Category Archives: comeback

2023➤ Kemp Bros keep tongues firmly in their cheeks

Posted on 24 Feb 2023 | Leave a comment

Gary Kemp, Martin Kemp, comedy, documentary, pop music, television, biopic, Spandau Ballet,

Who Do They Think They Are? Their spoof TV doc traces the Kemp Brothers’ origins back to the inventor of the clothes peg

❚ THREE YEARS AGO the critics divided over a TV “mockumentary” about Spandau Ballet’s Kemp brothers, which Martin summed up as “French and Saunders do Gary and Martin Kemp”. Gary added: “Our traits, but highlighted”. The unexpectedly oddball hour is being repeated on BBC2 tonight.

Their contemporary, Eighties musician Andy Polaris, declared himself a bit of a fan in his own review:

“ The Kemps All True is a surprisingly deft spoof documentary based on the Spandau Ballet stars’ ill-fated revamp revolving solely around the two charismatic brothers. Chock-full of well-known British cameos (Christopher Eccleston, Daniel Mays, Anna Maxwell Martin), it follows their attempted relaunch including a guest star covers album where ‘Sia’ and the gruff-voiced ‘Rag and Bone Guy’ both murder True, a song they had reserved for a popular girl band.

Exclusive preview of new album cover (BBC)

“ Interwoven are real clips from the band’s history leading up to the current 40th anniversary where they are rudderless and searching for new streams of income including an unappealing-sounding meat replacement vegan product called Wonge and a charitable retirement project. The hour whizzes by due to a cavalcade of witty observations about vintage pop stars (ie, playing private parties for oligarchs for considerable financial rewards and celebrity endorsements for dodgy products), piercing their Photoshop vanity and pretentious public images… ” ➢ Continued at Apolarisview.com

Shapersofthe80s published another candid appreciation of the Kemps’ venture into comic territory, which was conceived by its director and writer Rhys Thomas, here:
➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s: Knife-edge TV doc shows Kemp tongues firmly in their cheeks

Followed up almost inevitably by Spandau’s former vocalist Tony Hadley telling The Sun: “I wasn’t approached and would not have anything to do with it. I’m done. They want me back for good but it ain’t going to happen. I’d rather be happy on my own than be in that band again.”
➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s: Vocalist Hadley hammers final nail into the coffin of Spandau Ballet

Martin Kemp, Gary Kemp, Rhys Thomas, BBC2, documentary,

Preview of Gary Kemp’s latest work as a portrait painter (BBC)

➢ Click for the quite funny Kemp Bros trailer

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Posted in biopic, comeback, Comedy, documentary, Pop music, Reviews, TV

Tagged Anna Maxwell Martin, Christopher Eccleston, Daniel Mays, Gary Kemp, Martin Kemp, Rhys Thomas, Spandau Ballet

2022 ➤ Steve Norman relives Spandau’s Glory days

Posted on 4 Jul 2022 | Leave a comment

Steve Norman, Spandau Ballet, Journeys To Glory Tour, TheSleevz, Pop music, live concerts,

TheSleevz live onstage at Pizza Express Holborn, Steve Norman in banter mode

❚ FOLLOWING ON THE HEELS of last month’s buzzy comeback gigs at the Pizza Express Holborn, sax-player Steve Norman announces dates for his Journeys To Glory Tour with his own band The Sleevz. They will celebrate Spandau Ballet’s debut album from 1981 whose tracks include the band’s first hit single, To Cut A Long Story Short, plus Musclebound, Reformation, The Freeze, Mandolin, Age of Blows, Confused and Toys. At that time Steve was displaying his skills as a guitar-player.

This week Steve declared: “I’ve been reminiscing about last weekend’s Holborn shows. They were two of the most joyful, exciting and yet relaxed gigs that myself and The Sleevz have performed in the past six years that we’ve been together.
I adore this venue as it’s only a stone’s throw from where I lived and grew up. And more and more, the love and participation from the fans, family and friends ensures that the basement remains our spiritual home.”

Not only did he demonstrate his supreme talents on saxophone and percussion, but his performance as lead singer has gained in strength and impact, backed by his very tight band featuring his wife Sabrina on vocals and son Jaco on bass. His medley of pop covers and a second half of Spandau classics all enjoyed fresh energy while, as ever, he shared banter a-plenty with his audience, many of whom he knows by name.

➢ The Journeys To Glory Tour by TheSleevz offers 14 UK dates between Wokingham 30 Sept and Lancaster on 31 October

And after a superb gig at Pizza Express: Yours Truly set upon by an over-enthusiastic Steve Norman

➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s: 2021, Steve Norman returns with TheSleevz and a surprise royal send-off!

