Sparky after Sparky
Moderator: AndyB
Re: Sparky after Sparky
Nothing to do with Sparky but the post from Phoenix re. Freddie Starr reminded me thatI saw him and The Midniters on a family holiday in Llandudno. Must have been the early '60's. My mother thought his on stage antics were disgusting. Also on the bill, the Brook Brothers, Freddy Cannon and another band, whose name escapes me. Just found the Brook Brothers single War Paint on you tube.
Re: Sparky after Sparky
His stage act was certainly idiosyncratic, but at the same time thoroughly professional. He had moved on from his pop phase by that time, and was presenting himself more as a comedian. Although he had some backing musicians I think they were the cabaret club's own rather than the Midnighters. Regarding the 'disgusting' issue, it is important to bear in mind that at that time most of the Northern clubs had a more than lenient attitude towards sexism and racism. We saw it regularly at close quarters especially when performing at Jackie Carlton's Palladium club and Bernard Manning's Embassy club. I'm reminded of a story I was once told about Jackie in a court in London on an obscenity charge. It became notorious because all the strippers from his Manchester club went down to support him, and the judge got so exasperated he eventually had to throw them all out for laughing at the comedian's jokes.paw broon wrote:My mother thought his on stage antics were disgusting.
Re: Sparky after Sparky
Hope nobody minds my continuing this off topic bit for a few more sentences. Starr was still in pop mode when I saw him ( yes, I did mis-spell his backing band, one or two sites spell it the American way) and it was his writhing and rolling about on the stage and getting the mike lead caught betwen his legs etc. that caused the offence. I didn't care, I simply wanted to hear live pop music.
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Re: Sparky after Sparky
Extremely belated reply here- but I'll try to `shoehorn` as much as the continuing life of `Sparky` characters via `Topper & Sparky` into the final chapter of my file. Many thanks Ray/Kashgar for this data!
A Face unclouded by thought.