Thanks to Ron Mael, Russell Mael and Tamera Glover for their continuous effort to keep our CD players turning - and giving us something to write about;

Thanks to Peter de Wit - without him there wouldn't have been any Fan Mael Fanzine, and this site would never have been made. Pity he can't see it.

Thanks to all the Sparks fans all over the world for providing us with the latest Sparks news and gossip, especially the ones who are members of the mael-list;

Thanks to Carl Caprioglio - director of Oglio Records for being our most important source of information - too much to mention all of it here (and he's a extremely nice guy as well!!! - VISIT THAT WEBSITE!!!);

Thanks to Ruud Swart and Stef Streur for supplying most of the historical stuff at this site and all their other help.

Thanks to EnviT B.V. for providing our webspace, webdesign, all technical support and maintenance.

Special thanks to:

    Sandy Richards, Craig Jacks and Rob Morgan for the pictures of Sparks November 14, 1998 Hollywood Key Club concert (including Rex !), Rob also for his drawing of Ron Mael and info about the promo copy of the "Beat The Clock" compilation, and Rob is always providing us the info from the official newsletter before we have it in the (dutch) mail;
    Gary Sanderson for the info about the forthcoming collaboration with Mulu;
    Harry Young for the info about New Order's "When I'm With You" cover;
    Dario Western for the discovery of another 'Kimono My House' outtake: 'Pardon My French' and for the trivia w.r.t. Doris Day and the info about the Christian Fry cover;
    Neil Murray for his discovery of another song Halfnelson played in the early seventies: 'Manchester', his Todd Rundgren trivia, and his help w.r.t. the Birmingham 2001 convention;
    Pea Hicks for the discovery of another "National Crime Awareness Week" promo 12";
    Amelia Cone for the info about her book "A Song That Sings Itself", and (really!) loads of other info and especially nowadays for being the official spokes-woman for Sparks at the mael-list;
    Tosh Berman of TamTam Books for the info about Russell's afterword in Serge Gainsbourg's novel "Evguenie Sokolov";
    R. Stevie Moore also for the info and pictures of a young Ron and Russell in the "The Big T.N.T. Show" movie;
    Bill Paige for his 1982 Illinois Entertainer interview with Ron Mael (Don't forget to check Bill's Homepage!);
    Karl Kuenning for the use of an excerpt from his (virtual) book "ROADIE - A TRUE STORY (at least the parts I remember)" about Ron Mael's Piano Stool act (You really must visit Karl's www.roadie.net! (I enjoyed all of it));
    Bart van den Hoogen for his info about "The Edit", the "Calm Before The Storm", his picture of the 2000 "Best Of" compilation, and for the discovery of the "Sparks 2000 Music History" CD (and pic);
    Chris Devonshire-Ellis for his discovery the "Bad Manners" version of "Growing Pains", the lyrics (and additional info) of "Kimono" and his additional info and corrections w.r.t. The Mighty List/Ramones/Peter Cook/Finitribe/Rover ad/I like Girls/Erasure/Adrian Fisher/Keith Forsey/Larry Wilson/Mai/Marianne Faithfull/Hilly Boy Michaels/Sal Maida/Joseph Fleury/Salon Music/Telex;
    Benoit de Fleurac for his knowledge about a French CD-single of "Let's Go Surfing" that was never released, including two unknown edits and his pictures of the sleeves, his picture of the Shepherds Bush 1994 after-show-party invitation, the news about Sparks collaborating with "Grand Popo Football Club", the Billy MacKenzie cover of "Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth" and lots of news w.r.t. "Les Rita Mitsouko";
    Tim Sewell (again) for the scans of the sleeve of the (extended) #1 In Heaven CD and the promo 12" with the same title, and the log of Sparks Live Chat at checkout.com on 22 August 2000;
    Dank u wel Russ Josephson for his hint to increase the visibility of the (I)nformation symbol;
    Colin Gordon Black (again) for his idea of (and contributions to) our "Cool Places" section, and the "Crackerjack" info;
    Ingrid Hambuch for her idea of (and first contribution to) "The Louvre" - our Sparks Art Gallery;
    Colin Gordon Black (again) for the info about the remastered re-releases of the Sparks/Halfnelson and Woofer albums;
