1963 - 1969
The Sparks started as a group when some young boys got together to make music. As was the case in the rest of the Netherlands and other countries as well. Twan van Well, a real Shadows fan together with Piet Hoebers and Ben Fransen, completed with drummer Loetje Vollenberg, started playing together. First they had only instrumental covers from the Shadows later when Ben Hermsen joined the group other non-instrumental songs were added to the repertoire.
They became very succesful in the south of Holland and the German region just across the border. Also they won several talent scouting contests and even made a demo-record for the Polygram studios but it was never released.
A year or so later the group changed a bit. Drummer Loetje Vollenberg was replaced by Frans Derks and Jan Soberje joined as piano/organ player. Still a year or so later Hay Hoebers joined the band when Ben Franssen had to join the army.

1970-1990

The group stopped as a band which played every week because people started studying, got married or started a business. Still they came together on special occasions to do a performance.

1990-2015

The Sparks really started their second career after the first Beatnight in Horst. Six groups came together in a kind of reunion concert and played in a sold out Merthal for 1700 enthousiast people. The Sparks were one of the groups performing here and got so many reactions that they decided to play on. This has been going on for some 12 years now. In those years the Sparks released three CD's. Drummer Frans Derks decided to stop and was replaced by Bert Voesten. Bassplayer Ben Franssen had to stop for health reasons and was replaced by Peter Verberne. The rest of the group remained the same as in the early years.