Gold: The Spandau Ballet Singles Poll

'To Cut a Long Story Short'

You people better not vote for "True" unless it's a write-in for "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss."

Listen to Tony wail!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Z82UYV7oA&feature=related

There was a guy in my year at school whose dating success was more or less entirely down to his resemblance to a young Tony Hadley.

50p in the jukebox, one track, and nothing else in the jukebox otherwise I'd pick something else.

Would go She Loved Like Diamond

for the heck of it.

nv.

"True" came on the radio one time and I noticed that there's a part towards the end that sounds exactly like "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys!

Boy I remember hating that stupid title on its own but the lyrics as a whole, Jesus H.

She ran the risk from unity
Obsession dies alone with tragedy
She loved like diamond
She loved like diamond
And cut so hard
She died
A passion course that leads to pain
An acid taste that laced her soul again
She loved like diamond
She loved like diamond
And cut so hard
She died
Another path, I've run them all
The rain has cleared the stains,no trace at all
She loved like diamond
She loved like diamond
And cut so hard
She died

*groans*

'I'll Fly For You'

Not one of my favourite bands in the entire universe, I have to admit.

"Instinction" got the Trevor Horn treatment.

what kind of a word is instinction anyway?

A poll, btw, inspired by hearing "Only When You Leave" at (you guessed it) CVS. A better tune and performance than "True" actually.

GISing really does turn up some...interesting photos:

http://www.beatnikonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/spandau_ballet_paint_me_down_2edited.jpg

They had that right wing homoerotic chic thing down pat.

wouldn't surprise me if young Tories played "Musclebound" or "To Cut..." at Downing Street.

The footage of Spandau Ballet at Live Aid = hilarious! How off his face is Steve Norman? And that mullet... christ!

You can't mention that without a link!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoX4tQMaGtA

"Gold", beloved of sport roundup shows and fruit machines aplenty.

Anyway, forget the Tories, "Musclebound"'s more about Hitlerjugend or something:

We're building fires that will burn until morning
The smell of books and hot stone surround us
Tough is the leather that strapped to my skin
Strong are the bonds that we make
We feel the steam as it rises around us
Up from the soil that is cracking it's back
Tough is the leather that strapped to my skin
Strong are the bonds that sing
Work till you're musclebound all night long
Work till you're musclebound all night long
Gotta work till you're musclebound all night long
Gotta work till you're musclebound all night long
We're building fires that will burn until morning
The smell of books and hot stone surround us
Tough is the leather that strapped to my skin
Strong are the bonds that we make
To hear a pulsing from chanter to mountain
Down through the vein and into the grain
Strong is the shoulder that moves to the time
Here is the land it can break
Work till you're musclebound all night long
Work till you're musclebound all night long
Gotta work till you're musclebound all night long
Gotta work till you're musclebound all night long

That said, the video is A+ insanity from Mulcahy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08M-9kHB_20

The Live Aid footage I saw on the DVD a few years ago horrified me. A solid perf of "Only When You Leave" but hoo boy those pants and hair.

I have to admit, until this thread I never spend much time, if any, looking at Spandau Ballet lyrics... kinda wish I hadn't! Hehehehehe... those lyrics to 'Paint Me Down', christ...

Look at my excerpt at the top of the page.

Waiting for Marcello to enter thread to denounce Hadley as a fascist twerp.

"Gold" or "True". Going with the latter, just because.

this is extremely difficult and I have a whole whole lot to say about it and neither the time nor the focus to say any of it

the actual candidates are "Gold," "Through the Barricades," "Chant No. 1" and "To Cut A Long Story Short" imo

and maybe "Only When You Leave"

the actual candidates are "Gold," "Through the Barricades,"

wow...I wish you WOULD expand!

voted 'chant no. 1' but i do genuinely love 'true'.

whole Parade album is slept-on imo

At the height of my Ferry-Bowie obsession in the early nineties -- when they were never more out of fashion -- I bought the '85 comp. "Round and Round" is okay. "I'll Fly For You" is gunk.

Hahahahahaha! It's ALL gunk as far as I'm concerned!! :D

The artist pretending it's art

The correct answer is The Freeze, one of the best singles of the 80's.

http://youtu.be/fjqH3ZypUVA

Listen to that funky bass line and the ridiculous keyboard solo at 1.35. I always thought this is the kind of song Franz Ferdinand were trying to write.

voting "Communication" though i probably would cringe if i listen to it right now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAdK0_6DBPg

lifeline.

uggghhh so torn!

remember when the kemp brothers played the krays in that one movie

to cut a long story short

i really love 'through the barricades'

Why could I forget, VG?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fJOiEn9v3I

I don't understand what's happening with Tony's outfit in To Cut a Long Story Short. It's like his jacket is slung over his shoulder but he's still wearing it?

