Gary Kemp Interview

At the age of 11, Gary Kemp (London 1959) began to play the guitar he had been given for Christmas and recorded his first compositions on a tape recorder he was given by a very modern priest. The years passed and he became the lead singer of “Spandau Ballet”, of the forerunning groups of the 1980s that have left songs like “True”, “Through the Barricades” and “Only when you leave” for posterity.

These and other successes have been re-recorded now on a CD of great successes, as Kemp has won a court case against his former colleagues so that he does not have to share the copyright. A 41 year old Londoner and father of a boy of 10, he remembers that when the group started, it was a time of change because it remained to be seen what would follow punk, and in this interview he recalls the decade when pop was reinvented.

WHAT WERE THE MUSICAL INFLUENCES DURING YOUR YOUTH?

- I can't say that I began, for instance, with the “Beatles”. In fact my interest in music began when I was 10 or 11 and I would say that it coincided with the time of the Glam movement of the early 70s and groups like T-Rex and their singer, Mark Bolan. And then came David Bowie singing “Starman” with a look that made him look like something from another world. My parents told me not to watch “Top of the Pops”, but I didn't take any notice.

Bowie and I used to go to the shops to look for flared trousers and things like that. I think that more than the music, what first influenced me was the image. And what was really decisive was the influence of the “Sex Pistols”, and particularly their attitude, in the sense that maybe the most important thing was not their worth as musicians, but their attitude. On the other hand, we had the influence of dance music.

WAS WHAT YOU DID WITH “Spandau Ballet” A CONNECTION BETWEEN rock AND DANCE MUSIC?

- Yes, and other groups of our time did the same, such as “Duran Duran”. This now seems something completely normal, but it was really new in the 1980s.

IN “Spandau Ballet” WAS THE IMAGE PROJECTED BY THE GROUP AS IMPORTANT AS THE MUSIC YOU MADE?

- Yes, I think it is almost always like that in pop music, it already happened with the “Beatles” and their long hair. When people buy a rock or pop record, it is as though they were making a declaration, in the sense that they don't only buy it because they like the music, but also because they identify themselves with the image of the group or the singer. But, believe me, the way our group dressed was one of the least extravagant.

WHY, AT THE BEGINNING, DID “Spandau Ballet” REFUSE TO ENTER THE COMMERCIAL CIRCUITS?

- At the beginning, what we wanted to do was to create events and let the audience participate. We played in old warehouses and on one occasion, even in a warship. This disturbed the record companies because they didn't know where to go to see us. On one occasion, a journalist said we were elitist, but we weren't like that, what we thought was that we didn't need the press.

“WITH ‘TRUE’ WE STOPPED BEING A CULT BAND”

How long did you use this method?

- This attitude lasted for our first two albums (“Journeys to Glory", 1980, and “Diamond”, 1982) until “True” (1983), which was a commercial album and made the demand for our work multiply. This was the moment when we decided we couldn't continue as a cult band. The truth is that for me, a songwriter, it was almost a relief to write songs in a line that was a little more conventional, rather than trying to be unusual or experimental. At this time, I used to listen to many soul artists like Al Green and Marvin Gaye.

WERE THE EIGHTIES REALLY A TIME OF GREAT CHANGE IN POP MUSIC?

- The greatest influence came from the television and the proliferation of magazines that included contents on pop groups. I believe that at the end of the 1970s, like is happening now, pop and rock were practically separated in the eyes of the public and critics, who considered the first more frivolous and easy and the second more serious and prestigious.

However, at this time groups like us, “Duran Duran”, “ABC”, “Culture Club”, “Frankie Goes to Hollywood” and “Tears for Fears” crossed the frontier and we became groups that, while commercial, were quality bands.

“IN THE 1980s THE SAME THING WENT DOWN WELL IN EUROPE AND THE USA”

AND DID "Live Aid" ARRIVE…?

- It was precisely this that, in my view, made the “Live Aid” concert (the music megashow organised in 1985 to collect funds to help the Third World) possible, because these groups played well at the time and we had successful sales. In this decade too, the successful groups in Europe were those that were also successful in the United States, which doesn't happen now.

The 80s were also a change as regards the development of technologies that made it possible to use more sophisticated synthesisers, electric drums and enabled more complex productions with greater risk as regards innovation.