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| MVC Interview 1 |
| In the eighties, London's Spandau Ballet were one of the biggest bands on the planet, scoring hit after hit with their catchy "blue-eyed soul". After the band's demise, brothers Gary (guitar/songwriter) and Martin (bass) Kemp went on to enjoy considerable acting success, while the remaining three members (vocalist Tony Hadley, drummer John Keeble and saxophonist Steve Norman) continued with the music. In 1999, the three sued Gary Kemp for unpaid royalties, but the case ended in Kemp's favour. A new retrospective of the band's work, the 3CD 'Reformation', has been released, and we spoke to songwriter Gary Kemp about a variety of subjects... On why the band are releasing a new 3CD Spandau Ballet retrospective, 'Reformation' There's a lot of old really interesting stuff that's not been exposed. The 'greatest hits' stuff has always been all the singles that people know, but I wanted to focus more on the beginnings of the band. When it was more culty, when it was this thing that was going on in London that 'Newsnight' did a piece on, and 'Nationwide'. Janet Street-Porter also shot and black-and-white documentary on us. I think in those days, in that time, people were waiting for the next big thing. There had been the mods, the punks, the soul, and now it was going to be the next thing on the street, and that was called New Romantics. I wanted to put together a CD that focused quite a lot on that, one that included some demos from the early days. Also, it goes pretty much up to the mid-'80s, a live show from Sadler's Wells when 'True' was number one. There are some 12" remixes which will make it the best compilation of 12" remixes released from us. There was one in the '80s, but it was compiled by the record company and didn't include the proper 12" remixes at all. Just extended mixes. But these [on 'Reformation'] are the proper dance mixes. On getting started When we first started off, there was a real reaction. When I first walked into this club called Billy's, in 1979, I saw these extraordinary, amazing creatures dancing in make-up - a real mix of art-school students and working-class flash. Soul boys who weren't excited with the soul thing any more, and ex-punks, or people who were too young for punk. I was 16 when I saw the Sex Pistols, and now suddenly we were 19 and could call our own shots, really. These people were really against bands. They wanted to be the stars, they wanted to dance and dress up. It was the beginning of the club scene, really. And when we came along, it was a bit of an odd one. Would they accept us as a house band? They did. So we played on HMS Belfast, and played in the first warehouse party ever. We played at the Scala Cinema. This was a really arty crowd and none of the rock journalists could get in, so we were called elitist. Then everyone wanted to sign the band. On the first single When we did our first single, I remember being in the studio and thinking "this is a really great instrument. If you press the button, you can mute the sound." I liked the way you could cut things in and out. And I'd grown up buying dance 12"s and reggae 12"s. And I can honestly tell you, that at that moment, not a single white band that wasn't funk had ever made a 12". 'To Cut A Long Story Short' was the first-ever proper 12" from a band that made rock music. The record company didn't know what to do with it - how to promote it. We got two club guys in who did soul clubs and they promoted the record for us in sympathetic clubs. There was one in Basildon, where Depeche Mode came from, and Rum Runner in Birmingham where Duran Duran came from. There were these little scenes...I guess our big influence really would have been glam rock, actually. As 11-year-olds, we bought glam rock records. I was a massive Bowie fan, and watching 'Starman' changed my life. On the band's journey These were the early 12" remixes, we were working in the dark and there was nothing to compare it to in those days. You couldn't send it off to be mixed by someone who was known for mixing. There were none of those people. Punk had always been about not joining the establishment, not selling records. And I think what we wanted to do was to sell lots of records. And there's actually a rather arrogant quote from me on a documentary where it says, "we're going to sell millions of records". I think it rubbed the music press up the wrong way, which is kind of what we wanted anyway. There's a Robert Elms speech, an arty poem. He was one of the Blitz kids. And he said this little poem to introduce us on stage, and we put it on this record ['Reformation'] and it sets the tone for these first demos. We did want to sell a lot of records, so this CD goes right through to when 'True' broke and we ended up doing the 'True' show. So it goes from cult to popularist. And it shows that journey. On highlights of 'Reformation' I forgot that 'True' had a different introduction when we recorded it. So, we've kept the original intro, remixed the track using all the beautiful reverbs you can use these days, and I think it sounds bigger and a lot crisper. It was nice for us to give it some 21st century technology. It's something else. This [CD] is a real collector's piece. I'm really proud of the [24-page] book. I think that all but one of the pictures have never been released before. Steve Dagger and myself spent ages scouring through old pictures. There's one taken during our first trip to New York. There's a whole bunch of us, we all flew out and did a fashion show before playing a gig in front of Andy Warhol and various other luminaries from New York. If you look at the picture carefully, you may spot a young girl who later on became a very successful singer - Sade! Most of it hasn't been on CD before. It's a good piece. |
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