SPANDAU BALLET

'Spandau Ballet' was a popular English band in the 1980s. Initially inspired by a mixture of funk and synthpop, the genre-defining New Romantic group eventually mellowed into a mainstream pop act. As with their rivals Duran Duran they 'broke America', albeit briefly.

Contents

History

Formation and first successes

International fame

To the end

Discography

Studio Albums

Singles

Compilations & Live Albums

Awards

Trivia

See also

External links

History

Formation and first successes

The band's history began in 1976 with Gary Kemp (singer/songwriter) and Steve Norman (guitar, later saxophone and percussion). Gary and Steve were both attending Dame Alice Owen's School, Islington (which later moved to Potters Bar), and were close friends. They shared a similar interest in music and a common desire to form a band. Next came John Keeble. John and Steve had met when they both discovered the drum kit in the school’s music room, and would regularly meet at lunchtimes to practice. Following John in joining the band was bass player Michael Ellison. Next to join was Tony Hadley (singer) who approached Steve Norman one day in the 6th form common room. After a few months Richard Miller replaced Michael Ellison on bass, before Martin Kemp finally took over the role, joining the band a couple of years later. By this time the band had already played some considerable gigs and gained live experience which would eventually prove fruitful. Steve Dagger, a friend of the band was then asked by Steve and Gary to manage them. He was to be an integral part of the band's initial and continuing success.
The band was called 'The Makers' in the early years, but changed their name after a friend’s (BBC London 94.9 DJ Robert Elms) visit to Spandau, a borough of Berlin, the inspiration being from graffiti he saw in the lavatory of a club there. The term Spandau Ballet referred to the spasms of the Nazi war criminals as they "danced at the end of the rope", when they were hanged at Spandau Prison. The band began performing and generating a positive buzz around London. Their music prior to then was very RnB in the style of early Rolling Stones or The Kinks, but became more electronic as they started to hang out in clubs such as Billys and Blitz nightclub, where they would listen to bands like Kraftwerk and Telex. The Blitz was regarded as the birthplace of a new 1980s music and fashion phenomenon called New Romanticism.
The band was involved in a major bidding war. They eventually signed to Chrysalis Records and released "To Cut a Long Story Short", produced by the cutting-edge electronic musician Richard James Burgess. Released just ten days after the band emerged from the studio in order to meet the huge demand created by the buzz the band had established, "To Cut a Long Story Short" was an instant British top 5 hit in 1980. This was followed by hits with "The Freeze", "Musclebound" and the well-received and genre-defining Gold certified album ''Journeys to Glory'' (February 1981). The sound of ''Journeys to Glory'' set the sound for the nascent New Romantic movement with chanted vocals, club/dance bottom end, splashy snare drum sound, lack of guitar solos and strongly rhythmic guitar parts.
The follow up album ''Diamond'' (March 1982) also produced by Richard James Burgess was certified Gold by the BPI and featured the influential funk-flavoured single "Chant No. 1". The single also featured the first recorded example of the Burgess co-invention the SDS5 to actually be played by a drummer (John Keeble) rather than triggered by a sequencer. The band set the trend once again by having Burgess remix every single from both albums for inclusion on each single's B-side and for twelve-inch club releases. These mixes were later released as a boxed set. However, times were changing - and these were the days of Dollar and Bucks Fizz, and the British charts were swinging away from the edgier New Romantic sound created by the band and Burgess. The second chart single from ''Diamond'' was "Paint Me Down" which broke their run of top 20 hits by stalling at #30, and the third single, "She Loved Like Diamond", failed to make the UK Top 40 at all. Trevor Horn remixed the track "Instinction" which was released as the fourth single from the album, and which returned the band to the UK top ten after the poor chart performance of their previous two singles and of the ''Diamond'' album in general which had peaked at #15.

International fame

With a slicker, adult contemporary sound the band released their third album ''True'' (February 1983), produced by Tony Swain and Steve Jolley - who would go on to enjoy a couple of years as the "producers du jour" in Britain. The title cut was a six-minute opus paying tribute to the Motown sound (and in some respects, Marvin Gaye). The image changed too — the cossack outfits and makeup of the New Romantic movement they had helped to establish had been replaced by smart, 1940s-inspired suits and well-scrubbed faces. The band still looked vaguely aristocratic, however. It was at this point that Steve Norman became the band's sax player. The album topped the charts all around the world, and launched several international hit singles such as "Gold" and the aforementioned title cut which was #1 in some countries.

But the follow up, ''Parade'' (June 1984), was critically drubbed for failing to move the band's sound forward. Nevertheless, the album and its singles were again big successes in the European charts, Australia and Canada, and the opening song "Only When You Leave" became their last American hit. At the end of 1984, the band performed on the Band Aid charity single, with Hadley taking a prominent lead vocal role; and in 1985, they performed at the Wembley Stadium end of Live Aid. During this same year, Spandau Ballet achieved platinum status with the compilation, The Singles Collection, which kept the focus on the band between two studio albums, and celebrated their five years of success.
In 1986, Spandau Ballet signed to CBS Records and released ''Through the Barricades'' (October 1986), which saw the band trying to move away from the pop/soul influences of ''True'' and ''Parade'' and more towards rock. The album, the title track and the single "Fight For Ourselves" were big hits in their native UK, in Europe - particularly in Germany, Italy and in the Benelux as usual - and in Australia, but not in the United States.