    Sylvio for the info about the Virgin Schallplatten Gmbh "This Town '99 Edit" CD-single;
    Per Aksel Lundgreen for the info about his band "Chinese Detectives" covers "All You Ever Think About Is Sex";
    Bryan Forbes for the info about his "Master Apprentices" website;
    Les Hanagan for his comments about the single edit of "Get In The Swing" - 30 seconds longer than the album track; additional info about "I Like Girls" and "Alabamy Right", and the unreleased recordings of "Angst In My Pants" and "Shout" - all new entries for the Mighty List, and most recently his discovery of a new re-issue of the "In The Swing" compilation;
    Gerald Wrede for his info about Sparks covers by German Underground Pop Heroes Andreas Dorau and Max Goldt, Japanese Wave Combo Picky Picnic, and even more recordings by Martin Gore;
    Peter König for his midi tracks of "In The Future", "Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth", "More Than A Sex Machine", "Wonder Girl" and "(When I Kiss You) I Hear Charlie Parker Playing";
    Jan Artl for the quotes from the book "Depeche Mode - A Biography by Steve Malins", his picture of that very rare Sparkish Andreas Dorau 12" promo, the info about the release date(s) of "More Than A Sex Machine" and "Gunther Koch", additional info about "One Word One Sound", the info about the "Smith & Mighty" and "Glam Rock All Stars" covers, all catalog info w.r.t. "Balls" and related singles, the 2000 "Best Of" CD, all news about recent Sparks remixes, and for all info about Sparks German TV performances;
    Tim Murrah for his picture of Ron and Russell in Vienna, and his 'good stuff' webzine";
    H.F. Beiert for the info and pictures w.r.t. the "Singing In The Shower" 12 inch;
    Rand for the info about the Mark Burgess/Yves Altana "Moon Over Kentucky" cover;
    Robert Canipe for the info about the incorrect lyrics of "Here In Heaven";
    Andreas Hüne for the info about the vinyl promo of "More Than A Sex Machine" and remixes, the altered "The Angels" lyrics, and the extensive story about meeting Sparks in Hamburg (also thanks to Ester Oppermann!);
    Stephen Lennon for additional info/corrections w.r.t. "C'est Sheep", Noel, Telex and the discovery of Christie Haydon's "Titanic" track, the info about unreleased material on other websites, and additional info about the "movie sampler";
    Simon Majury for the release date of the UK "Calm Before The Storm" 2001 release, the "Boris The Spider" info, and all Sparks UK tour info;
    David Gibson for the info about the Peter Oxendale / "Dead or Alive" connection;
    Christophe Horlin for the info about the "taratata - the duos" CD with a live version of "Singing In The Shower", the additions of Julien Clerk and Johnny Halliday to the "Confusion" list, for the lyrics of "Madonna - Spanish version", for the pictures of the "This Town" compilation and the Japanese "Balls" sticker, for the discovery of three bootlegs, more info about "A Cute Candidate", for his discovery of a 1 track "No. 1 Song In Heaven" promo, the Japanese Plagiriasm, the Australian "Music That You Can Dance To", for discovering "Glittering 2000", for his own website, for being the 25000th (and 50000th(?)) visitor on this website, and for lots of other additions;
    Ian Beach for the discovery of Rainer Mohra's "When Do I Get To Sing My Way" midi track, and the French title of "Knock Off";
    Tim Brooks and Amelia Cone (again) for additional info about Venini (Sparks support act London, Nov. 27 1999);
    Imke Janiesch for the info about how to get the "A Cute Candidate" soundtrack (and for managing the brothers - no more chewing gum please...);
    Vladimir Syabro for the discovery of a Danish(?) release of "Just Got Back From Heaven";
    Richard Gardner for the discovery of "The Independant" review of the Nov. 1999 London concert;
    Tony Hiscox for corrections on the Sparks "family tree";
    Pieter Bexkens for mentioning Fellini and Eisenstein in the lyrics of "Aeroflot";
    Gunnar Jensen for the discovery of another "Just Got Back From Heaven" CD;
    Mark A. Silver for the info about the "#1 In Heaven"/"All You Ever Think About Is Sex" DVD;
    Steve Boyce for his corrections wrt. Lio, Adele Bertei, Grand Popo Football Club, and for helping us with the lyrics;
