In 1979, the American pop band Sparks performed their top ten single “Beat the Clock” on Top of the Pops. Russell Mael, the singer, shimmied around the stage in fluffy bangs and outrageous shoulder pads, while his older brother, Ron, with a sombre suit and toothbrush moustache, eyeballed the camera and remained – but for his hands on the keyboard – as still as a sphinx. Among those transfixed was five-year-old Edgar Wright, who would become one of Britain’s most celebrated film-makers with movies including Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz and Baby Driver. Also watching, according to a possibly apocryphal anecdote told by Mark Gatiss in Wright’s new Sparks documentary, The Sparks Brothers, was John Lennon, who called Ringo Starr to say, “You won’t believe what’s on the television: Marc Bolan is doing a song with Adolf Hitler!”
It turned out that there were other famous Sparks enthusiasts out there, and Wright’s documentary – his first ever – gathers together over 80 interviewees, including Beck, Björk, Duran Duran, Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, to sing the praises of the prolific duo. The film is a fond, forensic recapping of a 50-year career that includes the hits like “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for The Both of Us”, “Number One Song in Heaven” and “When Do I Get To Sing My Way”, as well as many – many – weird and wonderful non-hits that helped them retain a cult following. It premieres at Sundance Film Festival: London on Thursday, but it is not the only Sparks film this year: they’ve also written the screenplay for Leos Carax’s Annette, starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, which is released in the UK on 3 September. Nor is it the only Edgar Wright film of 2021: his new psychological horror movie, Last Night in Soho, starring Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy, is out on 29 October. We spoke to him in late July, when he found himself ping-carcerated at home in London, mostly about Ron and Russell (and also about John and Ringo, and Liam and Noel).
What do you remember of Sparks’ Top of the Pops performance in 1979?
Probably the first thing that I thought watching them on Top of the Pops is that they're both looking straight at you unsmiling. When you are five years old, and sandwiched between the Nolan sisters and the Wombles there are these two guys who are staring at you, your first thought is like, "Am I in trouble? Why is this man staring at me?" You could equate it to the Daleks on Doctor Who: it's kind of a terrifying proposition.
When did you decide to make a documentary about them?
There’s that thing when you’re a fan of a band and you feel like more people should listen to them. I was almost like an evangelist. I would say, “Hey, have you heard Sparks?” to anybody within earshot. I started to say out loud, “Why hasn’t somebody done a documentary about Sparks? They’re so prolific, so influential, so interesting. What a great story that would be!” Then I met them in Los Angeles, sort of by chance, having known who they were since I was five years old, so it started the gears whirring in my head.
You met them thanks to Twitter?
Yes. One night, I was writing on Baby Driver in Los Angeles and I was, as I often do, playing a lot of Sparks to my friend and then it made me think, I wonder if Sparks are on Twitter? I'm ashamed to say I wasn't following them, because I kind of assumed they're maybe be too cool to have a Twitter page. But no, they did have one and it said, “Sparks follows you.” Seeing those three words, I was I like, "Oh, my God." I immediately messaged them and Russell, the lead singer, replied. They said, “Where are you based?” I said, “I'm currently in Los Angeles.” And they're like, “Well, we live in Los Angeles.” Within 32 hours I was sitting with the two of them having breakfast at Russell's house.
Why is now the time to do a Sparks film?
Why is there a documentary about them 50 years after their first album? It's because there's a lot to unpack, and there's a lot to obsess over. Some bands were much more famous than them back in the day, but there's nothing else to talk about. The Eagles, it's like, tons of catchy songs and enormous in their day, but what else is there to say about the Eagles? But with Sparks there's tons to talk about even now. More than I can possibly fit in the documentary.
Given that, how long was your first cut?
I think the first assemble-edit was like nine hours long. Then I cut it down to four hours and showed it to Cameron Crowe, because I am friends with him and he's obviously a great music documentary maker as well. I was thinking, "Well, if he can't sit through this..." He absolutely loved it. Sometimes it's difficult to talk about length, because then fans get all excited saying, “Wait, is there a four-hour version?” I have to say, "Honestly, we could barely afford to clear all the archive clips in the film that exists.”
