Sparkie the budgie returns for show
Updated on 27 March 2009
A celebrity budgie who talked with a Geordie accent has become the inspiration for an opera, nearly 50 years after his death.
Sparkie: Cage And Beyond is being performed by the world-renowned musician Michael Nyman and fellow artist and musician Carsten Nicolai, who also performs under the name Alva Noto.
Sparkie the budgie, who died in 1962 aged eight, had a repertoire of more than 500 words and eight nursery rhymes and became a national celebrity after fronting an advertising campaign for a bird seed, and making a record which sold 20,000 copies.
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