➢ In today’s Chain Reaction on Radio 4: Comedienne Jennifer Saunders talked to journalist Caitlin Moran about nights out on the town with the pop trio Bananarama during the late 80s …
“ The nights with Bananarama were some of the best nights of my life. I got a lot of gags from Bananarama because they were big vodka drinkers. When I started in Ab Fab, I remembered all the falls that I saw Bananarama do. I once saw one of them coming out of a cab bottom first and hitting the road and I thought: that’s class ”
In their comedy series French & Saunders, Dawn and Jennifer famously parodied the Bananarama good-time girls, but best of all joined forces with them in a brilliant pop video as Bananarama & Lananeeneenoonoo for the 1988 Comic Relief fundraising show …
Martin Kemp sets off for the Celebrity Big Brother house: apparently his wife Shirlie, and children Harleymoon and Roman can’t bear to part with him. (Selfie courtesy of Roman)
◼ MASSIVE CHEERS GREETED Martin Kemp when he took up residence as the alpha male on this summer’s Celebrity Big Brother last night, but even while he was boasting of a secret plan for winning the sink-or-swim reality game show, he was upstaged twice. First came a classic bitch-off between two doyennes from the leading British TV soaps which saw Julie Goodyear (the feisty barmaid Bet Lynch from Coronation Street) fling a drink in the face of Cheryl Fergison (Heather Trott from EastEnders). Then came a spontaneous romp as Julie played up to randy Bet’s reputation by chasing a hot young production lad round the studio while recording a pre-launch video.
Nevertheless the bookies’ odds today were 5/2 on the cool Spandau Ballet bass player and ex-EastEnders villain Martin winning the three-week TV battle, which isn’t saying much since this season’s housemates are a right chav bunch of dummies who don’t even know you don’t call a prince Prince to his face, unless he’s a pedigree hound.
So what on earth is nice-guy and father-of-two Martin doing in this contest of cunning? “I love Big Brother,” he told the world in a video interview. “I’ve been watching it since it started, been a fan for so long. I’ve watched hours and hours of the show.”
Toughest thing he’s dreading, he says, is possibly having to sing. “I’m absolutely terrible at singing,” the 80s pop heart-throb admitted. “What’s hard is everybody expects that I should be able to sing because I was in the band, but they wouldn’t let me sing to save my life.”
Asked by host Brian Dowling if he had a nasty villainous plan up his sleeve, Martin said: “I have, yeah. If you’re going to go in there you’ve got to go in to win.
“My favourite shows are where it all kicks off and there are big arguments. So if nothing happens, I’ll try and wind it up. The Big Brother house is a TV studio and it is a game. I will nominate the **** off people if I think they’re too strong. I know what’s in store.”
Will Martin live to regret those words?
Up to her old tricks: national treasure Julie Goodyear, aka Corrie’s Bet Lynch, takes a shine to a young studio assistant before the Celebrity Big Brother launch. (Screengrab from Channel 5)
ON-AIR CONFESSION ABOUT MARTIN’S POP PAST
❏ Day 7 update: Talking of his career as a pop star with the band Spandau Ballet, who famously fell out badly after 10 years together, Martin said this week on Celebrity Big Brother:
“ Like every other band, you end up arguing about money, publishing or about women ”
Whatever can he have been referring to?
Big Brother sets Martin Kemp the rock’n’roll challenge of wrecking a hotel room. At the ripe old age of 50, the task knocked him flat. (Screengrab from Channel 5)
❚ TUNE IN TODAY FROM 6am for Absolute Radio’s Spandathon: the Breakfast Show with Christian O’Connell will play Gold by Spandau Ballet 29 times, once for each gold medal won by Team GB at the London 2012 Olympic Games. That works out at an hour and half of Gold between 6 and 10am (BST), during which time we can expect to hear some unusual versions such as an operatic one by Joanne McGahon, a spoken reading by actor David Tennant in tribute to Andy Murray’s Olympic triumph, a karaoke version by athlete Kriss Akabusi and another version whistled. Medallists will be interviewed live between each play.
Vocalist Tony Hadley will be on the show singing the track live at 8am, and as a bonus songwriter Gary Kemp will be joining the team live on air from 9am. (Does this amount to a Spandau reunion?) Absolute Radio is also appealing for listeners to join in by recording and uploading their own versions online – details here.
