Comments on: SPANDAU BALLET – “True”

By: thefatgit

thefatgit — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 23:33:34 +0000

Xerox soul reflected against New Pop’s refracting lens. The Spands present the most divisive song on their roster. For many, this was the dealbreaker. Suburban whiteboy funk to Nescafe Gold Blend soul. Blandness never tasted so good. But this is still POP! A pop for young girls to swoon to, a karaoke standard for the Bacardi Breezer and Stella Artois generation, a half-formed memory of an ’80s that was out of reach. Back then it was a betrayal to the scenesters that Spandau Ballet emereged from, but the masses, oh, the masses lapped it up and still they do today.

By: Brooksie

Brooksie — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 19:35:44 +0000

Medallion men in search of money. They made some good songs though, and to me this is one of them. The synth opening with the ‘picking’ guitar, followed by the “Ha ha ha haa haaaa” works for me. Yes the lyrics are clunky, yes it’s bombastic, yes it stops and starts, yes it’s plastic soul, but who cares? This was always going to be an instant classic smash. The fact that it could be sampled and become a hit all over again just underlines how solid the song is. A little like a certain Police number; if a piece of a song is strong enough to carry a whole new song, then any arguments about whether the song is good / bad kind of fall apart. If you hate this but love PM Dawn, then I’d say you really dislike Spandau or Hadley’s vocals – but not the song.

By: Tooncgull

Tooncgull — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:55:48 +0000

#30 I agree! How can nobody see how dreadfully dull and dreary this song was? Spandau Ballet were probably the epitome of the type of band I disliked most in the early eighties – but perhaps I was just getting too old. I was 19 at the time…. !

By: hanfist

hanfist — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 08:51:34 +0000

Tom, this is such an awesome review that I had to finally stop lurking, register and add my two cents worth. Some of your picks are downright weird (but then I was brutally scarred on an emotional level by ABBA’s domination of the charts when I was 14-17)…

True wasn’t a song I appreciated much at the time — chants, long stories, fade to grey had had so much impact that True seemed trite and prissy, Spandau were aging all too gracefully. But then I was more into rhythmn than melody back then. Even later, as I grew to enjoy True without being enraptured by it, the song still felt like a series of magic candy moments buried in a cardboard sponge. And then PMD came along and releeased it to soar into the ether. I am trying to vote and give it an eight, which realistically includes 2 bonus points for the Dawnster.

By: TomLane

TomLane — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:16:26 +0000

Spandau Ballet or PM Dawn? Either way, great song.

By: pink champale

pink champale — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:12:55 +0000

my driving instructor used to point out (what he said was) tony hadley’s house every single time we spluttered past it, so i suppose i could pop in and ask. i saw paul young in a bakery last week too. maybe he’d know.

By: Rob M

Rob M — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:00:23 +0000

Regarding “A pill on my tongue” I saw an interview with the Spands recently which seemed to imply that it was about lying on a beach and taking drugs of some kind. Probably not ecstasy, as has been noted it was a bit of a niche thing only on the NY club scene in the early 80s (hence Cindy Ecstasy on Soft Cell’s “Torch”, she was their dealer in NY), but probably something else. Not very useful information, sorry. Maybe someone should ask them to clarify?

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:36:24 +0000

Light Entertainment Watch: Spandau Ballet’s many UK television appearances include;

THE BRITISH RECORD INDUSTRY AWARDS: with Curiosity Killed The Cat, Whitney Houston, Spandau Ballet, Five Star, Level 42, Simply Red (1987)

FRIDAY PEOPLE: with Spandau Ballet (1985)

HARTY: with Barbara Cartland, Ken Livingstone, Spandau Ballet (1984)

IBIZA 92: with Steve Earle, Belinda Carlisle, Breathe, Robert Palmer, Spandau Ballet, Prefab Sprout, Natalie Cole, Brian Wilson (1988)

THE OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST: with Spandau Ballet (1982)

THE OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST: with Spandau Ballet, Little Steven and the Disciples Of Soul (1983)

THE OXFORD ROAD SHOW: with Spyder, Spandau Ballet (1983)

POP QUIZ: with Duran Duran v, Spandau Ballet (1984)

SWITCH: with Spandau Ballet, UB40 (1983)

THAT WAS THEN… THIS IS NOW: with Spandau Ballet (1988)

THE TUBE: with Jools Holland, Paula Yates, Virna Lindt, Gary Kemp, Tony Hadley, Jason Bratby, Chaka Khan, Spandau Ballet (1985)

THE TUBE: with Jools Holland, Paula Yates, Spandau Ballet, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Wendy May, Nick Kamen, Felix Howard, Jermaine Stewart, Gwen Guthrie, Gregg Parker (1986)

TWENTIETH CENTURY BOX: Spandau Ballet (1980)

WHISTLE TEST: with Spandau Ballet, Dwight Yoakam, Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians (1986)

WOGAN: with Alan Cox, Brian Cox, Bob Geldof, Nik Kershaw, La Bouche, Janice Long, Francis Rossi, Spandau Ballet, Ben Vereen (1985)

WOGAN: with Alessandra Ferri, Trevor McDonald, Kate O’Mara, Prince Roy & Princess, Joan Sealand, Spandau Ballet (1986)

WOGAN: with Leon Brittan, William Davis, Bill Treacher, Spandau Ballet (1987)

WOGAN: with Butterfly McQueen, Spandau Ballet, John Ward (1989)

Wogan in 1989: “Spandau Ballet with ‘Be Free With Your Love’ – and don’t send your medical bills to me.”

