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SPARKS TOUR 2025 (1/3) – Hammersmith Apollo, London, 18th June 2025

Oh my gosh! FINALLY! So, let’s do this. Let’s forget for a moment that Sparks Tour 2026 is starting next week. Or no, let’s not forget actually, let’s use this opportunity to get even more in the mood for Sparks tour fun! By reminiscing on the events of the past year. Let’s forget though that the show this post is about was over 10 months ago. We can forget that. Because I’m about to make it feel like it happened TODAY! Ok, joking. Or maybe not. It’s up to you to decide!

Similarly to the last time I made this kind of detailed show report, this whole thing will be long. AS FUCK. I'M SO SERIOUS. But I hope someone will still find it fun enough to read! I loved working on these! (even if I kept putting it off for 10 months). But I mostly love the fact that now, having put in the work, I can finally be safe in knowing that my memories of this incredibly special time won’t get lost to time forever. And maybe someone else will enjoy learning about it too!

And yeah, this first part will be the longest, so expect lots of talk about individual songs and what I enjoyed about them, among many other details of my Sparks adventures, both at the show and leading up to it. I also tried to do my best at describing the whole experience of seeing Sparks live for the first time and what made it all so special. Because it had been my biggest dream to see them live for almost two years at that point! And it was everything I could’ve hoped for, and more.

So anyway, here it is I guess. All about the three of the best days of my life. Enjoy!

before the show

Now, bear with me here, because before we get into anything, I need to paint the bigger picture for you all first. The two Sparks shows in London on June 18th and 19th were the culmination of my almost weeklong trip to London, which was an absolute dream come true in every way. I’d already been to London a couple months prior (ALSO to see one of my favourite bands live for the very first time, hehe. The aforementioned Long As Fuck post covers that, btw), but there was still so much to do and more places to see around the city this time. And one of the biggest things that made it as fun and memorable as it was would have to be the feeling of GETTING CLOSER TO SPARKS DAY BY DAY.

First, it was the album countdown I did for fun, which meant listening to one Sparks album a day until the day of the first show. And then, once we were here in London, everything was just getting realer and realer, in a way that I couldn’t fully process as it was happening even, but which was so endlessly exciting. It was things like seeing MAD! on a special display on sale in every record shop we dropped by, or even finding a MAD! poster at an underground train station on the eve of the show, along with locating the place where the official MAD! graffiti once was…

Seemingly small things like these had a very huge effect on me, because after the regret of missing out on most of the 2023 tour fun and not getting to participate in it in person at all in the end, this already felt like finally being there in the middle of it all. That whole thing of “I can’t believe this is all actually REAL and I am also literally here to see it” was such a constant mood during this whole trip and it just INCREASED STILL. Until *it* finally arrived. The day of the show.

That morning started very early for me, because I just woke up like that and couldn’t sleep at all anymore, so all I could really do was, well, listen to MAD! I guess? Finish my countdown as intended? I started feeling a bit weird the evening before, and like I was starting to have a little bit of a fever, but brushed it off as just me being nervous and excited and SO VERY NERVOUS about it all. Oh my gosh! The day I’ve always dreamed about! Oh, nothing could ruin it now.

We checked out of our hotel and took a quick train ride to the Hammersmith district to find the next hotel we were staying at. The weather forecast for that day was “deadly heatwave” and oh god, we already felt it, even at this hour. Soon enough it was 11 am, and having done all we needed to do for now, we could finally go find the venue, just about 10 minutes’ walk away from the hotel.

And when I tell you that seeing that building with the SPARKS marquee loom in front of us is a photographic memory for me to this day. It was still quite early, almost no one else to be found milling around, the venue was closed off and no one was queueing yet. It felt so strange to think about how soon this would be changing and that THE EVENT! was in fact HAPPENING. The wait felt so long to me, as someone who’s been a fan for certainly more than a month or something by now, yet also it felt like it was all just happening like it’s NOTHING! actually, and so suddenly, because weren’t they announcing the dates just a week before… Yet there we were, about to see Sparks. I was so ready for it but I also knew that no matter what, I would just not be able to fully comprehend how amazing it was for this to be finally happening.

There was nothing else to do for now though, so we decided to walk around and explore the area a little bit. It would turn out to be… not a very good idea. Because my fever thing was maybe actually not something to be ignored completely, plus walking around in the sun and in the heat drained us out so much, that by the time we were getting back to the hotel, I started to seriously worry that there was something wrong and I was getting sick for real. Now, try to get in my head about it for a bit and imagine how that could’ve felt. Do I even have to say it!

So the next big somewhat vague memory of the day was when we decided to go with a safe option for dinner and just dropped by the IKEA nearby, and I spent quite some time sitting in that IKEA, in that slightly desolated IKEA eating space, feeling so forlorn and wondering what I did wrong. This was supposed to be a day of fun and making new friends and seeing my favourite band, not crying over maybe being too sick to go after all and feeling so very nervous about everything. But mostly worrying. Oh my gosh, what an absolute awful joke of a situation.

But this couldn’t all just end like this. I had big plans! I HAD TO SEE SPARKS. Well, spoiler alert, it obviously all went well, I went to the show, I made it despite the whatever that started plaguing me. But I guess it wasn’t all fun and perfect the whole day, because nothing in life is. And it’s ok.

But before we even got back from dinner actually, my mum suggested this little activity for bringing back up the mood, which would be: write down your setlist predictions. Cause yeah, this was the big thing – I decided to go mostly offline for those 10 or so days after the tour started and before my show, so that it would all be a TOTAL SURPRISE AND EVEN MORE AMAZING TO SEE IN PERSON. And it was actually so awesome to know nothing about what to expect. Other than, yes, it’s Sparks, I know what they’re like, I’ve watched way too many hours of past Sparks live footage in the past couple months to not know some things. But sure, I could do my predictions. Even if I wasn’t really feeling it at all. Just AAAHHH how could I even know. I had my unfinished list of top new setlist wishes but this was a different thing… Put together a whole setlist song by song??

…so here are the funny results. I obviously gave up on spending enough time on it to fill it out with all the 20 or so songs they’d be playing. And this is funny to me, in the sense of “what the hell is that song doing in that spot or really at all” (except it makes total sense to me… but how do I explain why I was just about 80% sure that both PST and Antarctica would be played without going on an unnecessarily long tangent abt it… you’ll just have to believe I had my reasons). And it’s also funny to me in the sense of “but wait, I did predict the placement of at least one song, and isn’t that kind of awesome”.

But anyway. Do you agree with my placements? LMAO. Wouldn't you also have loved for the show to have opened with Hotel For The Fab?? I think I also had my legitimate reasons for thinking that might happen, but don’t really remember anymore. I guess this might still be fun to show you here, because it probably explains some of my later expectations I would carry into the show. Remember, you heard it here first: she really wanted Sparks to play My Baby’s Taking Me Home. And this WILL come up again, so be aware. Lol.

But back to the current situation, I still had to play it really safe and I accepted that I wouldn’t be able to get back to the venue and queue for as long as I wanted at first, so I rested for a while, as much as it was possible to rest and feel calm about anything at this point of the day (it kind of wasn’t, as you might expect). I had to remember thought that this was also the first show, there’s always the next one, not being in the first row once IS FINE!!

Anyway. It was about 4pm, the time was approaching still and I couldn’t be calm about it any more, when thankfully, my parents volunteered to take that walk to the venue first and see what the queueing situation was like now. So, eventually, I got that long awaited phone call back from mum, and from the looks of it, it was in fact high time to go if I still wanted to be able to not only get a good spot, but maybe also hang out and get to know other fans and give them my gifts that I had carefully prepared, because this was also in my ambitious plans for the day. My mum also sent me a photo she took of the place upon arrival, which was cool, but at the moment wouldn’t tell me much more than “yes, there’s people there. time to go and maybe meet the people. since that was the plan”.

But. On one random evening about 3 months later I'd be scrolling old messages on my phone for lack of better things to do, and see the photo again and look at it, but a bit more closely this time, and think:

"hmmm those guys walking on the left look kind of like Max Whipple and Eli Pearl, hahaha.

Wait. what.

WAIT. WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

So… my luck would have it that had I simply gone over there earlier with my parents already, I would have most likely run into the literal band members Just Like That. And also it kills me that my mum took the photo in the right exact moment to catch that. And just wasn’t aware at all. How does that happen. And then (some of) you don't even realize until months later . So, wow, can you imagine THAT being the thing to officially start my very first Sparks show experience. But ok, this isn’t the time for any more regretting of how things could’ve gone instead of how they went (and of course they went very nice, so more about that now).

So, time to get in the-

queue! queue time!

