The Catherine Wheel - Sparks Are Gonna Fly

What this video is

Released in May 2000 as the sole single from Wishville — Catherine Wheel's fifth and final album on Columbia Records — 'Sparks Are Gonna Fly' represents the band's most overt bid for US mainstream alternative radio at the precise moment the post-grunge commercial window was closing. Having evolved from Great Yarmouth shoegaze originators (1990) through the critically acclaimed Chrome (1993) and into the…

Why it matters

Represents a terminal data point in the British shoegaze-to-post-grunge commercial migration arc (1990–2000). Catherine Wheel's decade-long evolution from effects-laden noise-pop to arena-ready alternative rock is legible in this video's production values — high motion, warm saturation, rapid…

The director

Dean Karr (born 22 February 1965, Seattle, WA) is an American photographer, music video director, and commercial filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He attended Washington State University (BFA) and the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena. Karr rose to…