Review of Iain Sparks and Friends

Iain morphed into the Big ‘O’ for his first set, and the resemblance was creepily close. I guess most of us were on the edges of our seats wondering if he was going to reach that first high note in his opener “Only The Lonely, and this he did with ease to good applause, at that point we settled down knowing the rest of the performance would be class. The 15 Orbison numbers sung that night included one of his last recordings with the Travelling Wilbury’s “You’re Not Alone Anymore,” but it was “Mean Woman Blues” with live harmonica which got the dancers to the floor. “Pretty Woman” had the audience hand-clapping and a yelpin’, but I was curious as to how Iain was going to handle “Crying” - another excellent version of an Orby classic and Iain actually played his guitar, not mimed as some tributes annoyingly do. Interestingly Iain mixed up the evening with some soul material, OK, not UK Rock fodder, but his treatment of some Ben E. King and Temptations material shows how diverse this Roy Orbison is. A very entertaining evening with a warm bond between the audience and entertainer. Ken Major - UK Rock Magazine (December 2010 issue)