It was time to get there, and I got there. And it was finally happening. I mean, THE big thing was to happen very very soon, but this was already one of the big things. Holy shit! Sparks fans! Before Sparks I was also going to see Sparks fans! I had cool stuff like stickers and bracelets prepared too, so I really wanted to try giving some of them out to people. What I didn’t have though was self-confidence that would have helped me greatly with this, but turns out that’s just not something that you can gain through sheer willpower only in just one day. I knew this, and yet! It was all still so very nice though, another lesson learned – things don’t have to go exactly as planned for you to enjoy them. What!!!!! Yeah, I know.

So yeah, I got in the queue, which had actually just formed right before I arrived, and my spot in it was definitely not so bad. Maybe I could make it to the second row or something! I would still be close for sure, that was all that was important! But first – time to fill in these next few hours I was about to spend there.

So the main thing about queueing at my first Sparks show is that it was. So. Freaking. FUN!!! Gosh, literally one of the best parts of this entire trip, it was such a joy, and made the time pass by much faster for sure. We were definitely still dying in the sun out there, and only some people had the luck of catching the shadow from the building nearby, but all the little interactions I had in the meantime made it all so great and memorable. There were art trades happening (shoutout to @sonjadraws :D) and then of course bracelets trading too (shoutout to @where-did-the-groove-go :D). It was so super fun to talk to the other fans as a result of initiating those things too, and just participate in this whole community event of sorts thanks to that.

There was also a very nice moment when one fan came up to me to ask for a photo of my shirt and I remember having the littlest mind lag moment then, like, oh wait… Oh YEAH my BEAT THE CLOCK shirt. That shirt!! That I’m in fact wearing rn!!! I was so glad it resonated with people, because I’d been quite proud of the two designs I cooked up for the tour, hehe. And hey, another opportunity to chat and share more of my gifts around!! It was all just so cool and I think I did pretty good for it being a first time of me doing such a thing I guess. And oh my gosh, there are people out there in the world now who have my stickers and my bracelets. So beautiful. I remember spotting one of the girls who I handed my bracelets ahead in the queue all like wow… that’s a thing I made they’re wearing, out in the world.

Some other fun or funny moments I appreciated a lot or remember well to this day… 1) Getting to introduce my brother to WDTGG the only right way to do it as a Sparks fan: with the words “my big brother”. (this was the show I was attending with him, haven’t had an opportunity to mention that yet, haha) 2) Surely BEING THERE ALREADY at the moment when The Sparks car with Sparks inside drove by, but being completely oblivious to it at that moment, because I assumed that the excited shouting from people ahead in the queue must have been from them seeing their friends and greeting them or something. I DON’T KNOW, that’s the only way I can explain missing that completely, lolllll. Because I remember there being a moment like That and assuming just That about what it must have meant…

But another thing was also once again the fact that wow, this is truly real. People in my phone aren’t just in my phone. And Sparks fans are Real. And I’m here with my people who I share this very important thing with and they really get me in this sense. We all get each other. But even besides that, there was really such a simple joy even to just seeing all these folks in their Sparks Tour 2023 shirts, and MAD! shirts, and Hippopotamus shirts, and in their handmade shirts, and with their handmade merch, like Sparks patches, and jackets with Sparks patches, and bags with Sparks patches… and other similar things. And even their Hello Kitty gadgets occasionally, which was just so beautiful. So I wasn’t alone in doing my bit, as I had to bring a Hello Kitty pin with my bag, hehe. One thing I DID forget about though was my Hello Kitty CAP, which I regrettably forgot to pack back at home :( I was also expecting to see some Sparks backpacks or at least JanSport backpacks, but I couldn’t find any, which I guess makes sense, since you probably wouldn’t have been able to bring them inside.

Speaking of which though, the venue staff were so nice and brought people water so we definitely felt cared for in that queue. The heatwave wouldn’t stop us. Even if it did stop people from queueing in huge numbers for a pretty long time – I’m pretty sure it took until the last hour or a half before doors for more people to finally start gathering. Soon before doors I had to leave the queue for a tiny bit, and I remember going back to this news that oh shit, we were almost there, things were about to start happening very soon. The atmosphere of anticipation was so in the air already.

So, as we were getting ready for the grand opening, I had to run my plans by my brother too, because we had to make it quick, of course (within reason, of course) and try our best to get to the front, prioritising the left side of the stage. Because surely that would be the Russell side…! And I had to see Russell… Well. This was very important.

And so, just about right on time, the gates opened and we moved past security, which went very fast and without any problems, so before long we were inside and dashinggg over there. Within reason. (I still might have gotten a little bit of a scolding for zooming too fast while inside already, because the cool thing about this venue is that the floor gradually descends towards the stage! Very cool and probably makes visibility better even when you’re further away… not that we were going to find that out though!!! TO THE FRONT!)

And OH MY GOSH! Even with my failed plan to get there as early as possible to secure the best possible spot, we still made it! SECOND ROW, left side! And I could stand in a way that I had a perfect view between the people in front of me, so my view of the stage was pretty much unobscured. WE MADE IT! IT ALL WORKED OUT! AND NOW WE WERE THERE! AT THE SPARKS SHOW!

The legendary Ronald keyboard! All the other instruments, that MAD! drum cover, the mysterious lights set up in the back too – all within view. Just seeing the stage and knowing it’s Real REAL got me so much more hyped immediately. I was looking all around it with so much wonder and excitement. It’s THAT keyboard. It’s REALLY time for MAD! tour. It’s all happening!!!!!!

wait inside

…And now we had to wait again. But this really wasn’t as agonizing as I feared – what I assumed must be at least an hour ahead, which turned out to be an hour and a half, was actually not so bad.

So, what happened in the meantime? Well, a bunch of things actually! First of all, just being there in that cool as heck venue honestly kind of rocked. It definitely looked cool from photos already, but it was even cooler to see in person, and I loved the view of the balconies behind us. It’s a historical venue, so even knowing that added lots of coolness to the fact that we were there. And it was great to have access to water from our position in the front, where staff already started handing it out. It wasn’t QUITE as hot as in the sun outside, but still hot anyway. Still a lot to deal with.

Pre-show music was on and it sounded a bit like movie music but of a vintage kind, lots of dramatic strings here and there. I liked it a lot, it seemed exactly like the kind of music you’d expect before a Sparks show, haha. Although we actually couldn’t hear it THAT well, it seemed kind of muffled, at least until the volume started to increase as time went on. And since there wasn’t much else to do, I had to observe the environment more, and point out the awesomeness of the Ronald sticker on the keyboard to my brother, who seemed to find it cool indeed.

We discussed such important matters as “lots of people in here, huh” or “wow, that stage is getting foggy”. There really was LOTS of fog there. Really lots. Maybe too much. Hopefully we’d still be able to see the band once they came on though, lol. I did wonder about the lights more also, because in my complete “no idea what to expect” state, I would come up with totally random ideas. Such as: are my eyes deceiving me or do these lights in the middle of those squares look a bit like… the MAD! frowns. Imagine that Sparks emerge from the blue fog and there’s a wall of little MAD! frowns shining behind them. That didn’t happen, but it was probably a pretty fun idea, right?

When you’re just standing there, there’s also not much to do left, but to take glances at any sort of activity around you. One of the women in front of me was looking through her photos of Russell from the 2023 tour and it hit me again that wow, I’ll be seeing this guy in the real world in mere minutes. Then there was also this whole situation that was a bit nerve-wracking to me, because we were standing very close to one of the setlists, so eventually some of the people around us started taking photos of it and showing them around and discussing what was on it. And DUDE, I did NOT go through that whole ordeal of avoiding all tour news for several days just for it all to come to nothing minutes before the show!!! It was a bit funny, yes, but a little bit like damn, just when I thought I was safe from setlist spoilers, just when I thought I made it for sure… I did manage to get distracted for long enough to not see any of it though, but in one of my unfortunate glances I sort of picked up one of the titles of one of the songs, it was just one song though, and it actually made me MORE excited because, WHAT, they’ll be playing THAT ONE for real?? Rather than making me wish I didn’t know that. It was all good. And so exciting.

As the first hour passed, I realized this must mean no opener, right? So the tickets app lied to me about there being some sort of special guest? Well, another SURPRISE, I guess. I preferred it that way though tbh, because I still wasn’t feeling fully well yet, and would rather not spend more time standing around on this hot summer night than absolutely necessary.

Then, as time went on, one song in the background started with a strings sound that sounded a bit like the beginning of When Do I Get To Sing ‘My Way’?, which spooked me SO MUCH. But no, false alarm. Sparks didn’t go on stage completely unnoticed and start playing. Then there were also the crew people milling around on stage already, tuning the guitars, etc. There was also this one moment when one person sat down at Ron’s keyboard, and it was yet another scare of sorts for me. Because god, this WILL be Ron sitting down there in just a couple minutes. The Real Sparks. Oh my god!!!!! It was just too scary. Too exciting. People even started whistling and cheering at one point very soon before the hour-and-a-half hit, even though nothing was happening yet, as though just to freak me out even more for fun.

