10 Things You Didn’t Know About Sparrer

 1

Drummer Steve Bruce was once the front page pin-up for an issue of teenage girls’ magazine ‘OH BOY’, wearing a sexy blue leather jacket (and I’ve got a copy – watch this space for a picture).

2

They used to travel to gigs in an old ex-post office van and the diesel engine was so loud, they had to shout in order to talk to each other. After long journeys, their voices were completely shot and they couldn’t even speak, let alone sing (no change there, then).

3

After a couple of drinks too many before a gig at the Fford Green Hotel in Leeds, the group walked on stage and were about to start the first song. Tour manager Will Murray then had to fight his way through the audience to the front in order to inform Burge that he had forgotten his guitar. It was also during this gig that Colin climbed up on top of the P.A. stack at the side of the stage – and fell off.

4

Daryl Smith, who plays rhythm guitar for the group whenever they play live, is the son of music entrepreneur Mike Smith who actually signed the boys to Decca records back in 1977 (when Daryl was probably still in nappies (diapers)). Small world. Daryl is also a great piano player and regularly keeps everyone amused on tour knocking out ‘Chas & Dave’ songs on any available piano.

5

Bass player Burge (Steve Burgess) possesses the only known copy of the ‘England Belongs To Me’ acetate demo and he’s hidden it (but I know it’s in his attic).

6

The original instrumental to ‘England Belongs To Me’ was ‘Land Of Hope And Glory’ (as they play live) but then it was suddenly realised that its composer, Elgar, had not been dead for fifty years and the tune was still in copyright. Guitarist Mick Beaufoy had to rush back to the studio and dub another instrumental over Elgar’s chord sequence. The tape was then dispatched to be pressed with minutes to spare.

7

Burge’s favourite songwriter is George M. Cohan.

8

The working title of the ‘Guilty As Charged’ album was ‘Smells Like Metholated Spirit’.

9

There is no nine.

10

On a recent European tour, the boys were inadvertently booked into a Swiss hotel run by a religious group which didn’t sell alcohol.  They quickly decamped to the nearest bar and gave the waitress 500 pounds sterling, telling her to throw them out when they had drunk their way through it.  The money lasted about two hours (don't go to Switzerland - the beer's too expensive).