Did the Maels have any input in the film?
No. I think it’s dangerous when the artists themselves are producers on their documentaries: then you're getting an authorised version of events. There was only really one thing they said, which I totally respect: "We don't want to talk about relationships because it's something we've never talked about in the press and we don't want to change that now." They say the drama is on the record. I think sometimes with bands the tabloid infighting starts to overshadow the work. When you first think of Oasis now, it’s not the music, it’s that they hate each other's guts. Maybe they'll get back together and do a reunion tour, but if it carries on like this, what kind of legacy is that to leave behind? Sparks are sort of the opposite of that.
You’ve got some big-name talking heads in the film. How did you suss who might be a fellow evangelist?
Some had already gone on record as being Sparks fans, and that included New Order and Duran Duran and Squeeze and Vince Clarke and Andy Bell [of Erasure]. Björk had said that Kimono My House was the first album she ever owned. Then I did a thing where I sort of assumed that various celebrities would be Sparks fans and four out of five times I was right. Either through a text or an email or meeting in person I’d ask Flea, or Beck, "Hey, you must be a Sparks fan, right?" "Oh, my God, I love Sparks." Those interviewees were real eye-openers to Ron and Russell because they’d hear about the schedule and say, "Next week Edgar's interviewing Mike Myers?”
It was a nice touch to get Simon Pegg and Nick Frost to do the voices of John and Ringo in the animated recreation of their Sparks phone call.
Simon watched the movie. Nick Frost hadn’t seen it because he was shooting in LA. I said, “Nick, can you do the voice of Ringo Starr saying ‘Hitler?’ Nick goes, “Sure.” And then I get a voice note of Nick Frost going, “Hitler? Hitler? Hitler?” like, 10 times. I texted him back: “This is your best work.” It'd be a good pub trivia question in the future. In what five films did Edgar Wright direct Simon Pegg and Nick Frost? The fifth one's a tough one.
Why do you think Sparks inspire the devotion that they do?
One of the things with the band, and Neil Gaiman talks about this in the documentary, is that you get two hits from them, because you can enjoy them at face value, but you're not really getting the full effect. Unlike, maybe, a Stones song or even a Queen song, where it hits you straight away, you can enjoy a Sparks song, but then you start to think, “Wait, what is this song about?” There’s a song called "Tryouts For The Human Race," which is from the point of view of a sperm trying to fertilise the egg. "One of us might make it through, the rest of us will disappear like dew, when that love explosion comes, my oh my, we're gonna be someone." And I'm thinking "This song was on Crackerjack!" They're doing something subversive and it feels like they're getting away with something. It feels like a secret-handshake club in a way.
The other Sparks-themed film this year, Leos Carax’s Annette, actually makes a cameo in yours.
The crazy thing is when I started doing the documentary, Annette was in the works but it wasn’t definitely happening. It wasn’t until I was shooting Last Night in Soho in the summer of 2019 that we got word it was. I said to my producer, “We have to go to Belgium and shoot them on the set of Annette.” The fact that the two films have come out in the same summer is perfect. Hashtag-summer-of-Sparks. It couldn’t happen to two nicer guys.
Ron is 75 now and Russell is 72. Do you think this is Sparks’ last hurrah?
Oh god no! They already have a 26th album half-done. The documentary is not an obituary, not an ossification of them. They’re still a going concern. You know, they make that joke in the film, “With advances in medical science we hope there’ll be 300 more Sparks albums,” but they’re not kidding.
The Sparks Brothers is out in cinemas on 30 July
Miranda Collinge is the Deputy Editor of Esquire, overseeing editorial commissioning for the brand. With a background in arts and entertainment journalism, she also writes widely herself, on topics ranging from Instagram fish to psychedelic supper clubs, and has written numerous cover profiles for the magazine including Cillian Murphy, Rami Malek and Tom Hardy.