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Posted in comeback, live music, Pop music, Swinging 80s, Youth culture

2011 ➤ Relive Duran’s 30th-anniversary comeback with All You Need Is Now

Posted on 21 Mar 2021 | Leave a comment

10
YEARS
ON

❚ THIS WEEK IN 2011 Duran Duran’s album All You Need Is Now was released as a 14-song CD in Europe and North America. Shapers of the 80s gave extensive coverage to Duran’s glorious comeback tour of North America and their 30th anniversary party for the same week in 1981 when their debut single Planet Earth entered the UK Top 20 where it was to reach No 12. Relive these highlights on the album’s tenth anniversary…

Duran Duran, streaming, live concert, Amex,YouTube, Unstaged, David Lynch, Los Angeles

Duran live on YouTube, 2011: a choice of three camera streams and “Lynchian effects” smothering John Taylor’s performance on All You Need Is Now

➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s: Crazee or crazed? David Lynch’s view of Duran from within his hellish cave…

❚ WHAT RUM NIGHTMARES DAVID LYNCH must have in bed at night, but then, he did direct Eraserhead after all. For the best part of two hours, today’s much vaunted Duran Duran live web concert in the Unstaged series kept making you want to hurl virtual cabbages at the screen, enraged by a director whose intent was to obscure the act from view with his relentlessly potty toy-box full of widgets. From 2am UK time till almost the dawn chorus, the band onstage in California had no idea what web audiences in 22 overseas territories (432,000 channel views by 6.30am) were enduring as they pushed on through 18 numbers… / Continued inside

Duran Duran, US tour, 2011, SXSW, interview, video

John Taylor and Nick Rhodes at SXSW in Texas, March 2011: Rhodes claimed to have 100,000 photos in his personal archive he’d like to get published somehow

➢ Previously at Shapers of the 80s:
Despite some sniffy critics, this is ultimately Duran’s best album since their glory years – Comprehensive round-up

Still hungry after all these years —
Adrian Thrills writes in the Daily Mail:
“ The band’s 13th album is much better than most of us could have anticipated. The nine new songs benefit from a diverse cast of special guests. Ana Matronic of the Scissor Sisters adds a seductive rap on Safe (In the Heat of the Moment). New York soul diva Kelis impresses on The Man Who Stole A Leopard. But if Mark Ronson’s input provides a creative spark, the most impressive thing is Duran Duran’s return to form as songwriters. The frontman, to his credit, also supplies some wonderful, multi-tracked vocal harmonies, superbly augmented by Rhodes’ clever electronic prompts and the urgent grooves of the rhythm section ” … / Much more inside

Spandau Ballet, 2009, press conference, HMS Belfast, pop music, free CD

Spandau Ballet answering my question at their own reunion press conference

➢ Previously at Shapers of the 80s: In 2011 Spandau and Duran square up for battle just like the old days

❚ EVEN AS A UNIQUE CD COMPILATION of Spandau Ballet’s landmark hits was set for massive free distribution with The Mail on Sunday, Duran Duran announced a global concert live online at YouTube, along with their own album release on CD. It could be the 80s all over again when the two arch-rival bands vied for the title of leaders of Britain’s New Romantics movement. So which veteran band scored the bigger hit in 2011?… / Continued inside

Duran Duran, 2011, All You Need Is Now, YouTube, live stream, pop music

Duran Duran earlier in 2011, a year of US and European tours, plus a streamed concert

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Posted in albums, Britain, comeback, Europe, live-streaming, Media, North America, Pop music, Reviews, singles

Tagged Adrian Thrills, All You Need Is Now, David Lynch, Duran Duran, John Taylor, Mark Ronson, Nick Rhodes, Spandau Ballet, Unstaged

2020 ➤ Sade’s 20 songs that ensure she remains a 21st-century star

Posted on 9 Oct 2020 | Leave a comment

Sade Adu, album, singer-songwriter, This Far, Sony Music,

“No one does small-hours heartbreak quite like Sade”: The singer photographed in 1990 by David Graves

From aching soul to minimalist funk, Sade and her band don’t make many records but their quality has never waned. As a career box set is released, in today’s Guardian critic Alexis Petridis ranks their 20 best songs…

No 1: By Your Side (2000)

There’s a compelling argument that Lovers Rock is Sade’s masterpiece, a collection of deeply affecting meditations on parenthood, loss and race on which they simultaneously pared down and broadened out their sound: its tracks subtly encompass everything from hip-hop to reggae to singer-songwriter folksiness. And, in By Your Side, it has Sade’s greatest song: its hushed atmosphere not a million miles removed from Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry, its melody so perfectly formed it feels instantly familiar, its lyrics simple but moving. How it isn’t the kind of modern standard that gets regularly murdered on The X Factor is an enduring mystery, although the 1975’s Auto-Tune-heavy cover is nice enough.

➢ Visit The Guardian to read reviews of the other
19 tracks in the Petridis Top 20

➢ Order This Far, a vinyl box set with remastered versions of Sade’s six albums, released today on Sony Music