Spandau Ballet Newcastle City Hall 19th April 1983
“Initially ‘mod’ meant a very small group of young working class boys who, at the height of the trad boom formed a small, totally committed little mutual admiration society totally devoted to clothes…” (George Melly, from his book Revolt Into Style.)
“…although they’ve played only a handful of gigs to invited audiences, every record company in London has been chasing their signatures, some without hearing a note of their music. Already they’ve been the subject of an entire television documentary owing to their large London cult following.” (Betty Page, Sounds, 1980)
Spandau Ballet was as sharp as a dagger, and cool as you could get when they emerged from the new romantic scene of the early 1980s. Their gigs were special, important, exclusive events held at small London club venues like Blitz and Heaven. And their first single “To Cut a Long Story Short” was pretty good. And the clothes were so outrageous, courageous and splendid.
By the time Spandau Ballet appeared at Newcastle City Hall in 1983 they were morphing into a more mainstream pop and blue-eyed soul band. They had just released their third album “True” which features the song of the same name and their other massive hit of 1983, “Gold”. The “True” album topped the charts all around the world, and the band were poised for further success.
Setlist: Foundation; Communication; Pleasure; Code Of Love; Gold; The Freeze; Glow; Lifeline; Heaven Is A Secret; True; Paint Me Down; Instinction; Chant No1; Cut a Long Story Short
Line-up: Tony Hadley (lead vocals), Gary Kemp (guitar), Martin Kemp (bass), Steve Norman (sax), John Keeble (drums)
22 Sep
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Posted by jeffollerton on September 22, 2014 at 8:37 am
983? I know they are an old band, but still… 🙂
Posted by vintagerock on September 22, 2014 at 8:39 am
Whoops! Will correct now. Thanks Jeff Peter