Bright Spark profile picture

Bright Spark

There used to be a time of harmony and rhyme ...

About Me

John (vocals/guitar) and Heather (bass/vocals) met a couple of times by the "musicians wanted" notices in Norwich music shops, both looking for a band, so decided to form their own. Heather had previously worked with Pete (vocals/drums), he was head-hunted, Bright Spark was formed and we've now been together for two years.

We are primarily a live working band and our gigs include private, corporate and public functions, concerts, festivals, dances of all types from ballroom to rock'n'roll, clubs and restaurants, hotels and theatres - so we get plenty of opportunity to play a good range of styles and genres.

Our own songs reflect this, as they vary a great deal from one other - OK, most bands will say that, but ours REALLY do. Our debut album is now out, with twelve original tracks and a glossy full-colour 12-page booklet of artwork, lyrics and info, all for £8.99. You can read the press review by clicking on 'Pics' under our Spark Guitar picture. We are excited about the album and a great deal of work - and fun - has gone into it. It is available now from Tej General Store, Sprowston Road (corner of Churchill Road), Norwich, and also from our online shop , where you can hear clips of all the tracks. Many thanks to Lefty for hosting this, for brilliant contributions to the artwork, for the great presentation video and, with Grey Panda , being very loyal friends to Bright Spark.

We have another album available only on gigs, but this one's not for sale - at any price! It's mostly outtakes, previews and alternative versions, 27 tracks in total. And all you have to do to get yours ~FREE~ is attend ten gigs and collect ten different-dated flyers from us, available at all our gigs whether public or private.

We still have some unfilled dates, so if you are having any type of celebration, just get in touch and we'll send you more info, no obligation. We get lots of repeat bookings and have some lovely testimonials from happy clients. Our live playlist currently includes about 150 well known songs and instrumentals, mostly from the 1950s-60s, plus about an hour's worth of originals, and we are always learning - and writing - more. We are careful to suit our playlist, presentation and sound level to each audience, venue and occasion. Given a little notice, we can probably even learn your favourite song to play for you on your special night!

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 7/14/2006
Band Website: travellingrecords.co.uk/brightspark
Band Members: John Bartram (guitar), Pete Allen (drums) and Heather Enid Wells (bass). All three members sing and have a hand in the songwriting, but John is the main songwriter and he and Pete the main singers.
Influences: Beatles, Hollies, Kinks, Beach Boys, Bee Gees, The Who, Fleetwood Mac, Eddie Cochran, Mamas and Papas, Chuck Berry, Shadows etc and also everyone we've ever played with. We love to surprise people by playing something they don't expect, just when they think they have us pegged. Often we surprise ourselves too.
Sounds Like: A softcore rock'n'roll harmony and instrumental beat group, or indie retro-Brit-pop band maybe - but we have eclectic tastes and enjoy anything that catches our imagination.
Record Label: Travelling Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

Tasha (5/6/92-15/10/07) - a paragon of canine virtue

Thanks to everyone who has expressed their admiration of my lovely Corded Poodle, Tasha, whose photo appears with our song "You Helped Me Through". She was put to sleep this evening. A true heart beat...
Posted by Bright Spark on Tue, 16 Oct 2007 04:10:00 PST

New Bright Spark songs

At last we have some new recordings to put up. One of them, Rockin at the Ace Café (The Legend Has Been Reborn) is held up as we don't have a picture. I suppose the rock'n'roll thing to do would have ...
Posted by Bright Spark on Sat, 11 Nov 2006 05:56:00 PST

General ramblings, lack of gambollings

We had a good gig Saturday night at the Sprowston SS Club, always a nice atmosphere at this friendly club. Lovely to see Jason, Justin and Jackie again, as we've been playing mostly private functions ...
Posted by Bright Spark on Wed, 06 Dec 2006 05:02:00 PST

"UnSparkPlugged" play Go Acoustic Sunday 19th November 2006

A stripped-down Bright Spark will appear at tomorrow's Go Acoustic session at Horsford Brickmakers Inn, in the form of John and me (Heather). We don't think it's very likely Pete will join us as he&nb...
Posted by Bright Spark on Sat, 18 Nov 2006 11:41:00 PST

At the Melbourne Club

Just come in from our gig at North Walsham, Bright Spark really enjoyed tonight and it was great to see so many of our friends supporting us, especially Jason, Justin, Carol and Tim, Eddie and Marilyn...
Posted by Bright Spark on Sun, 08 Oct 2006 07:00:00 PST

Last night's gig

After playing mainly public bookings throughout the summer, Bright Spark last night began an autumn sequence of mainly private functions (though there are still a few scattered gigs open to everyone, ...
Posted by Bright Spark on Sun, 01 Oct 2006 07:11:00 PST

Recording and learning at Bakka

I spent a couple of days last week at Bakka Recording Studio at Mattishall, playing some backings for Lefty's forthcoming solo album. It was good working with him, Daryl and Carl in such excellent sur...
Posted by Bright Spark on Sun, 01 Oct 2006 07:07:00 PST

New songs on MySpace

At last the recordings for the forthcoming CD are taking shape, we now have nine original tracks finished, and studio preview versions of another eleven that we're working on. We envisage about ten tr...
Posted by Bright Spark on Mon, 25 Sep 2006 06:28:00 PST

Good gigs this weekend

Just come in from tonight's Bright Spark gig at Sprowston S'n'S Club, following Friday evening's gig at Horning Ferry. Two really nice gigs, made extra special by having our friends, fans and, in Pete...
Posted by Bright Spark on Sun, 10 Sep 2006 06:20:00 PST

New recordings

John, Pete and I spent three hours on Friday at Earth Studios recording vocals for eight songs, and will be putting some new tracks up as soon as they are finished. Most of these were redos but t...
Posted by Bright Spark on Tue, 05 Sep 2006 02:44:00 PST