul P., Wow, Paul, holy shit! How cool to see you here! Very sweet about that zine, and I'm highly anticipating its arrival. Thank you a lot for having Andrew Roth send me a copy. The book, right. Thank you for reminding me. Well, right this very moment would be tough because I'm leaving on Tuesday for a 2 1/2 week road trip through Scandinavia, and then the new Gisele piece premieres on the 29th. So, I am unfortunately really busy for the next few weeks, but then I'm freer. When would you need the contribution? Lots of love to you! ** Okay. Tosh and Sparks await you. Have a superb weekend in their finest of companies, and I will see you back here on Monday.