*”Sparks” – at the “Cliff’s Pavilion”-Southend-on-Sea Essex (2026)

Although this particular London Shoes blog article isn’t technically related to London – it’s subject matter location has a very close association with the ‘Smoke’ and Londoners – and historically, being just 40 miles from Central London, is commonly referred to as the Londoners ‘playground’.

This week’s blog took my London Shoes 26 miles east of their Romford base to the now City of Southend-on-Sea in Essex.

The destination for this week’s topic is a major regional theatre venue…..the “CLIFF’S PAVILION”

Serving as a leading provincial theatre and concert hall, not just for Southend-on-Sea but all the surrounding Essex area and the east of London as well.

So – accompanied by my brother-in-law Vince, the reason for legging it over to Sarfend was for the specific purpose of catching legendary 1970’s formed band “SPARKS” in action.

Vince and I were extremely fortunate to get hold of a couple of tickets for Sparks performance at Southend’s – Cliff’s Pavilion last night (Weds 26th August 2026) – on what was the final gig of their current UK Tour.

Now – up until 2025, neither myself or Vince had ever actually seen Sparks play ‘live’ before – although we did get very close to seeing them just over half a century ago!!!

Back in 1973 I had seen a clip on the Old Grey Whistle Test tv prog, where ‘Whispering Bob Harris’ introduced this unknown totally wacky band from the US who were fronted by 2 weird looking brothers ‘Russell and Ron Mael’. On that ‘Whistle Test’ prog they performed a song called ‘Girl from Germany’ – from an album entitled ‘A Woofer in Tweeters Clothing’  – a tune that was just a little bit ‘out there’ and different from the ‘pop’ music of that time.

So – back in 1973 when I was an avid reader of both the Melody Maker and the New Musical Express weekly music papers, I just happened to notice that this band ‘Sparks’ were playing a gig at the legendary (but now long gone) Marquee club in Wardour Street down in Soho, in London’s  West End.

So, at that time, I suggested to Vince that we leg it down t0 the Marquee to check out this ‘Sparks’ band that I’d seen on tv. However, when we got there, we discovered that the scheduled Sparks appearance had been cancelled – I think it was to do with work visa’s or something like that. I can remember us being very disappointed at having come all that way, only to find that Sparks wouldn’t be playing. I’m not too sure, as it was over 50yrs ago, but I think the ‘stand-in’ act for that night might have been the acoustic trio called ‘America’ who went on to have massive hits like ‘Horse with no Name’and ‘Ventura Highway’.

Anyway – in 1973 Sparks signed to Island Records and relocated to the UK and that same year had a massive worldwide hit “This Town Aint Big Enough For The Both Of Us” followed by a million selling album “Kimono my House” which spurred a batch of hit singles – and the rest, as they say, is history.

Fast forward 50yrs to 2025, through a family connection of his in the music business, my bruv-in-law Vince managed to get hold of a couple of tickets to see Sparks closing show for their then UK Tour 2025, at the iconic Hammersmith Odeon venue in West London – which is now called the ‘Eventim Apollo’.

So – how ironic that 1yr on from finally getting to see Sparks ‘live’ at the old Hammersmith Odeon – myself and Vince were once again lucky enough to get get hold of a couple of tickets to see a sold out performance by “Sparks” – but this time at the famous Cliff’s Pavilion in Southend-on-Sea Essex – on what was (yet again) the very last date of their current UK Tour 2026!!!

But firstly – before I get on to the Sparks performance – a little bit about Southend’s Cliff’s Pavilion venue, as it has an interesting history about it.

The Cliff’s Pavilion  was originally commissioned to be built in 1935 as an art-deco style building – however – it wasn’t until some 30+ years later that it staged its first proper production!!!.

Unfortunately WW2 prevented the project being completed, and ‘post’ war there just wasn’t the money around to complete the building and the theatre up and running. Budget constraints meant that the theatre site stood empty right up until 1963, when interest and necessary investment, meant that work could finally go ahead to complete the building works, right at the top of the cliffs – and operate it as a theatre.

Throughout past recent decades, this extremely popular theatre has hosted a mixed bag of entertainment events – ranging from musicals / plays / comedy nights / tv shows / pantomimes / big band nights / symphony orchestra performances plus all different genres of ‘live’ music.

Some of entertainments biggest names have all ‘played’ the Cliffs Pavilion – and interestingly, the Cliffs Pavilion also has its own little niche in rock/popular music history – for these reasons:-

* In 1967 ‘Jimi Hendrix’ appeared there, as part of the Grand Pop Festival held there where top of the bill that evening were Dave Dee – Dozy,Beaky, Mick & Tich !!!

* In 1991 Sir Paul McCartney played a ‘secret’ gig at the Cliffs as a warm up for his 1991 ‘Unplugged’ tour

* Oasis filmed their ‘Live-By the Sea’ video during their performance at the Cliffs in 1995

* The Blur track ‘Beetlebum’ from th ‘Live 2009’ album – was recorded at the Cliffs during a warm-up gig performed there prior to their Glastonbury Festival and Hyde Park gigs later that summer.

* And to this day, every year – the very popular ‘Jools Holland & his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra’ play to a sold out Cliff’s Pavilion.

The Cliff’s is an extremely popular venue – drawing in not just locals, but folk from all over Essex and East London. There are very few shows/productions put on there that are not sell-outs – it really is a great venue, with a really good vibe about it – I luv it.

Now – getting back to Sparks performance that my London Shoes attended there last night.

As mentioned above, the place was rammed – completely sold out, which some people might find rather strange for a band that have been on-the-road and making records for the best part of 56 years – but Sparks (& their music) have always been popular, and they have an enormous following in both the UK and Europe, and invariably, wherever and whenever they tour, its nearly always a sell-out.

To date (2026), the band led by brothers Ron (81) & Russell (78) Mael have churned out 26 studio albums plus 2 ‘live’ albums – and as a band, their music and theatrics has influenced many bands and songwriters throughout the past 5 decades.

The energy that 78 yr old Russell Mael and 81 yr old Ron Mael put into their 2.5hr performance is incredible – albeit Ron Mael is generally sitting at his keyboards throughout the performance, with the exception of a little bit of dancing when playing their hit “The Number One Song In Heaven”.

At the Cliff’s the band ran through an assortment of tracks from their extensive repertoire, which included quite a few numbers from their last studio album ‘Mad’ released last year.

Obviously, some of the old hits were incorporated into the set – with the audience going totally bonkers when they did “This Town Aint Big Enough For The Both OF Us”

The Cliff’s Pavilion audience lapped up every minute of the event and thoroughly enjoyed themselves, as did myself and Vince.

My London Shoes loves its music, its no secret…..and the 2 Sparks gigs that I’ve now attended (Hammersmith 2025) and this one at The Cliff’s (2026) are most certainly up there in the top 20 of gigs that I’ve attended throughout my 69 years on this planet – for energy/entertainment and an overall feel good factor – the Mael brothers ‘Sparks’ set up and output have most definitely got-it!!!

Hope you enjoyed this little summary of the evenings entertainment, and its accompanying photos

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Below are the entire gallery of photos taken to accompany this London Shoes blog article