Neil Sparkes

Neil Sparkes was born in Crayford, Kent, England on 6th June 1967. He was educated at Dover Grammar School for Boys on England's south coast; and spent his childhood growing up by the sea in the town of Deal, Kent. Sparkes is a poet, visual artist, musician and music producer whose work resonates through both literary and popular cultural worlds. As a poet and performer, he has read and performed widely in the UK, Europe and Internationally at clubs, festivals, colleges and universities where he also lectures; as well as numerous appearances on radio. His work includes several collections of poetry published by Billy Childish's Hangman Books, "All Metal And Other Mens Wives" (1989), "Rumba Rumba (Jazz From Hell)" (1990), as well as numerous appearances on BBC Radio. Magazines and anthologies include "Velocity" (Black Spring 2003); "Gargoyle" (Black Spring 1999 )"Critical Quarterly" (1996) "Grandchildren of Albion" (New Departures 1992); "Popular Front of Contemporary Poetry" (Apples & Snakes 1992) and the Hungarian/British collection "Fragile Continent" (Princes Trust 1991). Complete with his own harmonious wood-cuts and drawings....Sparkes' lines are as spacious, terse and punchy as his mentors _Jeff Nuttall_,Mingus, Monk and Kerouac. Neil's long term collaboration with legendary saxophonist Dick Heckstall-Smith is featured on the CD and book "Grandchildren of Albion" (New Departures). A new collection of poems and drawings "Drums In The Rain" is in preparation. Sparkes studied on the foundation course at Maidstone, K.I.A.D. (1985) and then the B.A. Fine Art course at Goldsmiths College, London (1986 - 89). The first one man show of his artwork was at the East London Half Moon Theatre, and he exhibits his paintings and artwork in the UK and abroad. His solo album "Burning Mask" was released on Interchill Records in 2000. He has developed his own sound - Cuban dub, Caribbean flavors, poetics and Afro-Cuban percussion. It plays as a delicious organic-meets-electronic jambalaya with generous infusions of cinematic dub, down-tempo, jazz and spoken word. Sparkes is widely known as vocalist and percussionist with Indie dance group Transglobal Underground with whom he toured the World from 1992 to 1996. He appeared on all of TGU's commercially successful albums for Nation Records and Sony. Unique among his contemporaries as a poet who moves from the page to performance; he has placed his poetic work in the cultural context of popular music and collaborations with artists such as _Peter Gabriel_ on his latest releases "Burn You Up, Burn You Down" and the massive selling album "Hit", released in November 2003. A long term preoccupation with synthesizing his multi-medic talents led to the formation of Neil's latest group Temple Of Sound, Taking the best elements from Transglobal's unique stew of big beat sonic globalism, Temple Of Sound have absorbed latinized percussion, huge guitar riffs and most notably, Sparkes' involved, rapped, mantric vocals. Temple of Sound's debut album "First Edition" was released by Wagram Music in 2002. Wagram is the leading French independent distributor and label responsible for Nova, Buddah Bar, George V and Nirvana Lounge compilations. As producers and re-mixers, Temple of Sound have made the album "Peoples Colony No. 1" for Peter Gabriel's label Real World, with Rizwan Muazzam Qawwali (nephews of the late great Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan in 2001 and "Shout At The Devil", an album co-written and produced with Jah Wobble for 30 Hertz Records in 2002. They have recently remixed Ladysmith Black Mambazo; Claude Challe, (creator of the Buddah Bar;) Banco De Gaia; Fundamental and the Fatback Band; as well as doing mixes for Blood and Fire, Select Cuts, Sony, BMG, Maverick and MCA/Universal. In 2005 Temple of Sound produced the new album by Los De Abajo in Mexico City at the studios of Grammy award winner Pepe Aguilar. The album is released on Peter Gabriel's Real World label. Temple of Sound's music has been used by fashion designer Ferragamo for their summer collections and Valentino in their catwalk shows and by advertisers such as Pilot Pens and Adobe. Temple of Sound have contributed towards many feature film soundtracks including Stander (2003), _Les Gaous (2003)_ and "Dillo Con Parole Mie" (2003) and have composed and produced incidental music for features on BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky Sports; as well as numerous licenses around the globe. Their music has been used by fashion designer Ferragamo for their summer collections and Valentino in their catwalk shows and by advertisers such as Pilot Pens and Adobe.