GET OUT your pirate shirt and dust off your hussar jacket, those (old) New Romantic superstars Spandau Ballet are headed back to these shores.
The quintet from North London who burst onto the British music scene way back in 1980 with “To Cut a Long Story Short” have overcome internal squabbles and splits before, touring the UK in 2010 and making an appearance at this year’s SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, which was the band’s first concert in the US in 28 years. Last month saw the British release of a documentary about the band’s history, Soul Boys of the Western World, prompting speculation that the band would soon embark on a world tour. This week, they made it official, naming 12 US dates including a January 24th and 25th engagement at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles. The 24th date was added just on Thursday due to huge local demand. For tickets click HERE
“The film and the tour make up our new campaign of creativity,” songwriter and guitarist Gary Kemp said on Monday, shortly before the band appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Kemp says the quintet is delaying “the commercial thing of doing an album” in order to promote the film and simply reconnect with its audience. After being away from the spotlight for so long, he says the band wondered what it could offer listeners, and the answer was right in front of him.
“What we have is our story,” he says.
Kemp also revealed the role played in the band’s reunion by their great rivals – Duran Duran.
Kemp said watching Duran Duran reform their original line up in 2003 started his journey to heal the rift between his own former band mates.
“It did spur me on,” Kemp said. “I was at the Duran comeback gig with my wife and I was sitting there miserable. At that time Spandau weren’t even talking. We needed closure on it. It had been hell for so long. It wasn’t long after I saw Duran Duran I flew down to Spain and met (sax player) Steve (Norman) for the first time. It took about five years of work before we were all sat in a room together.”
The movie follows the band through their early days as the house band at legendary Covent Garden wine bar Blitz, through their breakthrough in 1980 and the string of hits that followed – accompanied by the inevitable rock star clichés of drugs, women…and falling out over money.
The band disintegrated in 1989 and things got even worse when singer Tony Hadley, Steve Norman and drummer John Keeble took sole songwriter Kemp to court seeking their share of royalties a decade later.
A comeback tour in 2009 repaired the damage, while the elephant in the room is discussed in the movie as the band talk about their anger towards Kemp and his increased fortune from writing all the band’s hits.
“You wanted to disappear in your seat when we were watching it together for the first time,” Norman said. “None of us knew what the other had said when we filmed our interviews so it was interesting to watch it together.”
“But that’s what makes the movie work so well, its honesty,” bassist Martin Kemp says. “In any film or documentary, as soon as you sniff a lie it ruins the whole one and a half hours.”
Spandau have also recorded three new songs for a new compilation, The Story, released as a companion piece to the film.
Here’s the rundown for the band’s first North American in nearly 30 years:
Jan. 23 – San Francisco, Calif., Warfield Theatre
Jan. 24 – Los Angeles, Calif., The Wiltern
Jan. 25 – Los Angeles, Calif., The Wiltern – SOLD OUT
Jan. 27 – Denver, Colo., Paramount Theatre
Jan. 30 – Chicago, Ill., House Of Blues
Jan. 31 – Detroit, Mich., Masonic Temple Theatre
Feb. 3 – Toronto, Ontario, Massey Hall
Feb. 5 – Boston, Mass., House Of Blues Boston
Feb. 6 – New York, N.Y., Beacon Theatre
Feb. 7 – Westbury, N.Y., NYCB Theatre At Westbury
Feb. 9 – Washington, D.C., 9:30 Club
Feb. 10 – Red Bank, N.J., Count Basie Theatre
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