Sparks Set for Long-Awaited York Return After More Than 50 Years

image: MUNACHI OSEGBU

Pop originals Sparks will make a rare and eagerly awaited return to York this summer, with a newly announced headline show at York Barbican on Tuesday, 25 August.

The concert marks the legendary band’s first performance in the city since 1974, the same year they exploded into the UK charts with the extraordinary This Town Ain’t Big Enough For Both of Us.

The York date has been added following strong demand, alongside a further show in Southend-on-Sea. The band had already confirmed a run of UK headline dates in London, Glasgow, Blackpool, Bournemouth and Bristol, as part of a wider international tour that also takes in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Europe.

Tickets for the York show go on general sale at 9am on Friday, 17 April via AEG Presents.

Led by brothers Ron and Russell Mael, Sparks remain one of pop’s great unclassifiable forces. Over the course of more than five decades, they have built a catalogue that swerves between art-rock, glam, synth-pop, new wave, orchestral drama and immaculate oddball pop, often several of those things before breakfast.

Their influence stretches across generations, with artists including Joy Division, Squeeze, Depeche Mode, Björk, Beck and The Last Dinner Party among those linked to their vast creative orbit. The band also reached a new wave of admirers through Edgar Wright’s acclaimed documentary The Sparks Brothers, which celebrated their singular place in modern music.

The York Barbican concert follows the release of Sparks’ 28th studio album, MAD!, and its companion EP, MADDER!. Their recent world tour was met with glowing reviews, with critics praising the energy, wit and spectacle of the Mael brothers’ live show.

Sparks will also appear at Green Man Festival this summer and are due to perform as special guests of Gorillaz at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The two acts recently collaborated on The Happy Dictator, featured on Gorillaz’ latest album, The Mountain, with Ron and Russell Mael joining the band on Jimmy Kimmel Live to perform the track.

For Yorkshire fans, though, the York Barbican date is the real jewel in the crown – a chance to see one of pop’s most inventive, enduring and magnificently strange bands return to the city after more than half a century away.

Sparks play York Barbican on Tuesday, 25 August. Tickets on sale here