It was feast and famine in 1986 for former New Romantics turned MOR balladeers Spandau Ballet. While the previous two years saw the group score more chart hits in the UK with their Parade album, plus a triumphant performance at Live Aid, the quintet’s fortunes in the States were less impressive. Their last US hit, “Only When You Leave,” peaked at a paltry #34 and none of the follow-ups even charted. It was another example of a group huge in Europe, but ignored in the States.
The band tried to change their luck by leaving longtime label Chrysalis and moving over to Epic Records (although both were distributed by CBS Records). Spandau also began talk of refining their sound a bit, moving away from the smooth-jazz crooning to a more rock direction — at least as rock as Spandau Ballet could muster. The results of this shift were hardly evident in Through the Barricades‘ first UK single, “Fight for Ourselves,” a limp attempt at a fist-raising anthem hampered by rinky-dink production from Art of Noise co-conspirator Gary Langan. Don’t believe me? See and hear for yourself: (more…)
Okay…I admit to being a UK popophile (Hey now!). What can I say? The ’80s was the decade of my youth, so naturally I’m going have a special place in my musical heart for songs that come from that era. Nothing wrong with that really, but I try not to get stuck in a particular time frame — even though it seems to be happening more and more.
Since I’ve been listening to a lot of ’80s UK pop, I might as well get some mileage out of this and drag you along. Some of these songs you’ll probably know. Others? Maybe not so much. But one thing’s for sure: they are all in the key of “pop,” so get ready for hooks o’ plenty.
I had such a mad crush on Kim Wilde in high school. It was 1982, and my parents took me on a trip to jolly old England to visit with family and to vacation in both the UK and France. Well, we were watching “Top of the Pops,” and there was Kim singing this song, and I was smitten. It didn’t help matters much that the BBC was playing the crap out of this song and I heard it on the radio almost every day I was there. I bought the LP before leaving England and then proceeded to buy everything else she released until Another Step. Sure, she’s known for “Kids in America, ” and the cover of “You Keep Me Hanging On,” but this song just brings back certain memories for me — like driving up to Scotland with my folks in 1982 in a crappy rental car, blasting this song and really annoying my aunt in the back seat. (more…)
Like the vast majority of Americans in 1983, I had no idea Spandau Ballet existed before True, much less were funky New Romantics embracing disco and fashion, having paved the way for an entire underground club movement in the UK.
I just thought they were sappy Adult Contemporary crooners.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Thanks to my co-worker at Wendy’s (hey, I was 15), Brad, I soon came around and became a huge Spandau fan – once you got past “True” the song, the rest of the album was pretty darn good, particularly “Communication” and “Code of Love”. Once Brad turned me around there, that’s when he blew my mind and let me borrow the band’s first two albums, Journeys To Glory and Diamond. Talk about a difference in style.
Where True was calculated for mainstream chart success, the first two Spandau LPs were all about the clubs and I happily jumped on board, instantly loving the groove of “To Cut A Long Story Short” and “The Freeze” and album cuts like “Reformation”, which had the same white-boy/fake-funk sensibility as the Human League’s Dare. Although they tried to be funky, something was always a little off and that something is what made them unique yet still danceable. I also recall Rolling Stone’s vicious one-star review of Journeys, savaging it as fashion over music. Don’t you have a Mick Jagger solo album somewhere to give five stars, Jann?
While the band did try a half-hearted attempt at a (I think) ballad on their second album Diamond, the majority of the platter was again filled with dancefloor stompers, in particular, “Chant No. 1″ and “Instinction”, here in its original 12″ version. It would later see a single release remixed by none other than Trevor Horn, with a Russell Mulcahy video to match:
Somewhere along the way, Spandau lost all the homosexual undertones (”Tough is the leather that’s strapped to my skin…work ’til you’re musclebound”…”Loving makes the cream taste nice…”, etc.) and went from pirate shirt wearing New Romantics to suave, shirt & tie, suit-wearing blue-eyed soul boys and most of America was none the wiser. They also got a Top Five hit and a Gold album for their efforts. But I like to think of them as two separate bands, both who released albums I adore. To think of them as the same band is to invite madness.“The Freeze” peaked at #68 and again at #33 as a b-side of “To Cut A Long Story Short” on the Billboard Club Play Chart in 1981.
“Instinction” did not chart.
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