Hell had frozen over, Tony Hadley said in 2007, and ruled out any chance of reunion for his band. So it’s all the more magnanimous that today he can say onstage “We are very happy boys”…
The picture they said could never be taken: a big hug between Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley and Gary Kemp during the band’s 2009 comeback concert in Dublin, after duetting With the Pride from 1984. Photographed © by Shapersofthe80s
❚ EXTRAORDINARY. UNEXPECTED. From the off, the Dubliners roared a loud, exuberant and warm welcome to the band that hadn’t played together for 19 years. They cheered the best bits by each musician – John, Steve, Gary, Martin and vocalist Tony. They cheered whenever closeups appeared on the monster live video backdrop. Within a day, amateur videos on YouTube [see below] were vividly testifying to the energy the event generated.
Spandau Ballet’s comeback Reformation tour began at the O2 arena in Ireland’s capital city on October 13, 2009, with a huge flickering video montage to remind us of the way the world was when they set the style as electro-pop innovators in 1980. Headlines announced “Recession”, “Unemployment” … “and Dreams”. Then a jabbing finger on an early synthesiser triggered a chugging high-octane version of their oh-so-cool first hit, To Cut a Long Story Short…
➢➢ Shapers of the 80s ➣➣ 