Documentary on Spandau Ballet band history

 

This could be interesting news not only for Spandau Ballet fans, but for everyone who loves the New Romantic era. A few days ago the movie “Soul Boys of the Western World” premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. At the premier night Spandau Ballet also played their first US show in 28 years.

The documentary, directed by George Hencken, reflects the whole story of the band from their beginnings as London working-class schoolboys, to their international success with the hit album True, the acrimonious break-up by the end of the eighties and finally the reunion in 2009.

The film, which is based on archive material only with voice over comments of the five band members, shows unseen home videos of the band members, newsreel footage and long-lost rediscovered material. Amongst others it features the band’s performance at Live Aid, their gig aboard the HMS Belfast and the legendary battle against Duran Duran at the BBC show Pop Quiz. You can dive into the glamour world of The Blitz nightclub, from where the whole New Romantic scene emerged, the music, style and fashion of the 80s and the social and political background of the time.

It’s also a story about the friendship between the band members, which got lost somewhere between the band split-up and legal disputes about royalties, but finally was regained.

Click here to watch an interview with the band members on the film.

80s ABC: Spandau Ballet

No, I’m not an analphabet! I know, „S“ doesn’t follow „D“ 😉
But actually I didn’t feel like writing about the planned „E-artist“ right now , so I decided to jump out of alphabetical order. Instead I chose the New Romantic heroes Spandau Ballet.

Starting as a band of schoolmates, Spandau Ballet experienced a rapid rise of popularity in the London club scene around the Blitz and became one of the first bands of the New Romantic era. After a bidding war between several record labels and a promising debut album hits like Gold and True earned them international success. Click here to read the full story.

Pop Quiz Duran Duran vs. Spandau Ballet

Yesterday while clicking around on Youtube searching for nohing in particular, I discovered a real treasure: Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, the two New Romantic bands par excellence, duelling in a special of the TV quiz show Pop Quiz. At this point it should be mentioned that there was always some sort of friendly rivalry between the two bands and as a fan you only liked one band or the other.

For those of you who don’t know Pop Quiz, because they are either not from England or too young or both (like me): It was a British music quiz show, which aired on BBC during the early 80s. Teams made up of three pop star had to recognize songs by the intro or a certain lyric or answer several song related questions.

I have to admit I like them both, Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet. But as a fan, of course my heart was with the Durans. So I absolutely needed to share this with you. See for yourself to find out the winner of this epic battle 😉

Click on the links below to watch the whole show:
part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

For those of you coming from Germany – I’m sorry, for some GEMA and copyright reasons you might not be able to watch those videos above (unless you’re using a foreign proxy server). So here’s at least a video of the last part, which should work, so that you can find out the winner:
part 4 (German)

 

Absolute 80s

To all those 80s fans out there, I’ve got another discovery to share with you: A few weeks ago I found the perfect radio station!

Absolute 80s (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Okay, I have to admit, many stations play a lot of 80s songs, but in between there’s always that nasty other stuff (especially some modern German artists like rapper Cro and the band Silbermond, to mention the leaders of my personal hate list). In contrast to those there ’s this radio station, which plays 80s songs only, 24/7!

No wonder – it is called Absolute 80s. It’s a British station belonging to the group of Absolute Radio, which provides its own radio station for every musical decade. If you’re – like me – not living in the UK, you can listen to it via internet here.

Contrary to most stations I know the hosts an Absolute 80s know well about the music they are playing. And best of all the Saturday evening host is nobody less than Spandau Ballet’s Tony Hadley!

It’s also worth visiting their website, which provides a funny but challenging quiz and many interviews with the big ones of 80s music business, and their Facebook page, where you can make song requests and get in contact with other 80s fans.

I hope you’ll be as enthused as I am!