I loved the first half of the Sparks gig which was of course the Kimono My House LP. People around me did evidently too but I don't recall anyone getting out of their seat until the 'bad' B-sides encore (which of course weren't bad at all. I liked Russel's performance but thought he seemed rather arrogant, notably when he said something like "I guess most of you haven't officially been on a record but maybe half of you are recording this on MP3 recorders illegally so this is your chance to be on a record". And I think that was about as much as he said. Left a bitter taste I must say. I felt a bit scolded even though I hadn't done anything wrong. From what I've heard, Sparks didn't really want to do this performance. Russel said to compare and contrast it with Lil' Beethoven. For me Kimono My House was better by a country mile.

I stayed for the Lil' Beethoven performance but I have to say that it seemed like a rock opera without a narrative and lots of very repetitive songs. The 'Ugly Guys with beautiful girls' for me was the very worst bit. What's all this "we all know the story" stuff. Why don't they say what they mean? In front of me there was a bloke with his family (children had ear plugs) who was really getting excited about this, but in a way like people go to Rocky Horror and know all the words and when to clap etc. The last song (er, I'm a Suburban Homeboy) was like a bad updated Oklahoma/gangshow thing.

- TINGLE