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Interview: Tony Hadley
The former Spandau Ballet singer discusses his varied musical career – from punk to pop to dance – ahead of his latest solo tour of Australia
Interview from June 2021
He's been a regular visitor to Australia over the decades, and in September, Tony Hadley celebrates over 40 years in the music business with a tour of Australia. For full details on the show that will encompass his Spandau Ballet hits as well as highlights from his solo career, head here.
The sound of the early Spandau Ballet singles was so fresh and exciting. Did it feel like you were part of a new musical movement or does that only come with hindsight?
No, we did feel that things were different. I mean I love punk — and I talk about that in the show as well. We were a punk band, like a Generation X sort of pop/punk band if you like. But then punk sort of dissipated and all of sudden this influence from Berlin was coming over from Lou Reed, Iggy Pop and [David] Bowie, and bands like Kraftwerk from Düsseldorf. One of the English bands there were a major influence certainly on me was Ultravox with John Foxx as the lead singer. Systems Of Romance is still one of the best albums on the planet. The whole club scene and music scene started to change, and it was four on the floor, it was synthesizers, it was amazing outfits, and there was me singing like Mario Lanza. We definitely felt it was a different era. You can't compare Spandau, Duran, Classix Nouveaux or Ultravox to what was happening in the punk era — it was completely different. But I did love punk.
What about the image and the look? Were you looking around going, "This feels new. This feels like we're doing things that haven't been done before. We're wearing things that haven't been worn before!" Or was that not conscious?
It was completely conscious. Punk was a complete revolution in terms of what the older generation thought of music and the way you looked. Being a young fella, you wanted to stand out from the crowd. Then when the whole New Romo thing started with [clubs] Billy's and Blitz in 1978, this kind of futurist look, it was great because there you were walking down the street looking like something out of a Robin Hood film and people would just stop in the traffic. I've just released a book called My Life In Pictures, which has got these wonderful pictures in it that have never been seen before and there's one picture of [Spandau Ballet] all dressed up like Robin Hood down near The Bronx near the river all eating donuts. I'd never seen that picture before but I remember when we were in New York, the traffic literally stopped. We looked like we were from Planet Zog. But that was the reaction you wanted. We were young, we wanted to stand out — and we did. I don't wear the tight pants and the frilly shirts anymore. I go more for the Robert Palmer handmade suit kind of look.
The look of the band and the sound did change with the True album. How did you feel about that shift? Were you happy to go with the new direction at the time?
Steve Norman got into the saxophone and percussion, and that I think had a direct influence on the way Gary [Kemp] was writing. Then we went to the Bahamas, and that was like so laid back you're almost horizontal — that had an influence on the way we were sounding. The sound of the band just changed. It's a double edged sword really, isn't it? I loved the synthy stuff, I loved the Journeys To Glory kind of approach, but without True, we wouldn't have had number 1 in 21 countries and a top 5 record in America, so there's a lot to be thankful for. It was a complete departure, the whole look of everything. I think we were also influenced by Bowie insomuch as he would always be that chameleon that would change musically and I think from our point of view we wanted to take a leaf out of his book and sort of think, "We don't have to stick with the same kind of music, we can experiment with different styles" - and that's what really I suppose we were all about,
If you could pinpoint one moment of crazy '80s excess, what would you pick?
There was a period in Dublin — we were living in Dublin — and we were hanging out with Def Leppard, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Elton John and that was... Let's just say the parties were vibrant. We had some fantastic times.
Spandau Ballet on Chart Beats
In the late '90s and early 2000s, you worked with dance acts like Tin Tin Out, Milk Inc and Marc Et Claude. Did you enjoy stepping into that world?
Loved it. I love techno. In those days, I used to get a lot of tracks sent to me and asked, "Can you put the melody and lyrics?" or whatever. It was really good fun actually. Funnily enough, I heard [the Tin Tin Out track, "Dance With Me"] on radio. Ana Matronic played it on Radio 2 late night and I was like, "What's that song? I know that song? That's me!" I hadn't heard it in years, but it was great to get involved in that stuff.
You left Spandau Ballet in 2017, but you don't have to say goodbye to those songs. You still get to sing them.
Exactly, and I never get bored of singing the songs. People say, "How many times have you sung 'True'?" and I go, "Quite a few," I wish I had a pound for every time I sang it. I've sung those songs thousands of times but every time you sing those songs — and they're great songs and we'll be doing them all on the tour — it's a different audience, a different day, a different mindet, a different auditorium, a different festival site. And people's reactions are always wonderful. When you start to sing "True", you see people singing along and hugging and cheering and everything else. There's no part of me that feels bad about singing those songs. I love singing them. They're as much a part of my life as they are everybody else's.
Australian fans are going to enjoy hearing those songs again.
It's been a while. I just want people to come along and have a great time. It's a little musical journey and I think people will go away and go, "He did everything we wanted and he threw in a couple of new tunes too and we like them as well." I hope!
