POP ART

Edgar Wright was five years old when Sparks first blipped on his radar. “Top Of The Pops and Doctor Who were the two shows I watched a lot,” he grins on Zoom, not needing a Tardis to travel back in time to the living room of his family home in Somerset, in 1979. “I remember the image of [brothers] Ron and Russell [Mael] on Top Of The Pops because they had three singles out that year, so they probably did four or five appearances. That was at the point where they stripped down to being just Ron on synths and Russell singing, and maybe sometimes with a drummer on stage. It essentially became the template for so many ‘80s acts – Soft Cell, Pet Shop Boys, Yazoo. I remember the image very, very well. And then separately from that, I’d occasionally get these chart-compilation albums. I remember, one came free with a pair of jeans. It had Sparks’ ‘Beat The Clock’ on it. I really, really liked it.”

Wright’s Tardis-like mind is now spinning him forward to 1994. “‘When Do I Get To Sing My Way’ was their sort of comeback single,” he says. “The video was on everywhere. And I’m watching it at home, thinking, “Wait – Sparks? ‘Beat The Clock’ Sparks? Where have they been for 15 years? What’s going on?’”