Dave Sparks

I recently had a guitar repaired* and when I got it back the first thing I did was blast out the opening to this song. I don’t know why but at some point it became my go to riff. I guess I got comfortable playing […]

There’s a long historic tradition of purely vocal music, beat boxing, choirs, the recent resurgence of sea shanty’s, babershop –  after all beside maybe percussion the voice is the one instrument we’ve always […]

There’s a great relatability in a working class person singing songs about their hometown. Especially one with a way with words who can create a captivating story in a three minute song. Think early Oasis or the […]

I remember over the years many people who have commented about listening to downbeat music, asking why you’d want to. Which I guess I understand, I mean it’s a valid question, why would you want to listen to […]

In the not too distant past Radio 2 compiled a list of the top 100 guitar riffs. It’s a list that’s topped by Led Zepplin’s Whole lotta love and generally full of the tracks you’d expect. The inclusion of the […]

I have a long love affair with Ben Fold’s music but Way to normal may just have been the album where that started to show strains. Not that it isn’t a good album or that I don’t like it, just that it doesn’t live […]

I’m sure I’ve said before on here but the power of music to conjure up thoughts of different times and places is sometimes phenomenal. For this track in particular it’s time I spent living […]

There are many firsts through your life that you can probably remember, first gig is definitely one of them. Mine was the Royal Court in Liverpool in ’99. Off the back of their Mercury music prize win the year […]

I think my first introduction to this song was via the Greenday cover version, possibly done for a Pepsi advert or at least used on one. It’s a song we used to play with my band in […]

I’m pretty sure as a result of this song there’s a generation of people who can only count past five in Spanish by saying cinco, twice. It’s a straightforward story of a guy trying to be […]