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:26:52 +0000

TOTPWatch: Spandau Ballet performed ‘True’ on Top Of The Pops on three occasions;

21 April 1983. Also in the studio that week were; Culture Club, FR David, Twisted Sister and Heaven 17. Richard Skinner and Janice Long were the hosts.

5 May 1983. Also in the studio that week (the 1000th edition) were; Thompson Twins, Human League, The Beat, Heaven 17, Blancmange and Fun Boy Three, plus two appearances from Zoo, interpreting ‘Friday Night’ and ‘Candy Girl’. The hosts were “The Radio 1 DJs” (it says here).

29 December 1983. Also in the studio that week were; JoBoxers, Thompson Twins, The Cure, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Howard Jones and The Style Council. Richard Skinner and Tommy Vance were the hosts.

By: Billy Smart

Billy Smart — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:25:58 +0000

I really didn’t care for this at all when I was ten. It seemed rather smarmy and plodding to me, and the work of a different band to the kilted and saronged Cut A Long Story Short people of a few years earlier, who seemed much more like my idea of what a pop group should be like.

Twenty-six years on, I haven’t revised my opinion much, but the sax break is rather lovely, and I wish that it could have appeared in a better song.

Whenever I see or hear a documentary about eighties pop, Gary Kemp seems to be on it, saying “Of course, the NME hated it, so we knew it was going to be a hit!” This never fails to really irritate me – if critical acclaim was so unimportant to you, then you wouldn’t go on about it at every single opportunity.

Best Spandau moment: ‘Instiction’, the lone collaboration with Trevor Horn. It is, as I believe that the young people say. “bonkers”.

By: Stuart P

Stuart P — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:49:24 +0000

Nightdubbin’ etc has inspired a new comp from Dimitri from Paris btw

http://open.spotify.com/album/3qNnr5sl1OR45NWNM5j16n

oh, and house piano’s first appearance was probs here … discuss!

http://open.spotify.com/track/6PFsub5iIJwrBb8qBRqmiV

By: Mark G

Mark G — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:31:38 +0000

Phil Fearon auditioned as the pianist for the Sex Pistols…

By: AndyPandy

AndyPandy — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:13:58 +0000

Meant to add this above:

On the subject of unlikely connections to the coming but still 3 or 4 year away house invasion of the charts just outside the Top Ten during ‘Trues’ run at the top were Galaxy and ‘What Do I Do’ featuring
Phil Fearon and 2 females one who returned to the charts at the end of 1994 as the voice of the only true hardcore/rave track to ever hit Number One on the pop chart. Phil Fearon himself being the man behind one of the most successful ever hardcore/rave labels responsible for Acen, the House Crew as well as the act I can’t mention and many other early 90s hardcore delights…

By: AndyPandy

AndyPandy — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:05:08 +0000

Conrad at 53 the remix of ‘Burnin Up” on ‘Nightdubbing’ is by Richard Lengyel and the tracks original producers Swain and Jolley. I think the Joey Negro version came out around the time the album got sort of ‘rediscovered’. I’m listening to the Nightdubbing version as I type this and it is unbelievably ahead of its time – it has elements that could come out of a house track from 1988/89 (the piano is straight from such a track) and then as it breaks down it verges on dubby garage from the 1990s.

I suppose the fact that piano was so important to both Imagination and house music’s sound makes the convergence slightly more likely.

By: Conrad

Conrad — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:36:44 +0000

Number 2 Watch:

A lot of records kept from Number One by “True” during its 4 week reign at the top:

FR David “Words” – 2 weeks
Human League “(Keep Feeling) Fascination” – 1 week
Heaven 17 “Temptation” – 1 week

By: Conrad

Conrad — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:31:40 +0000

I have a Joey Negro mix of Burning Up – not sure when it was done, but might be the one you are referring to.

Imagination were an excellent act. Loved all their singles up to and including “Changes”.