SHOWTIME!!!!!

But eventually, EVENTUALLY... The music stopped and OH LORDDD, it was about to happen!!!! The walk-on music came on, and it was so triumphant and dramatic (it’s from this btw, starting at around 3 minutes, if you’re curious. fun fact: when I try to listen to this now i clutch my head and start freaking out inside, I can’t do it. There’s too many Sparks feels. Get me out of here). These blue lights started moving around the stage and it was all too grand for any sort of opener action now for sure.

Sure enough, the backing band guys appeared, accompanied by applause, and it was like WAIT!!! THOSE GUYS ARE REAL TOO! (don’t tell me who was going to appear next). AND THEN! RON! He had this very Ron-like outfit that was all black and baggy (my mum would later name this his “ancient monk” look). But YEAH!!! RON!!!!!! The real Ron in the Real world! The sight of which filled me with the most unexplainable feeling known to humanity. And then!!! RUSSELL!! But oh my GOD, HOLD UP! THE FLOWERY SUIT!! YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING. I was so in awe of seeing Russell in his best outfit in the history of mankind that I couldn’t even fully freak out over the fact that I was seeing Russell at all.

I couldn't stop smiling and clapping along with the audience, all the while feeling like I’m looking at it all happen with a combination of the kind of feelings that can be expressed through emojis only, such as 🫪 and 🤩 and 🤯. Then Russell said “GOOD EVENING, LONDON!” in such a delightfully delighted way that I was full on Dying inside (/positively) at this point, and then, of course “We… are Sparks. So may we START?”. I turned to my brother, all :DDD ‼️‼️ and was just thinking OH MY GOSH!!! THEY’RE STILL PLAYING THIS SONG!!! I’M GOING TO HEAR SO MAY WE START!!! IT’S A DREAM COME TRUE!!!

So May We Start

It was just so, so surreal. I couldn’t believe I was really seeing it happen. Ron and Russell were real and just a couple meters away from me, the people who had been the main soundtrack of my life and my main driving force for the past two years, and who I owed so much, and who made my life better in uncountable ways. And I was hearing them play this song that I loved so much, in person.

That entire first minute or so was like a dream and I was just feeling even more and more in awe of what I was seeing and hearing. Russell was hitting all those poses just like I’ve seen him do it on countless live videos I’d watched and it just felt sort of fundamentally wrong for it all to be real now. Sort of like, WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE’S A REAL GUY AND HE’S DOING THIS ALL IN THE REAL WORLD TOO. And his voice was breathtaking!

Gosh, this was Sparks at their peak and Russell was absolutely OWNING that stage from the second he walked on. There was a sort of confident grace to all that he was doing, (take a look at 00:52 in this video if you want an example of what I mean, THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT!!!!) and then there was also the total mind-blowing element of the fact that it was all just happening in front of me like it was nothing. I was only allowed to see this on my phone screen until now, so how was it even possible to be seeing it with my own two eyeballs in the physical world too. In a way just, truly, how was it physically possible, because I even had this silly thought of, wow, he’s bouncing and all just mere meters away, with his boundless reserves of energy, and I felt like if it weren’t for all the loudness of the music and all, I’d be able to hear the air swishing around him as he jumped, lol. It was all so absurdly and tangibly REAL, it was just killing me in the best way imaginable.

But anyway, along with living it in the moment, I was of course also prepared to record some of it to be able to cherish it forever, and thanks to my brother lending me his phone for this occasion, which was actually really good for this kind of thing, I was able to succeed in this field too. So imagine my joy when THAT part of the song hit and Russell did his legendary SMWS leap and I caught it when it happened right in front of me. Then, the rest of the song was just getting better and better still, I was still in awe of how good Russell’s voice sounded (I especially liked how his voice went sort of guttural almost on “and if you want us to kill”) and when he kept doing all. those. moves!!! (“all the exits are marked, thought you should know”!!! I said I knew what to expect from many songs, but maybe not fully, the way he pulled off all these fun gestures to go along with the lyrics just floored me!!).

Until, finally! “The authors are here and they’re a little vain”... He bounced over to Ron, getting even more cheers from the audience, and we saw them both doing that classic Sparks show thing. It just meant so much for me to be able to see it all for real! Especially these fun and iconic moments like these! Their performance has so much personality, so even without the whole "they've been my number one favourite thing in the world for so many months now” element of it all, these little moments made the whole show even more exciting and fun! But yeah, taking ALL of it into consideration though… This was sort of like… seeing the Mona Lisa painted live in front of you. You know.

The excitement continued as we got the second SMWS Leap as well, of course, and the song evolved into its last triumphant chorus to end it all off, and then, without slowing down, went straight into our second song of the day…

Do Things My Own Way

That unmistakable click-clacky intro started, and wow, look! I predicted this! It made so much sense to me for them to play this song, the lead single from MAD! / the album opener as the second song, so it made me really happy to hear it.

But…! I actually wasn’t feeling this song live completely yet, somehow? Well, this is when the main problem of the day really comes in though: the sound at this show, which was definitely an issue and felt pretty unbalanced on our end (apparently it sounded better in other spots of the venue, further away from the stage). It wasn't a HUGE issue that affected my enjoyment of the concert TOO much, but an issue nonetheless. I feel like this song was affected by it especially, since it made it sort of muddly and too loud on the lower end of it, and I couldn’t hear Russell’s vocals very well. The bass was REALLY something to be felt in your soul. I kind of liked it that way actually! But felt like mayyyybe it wasn’t supposed to be as prominent. I also really enjoyed the blue lights and the way they shimmered in time with the beat. The whole song had a moodier, more ominous and even cooler vibe thanks to that.

Other than that, my main memory of this song is Russell just strolling to and fro and patrolling the entire stage for the whole duration of it, which was pretty fun (but definitely not making it any easier to record this song or take any photos XD). This would also be the ONLY SONG of the whole night that I’d end up not recording anything form, not even a short little clip. It just sort of happened, but I also didn’t know yet that the rest of the show would simply turn out to be THAT much of a show that I’d feel the need to document so much more of it. In a way, this song was a bit like a breather after that bombastic opener and before all the craziness that would follow shortly…

(Funnily, after I looked around a bit, it seems that this is also one of the very few songs from this show that there’s very little footage of to be found online. Almost NONE actually. So, wow, I guess we all decided to take a break on this one. Don’t even have anything to refresh my memory of it with… Well, there was still so much more to come though, so let’s move on to that!)

Reinforcements

First things first: Holy shit. HOLY SHIT!!! I didn’t even know what I was freaking out about yet when we went right into this song without much of a pause once again, and that piano melody started, and people went sort of nuts about it too. It was like I knew this was a BIG FUCKING DEAL, but had to process it for a second before landing on why. But soon enough we got to the verse and yep, I know now, it’s THIS SONG. You’ve got to be kidding, where am I, etc.

And it’s PROPAGANDA. My history with Propaganda, and with this song especially, is that it was the first album to successfully kickstart my journey into becoming a full-blown Sparks Freak, and this song was one of my biggest early favourites that I had from this band, if not even THE FIRST favourite song of theirs. Wow, could it be, this was the song on the setlist that was there sort of specifically for me. That’s how I’m going to think about it forever now I guess. The significance! Ohhh the personal significance!!! And yeah, let’s not forget how Rob Brydon surelyyyy made this happen back in May with that whole MAD! conversation thing happening, or at least predicted it. Magic? Or was it right in front of us all along?

But ok, let’s talk about the actual song now, lol. It was an absolute blast and I loved so many things about it, stellar vocal performance from Russ, plus more great moves, ala that “first the left flank, then the right” moment. I also loved the sort of nonchalant way he did the spoken section of the second verse, and the countdown (“...fivesixsevenGO!”). And, then… “Reinforcements, ‘forcements, YEAH!”. I’ve loved this song from the very start and now I love it EVEN MORE!!!! For a good while after the tour, whenever I’d put on the whole Propaganda album, hearing this song in the context of the album felt so weird, sort of like “HUH, what is this song from sparks tour 2025 doing on this 50 years old album”, haha.

