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Spandau Ballet: Once More

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Mercury Records
Released: 2009.10.27
Time:
 55:10
Category: Synthpop, New Wave
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.spandauballet.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2009.12.18
Price in €: 9,99





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Once More (Spandau Ballet) - 4:06
[2] To Cut A Long Story Short (Spandau Ballet) - 3:50
[3] Gold (Spandau Ballet) - 4:17
[4] True (Spandau Ballet) - 5:45
[5] Chant No.1 (Spandau Ballet) - 3:33
[6] I'll Fly For You (Spandau Ballet) - 5:22
[7] Only When You Leave (Spandau Ballet) - 5:09
[8] Through The Barricades (Spandau Ballet) - 4:47
[9] She Loved Like Diamond (Spandau Ballet) - 3:24
[10] Communication (Spandau Ballet) - 3:15
[11] Lifeline (Spandau Ballet) - 4:06
[12] With The Pride (Spandau Ballet) - 3:25
[13] Love Is All (Spandau Ballet) - 4:05

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Gary Kemp - Acoustic & Electric Guitar, Background Vocals
Martin Kemp - Bass Guitar
Steve Norman - Acoustic Guitar, Percussion, Saxophone, Background Vocals
John Keeble - Drums, Background Vocals
David Tench - Keyboards, Programming

Tony Hadley - Vocals
Tommy Blaize - Background Vocals
Andy Caine - Background Vocals

Audrey Riley - String Arrangements, Strings
Ann Lines - Strings
Susan Dench - Strings
Jon Hill - Strings
Peter Lake - Strings
Leo Payne - Strings
Christopher Tombling - Strings
Greg Warren Wilson - Strings

Danton Supple - Mixing, Producer
Smit - Engineer
Vlado Meller - Mastering
Mark Allaway - Assistant
Stuart Hellier - Assistant
Mark Santagelo - Assistant
Markus Karlsson - Art Direction, Design
Tom Bird - Creative Director
Kevin Westenberg - Band Photo
Jay Graham - Drum Technician
John Lionall Ward - Guitar Technician

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2009 CD Mercury UK 2719809

Track [1] and [13] is brand new song for this release.



Spandau Ballet always did benefit from being a bit late. Far from being a pioneering work, their debut single To Cut a Long Story Short was released in November 1980, long after Gary Numan, John Foxx, The Human League and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark had blazed a synth-pop trail – six months was a lifetime in those fast-moving post-punk days. To be fair, