Spandau Ballet Is Back! A Message From John Keeble

To cut a long story short...Spandau Ballet is back!
After a hiatus (a discontinuity in the age of rock strata ... ed ) of almost twenty years, we shall once again be prowling the world's largest stages.

I bought a ticket to the world
And now I've come back again...

The pathway to Reformation has been long and challenging.
There have been many heroes along the way.
They all know who they are...

All that really matters however, at this point in time, is that we find ourselves tremendously excited and consumed by the prospect of a Spandau Ballet World tour.

Only a few weeks ago the five of us placed ourselves together in a rehearsal studio for the first time in nearly two decades.
As ever it was so, I counted to four and what happened next surprised even the most optimistic of participants...
The very, very loud noise immediately sounded like a band...
Not any band...
This band.
Spandau Ballet.
Game on...
Everything from that point on was really quite simple.
All we need now is an audience...

Looking forward to seeing you all at some time on this Journey to Glory.
Keep on Rockin'
Peace and Love
John Keeble

Keeble is the drummer from the band who also included Tony Hadley (vocals & synthesizer), Gary Kemp (lead guitar & keyboards), Martin Kemp (bass guitar) and Steve Norman (saxophone, guitar & percussion). Spandau Ballet became one of the most commercially successful bands of the 80s (especially in the UK), and during their career they spent a combined total of in excess of 500 weeks in the UK charts notching 23 hit singles over there and achieving album sales of over 25 million worldwide. To me, though, the only thing that matters is the one song that I consider a masterpiece and one of my very favorite 80s tunes, "True."

The song which pays tribute to Marvin Gaye was a huge worldwide hit, peaking at #1 in the UK for four weeks in the Spring of 1983 and charting highly in 20 other countries. It was their biggest and most remembered song in the US, reaching #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the Autumn of that same year and topping the adult contemporary chart for one week. It ranked #1 on my very popular Best 80s Songs With One-Word Titles list.

Here is the video for "True" by Spandau Ballet...

They performed this song at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in the summer of 1985 which, according to the band, was "not only the most important concert of the Eighties, not only the biggest gig of all time, but also the consummate socio-political flashpoint."

"True" is sampled on the 1991 song "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss" by P.M. Dawn which is a very cool song and one of my favorites from the 90s (I wonder why?). Here is a link to watch the "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss" video if interested.

The band will begin a world tour in the autumn, announcing an initial eight dates across Ireland and the UK, starting in Dublin on October 13, 2009. The tickets for the UK and Ireland shows went on pre-sale on the official Spandau Ballet website on March 25, 2009. These then went on general release on March 27, 2009. For the general release tickets, the O2 London tickets sold out within 20 minutes and an extra date was added for the London O2 because of the phenomenal demand.

Now, I don't know if Tony Hadley and the rest of Spandau Ballet can re-create anything close to something special like "True" some 26 years later (during their 2009 reunion), but if they can get anywhere close it might just be good enough. I am one fan who will be waiting anxiously to find out.

That's all I have for this short issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks for reading. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column to find any other issues you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the new Fan Page where I ask you to then click on "Become a Fan". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.

Check this out: Here's a video that 80s fan will appreciate. It was posted in September of last year (2008) and it is simply called "80s Synth Medley (3 guys, 6 keyboards)." It is a 6 minute video of just that, 3 guys playing an 80s medley on their synthesizers. The medley includes "Rockit," "Axel F," "Take on Me," "Africa," "The Final Countdown," "Rock Me Amadeus," and "Mr. Roboto" among several others (which even includes a little Rickroll, too). Love it!

Quote of the day: "Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up." -Robert Frost