Live Review: Spandau Ballet

Spandau Ballet have been experiencing a renaissance of cool.

The UK ‘80s band reunited in 2009 – despite a dramatic royalty battle in the ‘90s. They’ve recently made a riveting documentary, Soul Boys Of The Western World, chronicling their pivotal role in London’s New Romantic movement, with the late Blitz Club mogul Steve Strange as patron, and subsequent emergence as blue-eyed soulsters. They also presented an anthology with new songs produced by Trevor Horn. 

In later years Spandau Ballet have, like other seminal New Wavers, perplexingly (pub) rocked up their tunes in live shows – guitars the enemy of synth revolutionaries. Worryingly, when presenting Rage, frontman Tony Hadley and chief songwriter/guitarist Gary Kemp programmed some (middling) indie. Could tonight still represent a return to their days as avant-synth heroes?

The Brits open the show with the new Soul Boy – a throwback to Gold, complete with signature Steve Norman sax solo (and congas). The charismatic Hadley, in dapper suit, sings as powerfully as ever, combining the suave of Frank Sinatra with Marvin Gaye’s urbanity. Highly Strung follows but, oh no! Kemp’s guitar is too raucous. However, the band then stage a sweeping Only When You Leave – a neglected classic. The group cluster their comeback songs early and, while they’re commendable, the audience are sadly unfamiliar with them. Spandau Ballet go back with Chant No 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On), which elicits the biggest response yet. Better again, the five launch into their ‘Blitz Medley’ – an homage to New Romanticism encapsulating the rare cut Reformation and closing with the Kraftwerky The Freeze, Strange’s image on the giant screen. Next Spandau Ballet play their fateful debut, To Cut A Long Story Short – a dark, dirty underground incarnation manifesting ‘80s club cred. 

The second half of the set concentrates on Spandau Ballet’s (commercial) R&B heyday, from 1983’s True album onwards. After Hadley ventures into the crowd with Kemp on acoustic guitar for the pre-split Empty Spaces, there’s a teaser audience sing-along of Gold. One of the night’s highlights is a dreamy I’ll Fly For You. Spandau Ballet revisit their funkiest jam, Instinction – a crowd-pleaser. The final song before the encore is inevitably the classic True, which never gets old and was notably sampled for PM Dawn’s proto-cloud rap Set Adrift On Memory Bliss. 

For the encore, Spandau Ballet pull out the mid-’80s rock Through The Barricades: a message-laden anthem they love that’s actually rather Bono-bastic. Nonetheless, the evening ends perfectly with the Balearic pop of Gold.