Spandau Ballet’s true stories
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Spandau Ballet have put bad blood behind them for another reformation tour. Picture: Jake Nowakowski
Source: News Corp Australia
RE-formed UK band Spandau Ballet have put the bad blood behind them and on film writes Cameron Adams:
SPANDAU Ballet’s history is captured in the new documentary Soul Boys Of the Western World. Martin, in it you say you were so entrenched in the bubble of the band in the early days that you were concerned that the outbreak of the Falklands War in 1982 might interrupt the release of one of the band’s singles.
Martin Kemp: I was just telling the truth. In that situation there wasn’t anything outside of my world I was interested in. We’d worked so hard to get to that position, to create the future that could happen you didn’t want anything to ruin it.
Tony Hadley: You watch Top Of the Pops. You want to be David Bowie. And when you get a hit then all you do is worry about your next chart position and if you’ll still be popular in a year. To sustain that for as long as we did was pretty intense. We’re a lot more relaxed about it now.
Gary Kemp: We still worry about selling tickets, though.
Martin Kemp: The thing I hated about the 1980s most was that you equated what number you were in the chart to the quality of person you were. “Oh, I’m a No. 18 person this week.” It felt like that all the time. That was your worth.
Spandau Ballet rocked the puffy shirt long before Jerry Seinfeld. Picture: Supplied
Source: News Limited
The documentary is brutally honest. You all watched it together at a festival. What was that like?
Steve Norman: It was a tough watch. I remember certain things coming up and going, “Oh, my God” and the boys are here. You just wanted to disappear in your seats. I’d see bits of the film and ask for certain things to be taken out and the director said no, and that’s exactly the type of thing that should be in the film.
Martin Kemp: That is what makes the film work so well, its honesty. In any film or documentary or anything, the minute you sniff a lie it ruins the whole 1½ hours.
Tony Hadley: Most rock documentaries are glamorised and sanitised and it’s all about how wonderful you are and how much Jack Daniels you drank and how many birds you shagged. This one isn’t like that.
Spandau Ballet found instant success in 1980 with To Cut a Long Story Short. Picture: Supplied
Source: Supplied
Gary, the film delves into the court battle where your band mates sued you for more royalties. You call yourself a “control freak” for insisting on writing all the songs and being scared someone might come up with something better.
Gary Kemp:You mean, have I calmed down?
Tony Hadley: He’s better now.
Martin Kemp: He’s getting better.
Gary Kemp: Yeah, I’m less of a control freak now. But I lived and breathed it in the ’80s, 24/7. I was very driven. There was a certain protection to that.
Tony Hadley: Individually we’re very different people. Gary is a lot more intense than I am. I’m very laid-back.
John Keeble: Everyone’s a control freak to some degree. We all controlled our own little bit of this band. With that control there’s a massive responsibility to the rest of the guys. We had that on and off stage. You didn’t want to let yourself or the other guys down.
Martin Kemp: Plus from the first record (To Cut a Long Story Short) we found a winning formula early on. Straight away. It’s tough to change a winning formula.
Tony Hadley: We all understood our roles within the band. I’m The Singer. My responsibility is to connect with the audience. I’d go to bed early when these guys could go out on the piss.
Gary Kemp: That was a skill of the band. There wasn’t one person in the band who didn’t have a voice, a character, a role.
Steve Norman, John Keeble and Tony Hadley outside the High Court in London in 1999 where they unsuccessfully sued bandmate Gary Kemp for songwriting royalties. Picture: Supplied
Source: AP
There is a happy ending though, you re-formed and seem to get on better than ever. Bands could watch this documentary to see what not to do …
Tony Hadley: Absolutely.
John Keeble: You’ve got to make your own mistakes, I think.
Gary Kemp: Actually, I think our film is more what to do. To have success for a whole decade was really quite rare. I think we definitely rolled with the punches a lot. Part of our skill was to be able to change the music as we went into different sized venues.
You toured in 2010, what’s the vision for the next one?
Tony Hadley: We’ve got a past, we’ve got a history and we’ve got a future. Our songs relate to people. There’ll be True, Gold, Through the Barricades, Only When You Leave and everything else. It’d be nice to explore some album tracks this time. Toys from Journeys To Glory would be great to do. Also Musclebound and Reformation — some of the early electronic stuff.
John Keeble: At the moment there’s a big list of 50 or 60 songs — what makes the cut? Some of it is stuff we haven’t played for a while to keep it interesting for us and for the audience.
You’re indestructible. Always believing — Spandau Ballet in 1985. Picture: Supplied
Source: News Corp Australia
A lot of bands try to sound like early Spandau Ballet now.
Tony Hadley: Absolutely. You can hear a lot of us in The Killers and the Kaisers (Cheifs). There’s little references to Duran and Spandau in those bands.
Gary Kemp: And La Roux as well.
Steve Norman: And ChVrches.
What’s the future of the band?
Tony Hadley: Oh, definitely next time we get together we have to make a new album, there has to be a 12-track new album.
Martin Kemp: No matter what we do individually, we all know that at the end of the day the thing people know us for is Spandau. We all know that name is bigger than the individual.
Members of band Spandau Ballet in 1982: L-R John Keeble, Tony Hadley (rear), Martin Kemp, Gary Kemp and Steve Norman.
Source: News Limited
Gary Kemp: Spandau live is where we’re best. See the film, listen to the record, but on stage is where we’re the best.
There’s a lot of drama but there’s no rehab stories in the documentary. Bullet dodged there?
John Keeble: It’s a story of a band who meet at school, get together, it all goes well, then they all hate each other, then they get back together. The only thing that isn’t in it is heroin addiction. We’re all still alive.
Tony Hadley: It’s remarkable, none of us have been to AA.
Steve Norman: Every band has its vice, ours was just alcohol. Well, not just alcohol, but …
John Keeble: There was that collective responsibility, we’d go out and get bonkers together. No one was in a hotel drinking Jack alone. It was all social, it was all overt.
Tony Hadley: If I was staggering like an idiot someone would find me and point me to my hotel room.
Gary Kemp: There’s a really strong work ethic in the band. I think it all comes from our parents, you can see that in the film, we came from working class backgrounds.
Spandau Ballet perform at Sandalford Winery in Perth’s Swan Valley. Picture: Supplied
Source: News Limited
And you’re not a re-formed band who bans alcohol backstage.
Tony Hadley: God, that’s so boring — bands who go, “Oh, there’s no alcohol backstage.” That’s horrible. We like a beer, a glass of wine, a little Jack …
Steve Norman: Alcohol being banned is banned from Spandau Ballet.
The Story — The Very Best Of (Warner) — is out now
Spandau Ballet, Rod Laver Arena, May 19. $ 49.90-$ 99.90.
*Tickets available at Ticketek.com.au
