| Gary Kemp Interview 2 |
| NM – Now, my question of course is back in those days, you guys kind of picked up a reputation as being a kind of a party band. You know there were some backstage stories floating around every once in a while. What was some of the craziest stuff that happened to the guys during that ten year period? GK – I don’t really want to go into those kind of details (laughs). We used Led Zepplin’s ‘Hammer Of The Gods’ as the blueprint to all our parties, so you can only imagine! We were five working class lads. We were given this chance to go around the world and you had licence, you had validation to party, you know. We were very well behaved during the day, we always gave a good show, but after we would let rip. But I think that is normal, par for the course in all Rock bands. You can’t believe you are in such a great position and situation and I suppose you take advantage of it. But everyone was willing – that’s all I’m going to say. NM – Enough said! The second question tonight is: ‘What is the meaning behind the name Spandau Ballet and who concocted it?’ GK – We didn’t have a name. It was early 1980 and we were part of that whole beginning of what over here was called ‘New Romantics’. But coming out of a small club called ‘The Blitz’ in London, were this weird group of young kids who were very post punk, but who obviously had been influenced by music in the early 70s. It was the most exotic place that I had ever been to in my life. I suppose there was a hint of cabaret about it. When I say cabaret I mean sort of between the wars, you know 1920s, that sort of Christopher Isherwood kind of imagery. There were bands around at the time like Cabaret Voltaire and we didn’t have a name and Robert Elms, who is now a well known writer and broadcaster over here, was one on our scene and he had just come back from a trip to Berlin clubbing. He said ‘I’ve got a great name - ‘Spandau Ballet.’ You know, Spandau is a place in Berlin and we thought it sounded incredibly exotic and we took it. But it was a few years later that he actually admitted to us that he had seen it written on a toilet wall in a Berlin club, so I guess the truth is, we stole it from another band. |
| NM – He has actually gone on to pen the liner notes for The Greatest Hits. GK – That’s right. He knows the story better than anyone, and the liner notes in the album sleeve really tell the story very clearly I think. You know, everyone over here in Britain right now seems absolutely fascinated with what went on in the early 80s, and the kind of commitment that people had for music and fashion at the time, the sort of passion. I think in the 80s there wasn’t the diversity of choice that there is now, if you can use that phrase, in what to spend your money on. People always, always bought records and associated themselves with bands and scenes, and the fashion that they wore was the uniform of their tribe. I think that people are fascinated about that period now, and Robert in his sleeve notes for the album seems to paint the picture of the time very clearly. |
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| NM – Definitely, and now since fashion has become such a diluted thing when it comes to music, fashion doesn’t necessarily indicate a particular musical affinity or movement. GK – Yeah. I think that things go through phases. I’m waiting for a band that is going to come along that is going to really shock people. I guess you have that in American now. You’ve got Limp Bizkit and the whole scene, which we don’t really have over here. I think that the music scene in Britain is the lowest it’s ever been. We always seemed to lead the way in the 80s. America would often look to Britain for bands like ourselves and Duran, and before then in the 1970s – Bowie, and before then The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Pink Floyd. Now we seem just to be producing rather bland boy bands that are sub NSync and Backstreet Boys. NM – Aw come on. The guys from Westlife are very, very nice, Gary. GK – Very nice guys. I don’t actually know them. Of course, the problem with things going out on the internet is that you can’t hear the irony in the voice and the tone of the voice, so if you read anything that I am saying and it sounds a little dull, imagine it with irony. NM – Exactly. Irony brings the flavour to every conversation. We are gonna take another question. This actually kind of bleeds into what you were mentioning before. ‘What is your honest take on today’s music scene and are there any bands that you do actually like that have come out?’ GK – I listen to a lot of diverse stuff. I am always listening to all kinds of music, but I suppose within the pop genre, as it were, I think Radiohead are really doing the most interesting things. I still think that U2 are managing to make good music after all these years. I think the David Gray record was quite a breakthrough. There is a really interesting new Country scene happening as well. A really interesting guy called Ryan Adams, not Bryan Adams. When I first saw David Bowie doing Starman on television I was eleven. He was this androgynous alien. I really wanted to go to that planet and I’d love to see that happening now. There doesn’t seem to be anything around that is going to upset the parent. Not that Spandau Ballet were ever gravely upsetting the parents in the end. In the beginning we came out of a scene that was bizarre and weird and interesting and I think that I miss some of that, certainly in the UK. I think that there are many more interesting bands coming out of America now, I’m sure. When I go over there and I listen to K-Rock there seems to be stuff that is far more interesting. NM – I’d just like to say that yes, American children are much better than British children at p**sing off their parents with their musical choices – we’ve got a real affinity for that. But do you think that maybe in a sense all the good ideas are gone? GK – I think that maybe the pop genre has kind of almost finished, in that where you spend every penny that you have on either your clothes or your records. Those times seem to be gone. The media movement of music entertainment and creativity is changing. It is diversifying into computers and they are on the internet. I think that we are looking for things, especially new young creative minds, who are looking for other ways of expressing themselves than electric guitars and drums. But that might not be true completely, but at the moment those are my fears. NM – And there is always gonna be some kid, suddenly out of the midst of his bedroom, in a four track, who produces some amazing song that will just blow you away. GK – I hope so, because music and songs are really important and they certainly won’t go away. But I do think that in Britain in the last five years there has been a lot of young kids now who want to become conceptual artists. They don’t want to form a band. They want to go to college and they want to put things in fish tanks or whatever they want to do, or create great light shows - something interesting with computer graphics. So I think the energy is going elsewhere. Music won’t go away because we need that. It’s the most healing thing we have – I sound like Whitney Houston. |