Gold: The Spandau Ballet Singles Poll

People overrated Duran Duran because they had the reprehensible Spandau Ballet next to them. I like To Cut a Long Story Short and Chant No 1. The rest is bilge. Like Duran, they quickly dropped the punk-funk tension that was the only worthwhile thing about them and wrote mindbogglingly awful lyrics - Spandau did the same bad things as Duran but they did them much much worse.

Those random lyric generator programs are, um, pretty rubbish really, aren't they?

But they can be handy when you find it hard to write the next line.

I like To Cut a Long Story Short and Chant No 1. The rest is bilge.

otm

"true" is so badly sung it has camp appeal i guess. as far as duran VS spandau goes, let me wheel out the war stories. hazy memory of interviewing both lead singers back in the day: tony hadley was imperious and hungover while simon lebon was preposterous and affable

sounds about right

You're like the sixth or seventh guy who's said Le Bow Bow, contrary to impressions created by his wardrobe, is a charmer.

Billy Bragg tells a nice story about Gary Kemp volunteering for Red Wedge but really timidly because he was so self-conscious about how low Spandau's reputation was. Like, "Please don't laugh at me."

Gary Kemp had a few 'visibilities' i.e. attempts at music before succeeding with that one. Check an episode of "You must be joking" where he's in an acoustic double-act with Phil Daniels on one song...

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

My exact first thought too,. Bet "Only When You Leave" holds up.

I ultimately voted for "Only When You Leave."

How omnipresent were their singles in the UK? The band was pretty huge in Europe through '87.

really really really omnipresent

Spent too mcuh attention as a teenager as a teenager parsing

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

GHOST BUSTERS!

omigod they really have a song called "Nature of the Beast"

it's about guinea pigs

Making love through the barricades always seem like a convoluted and painful way to practise safe sex, if you ask me

not if your love is a hard prison wall

lol the only song I actually know here is "True"

Gold is some powerful inspirational shit.

remove words 3 thru 5 in that sentence maybe

Tell us more about the "punk-funk tension"! Sounds great.

BTW finally listened to some DD live albums and they might change your mind if you're a non-believer. GOOD LIVE BAND!!

Chant Number One used to be my favourite, but now it's between Instinction and Lifeline. Hmm. OK, Instinction, because Trevor Horn always wins.

hmm

I would like "Gold" a lot more if it was actually a full-on Swing Out Sister song

Tell us more about the "punk-funk tension"! Sounds great.

Babygirl, unpack yr sweaters and get FABULOUS in FALL gay homo queer &c 2012

It's the bongo bit that bugs me.

... potentially a good lyric that

the part that bugs me is the section in the verse where the melody just has nothing to do with the chord progression underneath it, to the point where it would sound like a mistake if dude didn't sing it exactly the same way every time

and the bongos are totally wasted

what's worse – Hadley's vocal, the sax solo, or the death throes of an asphyxiating goat?

or the death throes of an asphyxiating goat

Robin Gibb's on it?

I just listened to "Lifeline" and I've already forgotten how it went

"Round and Round" sounds like a showtune

oh I can't wait until you get a load of the singing on "She Loved Like Diamond."

"She Loved Like Diamond"

http://www.collapseboard.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/neal.jpg

"Only When You Leave"... why is this evoking the image of Cory Haim combing his hair, giving his reflection the thumbs up, then jumping into his dad's convertible and driving off to school?

Now make it worse, imagine an Essex version of that.

sad the first response wasn't "why is there a convertible in Cory Haim's bathroom?"

imagine Billy Ocean singing it

Anyway, um, fight the power:

http://rokpool.com/files/artist/spandau2.jpg?1341478455

just skip to "To Cut a Long Story Short" and save yrself some pain

"I need something that shows I'm with it. Anything."

http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/spandau-ballet.jpg

ugh boxing boots xp

"Headache pains bringing you down?"

http://itsnotpossible.typepad.com/trashfan/spandauA2.jpg

Nobody told these fucktards that even in 1985 those clothes were ass.

"Instinction" sounds like someone completely failing to reproduce the funk stylings of Wa Wa Nee

"Introducing Donnie Wahlberg and the rest of...wait."

http://blogs.thisismoney.co.uk/.a/6a00d8341c565553ef01156e59ad36970c-800wi

Leningay Cowboys

Hype Williams would take one look at this and burn his cameras.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/3/24/1237897304947/Spandau-Ballet-in-New-Yor-001.jpg

Occupy Top Man

"Yes, ha ha ha, but we're all professional now. It's 1987, the stock market will never crash!"

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_uKYZGRNKPMA/SuGg5yAz6KI/AAAAAAAAAJU/RgawoMm7s6o/s320/spandau+ballet+good+pic.jpg

I still see so many young women on campus who tuck pants into their boots.