Then the band put their musical career on hold for six years in the early ‘90s to concentrate on an unrealised musical adaptation of manga comic Mai, The Psychic Girl, with Tim Burton planned to direct.

During their initial ‘70s rush of success, a project with French director Jacques Tati starring Sparks as television executives fell apart. The songs of this stunningly oddball drama-pop act often featured outlandish plots and scenarios, their sleeve art suggested a hidden dramatic narrative (the pair tied up on a speedboat on the cover of 1974’s ‘Propaganda’, or strewn amid the wreckage of a plane crash on 1975’s ‘Indiscreet’), and attempts to make their own movie were scuppered on several occasions. “We don’t follow the typical pattern of a lot of bands that have had documentaries” Ever since Ron Mael stared down the Top Of The Pops lens throughout ‘This Town Ain’t Big Enough For The Both Of Us’ in 1974 like a furious fallen dictator forced to play keyboards in a glam pop band for his crimes – allegedly inspiring John Lennon to call Ringo in amazement that “ Marc Bolan is playing a song with Hitler” – Ron and his dandy younger brother Russell have been courting the camera, out to seduce the silver screen. Sparks and movies: the unrequited love story that finally got its Hollywood ending.

“The idea of exploding, having something grandiose and colourful and dramatic is something that really had an effect on us.” “Cinema has always been a part of us,” says Ron Mael, buttoned tight into a crisp white shirt even for an early morning press engagement with his laptop.

Sparks coldplay album