HISTORY Spandau Ballet
first single from the LP). Heart Like A Sky did not go out even in the US, where the band, for a long enough period, is practically divided the audience with rivals pop rock Duran Duran. In April 1999, Tony Hadley, with two former bandmates, saxophonist and percussionist Steve Norman and drummer John Keeble, Gary Kemp sued the guitarist, main songwriter of the group, for a more equitable division of royalties, without dull (in sequel, despite the negative outcome of the legal action brought, Steve Norman is back on good terms with both Gary with his brother, Martin Kemp, bass player of the quintet, making it less difficult any future reunion)
After the dissolution of Spandau Ballet in 1989, Tony continued his musical career as a soloist, but getting much less successful. After signing with major label EMI, the singer released her first album, entitled The State of Play, in 1992. Concluded engagement with the record company, Hadley formed his own label, the SlipStream Records, still active, publishing as Debut single “Build Me Up” soundtrack of the film When Saturday Comes. Straight after, in December 1996, the artist left for a short European tour orchestral, with Joe Cocker, Paul Michiels, Dani Klein and Guo Yue, playing in front of 500,000 people in six weeks.
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Returning from that tour, Hadley will sign a contract with PolyGram TV, publishing, in 1997, his second studio album, simply titled Tony Hadley and containing a series of covers and other songs, chosen on the basis of his particular vocal timbre. The long playing, like the previous one, also includes some pieces composed by himself, including “She”, dedicated to his daughter Toni. The singer is the father of four children: Thomas, Toni and Mackenzie, had by his wife, Leonie, and the youngest, Zara (born September 21, 2006), had by his current girlfriend, Alison Evers. Tony Hadley has separated from Leonie only in 2003, after 20 years of marriage.
In the intervals of time elapsed between the studio albums, the artist brought out, repeatedly, a live album, Obsession, recorded in one night and the popular Birmingham club Ronnie Scott’s. Published for the first time in 1995, reprinted in 2000 and then again in 2001, as Obsession Live, the disc was advertised at the time of the first printing, using single Absolution, combined with other 3 tracks, including where the historical ballad Spandau Ballet Through the Barricades (Number 1 in Italy in 1986); the second exit was promoted, instead, from the techno version of Will U Take Me, output only in Benelux and Spain; no promo to support the second printing of 2001, though, a little later, in 2002, released the single Sweet Surrender, remixed by Milk Inc., perfectly in line with the sound and the basic idea of the album.
In the past and more recently, Tony Hadley has also collaborated with different artists and bands of the dance scene, as well as DJs like Tin Tin Out, Eddie Lock, Marc et Claude, Regi Penxten (of Milk Inc.) and Disco Bros. , playing with musicians such as Alice Cooper, Paul Young, Jon Anderson and Brian May. After the dissolution of Spandau Ballet, for his first solo album in 1992, Hadley had recreated a lineup similar to that of the group, taking with them the two most loyal members of the old band, the official drummer John Keeble and keyboardist and programmer Toby Chapman, fixed a session musician in almost all the albums and live concert of Spandau Ballet. The current version of the band that accompanies Tony Hadley, John Keeble and besides him, always under the items and the battery, instead includes: Phil Taylor on keyboards, Phil Williams on bass, Richie Barrett on guitar and backing vocals Angie Grant.
In the early years of the new millennium, Tony Hadley has been significantly re-evaluated, because of an “ironic” appreciation of his old group, Spandau Ballet: John Darnielle band’s folk / rock indie The Mountain Goats expressed his great admiration the vocal power of Hadley, one of the few professional singers, in the forest of autodidacts eighties, where often enough to know how to program a keypad to gain success [citation needed]. In 2000, he was released his first solo hits collection, titled Debut.
In 2003, Tony Hadley won the reality show Reborn in the USA, American broadcasted on ITV, in which he participated with Elkie Brooks of Vinegar Joe, Peter Cox of Go West and John Lee and the Imagination. In the wake of the victory of the transmission, in addition to the reprint of the first compilation Debut, also it came out his second collection, entitled True Ballads and songs containing as soloist, and cover songs from historical repertoire of Spandau Ballet.
Recently, Tony was very busy musically: in 2005, he toured with both Peter Cox of Go West that with Martin Fry of ABC. In early 2006, he released the album titled jazz-swing Passing Strangers (his third solo album), and has embarked on a tour “on request”, from March to May of the same year, after which, he took part in a big band tour, always in the same in 2006.
In January 2007, Tony Hadley has participated, in the role of a crooked lawyer, the musical Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre, a West End theater in London. Hadley took over the part by actor Ian Kelsey (former Emmerdale), playing from 29 January to 14 April 2007. So said: “Three months have been quite a long time, I did not want to abuse the warm welcome that I have received . The role I was offered by phone, so I went to see the show in person, and I thought it was fantastic. While I was playing, I received excellent reviews. Chicago goes perfectly with my swing album Passing Strangers, well, it all ended up working beautifully “
During the TV show Loose Women (22 February 2007), Tony Hadley said its height and its exact weight (respectively 193 cm. To 111 kg.) [3]. In August of 2007, he got a new role as a radio presenter for Virgin Radio, noting the show’s Friday night “Friday Night Virgin Party Classics” by Suggs (lead singer of Madness). In January 2008, Tony was also responsible for the Saturday evening show “Saturday Night Virgin Party Classics”. February 28, 2008 he sang together with Anathema during the third night of the Sanremo Festival.
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The September 1, 2007, Tony Hadley has taken part in a concert with other artists and groups of the eighties, at Culzean Castle in Ayrshire, Scotland. In his performances, he realized, among other things, a cover of “Addicted to Love” with the aforementioned Martin Fry of ABC and Peter Cox of Go West. In February 2008, he took part in the Sanremo Festival, duet, both in English and Italian, with the young Italian-Swiss artist Paul Weller, in a song of the latter entitled “Grande”, during the third evening of the Festival (in which all participants in the race have reinterpreted their songs with other artists, both Italian and foreign).
On 25 March 2009 the group has officially announced the reunion of the band. The press conference took place on the HMS Belfast, the ship of the Second World War moored in London, where they had already held a concert in the eighties.
October 19, 2009, as published on the official website, has released a new album Once More, the first twenty years after the last album, Heart Like A Sky, which will include all the hits of Spandau Ballet rearranged with two new songs, including Once More in programming on radio on October 2. It was possible to listen to free the single on their official website
www.spandauballet.com.
The band announced that, after the tour of Once More, will work in the studio on a new album made up entirely new unpublished hypothesis confirmed in 2014, with the rumor that the album will be produced by Trevor Horn. Also in 2014 came out in cinemas to promote a documentary about themselves and the culture of the eighties, more generally, “Soul Boys of the Western World” which premiered at the Royal Albert Hall. Directed by George Hencken. The band members participated at the South by Southwest (their first public appearance in North America since 1985) and at the Festival of Cannes to drum up support for the film. On 12 February 2015, the group was a guest during the third night of the Sanremo Festival, performing a medley of True, Gold and Through the Barricades.
HISTORY Spandau Ballet
