Spandau Ballet were one of THE BANDS of the 1980's?

Question

What is the best website to visit to find out more about them?

Answer 1

Why dont you try their website

Answer 2

I think Martin kemp was the bass player? he does the sofa adds for SCS he he

Answer 3

Try google search

Answer 4

http://www.spandauballet.com/

Answer 5

Spandau Ballet were a popular English band in the 1980s. Initially inspired by a mixture of funk and synthpop, the genre defining New Romantic group eventually mellowed into a mainstream pop act. As with their rivals Duran Duran they 'broke America', albeit briefly.

Guitarist and songwriter Gary Kemp and his brother, bassist Martin Kemp, formed the band in 1979 with drummer John Keeble, lead vocalist Tony Hadley and Steve Norman, who initially played guitar but later switched to saxophone when the band changed musical direction. Some consider the band's manager, Steve Dagger, to have been an integral part of the band's initial and continuing success.

The band was initially called 'The Makers', but changed their name after a visit to Spandau (a borough of Berlin and home to a since-demolished prison for war criminals which at one time housed a sole inmate, Rudolf Hess), the inspiration being from graffiti one of their roadies, BBC London 94.9 D.J. Robert Elms, saw there. [According to a front page story in the NY Times of 17 Jan 07, "Spandau Ballet" was the name given at the end of WW II to describe the execution of 10 of the highest ranking Nazi's after the Nuremberg trials as they "danced" at the end of the hangman's rope on what were, admittedly, botched hangings. One of the hanged took 24 minutes to die.] The band began performing and generating positive buzz around London at various unannounced parties and as the house band at the Blitz nightclub, which became regarded as the birthplace of a new 1980s music and fashion phenomenon called New Romanticism.

The band was involved in a major bidding war. They eventually signed to Chrysalis Records and released "To Cut a Long Story Short", produced by the cutting edge electronic musician Richard James Burgess. Released just ten days after the band emerged from the studio in order to meet the huge demand created by the buzz the band had established "To Cut a Long Story Short" was an instant British top 5 hit in 1980. This was followed by hits with "The Freeze", "Musclebound" and the well-received and genre defining Gold certified album Journeys to Glory (February 1981). The sound of "Journeys to Glory" set the sound for the nascent New Romantic movement with the torch song vocals, club/dance bottom end, splashy snare drum sound, lack of guitar solos and strongly rhythmic guitar parts, in fact it laid the foundation for much of the sound of the eighties. [citation needed]

The follow up album Diamond (March 1982) also produced by Richard James Burgess was certifed Gold by the BPI and featured the influential funk-flavoured "Chant No.1". Chant #1 also featured the first recorded example of the Burgess co-invention the SDS5 to actually be played by a drummer (John Keeble) rather than triggered by computer. The second chart single from Diamond was "Paint Me Down" and the third, "She Loved Like Diamond." The band set the trend once again by having Burgess remix every single from both albums for inclusion on each single B side and for twelve-inch club releases which were a huge success in the major metropolis's around the world. These mixes were later released as a boxed set. Times were, however, changing - these were the days of Dollar and Bucks Fizz and the British charts were swinging away from the edgier New Romantic sound created by the band and Burgess. Trevor Horn mixed the track "Instinction" which was released as the fourth single from this album.

With a slicker, adult contemporary sound the band released their third album True (February 1983), produced by Tony Swain and Steve Jolley - who would go on to enjoy a couple of years as the "producers du jour" in Britain. The title cut was a six-minute opus paying tribute to the Motown sound (and in some respects, Marvin Gaye). The image changed too — the cossack outfits and make-up of the New Romantic movement they had helped to establish had been replaced by smart, 1940's-inspired suits and well-scrubbed faces. The band still looked vaguely aristocratic, however. It was at this point that Norman became the band's sax player. The album topped the charts all around the world, and launched several international hit singles such as "Gold" and the aforementioned title cut which was #1 in some countries.

But the followup, Parade (June 1984), was critically drubbed for failing to move the band's sound forward. Nevertheless, the album and its singles were again big successes in the European charts, Australia and Canada in 84/85 and the opening song "Only When You Leave" became their last American hit. At the end of 1984, the band performed on the Band Aid charity single, with Hadley taking a prominent lead vocal role; and in 1985, they performed at the Wembley end of Live Aid. During this same year, Spandau Ballet achieved platinum status with the compilation, The Singles Collection, which kept the focus on the band between two studio albums, and celebrated their five years of success.

In 1986 Spandau Ballet signed to CBS Records and released Through the Barricades (October 1986), which saw the band trying to move away from the pop/soul influences of True and Parade and more towards rock. The album and the title track were big hits in their native UK and in Europe, particularly in Germany, in Italy and in the Benelux as usual, but unfortunately did nothing in the United States. After a hiatus from recording during which the Kemps established themselves as credible actors in the gangster film The Krays, the band released Heart Like a Sky in September 1989. The album was not widely released (not at all in The US) and was for the most part disregarded. It did however do well in Italy. Afterwards, Spandau Ballet — from whom Gary Kemp was already feeling estranged — split up for good.

Martin Kemp went on to land an acting role in the UK soap opera EastEnders, while Tony Hadley tried to establish a solo career. Gary Kemp did a little more acting, appearing in a supporting role in the Kevin Costner hit The Bodyguard, and in 1996 released a critically praised solo album, Little Bruises. Gary Kemp also appears in the theatrical productions on a semi-regular basis.

In the 1990s, Hadley, Keeble and Norman launched a failed court case against Gary Kemp for a share of Kemp's song writing royalties. As a result of this loss, all were left feeling embittered and very short of cash. Since then Hadley's profile been raised by his winning the ITV reality show Reborn in the USA.

The three non-Kemp members toured as a trio, but as they had to sell their shares in Spandau Ballet's company to Gary Kemp to pay off legal debts, and that company owned the rights to the name of Spandau Ballet, they had to tour under the moniker of 'Hadley, Keeble and Norman, ex-Spandau Ballet'.

Recently Steve Norman and the Kemps have managed to put their differences behind them and a reunion tour has been mentioned. However, at present Hadley does not wish to go back to his old band and continues to tour with his own band, which includes John Keeble on drums.

Answer 6

http://www.spandauballet.com/

Answer 7

http://www.allmusic.com/