Spandau Ballet: Classic or Dud?

Diamond, the second album, is the best- when the horns kick into the 'Chant #1' intro is one of my top five moments on any single. They really shine on the second half of the record, with the atmospherics of 'Pharaoh' and the eight- minute 'Missionary'. 'Innocence And Science' could fit snugly onto side two of 'Heroes' by Dave.

Sadly, after this they went for the big bucks- although 'True' and 'Gold' are irresistable, Kemp's lyrics go from the abstract to the deeply embarassing; "There's power in her voice and it makes her feel so sure/So live and let live in love". From here onwards it's a downhill slide into Simply Red-dom, save for 'Highly Strung' and the sheer cheek of the "diplomat/laundromat" rhyme.

I could embark on a defence of the Blow Monkeys too, but I'd probably be here all night.

And my sister watches Eastenders and Martin Kemp is still cute. No wonder Steven Strange tried to seduce him.

True was the song I first danced - y'know *d a n c e d* - to with a GIRL. At the school disco. A MASSIVE moment in my life so FUCK OFF with this Dud business.

"This is the sooouuund of my soul"

Except that The Pop Group didn't follow Joy Division - don't worry, I'm just the Post Punk Pedant In The Corner

(And their fashion sense pisses me off too. Maybe I'm just jealous. Who cares?)

I really like "To Cut a Long Story Short", "Chant #1" and "Instinction" though. Say whats with the phrase "Stealing cake to eat the moon" thats sung in that one? There's also a song by Aussie band the Moffs called the same. Always wondered what that was about.

Oh look, theres Google. Doo de dum...

I think "To Cut A Long Story Short" and "Musclebound".

The hook on "To Cut A Long Story Short" is like a Paul Stanley KISS riff played on a synth, "Musclebound" is more homoerotic than Duran Duran would ever allow themselves, and "Gold" is more Barry Manilow than Roxy Music, which in the Spands' case was a better influence.

The Kemp bros were great in "The Krays."

That said, "Only When You Leave" and "Gold" are friggin' glorious.

oh man, "Only When You Leave"...

"True" is great. Not only the song, but also the album. It's the only Spandau Ballet album that fully works as an album from beginning to end, not only as a bunch of singles and filler.

"Musclebound" got played on Pick Of The Pops yesterday.

Horst Wessel to fuck, what a racket.

http://www.spandauballetstore.com/index.html

Go on, knock yersel out.

(Exclusive Ticket Link, as per arrived in my gmail inbox, no interest)

The True Sound of Thatcherism

I don't advocate that particular article, mind. I think I've only heard their singles. Just clicked on it this morning and now this thread has been revived.

Jesus, that article was a heap of dirty caftans.

jeez:

Billy Bragg has even attributed his decision to become a performer to them: "One day I saw Spandau Ballet on Top of the Pops wearing kilts and singing Chant No 1 and something in me snapped. I was waiting for a band to come along to play the kind of music I wanted to hear, and none was forthcoming, so it was that moment I finally realised it was gonna have to be me," he said at a press conference in August 2003.

.. and went on to tour and do gigs as part of Red Wedge, alongside Gary and Martin Kemp! (Not Tony Hadley, clearly)

I never liked them, but they were always about the 'raising yerself up' like the Mods did. Which is not Thatcherism, it predates her by a large margin. And seeing as how they wrote the songs, etc (and not the clothes horse in front), the article is a bunch of crap.

That quote makes me want to throw Billy Bragg off a skyscraper. Douche.

It is the key to all the doors
it is the crashing on the shores
it lives in your steering wheel (!)
it hides in the wind and rain
with voices as cold as steel
it’s calling your name

this is the nature of the beast
(this is the nature)
this is the nature of the beast
(this is the nature)
without all this heat
they’ll be dancing west to east
this is the nature of the beast

Spandau Ballet vs. Thompson Twins, hmm...

How can this of all threads have no images?

Duran Duran + Crocodile Dundee =
http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q66/DaneShadows/spandau-ballet.jpg

Spandau Ballet appear in a short interview just before the 7 minute mark of this quite wonderful 12 minute news report (1981) on "The New Romantics": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CApOAaxUuc - "Spandau Ballet refuse to promote themselves like a normal pop group. They only appear at concerts in unusual venues, and these are never advertised. Their followers just hear through the grapevine where they're appearing."

Well that formatted horribly...

Yet their music was, on the whole, gash. Seriously, their first record is basically 'To Cut a Long Story Short', 'The Freeze' and a load of crapola.

I'm sure I remember reading that even though Gary Kemp came out in support of Labour during the '80s, Tony Hadley was actually a raging Thatcherite.

Hadley is a supporter of the Conservative Party and an admirer of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.[32] Journalist Andrew Pierce, in a 2014 piece for the Daily Mail, described Hadley as "the Tories' biggest celebrity backer".[33] He has attended the party's annual conference and was once reported to be interested in standing as an MP.[34] The New Statesman has described Hadley as one of the few openly right-wing rock stars.[35]

Wow, what a cunt.