After the song we finally got a proper introduction from Russell, who was so excited to be back in the UK, and especially back in LONDON!!! And he said that the next song they were going to play would be of off an album they did “ages and ages ago”... an album called “No. 1 in Heaven”, produced by Giorgio Moroder… Which was just so WHOA FOR REAL???? But before I could do my mental rundown of that album's tracklist and decide which song would be the most amazing and wildest to hear, we learned its name…

Academy Award Performance

Once again: NO DAMN WAY!! This was somehow the last song I expected to ever hear live perhaps. OR, you know, not last, but it’s definitely one of those I didn’t even consider for some unknown reason. AND IT WAS SO SO GOOD!!! Holy gosh man, every time that chorus came in with the ascending synth melody it was so incredibly exciting, and the whole song was a huge treat live. I never even considered myself a super big fan, but now? Oh yes, that’s an eternal favourite right there. You know how it works!

But, the best part now. The best part! We had that long bridge with the “tututus” that were already so fun to sing along to, but then Russell also decided to go full on annoying little brother mode and started doing some sort of silly dance as though he was trying to get a reaction out of Ron, and I think this is much better shown than described (here at 2:53). This must have been the most Sparks moment to ever Sparks. I was just there watching it absolutely delighted about it, all like: hahahaha, WHAT!!!! Gosh, these guys. You just have to love them.

This was also already an early moment to shine for Eli and his amazing dancing, and the entire outro was so so good! The guitarists shredded it, and I loved the way Russell ended his singing part, there was something so very cool about it.

Goofing Off

So, what’s going on now… that mournful violin… I know what this is. The instant adrenaline jump that I got the second I realized (which was immediately, for once. instant recognition.) was CRAZY. WHERE ARE WE. GOOFING OFF?@*$)!!? IS THIS 2025 OR 2008?? All I could muster was a very awe-stricken “this is incredible” as I reached for my camera to record some of this unbelievable moment, because how could I not. (I remember watching a video of this song from a later show in the US, where the second the song starts, you can hear someone exclaim “NO FUCKING WAY.” and yeah. LITERALLY THIS.)

Will you believe me if I say this was my number 4 setlist prediction for this tour. I guess I could put it that way, because apparently that’s where I placed it on my unfinished song predictions / biggest wishes list that grew to be something like 30 songs long, and so I didn’t continue adding to it, knowing that with the way things were headed I might end up with like. 100 songs. And now we’re circling back to 21x21, because yeah, it was this song’s performance from those shows that just never left my mind. The moment I saw it, I knew. This HAD to make a comeback. It also just somehow made so much sense to me for this song to be played, this is like. Beaver O’Lindy levels. Of NO WAY but actually YES WAY kind. They said in interviews that they’d be bringing back some unexpected songs back and they were really delivering on that promise!! So early into the show too!

But yeah, this was definitely a worthy comeback!! This might be getting a bit redundant at this point, but I have to say that Russell’s vocal performance was stellar, he really got into the character of the song, and the way he said the “raving ranting fool” line was so funny. I feel like this song got even better each time I saw it actually, but this was already a great display of the whole band’s ability to rock, and then, during the guitar solo segment, it was of course the time for the audience to join in with all their HEY ✊ HEY ✊ HEYS. And it was EPIC.

Beat the Clock

And again! Another grand return (it’s been a good decade or so since they’d played this, right? really awesome to hear it again). But also HELLO?! Beat the clock shirt? Wow, manifested this. I wasn’t expecting this song even DESPITE the shirt, and I definitely wasn’t expecting to hear another song from No. 1 in Heaven so soon. And since we were sure to get another song from it later in the show too, this meant we would get to hear basically half of the album live?? Talk about UNEXPECTED once again.

I feel like this is the best time to mention the light setup for this tour, because while it didn’t feature any tiny MAD! frowns, it was still the best setup I’ve ever seen at a concert (not biased at all). And I thought the 2023 tour setup was already quite spectacular! The lights were so good for this song especially, the square shapes seem like a simple idea on paper but GOD, it all looked SO FREAKING COOL. I just can’t really explain why, but I’m a BIG BIG fan of what they’ve done with this. And it was all very well fitting for the individual songs too. They all look so distinct, both with the lights and the colors, so even just from photos, I’m able to tell what song was being played at the moment the photo was taken, which I think is just really awesome.

I felt lucky to be able to see it up close, although, thinking about it more… it was probably even more breathtaking from afar actually. Sure enough, there were parts of the setup that I didn’t even notice live, but then I’d see them on videos and go: waittttt, they had those on the ceiling too?? This whole thing really gave this show a feeling of being so well put together and thought out. Sparks really care about the visual aspect of their show and it, uh, shows, in every detail of their work!

But ok, Beat the Clock. You gotta beat the clock. One of the more exciting parts of it was definitely hearing Russell hit those falsetto moments, and then also that whole instrumental bridge. And with it, another tangent of sorts that I need to get into… Because I’d learn on this day that with a Sparks show comes Lots Of Clapping. Really lots. Wanting to applaud the boys is one (important) thing (and a constant mood), but then there’s also Russell reminding you to clap along at nearly all times. Or at least at all times when he gets a break from singing. A break from singing is not a break for Russell (or the audience). And that’s impressive, he just never stops. He’s doing all this incredible singing and he’s also bouncing around the entire stage without a single pause!! Just never getting over how he even manages that. He’s a force.

Please Don’t Fuck Up My World

Russell introduced this next song saying that they wrote it a couple albums ago, and that it seemed relevant at the time, but that now it seemed “way way way way WAY more relevant than it ever has”. And wow, I was blown away by the fact that they were playing this. How many songs in a row to have had that effect on me was it now?? This time it felt fundamentally different though, and I will confess that I started having this feeling very soon before the tour started that like. They must have prepared something very meaningful and laudable to bring into the shows this year. I just felt it. And indeed, here it was. Sparks <3

The performance was BEAUTIFUL. I’m sure this is not a hot take, but this live version is a huge step-up and improvement from the studio recording. Musically, this song never stood out to me much – I might have even disregarded it a bit as just this outro of sorts to the Steady Drip album, rather than a full-fledged song. BUT THIS. WAS DIFFERENT. They added more sections to the song, and it was incredibly emotional and also exciting in its own right to explore this song anew. It tugged at your heartstrings the whole time, from the way it opened to the way it evolved from section to section too. The key change on the repeated chorus!!! And the gentle piano that Ron opened with already sealed it. And, again, RUSSELL’S VOICE! The falsetto on the kids choir parts?? He can just DO THAT???

I actually started recording this song for a bit in the beginning, but after just a few seconds it started to feel like it would be, um, I don’t know. I guess, disrespectful, to be doing that, somehow?? It really had this atmosphere of sacred intimacy of sorts (and I think it comes across in that (brief) recording really well too). I really enjoyed the lights for this song too (pink <3) and the way they did that descending motion during the chorus. I interpreted it as rainfall, which seemed like a sweet visual for this song in its gentleness, and it also reminded me of My Baby’s Taking Me Home.

This is also where that whole “concert-induced memory issues” problem comes in once again perhaps, because I actually totally believed that during the chorus the line normally still says “please don’t fuck up MY world”, just like during the rest of the song, so when Russell sung that as “OUR” instead of just “my”, I was like DUDE, they even changed the line?? To make it even more meaningful?? I mean, it’s already meaningful either way. But yeah, at a concert you might become unable to recognise your favourite songs, even when you’re already a good few seconds into them, or forget the lyrics of an album that you’ve already heard in full something like 30 times probably. Oh yeah, I should also mention this too, because A STEADY DRIP DRIP DRIP REPRESENTATION!! This already meant so much to me personally. I had a very different prediction for a debut song from it (as can be seen on the earlier list), but this still felt like having that wish fulfilled in a way. Yay <3

Before I move on I also feel obligated to mention the ending of this song, because it was ethereal. Just Russell’s voice, those choirs again, the lights going low right after that… And then you could hear someone in the audience yell out “I LOVE YOU RUSSELL!!”. I salute them for that.

Running Up a Tab at the Hotel for the Fab

HELL YES, BABY! I was probably starting to miss MAD! a little bit at this point in the show, and I’ve been really looking forward to hearing this song in particular, ever since they teased it at the MAD! listening party back in May. It's one of my favorite songs from the album, and even just Sparks songs in general (I consider it one of my top 3 favorites from MAD! nowadays), so this was HUGE FOR ME!!! We were back in the BANGERS section of the show, everybody.

The bangers were quite susceptible to being affected by the sound issues though. I still LOVED this performance, sound issues be damned, although I do feel like with every show they got even better at delivering this song.

Highlight number one:... RUSSELL’S DELIVERY! He nailed that character voice to a t, it was so freaking fun. I enjoyed the synth sound Ron had going for this song, and I kind of miss it on the record now, BUT it was also really amusing that most of his job during this song really just came down to hitting the same key repeatedly.

