Spandau Ballet: Classic or Dud?

It's remarkable how much critical acclaim they had at the time; and how little Duran Duran had (and how much those positions have reversed).

Did anyone here ever find the lyrics to "Musclebound" disturbing, or is that just an after-the-fact imposition?

Remember them wearing tartan and acting like a bunch of posing wankers on TV early 81, all style and no substance.

Circa 83, Remember Grange Hill and the school disco scene with the too smooth massive selling track True at the end of that years series [when in the space of two years Spandau went from new romantic poseurs to sophisticated adult ballad pop with suits]

In July 1985 [now nearly 16 years ago!] They took part in Live Aid that was the zenith event of mainstream 80s pop. From then onwards it was downhill for Spandau.

Remember how they flopped in 1986 on their comeback with a new record label. Do you remember any of the tunes?, neither do I !

They were responsible for the emergence of naff style soul-pop bands [Curiosity Killed the Cat and the Blowmonkeys] with polar neck tops and suits.

Remember when those fat hip hop dudes PM Dawn in 1991 sampled Spandau, and made the samples listenable in the context of the track.

Remember the court case and the fighting over royalties.

Remember to laugh at them doing reunion tours with 2? original members to sad 30somethings.

Your last line makes me think back to the Pinefox's excellent thesis that the chartpop of that era is, with time, occupying the same cultural position as once held by Herman's Hermits / Gerry and the Pacemakers etc. I remember Phil Oakey saying in 1995 that he refused permission for Human League tracks to be used on 80s nostalgia compilations because he didn't like the mindset: do you know whether he still holds this up? I ask only because, clearly desperate to get some money from *somewhere*, the League took part in just such a revivalist tour a couple of years ago.

But the forthcoming Human League album Secrets is set for release on July 23rd:

The new Human League album "Secrets" is to be released by Papillon Records on July 23. It has been produced by TOY (the production team behind; amongst several other high-profile productions; Depeche Mode's album "Ultra"). There are 16 tracks in total, out of which ten are genuine songs. The additional six tracks are instrumental and highly experimental "interludes". Production and sound wise, the album can be considered a cross between such classic albums by the band as "Dare!", "Travelogue" and their latest, successful comeback album from 1995 "Octopus".

It did even at the TIME (remember people using more or less those exact words).

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."

not really sure what the point of this band is without their lead singer but I imagine the majority of people who would go see them at an 80's review show at this point wouldn't know any better either

Hmm. My opinion these days is that Spandau Ballet were much better at stuff like 'True' and 'Only When You Leave' than the type of material that made up their first couple of albums. Although, having said that, 'To Cut a Long Story Short' is still probably their best track overall.

It's funny, obviously I think that there's a lot of music from that period that has aged pretty well, particularly in the pop realm - 'Freedom' by Wham! has aged well, and quite a lot of what the original Duran Duran line-up did. Yet much of Spandau Ballet's music has aged pretty fucking horrendously.

round and round it goes!

That statement sounds like he's been forced to stand down from the board of directors, etc .

Didnt they all sue each other some years back?

Yes, but they all came together and reuned, all that.

As I say, the statements seem to say he wasn't interested in September 06, so when the company year end comes around and they all get their dividend, if he's not interested in doing more in the coming year and the rest do, he'd need to be paid off in return for his resignation.

Is my guess, anyway.

the artist pretending it's art!

Wasn't it "the art is pretending it's art"?

who knows? Don't trust a band whose songwriter once wrote "She rides the soul train while he fights the law."

Or "stealing cake to eat the moon"

Or "loving makes the cream taste nice"

"She rides the soul train while he fights the law" would be good if it was supposed to be ridiculous, I'm guessing it wasn't though.

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