To the end

After a hiatus from recording during which the Kemps established themselves as credible actors in the gangster film ''The Krays'', the band released ''Heart Like a Sky'' in September 1989. The album was not widely released (not at all in the US) and was for the most part disregarded. It did, however, do well in Italy. Afterwards, Spandau Ballet — from whom Gary Kemp was already feeling estranged — split up for good.
Martin Kemp went on to land an acting role in the UK soap opera ''EastEnders'', while Tony Hadley tried to establish a solo career. Gary Kemp did a little more acting, appearing in a supporting role in the Kevin Costner hit ''The Bodyguard'', and in 1996 released the commercially unsuccessful solo album, ''Little Bruises''. In the 1990s, Hadley, Norman and Keeble launched a failed court case against Gary Kemp for a share of Kemp's song writing royalties. Since then Hadley's profile has been raised by his winning the ITV reality show ''Reborn in the USA''.
The three non-Kemp members toured as a trio, but as they had to sell their shares in Spandau Ballet's company to Gary Kemp to pay off legal debts, and that company owned the rights to the name of Spandau Ballet, they had to tour under the moniker of 'Hadley, Norman and Keeble, ex-Spandau Ballet'.
Steve Norman and the Kemps have since managed to put their differences behind them and a reunion tour has been mentioned.
Recently Martin Kemp has become the face of SCS Sofas stores, Gary Kemp has been writing songs with Paul Stratham who has previously written songs for Dido, Steve Norman is now a member of 'Cloudfish' the band he formed with Shelley Preston, and Tony Hadley has released a swing album and landed the lead role in the musical ''Chicago''.
Tony Hadley stated in April 2007 there may be an opportunity around the 30th anniversary of the band for a full reunion, but other outstanding issues would need to be remedied first.

Discography

Studio Albums

Singles

Year	Song	Singles Chart	Hot 100	Singles Chart	Album
1980	"To Cut a Long Story Short"	5	-	15	''Journeys To Glory''
1981	"The Freeze"	17	-	-	''Journeys To Glory''
1981	"Musclebound"	10	-	-	''Journeys To Glory''
1981	"Chant No.1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)"	3	-	30	''Diamond''
1981	"Paint Me Down"	30	-	-	''Diamond''
1982	"She Loved Like Diamond"	49	-	-	''Diamond''
1982	"Instinction"	10	-	30	''Diamond''
1982	"Lifeline"	17	-	68	''True''
1983	"Communication"	12	59	24	''True''
1983	"True"	1	4	4	''True''
1983	"Gold"	2	29	9	''True''
1983	"Pleasure"	-	-	-	''True''
1984	"Only When You Leave"	3	34	12	''Parade''
1984	"I'll Fly For You"	9	-	38	''Parade''
1984	"Highly Strung"	15	-	83	''Parade''
1985	"Round And Round"	18	-	16	''Parade''
1986	"Fight For Ourselves"	15	-	16	''Through The Barricades''
1986	"Through The Barricades"	6	-	50	''Through The Barricades''
1987	"How Many Lies"	34	-	-	''Through The Barricades''
1988	"Raw"	47	-	-	''Heart Like A Sky''
1989	"Be Free With Your Love"	42	-	-	''Heart Like A Sky''
1989	"Empty Spaces"	94	-	-	''Heart Like A Sky''
1990	"Crashed Into Love"	96	-	-	''Heart Like A Sky''

Compilations & Live Albums

Year	Album	Albums Chart	Albums Chart	Albums Chart
1985	''The Singles Collection''	3	--	--
1986	''The Remixes''	15	--	--
1991	''The Best Of Spandau Ballet''	44	--	--
1997	''The Collection''	--	--	--
1999	''Original Gold''	--	--
2000	''	7	--	--
2001	''The Collection''	7	--	--
2002	''Reformation - The Anthology''	7	--	--
2002	''The 12" Mixes ''	40	--	--
2003	''The Collection - Volume 2''	--	--	--
2005	''Ultra Selection''	--	--	--
2005	''Live From The N.E.C.''	--	--	--
2006	''Singles, Rarities & Remixes''	--	--	--

Awards

★ 1984 BRIT Awards - The Sony Award For Technical Excellence

Trivia

★ Their song "Gold" was featured in the video game , on Wave 103, in an episode of Black Books and also in the 2006 Australian film Boytown. A cover of the song, by Zero 7 vocalist Sophie Barker, appeared in the 2004 film Suzie Gold.

★ John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats has done a spoken word piece on his growing appreciation for them.

★ In the movie Blackadder: Back and Forth, when Baldrick mentions seeing 'Men in very short skirts', Blackadder replies by saying 'Spandau Ballet'.

★ The song 'Gold' is now a football chant at Portman Road, home of Ipswich Town FC. The chant goes ''"Always believe in, Alan Lee GOAL!"''

★ It also became a chant familiar with Sunderland AFC fans about Julio Arca. However the words "JULIO! Oh! Always believe in your...soul," etc.

★ The song 'Diamond' plays in the background of a scene in the movie SLC Punk as a character complains of an illness he attributes to the music.

★ 'Gold' is used as the theme for "That's Gold!" on The (NRL) Footy Show in Australia, with Paul 'The Chief' Harragon singing re-written words.

★ Tony Hadley made a brief appearance in the final minute of the video for PM Dawn's 'Set Adrift on Memory Bliss'.

★ The Adam Carolla Show uses a parody Spandau Ballet's "Gold" in its innovative Gay Walking game and the song has been a recurrent topic of conversation.

★ The name Spandau Ballet comes from the Spandau Prison in Germany that housed Nazi war criminals. When these Nazi prisoners would commit suicide by hanging themselves, it was known as the "Spandau Ballet". (because of the flailing movements made during suicide by hanging)

See also

★ List of best-selling music artists

External links

★ Official Spandau Ballet Website

★ Official Gary Kemp Website

★ Official Steve Norman Website

★ Official Tony Hadley Website

★ Martin Kemp's Original Site

★ Spandau Ballet Fan Site