Tony Hadley today: flanked by two of ITV’s Loose Women, Ruth Langsford and Janet Street-Porter who shot the first TV doc about Spandau Ballet in 1980
❚ MORE COLD WATER HAS BEEN POURED on any future reunion for Spandau Ballet. The leaders of the 80s New Romantics movement haven’t worked together since their Reformation reunion tour ended in 2010. Today on ITV’s Loose Women chat show, Janet Street-Porter asked 51-year-old singer Tony Hadley whether he would ever tour again with Spandau. He replied straight away: “Very doubtful.” His life is busy and full of hoovering these days, he says. Big Tone is now the father of five children — baby Genevieve Elizabeth was born in February.
➢ Hadley’s own plans include Rewind The 80s Festival returning for a fifth successive year Aug 18–19 at Henley-on-Thames with Kool & The Gang, OMD, Grandmaster Flash, Rick Astley, Soul II Soul, Five Star, Starship, Jimmy Somerville, Sinitta, Marc Almond, Midge Ure, Adam Ant and more, plus festival fun
“ Viewers of the 2012 Grammys awards last month watched Adele, the 23-year old girl from Tottenham, north London, walk away with six awards, but the top-earning act from the UK in America last year was an artist who fans back home have to some extent forgotten.
BILLBOARD’S TOP EARNERS
1 Taylor Swift: $35.7m
2 U2: $32.1m
3 Kenny Chesney: $29.8m
4 Lady Gaga: $25.4m
5 Lil Wayne: $23.2m
6 Sade $16.4m
7 Bon Jovi: $15.8m
8 Celine Dion: $14.3m
9 Jason Aldean: $13.4m
10 Adele: $13.1m
[Touring and record sales 2011]
Sade raked in $16.4m (£10.5m) in 2011 on the back of her first tour in North America for a decade and the release of The Ultimate Collection. The 53-year-old singer came sixth on a list of the biggest-earning acts of last year, compiled by the American trade publication Billboard, eclipsing Adele, the only other Brit in the top 10, who earned $13.1m.
Sade [say it “Zhah-Day”] is the most successful solo female artist Britain has ever produced, selling more than 50m records in a career that stretches back to her 1984 hit Your Love Is King. Famously reclusive — nicknamed Howie by her friends, after millionaire hermit Howard Hughes — she toured the world for eight months last year, but the bulk of the tour was devoted to North America, where she played 59 shows. The tour started 18 months after the release of her US No 1 album Soldier of Love, a record that reached No 4 in the UK… ” / continued at Guardian Online
Rolling Stone described Sade’s studio album, Soldier of Love, as “unimpeachably excellent” … Billboard said: “It’s been 10 years since Sade released an album, but be forewarned – the giant has awoken” … People magazine said Sade’s enduring appeal was as “the voice of comfort to the wounded heart”
❏ In her American fan forums black guys are besotted with Sade, and here in an audience for a live TV performance we see doting female fans for whom she is a role model. On Jimmy Kimmel’s show in February 2010 (above), Sade performed Soldier of Love live as her eponymous album hit No 1 in the US (502,000 copies sold there in its first week — the best sales week for an album by a group since AC/DC in October 2008). Susan Boyle, the finalist from the Britain’s Got Talent contest, was holding steady at No 9.
❏ Backstage video interview with Sade by The Insider, June 2011 (above) — “I’m really a country girl. I don’t give too much of myself away. When I go in a studio I lose all my shyness.”
➢ Read Sade: The Billboard Cover Story by Mitchell Peters, August 19, 2011 — Preparing for a 100-plus-date international concert tour is daunting for even the most seasoned musical acts… “I do the opposite and pretend it’s not going to happen, immersing myself in the details of production as a way of distracting myself from reality,” says English singer Sade Adu. “When the time comes, I don’t test the waters — I just jump straight in.”
❏ Listen toThe Moon and the Sky (remix featuring Jay Z):
➢ 2010 — Her first interview in 10 years finds comeback Shard comfy as ‘Auntie Sade’ — On her new man, Ian Watts, who has been in turn Royal Marine, fireman and scientist: “I always said that if I could just find a guy who could chop wood and had a nice smile it didn’t bother me if he was an aristocrat or a thug as long as he was a good guy. I’ve ended up with an educated thug!”
➢ Choose “View full site” – then in the blue bar atop your mobile page, click the three horizontal lines linking to many blue themed pages with background article
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 2024
✱ Deejay legend Robbie Vincent has returned to JazzFM on Sundays 1-3pm… Catch 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 800 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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