Interview with Gary Sparks
May 2003
Thanks to Gary for taking timeout to do this and cheers to Jimmy Cooper of the Purple hearts web site for putting me in contact with him.
Gary Sparks Interview
1 How did you personally get in the band the Purple Hearts?
I was playing in various bands, and one band I was
in did a gig at our schools six-form common room, the
other members of what was then The Sockets came to see
the gig and asked me to be their drummer, this
coincided with their current drummer Nicky Lake
breaking his leg.
2 What are your memories of the early gigs/rehearsals?
It was a great time to be playing in a band.
3 What were the early gigs like ? What other bands did you play live with?
It’s always difficult starting off getting gigs we
hounded everybody to let us support them and made lots
of good friends and connections, playing with people
like Lew Lewis, The Inmates, The Tickets. The gigs
were really exciting, and we very quickly built up a
loyal following.
4 What was the best venue(s) the Hearts played at?
We played lots of really good places, but I think
my favourite was The Marquee in Wardour Street.
5 Was the early gigs attended mainly by mods or punks or a mix of both?
As explained in question 3 most of our audience
were punkish type people, but we soon started getting
mods coming to our gigs especially when we started
getting coverage in the music press.
6 Did you see much violence at the gigs and if so why do you think this was on going?
Yes a little bit of violence but I just think these
things go with anything involved with youth culture.
7 Did Quadrophenia the film start the mod revival or was it always going to happen?
In my opinion, the film Quadrophenia ended the mod
revival.
8 What was it like getting that first record deal with Fiction and who instrumented this deal?
It was great to get a record deal we did shop
around and we thought we were getting the right thing
for us, in retrospect that may have been wrong, but it
was great working with Chris Parry.
9 Was you surprised / dissapointed that great song “Millions Like Us” didn’t get as high in the chats as say Time for Action/Poison Ivy ermm You Need Wheels it was really a far better song in my mind than any of these?
Obviously I was disappointed that Millions like us
didn’t get higher in the charts, but when you look at
the charts it’s plain to see that what’s in there is
not necessarily the best music. Realistically I do not
think we were going to get higher than Secret Affair
because they were trying to make chart music, but it
was disappointing not to get higher than You Need
Wheels.
10 What did you prefer being in the studio or on the road playing live?
Definitely on the road.
11 How did crowds respond to the Purple Hearts up North did you enjoy the gigs up there?
Once you got north of Watford things got really
unpredictable, I think it was fair to say in some
places we did some of our best gigs and got some of
the best responses, in particular we played a great
gig at Sheffield University and Sheffield was always a
great place to play, some gigs up north were absolute
disasters.
12 Did you get chance to see any other mod bands live?
Yes, I think I saw most of all the other mod
bands; I used to go to as many gigs as I could, and
many of the other bands played with us as well.
13 What mod bands stood out in your mind but sadly didn’t go on to make any impact or records?
Long Tall Shorty, Back to Zero, The Name,
Speedball.
14 How do you think the media / press treated the mod revival?
At the start they really helped the whole thing
kick-in, but like with anything with the press, the
minute they help to build it up, they want to start
knocking it down again.
15 Who gave the band the best gig reviews/press from the mags like Sounds/NME etc?
Obviously Garry Bushell, other names such as
Adrian Thrills, Robbie Millar Paulo Hewitt, but to my
mind it wasn’t always necessarily a good gig review
that I wanted, it was an accurate one, and
surprisingly enough you got near to that sometimes
with a bad review, a good example is a review done by
Paul Morley where he compared us to Generation X, he
did this in a derogatory fashion but I thought it was
a complement.
16 And which person gave the Hearts the most bad press and can you understand why?
I cannot remember anyone in particular but the
journalists that were into bands like Joy Division etc
and worked for the NME seemed to give us bad press.
17 Did you read the many modzines around at the time and what did you think of them?
Yes, and I thought Maximum Speed was the best.
18 What was the atmosphere like at the Mod Alldayers and how did it feel when the Hearts came back for the Mod Aid Alldayer?
Mod alldayers were always very good, and it was
good to do the Mods Mayday for lots of reasons.
19 Who were the Hearts best friends in the mod world (band/promoter fans)?
I think it would be easier to tell you who were
not our friends, but I ‘m not going to, we got on with
mostly everyone.
20 The best event in years Mods Mayday 99 what did you think of this event which band)s) in your mind stole the show?
I really enjoyed the Mods Mayday it was good to
see so many faces I haven’t seen for along time I
didn’t see The Chords because were getting ready to go
on but it was really good to see Small World again.
21 Did you meet up with many old friends at this event?
See Q20.
22 What was it like on the March of the Mods Tour? Best nights/best venues/worst etc?
It was the first time the Purple Hearts had ever
been on the road, and it was scary and exciting at the
same time, there was a mixture of good and bad gigs as
I described in an earlier question Sheffield
University was one that stands out for me.
23 Did you get on with the other bands Secret Affair and Back To Zero?
I got on really well with Back To Zero.
24 Why has the classic “Beat That” never come out on CD and are you pleased bands like The Chords/The Jolt etc have had some recognition and re-releases of late?
I think Beat That is about to come out on CD, so
Jimmy tells me. And yes it’s good to see The Chords
still bringing out stuff
25 What in your mind would (but not released) have made a great Purple Hearts single A and B side?
It would have been quite a daring move to release
this as a single but I think I’ve Been Away, a really
long psychedelic version.
26 We seem to have been waiting ages for the Detour Release of Rarities what can we expect of this album when it comes out?
Pretty soon, I hope, we signed the contracts about
a month ago so hopefully anytime now.
27 Are there any live gigs, BBC sessions still out there you’d like to see released at some point?
I think there are some BBC sessions, we’ve
definitely got a John Peel one which wasn’t so good
and there’s a Kid Jensen one somewhere and possibly
an In Concert if we could locate the later two then we
would consider releasing the lot.
28 Do you still see members of the Purple Hearst what are they all up to?
Yes, I see Simon regularly, I don’t see Bob that
much because he lives in Norfolk, but I went out for a
drink with him a couple of weeks ago, and he seemed on
good form.
29 Would you personally like to get back together for an album/tour?
When I think about this question in the clear
light of day my answer would probably be no, but if I
was asked to do it I’d probably say yes. The bottom
line is I still get a kick out of playing, but to be
honest with you I don’t think it’s ever going to
happen.
30 Are you doing anything musically right now, what music are you into what bands have you seen lately?
As I explain in the last question I love playing
and I’m in a band with Simon called the RT4 we do some
Purple Hearts songs mixed in with some of Simon’s new
originals and some covers, we are doing a gig at the
Rhythm Factory in Whitechapel Road E1 on 27 May. I
don’t get to see many live bands due to work and
family commitments. I do listen to lots of music, I
like quite a lot of new stuff as to what music I’m
into it’s changing constantly some names that come to
mind at the moment are Super Furry Animals, White
Stripes, Stereophonics, The Strokes.
Many thanks Gary much appreciated. Steve.
More on the Purple Hearts at Jimmy's great site.
http://www.purplehearts.fsnet.co.uk/
Anyone with any other contacts of 79 band members get them to get in touch stevethemod@hotmail.com
Thanks to Gary Sparks and James Cooper
Page added 06/05/03
