Music Bender

Spandau Ballet, 1980s

It’s True! The ’80’s icons, Spandau Ballet, are reuniting for a comeback world tour, ending a very bitter split that took the rock world by surprise.

The five original band members - Tony Hadley, Steve Norman, John Keeble, and brothers Martin and Gary Kemp - chose HMS Belfast on the Thames, the scene of their famous 1980 gig, to announce that they’d “buried the hatchet”.

They’ll make about £12 million for the tour, which starts in October with a string of UK dates before heading to Europe, Asia and Australia. The band’s first comeback performance will be on BBC One show Friday Night With Jonathan Ross in the coming weeks.

The last time fans saw the band together, they were facing off across a court room. Hadley, Norman and Keeble sued Kemp for a £1 million share of the royalties, but lost. Over the following years, they talked exclusively through lawyers.

Spandau Ballet, 2009

“Time is a great healer,” said Hadley. “As you can see, we are back together again and we are very happy boys. We first met in the pub, had a few beers, the stories and the anecdotes acme out and we just realized we are great mates.”

Martin added: “We are like any family - families go through troubled times sometimes and argue and get back together.”

The tour will be a nostalgia trip for fans and the band have promised to play all of their greatest hits. Their run of chart success began in 1980 with To Cut A Long Story Short and lasted for seven years. They sold more than 25 million albums worldwide and their singles included Gold, Only When You Leave and Through The Barricades.

Joking about the flamboyant costumes they wore in their New Romantic heyday, Hadley said: “Before anybody asks - we’re not wearing kilts, frilly shirts, our mums’ blouses or anything else.”

They may be fast approaching their 50th birthdays, but the band said they had no worries about getting in shape for a gruelling world tour. “We’re fitter now. We were too hungover in the Eighties,” Martin said.

‘Nuff said for this issue!  Tune in tonight for more …
See ya on the flip side!