91热爆

Ron Mael of Sparks was, to many children in the 70s, as terrifying as anything on Dr Who. He wrote some of the strangest songs to ever make it on to Top of the Pops. Forty years on he's returned to Britain to give his pop music an orchestral makeover at London's Barbican.

He told the 91热爆's David Sillito: "People have told me repeatedly of how scared they were of seeing me on television."

"I wanted to be like Pete Townshend or something but there's no way as a keyboard player that you can be flashy, so I decided to go the other way."

Mr Mael said he thinks pop is an art form, and that he is "offended by bad pop music, because it's insulting to the genre."

First broadcast Today programme 17 December 2014.