He has such a stage look about him, esp profile/face. like a broadway lead or something. v theatrical.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE2sCISQmpE

xpost ah bless your heart, Ned. I knew you'd know :)

Another bit of rough:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4miZJvFdrY0

"oh hai, ladiez!"

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JVp6Ah0gTOY/TZi2N-XINjI/AAAAAAAAAHc/AvFDnDh5nBM/s1600/spandauthen.jpeg

loool

pop ALL the collars

I've found a picture that represents Tony Hadley's vocal stylings too! :D

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1XZzZ-anE-M/Ttviepy5CtI/AAAAAAAAAAk/sVJJkA4pc8U/s1600/sliced_ham-5892.jpg

THAT IS SO MEAN

he has a lovely singing voice

The Krays is a good movie!

Coulda sworn we did a 'fake Prince' thread like that but this:

prince not prince

...is what Phil D is talking about.

ACtually at the moment I kinda want to hear "Sex Shooter" by Apollonia 6.

and "Strut."

STRUT. Yes.

Enjoy a little Solid Gold, won't you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5TVDBD5heI

my favorite RFTW song is "Long Time Coming"

To avoid the wrath of aero I will just link this and bid you enjoyment.

Write-in vote for the 12" mix of "Glow":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGJTI1sEXCI

in the "Long Time Coming" video: is that black linguini on Melvin Riley's head?

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

the only decent top six imaginable

I haven't looked at this thread for a day and suddenly it turns into a recreation of my hellish year in the fourth form (B3 to 84) at comprehensive school where the girls in my class all fell out with each other because they were either Duranies or Spandau freaks. Of course us boys were falling out over whether the Smiths were brilliant or useless whingebags. Such innocence.

ILX in "a bit like school" shocka!

SB vs DD, then a-ha as a unifying force for a year, then the girls who pretended not to care about what were essentially boy bands laughing at the Brosettes.
The boys falling out over whether Liverpool or Manchester Utd. were better, despite the school being hundreds of miles from either location.

oh and kicking the shit out of anyone who was even a tiny bit different, ie me and the rest of the chess club

when ppl threatened to kick the shit out of me, I'd matter-of-factly tell them not to try because I would seriously try to kill them and it would ruin both of our families

no one really tried to fight me after 7th grade

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=632o9gg7pdU

when ppl threatened to kick the shit out of me, I'd matter-of-factly tell them not to try because I would seriously try to kill them and it would ruin both of our families

DJP is Judd Nelson?!?!?!

flaring his nostril hairs at the camera

"B-O-O-H-O-O"

"YA KNOW WHAT I GOT FOR CHRISTMAS?"

y'all don't understand the secret advantages to being a smart black kid in a town terrified of black ppl

okay now it's sounding like an awesome version of Walking Tall

y'all don't understand the secret advantages to being a smart black kid in a town terrified of black ppl

Mr. Obama Goes To Salt Lake City

Never liked them a bit.

This thread made them sound pretty ridiculous though, so I listened (to laugh along) and it was def funny...

But now I can't stop listening to them! What the heck.

Only when you leeeave

So it turns out the song that I remember being played round my house loads and loads and loads when I was maybe 2-3 years old and has somehow stuck in my head all this time despite me not having heard it again until now was.... The Freeze! This is actually a very cool song and like Kitchen Person says upthread, very very funky.

Dunno if it's funky, but it does use "funk" elements.

omigod I'd FORGOTTEN THIS THREAD

xpost, well it's very 'disco'. Think it instilled in me a love of that kind of patta-cakey rhythm + octave bass

so has anyone seen the documentary?

yeah it's fantastic, one of the very best best music docs i've ever seen. surprising to me because i'm not a fan particularly. the rare-footage-and-no-on-camera-interviews style really works and it's especially good if you dig the idea of 2 hours of rare mostly-80s footage. some great stuff in it. Gary Kemp comes across as a bit of an egotistical tosser sadly.

I think you meant "fortunately"

No, but I did read through Tony Hadley's 2005 book 'To Cut A Long Story Short' again recently. The state of the band circa Heart Like A Sky was a bit grim, to say the least.

there's some real good stuff on that record though - some of their lightest material in tone!

The doc wasn't bad, but it's disorienting watching a band selling out arenas in 1986 that weren't in the United States.

god that was like a boring episode of Behind the Music

loved the footage but god gary is such a twat

god god god

the ah-tist pretending it's aaaaaaaaarrrt

"The Freeze" would have been my pick of the handful I know: "erogenous zones win again".

is that a lyric

here I stand again, the loser

One day he'll build a statue with his hands
So gentle when he tries to understand
This subterfuge he never really planned
Now you're living in the lifeline

"She Loves Like Diamond" should be retitled "He Moans Like Bitchmode"

deeply slept on post from djp despite my love for "diamond"

lifeline is such a masterpiece

love is like a hard prison wall

a HIGH prison wall, s'il vous plais!

yeah ALFRED

I'm high now, alright

irl lol