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| Spandau Ballet came flying out of London's New Romantic scene 22 years ago to become one of the biggest British bands of the '80s. Led by songwriter Gary Kemp, they sold over 25 million records worldwide before breaking up in 1990. Along the way they notched up some of the biggest hits in British pop history. Three years ago they ended up in court fighting each other over songwriting royalties and Gary Kemp now owns exclusive rights to the name Spandau Ballet. This is his story: |
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| Gary Kemp: My brother and I come from a really ordinary working class family in Islington. My dad was a printer in a factory, my mum was a dinner lady at the school we went to. We grew up, really not thinking that there was much for us out there other than another job in a factory. My parents bought me a guitar at the age of 11, just by chance one Christmas - a real dog of a thing, you know like cheese cutters, and I learnt 3 chords and wrote a song. That was the natural urge for me, to keep writing music. I didn't know what to do with it, but I was writing songs at the age 11. The young guitarist enrolled at the Dame Alice Owen School in Islington, where Gary met and recruited future band members John Keeble and Steve Norman. Gary Kemp: I remember forming this group and playing high speed Beatles songs then some of my own as well. And that really was the nucleus of Spandau Ballet. We needed a singer, I didn't want to sing. Tony Hadley was the tallest kid in school, and he was the only kid with a leather jacket. And he also had the bravado to say, "I can do this, I can sing." Because of his size I guess, and because of his arrogance, I thought all of those things would be really good attributes for a lead singer. Early Video Footage - Tony Hadley: I'll just go and park the car and give you a hand in a minute. |
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| Gary Kemp: Steve Dagger who was a school friend who was beginning to manage us made the suggestion that we put my brother in the band. I thought this was a ridiculous idea because he couldn't really play, but I stayed up all night and taught him bass, and he was perfect. Early Video Footage - John Keeble: Do you want me to start sound checking the drums? <cut> Early Video Footage - Tony Hadley: It's got no life, no clarity With the final line up sorted out, all they had to worry about was a name. Gary turned to fellow north London soul boy Robert Elms for help. Robert Elms (Writer and Broadcaster): Discussions were had and I said you should call them Spandau Ballet. And we just, kind of, thought this is a preposterous name that means nothing, but has got this kind of exotic glamour that will wind people up. You can't really do better than that. Gary Kemp: We want the band to be at all times the most contemporary statement that we can possibly make of modern London. We consider ourselves as being the most modern dressers and thinkers in London at any given time, I know it's very conceited but it's the way we feel. |