Category Archives: London

2018 ➤ That Spandau comeback: breaking news about the venue

Posted on 30 May 2018 | 1 comment

New Romantics,youth culture, London, Spandau Ballet, comeback, breaking news, concert, vocalist,

Click on image to visit Spandau’s website in a new window – from 10am May 31

➢ Previously at Shapers of the 80s: Whither Spandau? Expect a bombshell today!

➢ Previously at Shapers of the 80s: So who can fill Tony Hadley’s big Ballet shoes?

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Posted in breaking news, Culture, London, Media, New Romantics, Pop music, Swinging 80s, Tipping points, Youth culture

Tagged comeback, Concert, Spandau Ballet, vocalist

➤ Meanwhile, a big treat for fans of Tony Hadley

Posted on 29 May 2018 | Leave a comment

Tony Hadley, album UK tour, pop music, London Palladium

Tony Hadley: I’m not bitter… Just reaching for the moon

◼ OH THE IRONY! On the day Spandau Ballet post a tease trailer giving us a glimpse of their new vocalist, their former singer Tony Hadley puts tickets on pre-sale for his Talking To The Moon tour, seven dates from 8 October in Birmingham to 17th at Sage One, Gatehead – plus of course, polite cough, on the 16th at the renowned London Palladium!!!

➢ Tony Hadley UK tour tickets now on sale here

➢ Previously at Shapers of the 80s:
2017, Tony Hadley pulls the plug on Spandau Ballet

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2018 ➤ First glimpse of the Spandau new boy

Posted on 29 May 2018 | Leave a comment

Spandau Ballet, vocalist, new boy, pop music

Here he is: Spandau Ballet – The Next Line 6.6.18 – trailer posted at YouTube at 10:25am today… That haircut looks promising

➢ View today’s Spandau Ballet tease trailer for your first glimpse of their new vocalist

➢ Previously at Shapers of the 80s: awaiting the bombshell

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1980 ➤ Day Four of Terry Smith’s unseen photos inside the Blitz Club – exclusive

Posted on 29 May 2018 | 1 comment

A New Romantics keynote was your invented image: startling make-up and a towering hat complete Blitz superstar Peter Probert’s wicked witch of the west

➢ DAY FOUR:
CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR
GALLERY OF TEN MORE FAB IMAGES
OF THE BLITZ CLUB IN 1980

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◼ EVEN AMONG THE UK ROCK PRESS, few of its music historians have conceded that the New Romantics amounted to an ambitious subculture that changed the rules of the game – largely because the rockists completely missed the boat by idolising guitar idols, never went to nightclubs, and what’s more, couldn’t dance.

The most audible consequence of the clubbing underground was to fundamentally change the rhythm of the pop singles charts within a year – from the rock guitar to the bass-and-drum, namely, to dance music. After 1981 scarcely any significant new rock groups made the singles charts, only the old dinosaurs, if at all. Rock was relegated to the album chart and new dance-music stars such as Madonna and Prince transformed the pop music of the new decade.

The other New Romantics keynote was the central role of image with the dawn of MTV as a platform for music videos. A band became the leaders of fashion, while their style-conscious nightlife followers collaborated in promoting them through the clubbing grapevine. As synth-pop pioneers during 1980 Spandau Ballet pushed a button for the fashion-conscious young. They were signalling that the language of pop called for new styles as much as new sounds.

During the first five years of the decade, more than 100 “image bands” and acts entered the UK charts – most of them new, led in the South-East by Ultravox, Linx, Spandau Ballet, Visage, Landscape, Depeche Mode, Kid Creole, Blue Rondo a la Turk. Many more emerged from clubland across the UK: Duran Duran, Soft Cell, Heaven 17, Altered Images, Imagination, Eurythmics, Thomas Dolby, ABC.

During Spandau’s North American tour in November 1983, alongside their hit True among the Billboard Top 40 singles in the USA, there were 17 other British bands – more than the Swinging 60s ever knew. Insolence and narcissism lit a torch that led a generation of school-leavers through what threatened to be Britain’s dark age of unemployment. As clubs became workplaces and nightlife the essential engine of cultural evolution, they liberated music, design and, especially, ambition for the young.

➢ Previously at Shapers of the 80s:
Spandau Ballet create a new template for pop success

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Posted in Britain, dance music, Fashion, History, London, Media, New Romantics, nightlife, North America, photography, Pop music, Swinging 80s, Tipping points, videos, Youth culture

Tagged 20th Century Box, Chris Sullivan, elektro-diskow, Ken Banta, Lucy Bell, Peter Probert, Rusty Egan, Spandau Ballet, St Moritz, Steve Strange, Terry Smith, Time magazine, Visage

➤ A happy Norman family outing on the eve of some big Spandau news

Posted on 28 May 2018 | 1 comment

Pop-Up UK Tour, Pizza Express Live, Steve Norman ,Sabrina Winter , Jaco Norman

Last night at Pizza Express Live: Spandau Ballet’s percussionist Steve Norman alongside his partner Sabrina Winter and son Jaco Norman on bass. (Photo: Shapersofthe80s)

◼ LAST NIGHT STEVE NORMAN’S POP-UP UK TOUR played its third set at a packed Pizza Express in Holborn. Spandau Ballet’s percussionist and joker Steve is pictured here alongside his girlfriend, manager and vocalist Sabrina Winter, and actor son Jaco Norman on bass, while his mum Sheila, daughter Lara and relations cheered from their corner. We enjoyed a generous 2hour-37minute show including a frank yet good-humoured Q&A (the first single he bought was Double Barrel by Dave and Ansil Collins, OK?), with only one twitchy moment which his old mucker on bongos Joe Becket reckoned was a “domestic” at the couple’s mics.

Steve met Joe at his best mate Deuce Barter’s Sunday clubnight called Passion at La Valbonne in Maidenhead in 1988 not long before the final tour which signalled the Spandau Ballet split. Steve joined Joe on percussion with him one night, and the same night Steve asked Joe if he would like to join Spandau’s tour on percussion. And so he did. They have been firm friends ever since and once more last night they indulged in a battle of the bongos reminiscent of Deuce’s club during a choppy version of Chant No 1. Jaco closed in to complete a trio for a thrilling percussive climax.

➢ Read Jeff Prestridge’s review of an emotional evening
and Steve’s “saxophonic genius”

Guitarist Paul Cuddeford also plays in Holy Holy and Steve Harley’s band and has worked as producer with Steve on various projects. Last night he pumped guts into a range of soulish covers from Al Green’s Let’s Stay Together and Nick Cave’s Where The Wild Roses Grow to All the Young Dudes, The Passenger, Absolute Beginners and Come Together. He totally walloped astonishing new life into the Spandau hit True, as did Steve who excelled with his trademark dirty tenor sax.

Steve introduced three new songs during the set: L’Apprendista Di Nettuno, written for a swimming event and proving a soaring sensation on soprano sax; I Get Up I Get Down; and the evening closed with a snappy new potential hit titled If Looks Could Kill where he alternates vocals with that sax – well out on its own stylistically!

As for the big news, we’re waiting, tick-tock. . . Noos-flash at 2pm: Spandau are writing the next line. They say put the date 6.6.2018 in our diaries!!! F-A-B!!!