The best part was the bridge, without a doubt!! That’s when the whole song’s sinister atmosphere really reached its peak. I need a word on that too, I think: the lights and the fog together, plus the song’s aggressive sound made for suuuch a good combo. So when you weren’t jamming to the instrumental parts and clapping along with Russ, you could instead get engulfed in the feeling of that sinister blue fog dimension. The first half for the bridge was especially great for showcasing the guitarists’ work too (tear it uppp, Evan!!) and I’ve always loved that heavy bassline as well (again, you couldn’t hear it that well, but that descending bass melody during this part is one of my favourite things about the song. Shoutout to Max Whipple!)

It’s probably worth mentioning that I’ve recorded a big part of this song and it’s something I treasure deeply tbh. That bridge section really blew me away and being able to relive it again and again is just the best. Also maybe worth mentioning at this point of the show that my Russgirl-type-of-feelings were definitely very hard to ignore during this whole concert. But yeah . I just think he’s neat!

Suburban Homeboy

And then Ron and Russell disappeared! What could this mean?? Shopping Mall of Love? Seconds full of suspense, mixed with excitement, slowly passed, and then we heard it. Suburban Homeboy :D!!! Omg, that’s so fun!

Ron walked back onstage and stood there in the centre of it, as people were cheering even harder than ever. He recited the first three verses in his usual deadpan style, which was the most Ron thing ever. I loved how he also did those little strolls to and fro during the breaks, and that people would cheer him on EVEN HARDER as he went on. The Ron appreciation was off the charts!!! This was both so fun and so silly and also just the most joyous thing to see in person! YAY RON!!!!!

But things were about to get even MORE fun. Russell returned with a BRAND NEW LOOK, a waistcoat this time, which was a total style win. And so we had the coolest ever brotherly back-and-forth now, with both Ron and Russ doing their parts. When Russell went “EVERYBODYYY!” the audience lost it once more.

And this last part was maybe only a minute long in total, but maybe also the most beautiful thing ever in a way. There was something so utterly delightful about the way they performed this song together, and how their personalities shined through as they did it. Ron and his detached stoicism, and right next to him – Russell, with all those theatrics and flashy gestures… It was just so perfectly Sparks, so Them... Like seeing the Mona Lisa painted live, again!!

At one point I was taking pictures every half second because it was all just so perfect and the most glorious sight. And the way that Russell acted as this sort of hype man for Ron and cheered people on with their applause and stuff... It was so so adorables. And then, as the song ended with a little spontaneous Ron chant, Russell once again hyped up the “unique vocal stylings of Mr. Ron Mael”!!

This is also a good moment to mention that this performance was, in fact, OFFICIALLY RECORDED. Which is ofc old as hell news now, we’ve all seen the 2025 tour promo reel by now surely. And I’m saying it here because it was during this song that it maybe came to my attention at all, because there was this camera guy running around in front of the barrier the whole time. And he sort of photobombed almost all of my pics I took during this song. But it’s ok.

No, seriously, I need to address this too, because really, realizing that I’m at one of those shows that were filmed and maybe would be officially released at some later point? Dude, this was already too perfect, and now you’re telling me this too… My first Sparks show and it’s one of the big ones. Hello!!!!!!!! (and yeah, now we know that both of the London shows were used for the reel. To win at life THIS muchly.. still feels like it should have been illegal. If only they did a proper concert film from one of these shows though. OK OK I know I just said it was already too perfect and now I’m asking for more... Consider it though .)

Before I move on I need to also give a shout to this version of the song in the instrumental sense, because I think having a guitars only arrangement of it is super fun! Definitely makes sense from a technical standpoint (Ron couldn’t exactly play the keyboard at the moment, lol), but I think it’s also just kind of cool to hear it like that. Isn’t it SO refreshingly different!? (<- I mean this with 0% sarcasm)

All You Ever Think About Is Sex

Pulling out all the unexpected songs again! Except this was the one song I accidentally spoiled myself on, but wasn't at all MAD! about it. And ok, I loved literally everything about this song and its performance… One of their best songs from the 80s (now it might actually be my favourite Sparks song from that whole era. Again, the power of live shows.) and they carried it over into this more guitar-based arrangement seamlessly. A wild pull from the catalogue that also just makes so much sense in a way (don’t ask me to explain this please XD I don’t really know either.) and it goes over so well live, you know? So dynamic, so fun, so dancey!

The (musically) raw intro is of course great (although I think it stood out to me even more at later shows) and I really enjoyed the way the lights’ colors switched from verse to chorus, but really, just the whole song is soooo scrumptious live. Another big thing of note is that during this song, and possibly some others, I would experience an especially notable moment of possible Eye Contact with that guy singing onstage. Which was kind of scary at the moment but also kind of awesome. You know . The Fleeting Glances – one of the many great things about being close to the stage…..

After the song, Russell said that it was of off one of their 80s albums… but he forgot the name of the album… People started shouting out their answers and Russell just nodded along like “yeah, that one.” XD

Drowned in a Sea of Tears

And then he introduced the next song!!! From the brand new album, “the MAAAD! album. MAAAD with an exclamation point!” he said, drawing a big ol’ exclamation point in the air :~3 My brother really enjoyed this moment haha (and the exclamation point air-signing even became a permanent element of the tour… so cutes really).

But anyway, YAY MORE MAD! We’ve been pretty short on MAD! songs so far, haven’t we?? This song was so anticipated by me, and it was a huge delight to hear in person (although it might have suffered a bit from the sound issues once again :’( the bass overshadows EVERYTHING on my very amateurly-made audio recording of the show). I know I could expect them to play this one, because it was a part of one of those live performances they did for radio a while back, and this song sounded SO GOOD when they did it, so it was even greater to hear live properly.

First of all, I need to say that they absolutely KILLED IT with the live arrangement of this song. To the point that I think I can even say the studio version misses a lot of what makes this song so special. Those guitar twangs during the verses! The drum fills Darren does right before the chorus hits are freaking amazing especially, the drumming on this song is just so great and such a high point in general. It’s EXPLOSIVE!

One of the best choices for a MAD! song to be played live, for sure. And even just in the more general sense, the atmosphere this song has, the way it just gains even more life like this! THE EMOTION!!!! It was all so good, I even forgot I was hoping earlier that Russell would do something resembling the dance from the music video, or that something similar might happen in the audience, lmao.

Also, here’s an obligatory Russell vocals shoutout, because man, the falsetto… I don’t even think he hit those moments perfectly this time, he was still sort of getting there I think but not quite there yet. But it was still kind of unbelievable, to hear him do all that in person, song after song. Like, he can really just do all these things with his voice…

JanSport Backpack

No stopping!! More MAD!!! Remember when I said like a year ago (I mean yeah sure, everyone will remember that .) that I can’t wait until Sparks play a song called JanSport Backpack live, and I can cry as I listen to this song called JanSport Backpack, as it's played live. Well, didn’t cry in the end, but this was a very nice and touching performance nevertheless. Lol.

One thing that still devastates me about it though is that I wasn’t fast enough to catch the moment when this song started and Russell did these hand gestures to go with the DAOW 🖐 DAOW 🖐 etc. And yeah, he did that at every show actually but this time it was even better!!! Or my memory is just lying to me about that first time I saw it. Because I swear to god he was sort of, running around while doing those gestures, and he didn’t really do that later on?? Idk am I just making this up though. Because there’s no recordings at all of this moment from this show!!!! And yeah, I looked around frantically, but let me tell you, looking for things related to this song online is a challenge. You know. (No, I wasn’t asking about what’s in your JanSport Backpack. I was asking about Russell Mael doing DAOW 🖐 DAOW 🖐 🫤)

Ok, so, the song, it’s um, nice! Ok, ok, I’ll admit, I’m a JanSport apologist. Or defender or whatever. Do we even like this song? I love this song. I’ll always love this song. If I’m the only one recording it live, so be it… Ok exaggerating here, but I’m so serious that this was a great moment live. Maybe not the most inspiring song to play long-term, but the live arrangement is really quite gorgeous! Very much like with Tears, I feel like it gains so much new life like this. It’s just so cool to hear these more electronic songs played with live instruments, both the guitars and the drums were amazing! The song had such an, idk, organic, WARM feel. And goooooosh, Russell’s voice… It's so serene and gorgeous. Can we talk about those moments when all the instruments go quiet and it’s just Russ singing and it’s all so hypnotic.

Highlight number two: the lights! I’d end up loving this aspect of the performance even more at a later show, but I gotta mention it now anyway. They know how to get the exact right atmosphere in place for all these songs.

Music That You Can Dance To

NO WAY!!!!! God, the audience straight up exploded into cheers the second Ron opened the song with that little synth riff. I WAS SO HAPPY TO HEAR THIS SONG!! I knew it’s been regularly played on tour for a while, so I totally expected them to phase it out by now… BUT NO! And I just decided on the spot that ok, this is it, this is the moment. I’m living this FULLLY. And so this would end up being one of the best and most memorable moments of any live show I’ve ever been to.

