Features
A Whole Lot Of Dicking Around
Brothers Ron and Russel Mael will play every album they’ve released – from their 1972 debut Halfnelson/Sparks through 2006’s Hello Young Lovers – in its entirety over the course of a month next spring in London.
Live! 21 Albums in 21 Nights! opens May 16 at Carling Academy Islington and leads up to the premiere of the band’s new, as-yet-untitled album on June 13 at Shepherd’s Bush Empire.
Tickets for the Carling Academy Islington shows, as well as info on which album will be performed each night, are available at Ticketmaster.co.uk.
Russel Mael said he and his sibling thought the concert series was the perfect way to introduce the band’s next album.
“We thought that an ambitious (and insane!) concept like performing all of our 20 albums in their entirety, on consecutive nights, would be the ideal buildup and context to then premiere our brand new 21st album,” Mael told the Los Angeles Times. “It sets the proper tone for how strongly we feel about our new album.”
In typical off-beat style, the musician also estimated exactly how much music will be played during the run, saying his brother Ron “calculated that there will be approximately 4,825,623 notes performed by us during the month buildup.”
To whet your appetite for the shows and Sparks’ new album, here’s the brilliant video for “Dick Around” from Hello Young Lovers.