Hits - Tony Hadley

Advantages: The singles
Disadvantages: Bit forced and contrived

...Spandau Ballet were the band who led the emergence of the New Romantics in the early 1980’s. They came as a reaction to the punk and new wave explosion at the end of the 70’s, celebrating funk and soul and striking a very different visual impression. They consisted of Tony Hadley (vocals), the Kemp brothers Gary (guitar) and Martin (bass and now of Eastenders), John Keeble (drums) and Stev Norman (guitar, percussion, sax). They started off by building a large grass roots following in trendy clubs like Blitz and in 1980 they emerged with the To Cut A Long Story Short single which soared to number 5, followed by The Freeze and the Slavonic sounding Musclebound. All three hits were included on their debut album, Journeys To Glory, released in 1981. The sound was aimed straight at the disco and club scene and most of their singles were... Read review

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Advantages: Full of 80's excess
Disadvantages: Only eight tracks

...WHO ARE SPANDAU BALLET? -------------------------------------------- Good question. They were a five band made up of Tony Hadley (vocals, suits), Gary Kemp (bass, suits), Martin Kemp (guitar, suits), John Keeble (drums, suits) and Steve Norman (sax, floppy hair, suits). Between 1980 and 1986 they pretty much ruled the roost as far as smooth British pop was concerned. Their cool musical style, sharp suits and mixture of epic ballads and funky uptempo tracks set the female teenage population to frantic levels of knicker-wetting throughout the mid-80s. WHAT'S PARADE ALL ABOUT THEN? ---------------------------------------------------- 1984 saw an epic battle of pop wits between the "big five": Duran Duran, Wham, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Culture Club and Spandau Ballet. Guess who came last? Yep, the Spands! This was their follow... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Some good tracks
Disadvantages: Some awful tracks, probably too diverse for all tracks to appeal to one person, many of the songs are slow

.... Betcha By Golly Wow was good enough for my husband to ask who it was and to comment it was the only track to have captured his interest since Tony Hadley’s on track one! Although I prefer Leee to sing something with more pace, his rendition of Betcha By Golly Wow is very good, a quality performance. He certainly has a unique voice, being both very high – but not at all feminine - and soulful. His second track is Love You A Little Bit More and this is even better and another of my favourites on the CD. Again, his voice is showed off beautifully with this song and he demonstrates his range impressively. HAYDON ESHUN Ultimate Kaos were thankfully a band that pretty much passed me by. Songs like Casanova and Some Girls were (apparently) hits for this teeny-bopper British band, catapulting its young members to short... Read review

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