    (Squirrel!) Joey Kline for his discovery of an interview with Les Bohem;
    Steve Woods for the sad news about Adrian Fisher's dead;
    Clive Hocker for the missing verse of "Tryouts For The Human Race", the correction w.r.t. the credits for "Stereo", and for the transcription of the 1979 Russell Mael interview;
    Tim Brooks (again) for his info (+tape) about Cuban Boys doing "Number One Song In Heaven", and his discovery of the 3-track (aborted) UK "The Calm Before The Storm", and the "Live At The Whiskey" bootleg;
    Jon Bacon for his discovery of the "Balls But No Tits" bootleg;
    Guy Ducos for his 1974 live Sparks pictures, and the rare pics of "One And A Half-Nelson" and the Spanish "Tips For Teens", for loads of pictures he send us,, for the info about the limited edition of the "Cute Candidate" CD single and for lots of pics of promo-only albums/singles etc. and for the "This Album's Big Enough: Best Of" CD info;
    Denver and Steve Whitehead for finding some URLs with Sparks content, Steve also for finding several Sparks samples in other recordings;
    Ella Black for her info about Flo and Eddie doing "Roger";
    Sparks58 for the info about "Rollercoaster" available on DVD;
    Antero Viitala for the info about the "Kontra" covers, and about the "thanks to" Christi Haydon-Wilson info;
    John Fisher for his review of the 1 September 2000 London show;
    David Anderson for lots of info about Earle Mankey and some Sparks links;
    Jason Beck (again) for the info about the Japanese "Balls";
    Andy Haskins for the discovery of 2 Peruan single/1 Japanese promo single, TCBTS/MTASM promos, and everything about the 27 track "Movie Music Sampler";
    Paul Harris for the permission to republish the interview R&R did with Jewish Telegraph;
    Alex Konstantinov for the Russian in "Aeroflot", his "Damals Und Heute" interview transcription, for making me add "A Fun Bunch Of Guys" to the Mighty List, for the supply of lots of Russian links (incl. his own website), and for his two objects d'art;
    Jon Everett for the idea of a "Cellular Phone Calling Tunes" section;
    Tony Machin for additional info about "Trisco" sampling Sparks;
    Dee Lewis for the discovery of Sex Clark Five covering "Talent Is An Asset";
    Auke Lenstra for the info about the "This Town" compilation;
    Xcott for his Sparks artwork on his homepage;
    Magnus Kaukerat for his knowledge of the Swedish "Balls", the "Charlie Parker" trivia and Sparks help on Marc Moulin's "Top Secret" album;
    Rafael Wynn for confirming the existance of "Now That I Own The ABC", and for his review of the first ever Australian Sparks concert (12 January 2001);
    Michel Roman for the discovery and picture of the 1981 French "Best Of Sparks" LP, and for the picture of the French "Singing In The Shower" single;
    Petteri Aro for the knowledge of "The Matthews" covering "Wonder Girl";
    Nirgal for the link to the review of Sparks 2000 Munich concert;
    Xavier Lorente for his Sparks art and comic strips, and for lots of additions to the discographies;
    Rhonda Kerry for the news (and organisation!) of the first International Sparks Convention;
    Leelee Haselton for providing us with her "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us" midi track;
    Adam Gerdes for his help w.r.t. the Birmingham 2001 convention;
    Fredrik Ekelund for his help w.r.t. the Birmingham 2001 convention and all the MP3s he allowed us to put here;
    Steve Murray (again) and Ian Beach (again) for their links w.r.t. Sparks Lil' Beethoven Promotional Radio Interviews;
    Jean-Paul Dussart and Carlos y Genis for their websites and pics of the RFH concert;
    Steve Murray (again) for his great review of the RFH concert;
    Neil for his info about Les Bohem;
    Rebecca for her info about "PUTTIN ON THE HITS";
    Bengt Nilsson for his info about the "Get Crazy" track "Auld Lang Syne";
    Chorleyboy for his link to the "Vic and Bob" video;
    John Potter for interviews with James Lowe and Martin Gordon;
    Eric Murray for his concert info;
    Candy Darling and Thomas for their Sparks at Meltdown 2004 info;

and let's not forget Mary Martin for running the Official Sparks Fanclub.