What is it about this song that makes you just… so happy to be alive? They weren’t lying, “that and that alone is enough for me”. And by “that” I mean: jamming out to this song like there’s no tomorrow. I mean, I probably didn’t even go THAT wild, but possibly still pretty wild by my standards XD I definitely bounced around a lot... AND HAD SO MUCH FUN1!!!!!!! And it was all just. such. an experience!!!

Gosh, like I can't really explain what it felt like to actually be there live and in the moment for this. One thing that stands out especially is how freaking loud and persistent the *thwomp thwomp* of the drumbeat was. YOU LITERALLY FELT IT IN YOUR SOUL. It was too much, except it was just the right amount actually. Magical. And the whole "tonight tonight” etc. part of the song was definitely a spiritual experience of some sort too.

But yeah. Peak life experience, I’m so serious here. And it takes me back to what it felt like to hear Man, It’s So Loud In Here at the TMBG show a couple months earlier. Both songs were very unexpected, pretty late into the show too, so that definitely helped with bringing in the right amounts of energy and excitement levels… Those were the moments when I just fully mean it when I say you HAD to be there to really get what it was about. That feeling of being in the middle of a big, loud show… it can be an actual life-altering experience of sorts every once in a while…

But before I move on, obligatory shoutout to Eli’s dancing (one major downside of sticking to the left side of the stage though: I might have missed a lot of Eli (and Ron) action. Very sorry about that…). Also, appreciating the colors choice for the lights on this song. Bisexual lighting 👍

When Do I Get to Sing ‘My Way’?

Wow, I predicted this one too! Ok, real talk. This was the moment when 1) it hit that we must be slowly approaching the end of the show, right? :( oooouuuuuhhhhououou :(((( 2) I WAS SO EXCITED TO GET TO THIS PART OF THE SHOW ANYWAY. The big three songs are here!! I really didn’t want the concert to end ever, but I also looked forward to this portion of it soooo much… I knew it would be unforgettable.

But we must begin with the song that I’m actually the least excited about out of the three!! Not to say that I wasn’t excited for it at all., of course not… But I probably cared more about things like what was coming next, and it being a song my dad would have loved to hear live, more than my own enjoyment of it I guess? I mean, at least going into the song, because I ended up really loving it… But yeah, I even went ahead and recorded a good portion of it with dad in mind (I TOTALLY FORGOT THAT HE WAS GOING TO SEE THE SHOW LIVE WITH ME THE NEXT DAY THOUGH XD. Concert-induced memory loss at it again. Well, I’m sure he appreciated the recording anyway, lmao. And it’s a good recording anyway.)

Alright then, what I liked about My Way the most… A lot, actually!!!! I’m pretty damn sure this must be my favourite arrangement of it I’ve heard so far – the emphasis on guitars, and overall the more rock-oriented feel of it, is something I really really dig. Definitely feels like an even better version than the one from the previous tours, to me at least, haha.

The best part was – well, but of course – the bridge, because that’s when the next big Mona Lisa moment happens. “They’ll introduce me, hello, hello”... and now you can do that collective wave with the entire audience. And it’s so beautiful and feels so special. You're really there, you’re really participating, again, the dream came true… (And also another brief Fleeting Glance… possibly.)

I also know now from videos (including MY OWN) that when I was too busy keeping up with everything Russ was doing, as usual, Ron mouthed the lyrics on the bridge and did the ☝️ pointing thing for “there’s only one song I know”. He’s awesome. And also an extra little Russell moment: “THERE!” 🫵 *points into the audience charismatically*. And that iconic My Way leap too, of course. Just another reminder that he, too, is Awesome.

The Number One Song in Heaven

OK OK. This is big. This is so big. This is THE MOMENT.

God, this song. I can't even begin to tell you how… how much. How everything this was to see each of those 3 times I saw it. Do they even have human language for this level of beauty and all…

Let’s try describing it to the best of my ability anyways. Starting with the most classic of the moments: all pointing to the sky for the number one song all over heaven ☝️ Again, to be there and participate in it all etc. Russell did his pose for it too, and I took these pics of him doing it that I really like. Look at him. I just think he’s neat.

(Also, Russell when the drums kick in and the song starts for real: I will do a spin in the air!!)

And then of course… RON SHUFFLE!!!!! The return of Mona Lisa etc etc. gosh this was so fun 😭😭😭 truly no one does it like Sparks. I love Sparks, did you know this. Anyway. It was great how people started cheering the moment Ron raised from the keyboard to do his thing and then went even more feral than ever for the shuffle. Always the only possible and acceptable response to Ron doing any sort of Ron Thing. I love Sparks and I love Sparks fans!!

It was a very great shuffle, albeit a relatively short one. But yeah, again, loved seeing this in person, perfect awesome legendary. Ron did a sort of motion at the end like he was going to lose balance, which I thought was pretty funny (although, looking at others’ footage of it now, I fear that he really WAS going to lose balance and wasn’t just exaggerating it for funnies 😭)

But back to the song. Another legendary lights moment, talk about otherworldly stuff right here. The way the shimmering of the lights reminded me of glittering stars in a night sky at times… Again, they just set these environments that pull you into the magic of the show even more. The band killed it, Russell killed it with the vocals (again, HOW??? How does he just do THAT!).

That entire part with the guitars near the end of the song though!!! Kind of unbelievable stuff. And when Russell was about to finish his lalalas before this part, he actually went on instead… still doing the lalalas until he run out of breath, even finishing it off with a little “WOOO”. God. So cute……. (and then this became a permanent element of this song FOR THE ENTIRE REST OF THE TOUR. Great to know that I was there in person to see the birth of the Extended Lalalas. One of the coolest things to ever happen.)

And don’t even TALK to me about the way Russ performs the ending. IT WAS UNREAL. I hardly recorded anything from this song, only the shuffle really, but the picture of this ending stayed in my mind for so long, kind of haunting me, like maybe no other moment from the entire show did. It was quite literally breathtaking to see that in person, and I think the absurd realness of it all was once again hitting me really hard at this point too. Definitely went something like “OH MY GOD. WOW.” to myself in my head after this. Because seriously. Just wow. Nothing else can cut it.

This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us

Oh, we all know… And I keep saying that the audience’s cheers were even more raucous than previously at any new cool moment, but man, this time they REALLY were. Just from that first note played by Ron of course. The Song is here. (My brother really had a kick out of the audience’s reaction to this song once we returned, haha. I mean, I guess it is pretty funny how nuts people go for it immediately… It’s just so fucking real though. And, you know, with an audience like this, the whole experience just becomes even better and more memorable :) !)

But anyway. This Town. I have this strange thing where I don’t really think about this song in terms of it being a big personal favourite usually, but no. It absolutely is. It IS a favourite. So hearing it was one of the things I was looking forward to the most on this day. AND IT ABSOLUTELY DELIVERED.

I think I’d actually prefer to talk more about this song and what I loved about it in the second writeup, because that’s when a lot of this stuff really stood out to me, but still, a couple things about this performance that I still want to get into. Well, first of all, the impact of that whole hall singing along to that first “this town ain’t big enough”... Wowie wow indeed. It’s also strangely amazing how freaking fast it all happened, the song just went by in a flash. We entered a whole different mode of existing for these 3 minutes (I mean, this entire show was already that this whole time, but still).

I was of course super looking forward to hearing the High Note especially, so that entire ending was also something else to see for real. Russell totally managed to hit the note if you ask me, and the entire impact of the ending was so great that Ron even jumped up slightly from his chair on that one last chord of the song. Incredibly epic things all around.

The applause afterwards was long and wildly enthusiastic, and Russell said that it’s always fun coming to London to play and that it’s been “super super special” and thanked us for our “wonderful reception” :))) And then, as people applauded on, added: “we’ve got some more soooongs”. So silly. I was very happy to hear that they still had more songs. The show’s still going strong. What is it gonna be now though???

Whippings and Apologies

AND SO WE’RE BEING CATAPULTED BACK INTO 21x21 TERRITORY. Hello!!!!! THIS IS NUTS!!!! But… Am I allowed to say I predicted this too… kinda… Well, I mostly said that I both really wanted and really expected them to pick a new song to play from the first or second album once again… That’s what I gathered from the 2022 and 2023 setlists. And honestly, my biggest wish was for them to play something from Woofer, and specifically maybe Moon over Kentucky for example… BUT YEAH. WE WERE WINNING. ONCE AGAIN.

So, this song was one of the biggest highlights of the entire tour, no question. How do they make even their earliest songs sound SO modern and fresh!!!! First of all, amazing arrangement that I am loving in every way, and I’m so honest that if they were to ever release another live album (OR CONCERT FILM), it could be actually just this song and I’d be happy. I wish to listen to it all the time.