By: AndyPandy

AndyPandy — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:17:19 +0000

Yes it was a pity with Imagination that there slightly tacky image often got in the way of some very worthwhile slinky Britsoul grooves.
They werent completely ignored however and at the time I remember the “Nightdubbin” remix album was already looked on as quite cutting edge.
And now many garage/house producers/djs look on it as boundary breaking in the extreme.Larry Levans remix of “Changes” and someone else’s (cant remember who)mix of “Burnin Up” being more or less dry runs for a 90s (not late80s they sound more modern than that!)house/garage sound. When I heard these for the first time in over 20 years quite recently I was stunned how modern they sounded.

By: LondonLee

LondonLee — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 01:12:39 +0000

Or “Not Heavy Metal or R&B and sung by someone under 30″

I remember Jolley and Swain doing a pretty good job with Bananarama, but Imagination were very much the epitome of aspirational penthouse soul which is obviously what SB were going for. I know they might have seemed a bit of a joke but ‘Body Talk’ was very popular.

By: Jonathan Bogart

Jonathan Bogart — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:37:56 +0000

Hell, I’ve seen Martika and Roxette called New Wave here in the States; for many, it simply meant “80s (White) Pop.”

By: johnny

johnny — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:59:43 +0000

Andy + H – yes, on my American side of the ocean, this would definitely be considered New Wave, as would the Durans. this was a major source of confusion for me while growing up, reading all the British mags and wondering what this New Romantic, New Pop, Post-Punk etc was all about. We called it New Wave exclusively, admittedly a wide classification which started with power pop (costello, the knack) in the late ’70s and continued right through the dawn of the MTV era. i think we were still using that term maybe all the way up to A-Ha. As a matter of fact, I recall my sister buying an MTV compilation in the late ’90s called “MTV New Wave: 1983″ or something similar. SB was featured, as well as “Our House”, “Mexican Radio”, “Too Shy”….all New Wave to us yanks. These terms were so taken for granted by British readers that it never was explained in NME and MM where the classifications came from. It was only with Reynolds’ post-punk book a few years ago that I understood completely.

By: Conrad

Conrad — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:39:57 +0000

Lee, Swain and Jolley were also known for their work with Bananarama! Although I know what you mean.

I think they initially wanted to use Trevor Horn after his work on Instinction but couldn’t get it together for whatever reason. I guess either way the third album was a conscious attempt to stop being a cult band and start shifting units. The success of “Rio” (released at the same time as their flop second album – their career went in parallel with Duran’s) wouldn’t exactly have gone unnoticed.

By: LondonLee

LondonLee — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:32:20 +0000

I just remembered that the producers on this were Steve Jolley and Tony Swain who also did Imagination’s records, so Spandau were going right to the source of what was “hot” in Brit Soul at the time.

By: Conrad

Conrad — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:31:58 +0000

I think Spandau’s club roots and love of funk and soul were always a big part of their musical heritage. If anything I’d argue the synth-based electronic sound was almost an afterthought. They realised it was a way in through their exposure to Billy’s and Blitz and Gary Kemp started playing a synth.

No sooner had they released the first couple of identifiably New Romantic singles, then they were favouring their truer love – testing the water by slipping “Glow” on to the flip of the third single as a double-A.

“Chant No 1″ followed and then stuff like “Coffee Club” which lifts wholesale from “One Nation Under A Groove.”

I didn’t really care much for them by the point of “True”. I was more interested in the artier, experimental, cult-approach to being in a band that Spandau espoused; all manifestos and iconic imagery, being at the right clubs, not playing conventional gigs.

When they started becoming a conventional pop act they lost their edge.
As New Pop lost its edge at around this time.

But I don’t think it’s right to chastise or mock Spandau for not being ’soulful’. In fact it misses the point. Spandau were kids going to clubs dancing to soul, motown, northern soul, then later bowie and kraftwerk.

they were the kids Andy is talking about in the mid 80s a decade earlier.

they went onto make records that reflected their passions and musical heritage. what could be any more authentic then their own experiences?

By: lonepilgrim

lonepilgrim — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:04:11 +0000

What seems to be a common thread linking many of the post-punk/new wave/new romantic acts was a sense of ‘anything but rock’.
Punk had been portrayed as a kind of end for the rock ‘project’ and so acts had turned to soul/dance/jazz/electro styles as more fruitful and/or credible models.

I find myself blinking in disbelief at musical styles and acts that have been rehabilitated as credible in subsequent years when at one stage they were portrayed as dead and buried. Metal has returned as has folk-rock – but I couldn’t credit seeing a Jon Anderson solo track being given consideration in this months Invisible Jukebox in The Wire.

By: H.

H. — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:11:49 +0000

Andypandy@39 I guess you’re right about New Wave as a term, I meant more the post-punk aesthetic which you can also feel in the New Romantics (whom you might say developed from a synthesis of New Wave and Bowie/Roxy). In any case I think there was a sound and an aesthetic which stretches from around 1978 to 1982 or so that you could loosely call post-punk – Cut A Long Story Short belongs to that aesthetic, and True doesn’t. Just as Ashes To Ashes belongs to it and Let’s Dance doesn’t.