| Gary Kemp Interview 1 |
| My name is Nevin Martell from Getmusic.com. Tonight it’s my special pleasure to bring to you a lovely, lovely lad - Gary Kemp from Spandau Ballet. Calling in all the way from London, right? GK – That’s right Nevin. How are you doing? NM – You know what, it’s a beautiful night in New York City. What can you say about London? GK – Well, it’s been cold, very, very cold. But no, we have had some nice time now the rain has stopped finally. NM – Now, for the first time with a straight face I can say that Snatch has invaded London, from what I hear. GK – Snatch has invaded London? (laughs). I think that is a matter of opinion. I think that movie may be over by now. NM – Really? GK – Yeah, I mean, the New Year has begun. I think we are well, you know, looking for new things. I am not a huge Guy Ritchie fan to be honest. I come from the real London and I find a lot of that middle class version of what Cockney should be, not true. NM – Exactly, and a little disconcerting I’m sure. GK – Yeah NM- But we Americans are just excited to be able to use the word ‘Snatch’ in casual conversation again. GK – (Laughs) Well I think that is meant to be a double entendre. NM – I certainly hope so – So, of course we are here to talk to you tonight about The Greatest Hits package that you have just put out entitled ‘Gold’. GK – That’s right. NM – And to talk about what you have been up to since Spandau Ballet, and of course your acting career – you guys were awesome in ‘The Krays’ by the way. |
 |
 |
 |
| GK- Thank you very much. NM – I never though I would have the chance to tell you that, but now I do. GK – I think it was a good movie – I mean the Krays are icons over in Britain. They were incredibly famous twins in the 60s and David Bailey took their photographs. I think people were a tad suspicious when they heard we were playing them. I know that they didn’t mean anything over in America, but over here it was really seen as a very important thing, like going in to play the Queen or something. But the movie did well I think. We managed to survive it and people were very, very appreciative of it. |
| NM – Now do you have any other acting things coming up on the plate or what? GK- I’ve got a movie that I just did over here called ‘Dog Eat Dog’ which Film Four have produced. It’s a comedy with mostly an all black cast, about four hip hop DJs who aren’t being very successful and of course I play the baddy and my character is called ‘ Jesus’. It’s a nickname and he is a drug dealer of course, and a pusher. |
| But at the moment I am actually treading the boards as they say. I am doing some theatre acting in London, in the West End, in a play that I know has been in New York - a play called ‘Art’ by Yasmina Reza. There are three guys in the cast, they have a new cast every three months and I take over on Tuesday, so you’d better not keep me up too late because I’ve got to get up for rehearsals in the morning. No, I’m really loving it – it’s great. |
 |
| You know, I started off as an actor. So did my brother. We went to a kind of club after school and we ended up getting parts in films and TV when we were very young and then into our teens. But music was always my first love. I was writing songs since I was eleven. I wanted to be in a band, and obviously punk and David Bowie were the two huge influences in my life, along with early 70s Dance music. Yeah, that was really what I wanted to do but then it was nice after ten years of Spandau Ballet that I could go back to acting, but still you know, music is my first love and I still do music and I make music professionally when I can. NM – I’ve been told that I can jump right into the listener questions because we have quite a few. GK – Cool, tell me where they are from too. NM – Unfortunately I can’t tell where they are from unless they physically indicate in the question. The first one I believe is an American and they want to say that you were in a great band and one of the best bands of the 80s. The question is: ‘What has changed in your band after all those years and what’s the deal with Spandau Ballet today?’ |
| GK – Well, what’s changed is Spandau Ballet haven’t played together for ten years, I think that it is really a band that represents an era. We spanned the whole of the 80s. Our first single ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’ was 1980, our last single was 1990. I’m not a big fan of when bands, (it’s like being in a gang, being in a band), drag themselves on into middle age. I find something untruthful about that. And Spandau Ballet never really declined, you know. Even our last album was successful and I think we went out on top. It wasn’t like a prize fighter going in again and again, trying to succeed in the ring, and I’m proud of those ten years. I think we made some good music. I had the best time I’ve had in my life, but we are not now playing together, unfortunately. But you never know… |
 |