Russell Mael's 1960s LA Scene Radio Memoir

Post updated 18/11/2014. 
More of the show has been added

What we have here is a fascinating audio memoir of the teenage years of Sparks' Russell Mael growing up in Los Angeles in the mid 60s.

Russell and his brother Ron grew up in Pacific Palisades - a relatively affluent suburb of Los Angeles.

Russell went to Palisades High School and was in the "Class of '65". Both brothers enrolled at UCLA where Ron began a course in Cinema and Graphic Arts in 1963 and Russell studied Theater Arts and Film-making between 1966-1968.

In 1968 they formed a band called Halfnelson which later turned into Sparks - one of the most successful and critically acclaimed bands to come out of the glam scene of the early 70s.

Here Russell fills us in on the mid to late 60s LA scene and gives us an idea what it was like growing up "cruising up and down Ventura Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley or beaching it at Malibu or some other place along the coast" at a time when the US west coast scene was at its peak.

This was broadcast on BBC Radio 1 on a Sunday night around November 1979 and I remember listening to it as a kid and immediately trying to follow up on many of the bands featured - it was quite unusual to hear this stuff on British radio at the time. I think I managed to track down a copy of the then quite rare Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era LP not long after. And from there began a life-long obsession with 60s garage rock and psychedelia.

Unfortunately this cuts in and is missing the first few minutes but it is a great listen. I'm not saying what he plays, that would spoil it, but it's kind of like a radio version of Nuggets with some superb LA pop thrown in too.



Thanks to Captain Soul for uploading this and to Tomasz for contributing the first part.

And to Mal for having the wits to grab a C120 and record it one Sunday night long long ago...



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