❚ ONE LONDONER’S LIFEnewly topped up in paperback today. . . Spandau Ballet songwriter Gary Kemp surprised many when last year’s autobiography, I Know This Much, proved exceedingly well written and frank, what’s more. Many of his contemporaries – such as top Amazon reviewer Steve Jansen — believe that his perceptive memories of a London now transformed make a “a touching testament to spiritual growth”. Jansen writes:
“The real value of I Know This Much, aside from its glistening prose, is in witnessing someone discovering themselves. Always something of an odd penny, the Spandau songwriter and arguably its spiritual leader was always wiser than his pop position called for, and his working class soulboy roots never really sat comfortably with his angular New Romantic entrance. This rendered him somewhat pretentious to many, and his flaunting of left-wing politics often grated when framed by his band’s timely, aspirational image.
“However, with the benefit of distance and maturity (and following his time in the wilderness, as Joe Strummer would say, when discussing that inevitable period between an artist’s fall and his redemption), Kemp is able to reflect with great poignancy on a young man’s journey into, and through the shining city of dreams. In Kemp’s case that city, metaphorically, but more often literally — and literary in its evocation — is unmistakably London, and the metropolis is ever present like a ghost, framing his actions and attitude . . .
“From the sheer and challenging poverty of his childhood, through to the sensitively handled, near tear-jerking account of his parents’ death within days of each other in 2009, money and success is always comes second to recollections of his brother, mother and father. Kemp is evidently, despite his aloof lone wolf image, a highly sensitive and lovingly loyal chap, but this is an identity that he has to arrive at; and time and the ravages of age are the consequential pain of his slow lesson.”
The new paperback edition from Fourth Estate brings us up to date with a postscript on the band’s reunion.Rock journalist Robert Sandall of The Sunday Times made Kemp’s his Book of the Year: “A sharply observed account by a quintessential London musician. Kemp exudes confidence, candour and a keen appreciation of the capital’s club culture” … “Sets a new standard for rock memoirs,” says rock writer Paul Du Noyer … “Deeply cool,” says the deeply cool actor Bill Nighy.
❚ GRACE JONES WAS TRULY IN THE PINK tonight for a one-off concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall as a long-awaited top-up to last year’s Hurricane tour. The video above gives a taste of her finale to the old Piaf song La vie en rose, shot by yours truly. See if you can spot the colour of her… lipstick.
Love is the drug: Grace as a shimmering silver heart imprisoned by lasers
❚ “HEADS ARE GONNA ROLL!” declared Grace Jones over her headset, backstage at the Albert Hall. “WHERE is my mannequin?” Last summer in Hollywood when she sang her opening words to Astor Piazzolla’s nuevo tango classic, Libertango, “Strange, I’ve seen that face before / Seen him hanging round my door”, ice-cool Ms Jones glided onstage dancing with a lifesize bust – of herself. Instead, sans mannequin, in London she had to embark on a solo tango, pleading for one of her entourage to join her and “drag me across the floor”. This video, again shot by yours truly, catches the improvisation.
❚ FOR TWO WEEKS ONLY, Grace Jones can be viewed in a groundbreaking show of 3-D holographic portraits by light artist Chris Levine, titled Stillness at the Speed of Light. The work is for sale at this free immersive multimedia exhibition which involves lightboxes, lasers, video and a specially commissioned soundscape at The Vinyl Factory in Poland Street, London, from April 30 to May 14. This show also launches Grace’s new video Love You To Life, which Levine directed.
❚ ONLY THREE MUSICIANS FROM THE 1980s are included in the annual Rich List of Britain’s top 50 music millionaires, published today by The Sunday Times. The richest musician of the decade who holds his own amid the older gods of rock is singer-songwriter George Michael who is worth £90m ($138m) today. He sits at No 25 in the ST’s top 50. George is pictured above in Wham!’s Club Tropicana video (where “the drinks are free”). His group’s “pure pop” epitomised the sybaritic style which by 1983 was signalling the divide in British music between electronic earnestness and full-on hedonism.
The other two richest stars from the 80s are each estimated to be worth a relatively puny £35m ($54m). They are Lancastrian Mick Hucknall of Simply Red (their summer tour climaxes with a farewell concert on Dec 19 and is booking now), and pop diva Kylie Minogue who found fame in the UK through the Australian TV soap, Neighbours. The Sunday Times justifies Kylie’s presence in this UK list, as someone who often seems “more British than the British”. She herself has regarded the UK as “my adopted home” almost since 1988 when her debut single, I Should Be So Lucky, went to No 1 and set her on the path to becoming the most successful female artist in the UK charts. She was honoured by the Queen with an OBE in 2008.
Simply Red’s Hucknall: a December farewell
Since the 2009 Rich List, three 80s stars have dropped out from the top 50 musicians: Annie Lennox, Simple Minds vocalist Jim Kerr and Sade – though her sensational album comeback this year is likely to be reflected in next year’s list. Astonishingly the creative genius behind Kylie and the huge stable of Stock Aitken and Waterman acts – Pete Waterman – last appeared in the Rich List in 2007.
Should we assume creativity does not equate to profitability? From a musician’s perspective the 80s have been the least lucrative decade in pop history, apart from the Noughties from which only TV impresario Simon Cowell emerges as a multi-millionaire (£165m). Inevitably, older musicians have had longer in which to sell records and accrue proceeds, so the 1960s yield 20 musicians in the Rich List who are still millionaires today, led by Sir Paul (£475m, $731m), Sir Mick (£190m) and Sir Elton (£185m). From the 1970s there are ten in the top 50, with Sting way out in front (£180m).
