Sparks 2023 live Royal Albert Hall

Sparks have announced two live shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 May 2023.

Having recently teased both a new album and tour for 2023, the Los Angeles brothers have revealed the first dates saying: “Since we first started playing music, the Royal Albert Hall has been the pinnacle of British music venues for us and a place we’ve always aspired to play. These shows are a dream come true!”

Tickets go on sale on Friday 25 November at 10am.

Most people, with even a passing acquaintance with Sparks, will know the basics by now. How Californian brothers Ron and Russell Mael, both students at UCLA, began making music together in the late 60s, originally under the name Halfnelson. How their Top Of The Pops debut with This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both Of Us stunned a generation and nearly scored them a UK No.1.

How their career moved through many phases, including (but not limited to) art rock, glam, big band swing, electro-disco, new wave and synth-pop, taking in collaborations with Todd Rundgren, Les Rita Mitsouko, Tony Visconti Franz Ferdinand and Giorgio Moroder.

Buy Sparks – Past Tense box set now

Once more Top 10 regulars, with studio albums Hippopotamus (2017) and A Steady Drip, Drip, Drip (2020) both reaching No.7 in the UK and receiving global acclaim, the lauded career-spanning documentary film The Sparks Brothers, directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz, Baby Driver) and released in 2021, brought an awareness of Sparks to parts they previously hadn’t reached.

Sparks’ 2021 film musical Annette, directed by Leos Carax and starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, was showered with awards, especially in France where Carax won Best Director at Cannes, and where the film won three Lumières Awards and five César Awards including Best Original Music for Ron and Russell. Focus Features have recently announced the studio is developing X-Crucior a musical epic written by Ron and Russell. 

A new studio album is due in 2023.