They were shit. All of it.

Hang on, "Openly Right-Wing"?

How does he do that?

"True", "Gold", and "Communication" all classic. The rest blah.

The most classic aspect of this band is the meaning of their name with compared against the sound and sentiment of their most popular songs.

The most classic aspect of this band is the meaning of their name with compared against the sound and sentiment of their most popular songs.

As a callow youth, I lived in Spandau just as the group were becoming popular in Germany. The residents of Spandau (which looked about as romantic and windswept as Harlow, with the random addition of Rudolf Hess) were understandably baffled by the name of the group, and appeared to blame me personally for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsD5MoQJK2I

Ha yeah, their name is easily the most edgiest thing about them! Could have been the perfect name for a heavy metal band.

It's more goth, I'd say..

They did wear kilts on stage early on. 'To Cut A Long Story Short' is their best track and it's weird that they didn't go more in that direction. 'Instinction' is fun in a "this is music for proto-yuppie wankers" way. 'True' would be a great record - every with the ridiculous lyrics, "seaside arms" WTF? - if it didn't reset itself two thirds of the way through. It's like the songwriters gave up and copypasted the first bit again to fill out the running time.

In summary: childe snoball would have liked SB as much as Duran Duran, had they not been so intent on their soul obsessions and been willing to make fools of themselves in the name of art (like DD often did and they themselves did early on).

Oh and Tony Hadley looks like David Cameron's stunt double.

'looks like' or 'is'?

At this rate Cameron will have to get a job as Hadley's stunt double.

Dunt stubble

Cunt double, more like.

Really let's all just admit that when it comes to the New Romantics there is Japan and the everything else waaaaaaay down below.

Japan weren't New Romantics.

Yeah, Japan and Ultravox predated that whole thing by a good few years.

Ultravox had some connection though through Visage, Japan had nothing to do with it.

xp I think it was concurrent. The Blitz scene was the next thing after punk for that crowd but it probably only got media attention a bit after that as most things do.

Ultravox had some connection though through Visage, Japan had nothing to do with it.

― weird echo of the falsies (Tom D.), Thursday, July 6, 2017 9:48 AM (eleven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

If you look at it like that, then Magazine also had a connection through Visage.

Except that Visage post-dated them all.

& I thought the Ure fronted Ultravox were more directly linked in with the Blitz scene. I thought whoever it was was differentiating from the John Foxx fronted version.

Yes and no. Midge Ure and Billy Currie were part of the Visage project (which was essentially a supergroup of Rich Kids, Ultravox and Magazine members, plus Steve Strange and featuring Cedric Sharpley and Chris Payne from Gary Numan's backing band on one track - you can guess which one) but Ultravox MKII (the Midge-fronted incarnation) pretty much mostly carried on from where the John Foxx-led version had left off. The Vienna album was written collectively by the band from scratch in the same room, and the lyrics were mostly written by drummer Warren Cann. It was also produced by Conny Plank as was the previous album, Systems of Romance, and the subsequent album, Rage in Eden. By the time they switched to George Martin for Quartet, the whole New Romantic thing was pretty much over. 'Mind of a Toy' and 'Tar' on the first Visage album were actually developed from ideas that Billy Currie had from John Foxx's time in Ultravox, as was 'I Remember (Death in the Afternoon)' from Rage in Eden.

It was actually John Foxx that changed his sound the most when the first line-up of Ultravox split - while he retained his melodic sense and his unique and wonderful voice, rather than opt for full-blooded band arrangements a la Systems of Romance, he went starker, colder and more purely electronic on Metamatic, more in the mould of early Fad Gadget. He'd return to the band sound for his second album, The Garden, which is a record I really like, but feels lighter than Systems of Romance sonically.

Japan weren't New Romantics.

Re "seaside arms" - I was dismayed to discover that this was an allusion to Nabokov :( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-news/11130014/Spandau-Ballets-True-story-1980s-pop-stars-on-how-their-hits-were-written.html

I thought it was something to do with Brighton Scooter Rallies

this much is true!

I keep meaning to post this to the Balearic thread. Best thing they've ever done by a country mile.
https://open.spotify.com/track/3Kwc780bTf6Nj6cV1dQG1z

(No Youtube apparently, hence Spotify)

Spandau Ballet to unveil replacement for singer Tony Hadley

Not sure why they didn't ask me, as Ned will confirm.

Paul Hollywood and the Bake-Offs

Whatever the era, such sharply dressed chaps. pic.twitter.com/TKwJ692Zzl

— Spandau Ballet (@SpandauBallet) August 6, 2022

Spandau Ballet to unveil replacement for singer Tony Hadley

― Portsmouth Bubblejet, Friday, June 1, 2018 2:11 AM (six years ago) bookmarkflaglink

About that...

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/25/sadistic-and-manipulative-ex-spandau-ballet-singer-guilty-of