My dad hated Sparks with a passion which made me like them even more.

I remember that TOTP of "This Town ..." and my old man going on and on about (amongst other things)

- long hair
- girlish voice
- prancing
- there aren't enough words to describe how much he hated Ron Mael, but you can be sure that the words 'Hitler' and 'pervert' were used.

Oh, these are awesome.

I never saw Sparks on TV over here until the 80s. They've always been a little ahead of their time, but I bet in the 70s they seemed downright alien.

Wheee! SPARKS!!!!!! I just heard "Waterproof" on the ipod shuffle this morning.

I think I may first learned about Sparks, funnily enough, through Paul McCartney's video for "Coming Up" which features Paul and Linda dressed as various musical icons -- including "Ron" at about 0:34.