Spandau Ballet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Spandau Ballet | ||
|---|---|---|
| Background information | ||
| Origin |  London, England |
|
| Genre(s) | New Romantic New Wave Pop |
|
| Years active | 1979–1989 | |
| Label(s) | Chrysalis CBS Records |
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| Website | http://www.spandauballet.com/ | |
| Members | ||
| Tony Hadley Gary Kemp Martin Kemp Steve Norman John Keeble |
||
Spandau Ballet were 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 |
[edit] History
Guitarist and songwriter Gary Kemp and his younger brother, bassist Martin Kemp, formed the band in 1979 with drummer John Keeble, lead vocalist Tony Hadley and Steve Norman, who initially played guitar but later switched to saxophone when the band changed musical direction. Some consider the band's manager, Steve Dagger, to have been an integral part of the band's initial and continuing success.
The band was initially called 'The Makers', but changed their name after a visit to Spandau (a borough of Berlin and home to a since-demolished prison for war criminals which at one time housed a sole inmate, Rudolf Hess, the inspiration being from graffiti one of their friends, BBC London 94.9 DJ Robert Elms, saw there. The band began performing and generating positive buzz around London at various unannounced parties and as the house band at the Blitz nightclub, which became 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.
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 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 followup, 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 and the title track were big hits in their native UK and in Europe, particularly in Germany, Italy and in the Benelux as usual, but unfortunately did nothing in the United States. 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, Keeble and Norman launched a failed court case against Gary Kemp for a share of Kemp's song writing royalties. Since then Hadley's profile 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, Keeble and Norman, ex-Spandau Ballet'.
Steve Norman and the Kemps have managed to put their differences behind them and a reunion tour has been mentioned. However, at present Hadley does not wish to go back to his old band and continues to tour with his own band, which includes John Keeble on drums.
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, and Tony Hadley has released a swing album and landed the lead role in the musical Chicago.
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio Albums
| Year | Album |  Albums Chart |
 Albums Chart |
 Albums Chart |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Journeys To Glory | 5 | -- | -- |
| 1982 | Diamond | 15 | -- | -- |
| 1983 | True | 1 | 19 | -- |
| 1984 | Parade | 2 | 50 | 4 |
| 1986 | Through the Barricades | 7 | -- | -- |
[edit] 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 |
| 1981 | "She Loved Like Diamond" | 49 | - | - | Diamond |
| 1981 | "Instinction" | 10 | - | - | Diamond |
| 1983 | "Lifeline" | 17 | - | - | 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 |
| 1984 | "Round And Round" | 18 | - | 16 | Parade |
| 2004 | "Fight For Ourselves" | 15 | - | 16 | Through The Barricades |
| 2005 | "Through The Barricades" | 6 | - | 50 | Through The Barricades |
| 2006 | "How Many Lies" | 34 | - | - | Through The Barricades |
| 2006 | "Raw" | 47 | - | - | Heart Like A Sky |
| 2006 | "Be Free With Your Love" | 42 | - | - | Heart Like A Sky |
| 2006 | "Empty Spaces" | 94 | - | - | Heart Like A Sky |
| 2006 | "Crashed Into Love" | 96 | - | - | Heart Like A Sky |
[edit] 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 | Gold - The Best Of | 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 | -- | -- | -- |
[edit] Awards
- 1984 Brit Awards - The Sony Award For Technical Excellence
[edit] Trivia
- Their song "Gold" was featured in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, on Wave 103, in an episode of Black Books and also in the 2006 Australian film Boytown.
- 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, O, Always believe in your...soul ect
- 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.