But ofc it's not just the song that's so good, it’s the whole SPECTACLE. God, what is it about second album songs and them being such show-stoppers live, for real. (this might also be one of the funniest songs to have a “this is wrecking me emotionally just a tiny bit” type of effect on you for a while, every time you hear it after the tour…)

But anyways,, it goes like this: 1) Awesome lights. Again, just awesome. (I will say though, all the flashing in the beginning is a bit much… videos of this moment are kind of hard to watch 😔) 2) The band rocks. This entire band really knows how to rock. 3) It’s time for Russell voices. “oh NO MOAARE!!!” was a special highlight, but his voice was just so funny on this song. Cute, even. I like it when he just makes noises. I ljke him. In general . Like I can’t even believe this guy. This was the best thing to ever happen. HE’S SO AWESOME.

(can you tell I’m really struggling with holding myself back from going full fangirl mode throughout this entire thing. or is it not that obvious.)

Besides all the voices (and all the bits of lyrics that are probably going to remain an unsolved mystery forever), I also loved the fake ending, because Russell just stood there for a couple seconds and people started applauding already, which was pretty funny. Makes me wonder if they weren’t very familiar with the song and didn’t know it was a fake ending, or just went with it anyway, because yes. A pause, let’s make some a pplause. Let’s applaud the guys, we all want to applaud them all we can at all times.

After this song Russell spoke again, saying that the song was from an album they did, *enter exaggerated whisper*: “in nineteen seventy twooooo”. Don’t remember seeing this next part as it happened, but I saw in one video that Ron’s reaction to this information was: hand to his forehead and shaking his head in disbelief. (Sorry, but it never gets old to me how Ron will have all these dramatic realizations about the passage of time 😭 BLESS HIM). Meanwhile, Russell just went: “we’ve been around for a long time! :D”, and then even went back to introduce the name of the song and the album it's from, “for any newcomers who might not be hip to that”! And then, we were about to hear one more song, another brand new song…

Lord Have Mercy

Awwww. AWWWWW. AAAAAWWWWWW. Our loveliest, most sweetest song, Lord Have Mercy… Before I get into anything else though, gosh, the video I have of this performance. It just stuck with me. Another incredibly ethereal moment. It was kind of magical. Russell standing there in that spotlight, with all the fog around him and everything… It was like he was singing to us from the heavens, he looked so angelic. Another Fleeting Glance also, unless I’m just looking into things in retrospect that weren’t even there but um anyway.

So ya, this was just the first verse btw. Enter the rest of the song. Swaying along to the chorus and waving our hands in the air, appreciating more of that lovely atmosphere and really feeling all those feelings about the whole show so far, all anew.

I’m going to confess something now though: I have this bad feeling that this song is much more loved by others as a live song than me… I do really love it, but maybe I just never, idk, never really got into it fully in the show context, somehow?? I guess I’m talking more in the musical sense though, because as a song to experience like this, it was absolutely lovely in every way and an emotional moment for sure. Maybe I was just more interested in hearing how some of the other songs from MAD! would turn out live, what would be new about how those were performed etc… And I already knew beforehand that I could surely expect to hear this song, much like with Tears earlier, but I was also a bit worried that it might replace All That, since they’re quite similar, both in a musical and emotional sense… The encore was still ahead of us though, so there was still lots of hope for that one in my heart…

Speaking of encore, this was in fact the end of the main show, and after a few more thank you’s our guys left the stage… But actually, before we get to that, there was also this whole thing that went like: a young fan showed up near us, who must have been somewhere further back earlier, and they had a letter for the guys! That was pretty cool to see, but unfortunately they didn’t manage to get close to hanging it over yet, and the distance between the barrier and the stage definitely didn’t make that any easier to do…

[Also um Hi. If you’re actually still reading this, I invite you to put a “🐛” in the reblogs or comments or whatever once you’ve finished reading. If you want. Thank you and be eternally well, dear cyber friend.]

encore!

Some time passed, once again surely faster than it always seemed to pass for me in recordings of shows when you wait for the encore. And THEY WERE BACK AGAIN!!! Russell was even back in his normal suit now, wow. (Unfortunately, I might have not even registered the fact that Ron had his awesome Mount Fuji hoodie on now, but yeah, it all must be noted in the writeup nevertheless.)

And now OMG the tension, what are they gonna play… Do you know what song I was really hoping to hear still. Yeah, that one. Or maybe even something else from MAD! ???🙏 Gosh, there were just too many options. And, so…

The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte

OH MY GOD. O HMYGOFD. OH MY. THIS SONG. THE LATTE TOUR. IT’S BACK. Oh my gosh wait I haven’t mentioned this yet, but I was really REALLY hoping that we would still be hearing at least some stuff from the last tour, especially songs from the previous album! Like this song. LIKE THIS SONG. I’ve talked about my “missing out on the 2023 tour” regret way too much already so not getting into that again, but it seriously meant so much to me to be able to experience this one live!!! And really, that’s just the start.

Maybe I’ve said this too many times already for it to still hold any power at this point, but I am being SO serious here. This might’ve been my favourite moment of the entire show. The entire tour, even. Ok wait, but can I really go that far, hmmm, I’d have to think about this one. But in any case, GOD, THIS SLAPPED SO HARD. I CAN’T SAY THIS STRONGLY ENOUGH. This song was the most fun I had in a long, long time. And I wasn’t expecting that to be the case at all but it was really just THAT good. (I was so into this that I could even forget for now how badly I STILL needed to hear MBTMH… you know!)

GOD anyway. I kind of went all about it in one of those random tour posts I made months ago, but it bears repeating. Just why this was so great. This had everything you needed for a great grand time. Russ doing his usual Russ things (frolicking, bouncing, dancing, punching the floorrrrrr etc.), Ron playing his coolest synths, the guitarists shredding. The lights were so good once again but I think this time I can say it for real that this was my favourite lights moment of them all, and the way they accentuated the sad bad etc. in the lyrics. So cool.

(There was this one video I saw of this song, shot in black-and-white from pretty far away. Idk which show it was or anything, but I still think about it, actually the coolest sight ever. Like, the fact that the shimmery lights kind of go with the image you might get from that synthy baking track, like they’re sparks of electricity because that sound just kind of feels. electric. Am I thinking too much about this, am I just too sleepy, should I just go to bed. Anyway)

I don’t know if I should be allowed to compare Latte on 2023 tour vs this one, if I’ve hardly seen any videos of the former, and millions of bajillions of videos of every song from the latter. But I truly feel like this song wasn’t anywhere near this great on the previous tour, and this just shows that they totally perfected it now (its placement in the set surely adds to the hype though). I feel like Russell’s yeah-sad-wow-bads weren’t even that fun back then, if he even did them most of the time.

I also want to say that there’s just SOMETHING about the instrumentation in this song, because it fills me with a vague type of nostalgia, especially the sound of Ron’s keyboard. I LOVE THIS SONG!!! If I really went the most out there with all the singing / dancing during MTYCDT, then this song was definitely the close second in this department. Or maybe I should actually switch them around, and Latte was the biggest party time actually. Very much possible.

It’s probably worth mentioning that this song brought me maybe my favourite show recording out of all that I’ve made in life so far, and I’m still kind of in disbelief that I really caught all that. Thanks to Russell and his 6th camera sense for offering me that great opportunity. Other favourite moments: “LOOKS LIKE IT’S A REPEAT” *DUNDUNDUNDUN*!!!!!!! and “guess this world is to blame” *POW*. We love a song that has it all & even more.

Eventually though, it was time to slowly wrap it all up… Russell introduced all the band members… and then went all silly mode once more: “ouuuh yeaaahh and then… over here on the KEYBOARDS… the BIG OLD KEYBOARD… is my big brother, Ron Mael" :) ! Huehueueue this made me smile so much!!! Another Mona Lisa moment (if you’re still following what this set of words was even supposed to represent…), the way the band did the big bows for Ron was so sweet and funny too.

But as people chanted “RON RON RON” (WHICH MADE ME SO HAPPY TOO. THE RON CHANTS ARE SO EVERYTHING TO ME), the big brother in question actually went over to Russ, reached for his mic, and SPOKE.

“I can see by the look in his eyes that he’s begging me to introduce him, so. On UNBELIEVABLE vocals: Russell Mael.”

🥹 YIPPIEEEE! APPLAUSE FOR RUSSELL!! We all clapped for a bit until Russ said: “it’s harder to do the chant with me cause there’s TWO SYLLABLES!”. Well, the audience sure was ready to take on this CHALLENGE!!! Apparently two different versions of the chant happened at once (both the one-syllable and two-syllable variants of Russ(ell)’s name), which made him laugh, and he went: “GOD, YOU FIGURED IT OUT!”

