Location: Lignano Sabbiadoro / Arena Alpe Adria / Italy
Date: Saturday, 08.08.2015
Spandau Ballet, the beloved British heroes of the eighties New Romantic movement, rolled into the lovely Italian seaside resort of Lignano for a night of live music. With their mix of new wave and pop rock, backed by outstanding technical polish, they’ve thrilled crowds around the world with a string of hits (and still do). Last year their new wave contemporaries Simple Minds played the same spot and, despite impossible, rainy conditions, pulled off a stellar night, so we already knew what a pleasant vibe the open-air Arena Alpe Adria has to offer. Another treat was in store, then, for all the music gourmets and incurable romantics who haven’t forgotten the days when music was made from the heart.
Before the show started, there were quite a few fewer people in the crowd than a band of this stature deserves, though once the band began playing and the atmosphere really came alive, the numbers swelled to at least a decent level. Most of the crowd soon started cheering the band on with real gusto, and the band was in truly excellent shape for the entire set, once again earning their reputation as great sonic perfectionists and masters of melodic sensibility. Spandau Ballet are one of very few bands that have played in an unchanged lineup under this name since their beginnings, even though they’ve had their ups and downs and career breaks too. After the era of their big successes ended, a major dispute broke out with lead guitarist Gary Kemp, who wrote their entire musical catalog, and after losing in court, the rest of the members, except for Gary’s brother, bassist Martin Kemp, turned their backs on the band’s name. They only got back together in 2009, when they released the album “Once More” (2009), and then again in 2014, when they promoted a documentary about their career and the eighties music scene.
True to form, impeccably dressed singer Tony Hadley, who borrowed his signature ‘chic’ image from Bryan Ferry (Roxy Music), spent the whole night heroically battling gnats, swallowing at least three of them (by his own count), which meant the crowd had to step in and sing a few lines for him here and there. He apologized several times for the trouble with his singing, caused by an unbelievably annoying swarm of insects of biblical proportions that had apparently taken shelter in the stage lights before the show, and later treated himself to a mix of whiskey and beer to rinse his parched throat. Otherwise, his vocal range is still in great shape and he still belongs among the singing elite, which he proved to us with every single performance, starting with the opening “Soul Boy”.
The rest of the band were in no worse form, with both Kemp brothers and the energetic multi-instrumentalist Steve Norman standing out in particular, as he kept switching between percussion, saxophone and electric guitar. His often overlooked guitar talent first came to the fore during a special medley titled “Blitz Medley”, where Gary Kemp, who had been wowing us all along with his virtuoso touches, briefly played an auxiliary synthesizer instead of guitar. At one point Hadley and Norman crashed into each other back to back while moving energetically around the stage, and of course they just laughed it off, since even the most seasoned performers can run into this kind of onstage ‘mishap’ at any time.
Meanwhile, the crowd had long since forgotten about the pesky mosquitoes and gnats, which still occasionally messed with Hadley’s vocals, and for a good two hours surrendered to a long list of evergreen melodies delivered by masters of their musical craft. After the “Blitz Medley” came a splendid rendition of their first hit “To Cut a Long Story Short” and a small surprise in the form of an acoustic version of the big hit “Gold”, where the crowd sang along on most of the lines. Spandau Ballet did play the newer song “Once More” from the self-titled 2009 album, as well as all three new tracks from the current best-of collection “The Story: The Very Best Of Spandau Ballet.” Those are Soul Boy, Steal and This Is The Love. Everything else was left to pure eighties New Romantic nostalgia.
As expected, the crowd reacted most passionately to the beloved hits, led by “Only When You Leave”, “Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On)”, “I’ll Fly for You”, “Lifeline” and “True”. The last of these closed out the main part of their set in triumphant fashion, and it was all over far too fast. In the obligatory encore, where the band didn’t keep anyone waiting long before coming back on, they played their last big hit “Through the Barricades” and the highlight of the evening, “Gold”, this time in the better-known, non-acoustic version, at which the fairly mixed, multigenerational crowd ‘exploded’ with excitement one last time. Hadley, the Kemp brothers, Norman and touring keyboardist Troy Chapman took several grateful bows, while drummer John Keeble, wrapped in an Italian flag, got a spare shirt from his fans, which he undoubtedly earned with an energetic and impressively precise performance behind the kit.
Spandau Ballet’s concert in Lignano was fantastic in every way and a real treat for all fans of melodic polish and technical finesse, with flawless sound to boot, and musically the band doesn’t show the slightest sign that thirty years have passed since their greatest successes. It’s a shame the masters of the New Romantic movement show up so rarely anywhere near us, because their shows are truly unforgettable experiences, and not just for those who haven’t forgotten everything great about the music culture of the eighties. We were actually very lucky to catch them on the current tour, since both announced shows over the following two nights were cancelled due to the sudden illness of drummer Keeble.
words: Peter Podbrežnik
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist:
1. Soul Boy
2. Highly Strung
3. Only When You Leave
4. How Many Lies
5. Round and Round
6. This Is the Love
7. Steal
8. Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On)
9. Blitz Medley: Reformation / Mandolin / Confused / The Freeze
10. To Cut a Long Story Short
11. Raw
12. Glow
13. Empty Spaces (acoustic version)
14. Gold (acoustic version)
15. Once More
16. I’ll Fly for You
17. Instinction
18. Communication
19. Lifeline
20. True
—encore—
21. Through the Barricades
22. Gold