Among the richest artists from the 90s is Victoria (“Posh Spice”) Beckham (£145m whose fortune the ST oddly entwines with her footballing husband’s). Robbie Williams is now worth £85m and Gary Barlow £35m – both started out in boyband Take That. The Gallagher brothers of Oasis are worth £55m, and Jay Kay of Jamiroquai £35m.
The Rich List names 13 moguls ruling the UK biz, led by former songwriter and Warner Music Group chairman, the American Edgar Bronfman who has made his home in London, and is worth £1,640m ($2,522m). The ST reports him as being “well placed to snap up the beleagured EMI”, effectively Britain’s last homegrown record company, founded in 1931.
Leaders among the younger British businessmen are Simon Fuller (£350m, $540m), the former Spice Girls manager who struck gold as creator of TV’s Idol franchise which has been sold worldwide during the past decade, and Jamie Palumbo (£150m, $231m) who founded the Ministry of Sound clubbing empire.
Applying his New Romantic face: Jason prepares for an evening with Spandau
❚ SHAPERS OF THE 80s SENT ITS OWN SPECIAL REPORTER to relive his teeny-pop years when Spandau Ballet and Tears for Fears performed at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia, on Wednesday April 21. Jason Buchanan is Melbourne’s No 1 fan of British music, bar none. Here’s a taster of his fan’s eye view of the Reformation tour . . .
“… Then came my all-time favourite number, Instinction. Martin Kemp introduced the band’s wonderful female vocalist, Dawn Joseph, who sang and danced like a charm all night. What I noticed through this track and in fact the whole show was Martin constantly with a smile on his face and looking so seriously happy to be playing his instrument. Steve Norman was giving his all, too. His talents were all-embracing as he played guitar and percussion and saxophone with precision and passion – while running around with so much energy he looked like he was having the time of his life.
“Tony Hadley was having fun with John Keeble on drums by jumping onto his rostrum to join in, miming his frenzied stick-action through the fast numbers. Watching Tony as a front man, it’s clear he has such an unpretentious sense of humor and really doesn’t have a dull moment. The whole band were SO British on stage when they spoke, it was a delight to witness…”
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MORE INTERESTING THAN MOST PEOPLE’S FANTASIES — THE SWINGING EIGHTIES 1978-1984
They didn’t call themselves New Romantics, or the Blitz Kids – but other people did.
“I’d find people at the Blitz who were possible only in my imagination. But they were real” — Stephen Jones, hatmaker, 1983. (Illustration courtesy Iain R Webb, 1983)
“The truth about those Blitz club people was more interesting than most people’s fantasies” — Steve Dagger, pop group manager, 1983
PRAISE INDEED!
“See David Johnson’s fabulously detailed website Shapers of the 80s to which I am hugely indebted” – Political historian Dominic Sandbrook, in his book Who Dares Wins, 2019
“The (velvet) goldmine that is Shapers of the 80s” – Verdict of Chris O’Leary, respected author and blogger who analyses Bowie song by song at Pushing Ahead of the Dame
“The rather brilliant Shapers of the 80s website” – Dylan Jones in his Sweet Dreams paperback, 2021
A UNIQUE HISTORY
➢ WELCOME to the Swinging 80s ➢ THE BLOG POSTS on this front page report topical updates ➢ ROLL OVER THE MENU at page top to go deeper into the past ➢ FOR NEWS & MONTH BY MONTH SEARCH scroll down this sidebar
❏ Header artwork by Kat Starchild shows Blitz Kids Darla Jane Gilroy, Elise Brazier, Judi Frankland and Steve Strange, with David Bowie at centre in his 1980 video for Ashes to Ashes
VINCENT ON AIR 2026
✱ Deejay legend Robbie Vincent has returned to JazzFM on Sundays 1-3pm… Catch up on Robbie’s JazzFM August Bank Holiday 2020 session thanks to AhhhhhSoul with four hours of “nothing but essential rhythms of soul, jazz and funk”.
TOLD FOR THE FIRST TIME
◆ Who was who in Spandau’s break-out year of 1980? The Invisible Hand of Shapersofthe80s draws a selective timeline for The unprecedented rise and rise of Spandau Ballet –– Turn to our inside page
SEARCH our 925 posts or ZOOM DOWN TO THE ARCHIVE INDEX
UNTOLD BLITZ STORIES
✱ If you thought there was no more to know about the birth of Blitz culture in 1980 then get your hands on a sensational book by an obsessive music fan called David Barrat. It is gripping, original and epic – a spooky tale of coincidence and parallel lives as mind-tingling as a Sherlock Holmes yarn. Titled both New Romantics Who Never Were and The Untold Story of Spandau Ballet! Sample this initial taster here at Shapers of the 80s
CHEWING THE FAT
✱ Jawing at Soho Radio on the 80s clubland revolution (from 32 mins) and on art (@55 mins) is probably the most influential shaper of the 80s, former Wag-club director Chris Sullivan (pictured) with editor of this website David Johnson
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The other two richest stars from the 80s are each estimated to be worth a relatively puny £35m ($54m). They are Lancastrian Mick Hucknall of 
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