(I realize I should have said this earlier, but whenever there’s quotings of what was said at the show, you should actually assume that I either: a) totally forgot how it actually went originally or that it even happened, b) never even caught it as it was being said. Mostly due to the sound issues, again. The b) option would apply much more often actually. So yeah, in this situation this means that even though at the moment I had probably no idea what was going on at all, I was still delighted by the fact that SOME sort of amazing thing was happening on stage and everyone was having fun XD Thanks to the powers of other people’s recordings mostly, I was able to actually reconstruct it all, which is awesome. Thanks everyone for your collective effort in documenting these Sparks events. It’s really appreciated.

Also sorreh because I realize that you’ve all probably heard the whole Russ chant story and stuff from other people several times already. Well, no matter, you’re just going to hear it AGAIN!)

But ok, time for one more song now, just one more song?? Gosh, I really hoped they would still play this one song that I really wanted them to play. Do you remember when in, like, May or something, I said that they could just play this one song and nothing else would really matter that much, because I’d be happy anyway. I remember… Kind of just went full on “please please” about it in my head at this point in time. I wanted to hear it. So much. It was serious now 😔 I still hoped they might do two encores, because I’m sure they did that in the past, but who knows fr… Well, no such thing happened, because…

All That

It was All That! And that’s always the last song. I bore those two seconds of heartbreak of some sad sort that had to hit, but got over it super quick. IT WAS ALL THAT!! THE SONG I WANTED TO EXPERIENCE SO MUCH, and was quite worried about possibly missing now (similarly to SMWS). I’ve been picturing this moment in my mind’s eye for a long time… It’s like I knew that if I were to really see a Sparks show one day, then there would also be All That, crowning that whole concert at the very end in the most beautiful way. And now it was happening. For real…

The knowledge that my next show would be happening just a day after this one definitely took away a lot of the bitter part from the bittersweet feeling of this song. So maybe that would explain how I avoided going full on tears for it, or even feeling any kind of profound sadness throughout it. Instead, it was all just so sweet and SO RIGHT. WE WERE EXACTLY WHERE WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE! It was just kind of perfect, nothing you could even want to change about this moment to make it any more of… everything that it would turn out to be.

(ok I lied there actually was One thing I guess. Because I actually had to be really careful with all the recording during this show because my brother sadly forgot to charge his phone, so I had to pull through the whole thing on like 20% battery HAHAHA. Yet I managed, I made it to the first chorus of All That. So no, wait, I guess it really was perfect, because in the end it lived long enough to serve me till the end basically. Nothing was lost. Yay.)

Russell is just THE SWEETEST singing this song and going “I can’t believe my luck in meeting YOU!” and gesturing at the audience!! And here’s an observation I made many, many months later, but one day I was watching some All That and it suddenly struck me that the lights’ colors change for that line. So I guess that really MEANS SOMETHING! (except they do that at the same moment in the first verse too. So it’s not really just about that specific line. BUT that’s not gonna stop me from attaching #MyMeaning to it, because that’s what life is about, baby!)

THERE WERE EVEN PHONE TORCHES! People were doing that in the balconies, and at one point Russell even said “it’s beautiful up there!” (one more illustratory video for today… here at 2:47). JUST AAAAHHHHHHH this entire moment was just so perfect. The Sparks love was so real and FELT EVERYWHERE.

Just, what is there even to SAY! IT WAS ALL EXACTLY LIKE I’VE DREAMED OF! Gosh, there were even those phone torches. How was it all possible. AND THE WAVE oh my gosh I can’t forget about the wave. You need to do that All That hand wavey thing, and then you’ll finally feel at peace in your life. <- true story. And you also need to sing along to the chorus with all those other people around you. No, seriously IT WAS THE BEST and the most beautiful way to end the most extraordinary evening!!!

Once the song was over, it was time for all the thank you’s and more applause, but then, of course, also! THE AUDIENCE PHOTO! One more piece of tangible proof that this all happened for real? Sure, let’s go! Russell said they liked having a souvenir of every evening as amazing as this one, “…so if we could take all of your photos???”. Then he went “COME ON DOWN!” to the band and instructed us to “do something like, you know, we are on a Sparks concert… doing whatever you do on a Sparks concert…”

Russell kept going “okay… okay… OKAYYYY” as we tried to do our best Sparks concert poses, and then it was done! Russell did a little speech afterwards, saying that they always appreciate playing in the UK, because it was “all you guys” in the UK that first embraced Sparks, so they’d never forget that! Then it was More applause, and then even MORE applause for Ron specifically, after Russell did his well-known and well-loved “pushing Ron forward for applause” thing. Once again, so cute.

Ron and Russell hung around for a while longer still, saying more thank you’s and waving at people and stuff :) and this was when the letter person had their chance again, and it seemed that someone in the front was about to try throwing the letter for them. I was a bit worried about if that was really a good idea and how that would end but oh well, they threw it anyway… and it flew startlingly close to Russell, who didn’t seem to notice it at all, before landing on the stage. Well, I hope there's a chance that someone from the crew picked it up in the end! Sucks that the distance from the barrier made it difficult for everyone, because at a later show I saw Russell come over to pick up gifts from the audience at the end of that show. But yeah, just another extra thing that felt weirdly cool to have been in the vicinity of, lol. Even if it didn’t really work out… 😔

after the show

But all things must come to an end, so Ron and Russell eventually left the stage, still accompanied by nonstop applause. And the background music started playing again, so we knew for sure now that this was it. Things went fast from here on, and we might have hung around by the stage for a little bit longer, but definitely NOT LONG ENOUGH. I guess I assumed that since nothing was happening, it made no sense to wait much longer for a possible setlist grab opportunity or something like that (again, a mistake).

But also, we still had to check out the merch stand!! They had lots of cool stuff, but I knew I had to get a shirt, if nothing else. I really wanted the stripy shirt, but they run out of my size already 😔 So I got the white MAD! shirt instead. And then I kept wondering why I didn’t get the black MAD! tour shirt, since it has all the show dates and that’s like, important. Well, I knew what I had to remember to get the next day! I also hoped they’d have those MAD! frown shirts they had available online at these shows also (and that’s the main reason why I didn’t buy one already XD) but they didn’t, RIP. Apparently they were sold at the shows in Japan though, at least.

And then we were back outside, and the venue looked very cool, illuminated by colorful lights. I’m not sure anymore if this was on day one or two, but I remember seeing one person outside after the show who had a UK Flood Tour shirt from the 2024 TMBG tour, the same one I was at!! So, seeing that made me happy, it’s cool how we’re all connected by all these different sorts of bands and interest too :))

Soon we got back to the hotel, and the first thing to greet us was our mum asking “WHY AREN’T YOU IN THE PHOTO, explain this!!!” and I was like “HUH no, of course we are there!!” and I managed to find us very quickly, so YEAH we did make it into the photo… only partially (ok, mostly) obscured but technically we were there XD! So yay, win I guess, definitely not the worst it could go with our first show!

I was definitely feeling the tiredness very hard at this point, but still wanted to make even a brief report from the evening for the people (not even THAT brief but definitely much more brief than THIS whole damn thing lmao), so that took a minute to do, until way past midnight probably, and then… Sleep time, I guess.

I can hardly even remember anything about how it felt to return back from my first Sparks show. I must’ve been very happy and hardly able to focus on anything else, but maybe sleeping was still possible, thanks to all that tiredness. But I probably wasn’t even feeling so bad physically anymore, after such an exhilarating experience, I feel like it just has to heal you even a bit. But yeah, just knowing I was going to DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN ONCE MORE, in just a couple hours!! Must’ve been incredible. I JUST SAW SPARKS! And there was still more Sparks tomorrow! Gosh, it was just… everything… I must’ve been buzzing with all the emotions of the day and haunted by all the images of all I’ve seen, and hearing all the songs, still playing in my head. It must’ve been the happiest I’ve been in a very long time.

Maybe this is the point in this writeup where I finally lose the ability to turn feelings into words, and my memory failing me terribly isn’t helping either, asdfhkljgj. But I really want this to ring out: this day was already everything, and yet it still wasn’t even the best it would all get. It would all get even better still!! And honestly, I’m just so so glad I decided to go with this double-London-feature as my first Sparks experience, and that we were even able to do this in the first place, I just couldn’t see it happening any other way now. SPARKS FOREVER! 💖

So, that’s the story of my June 18th, 2025. Here’s most of the footage I took at this show: compilation on instagram + extra stuff on tumblr: academy award performance, goofing off & my way!

Thanks so much for reading and see ya next time!!! ^____^

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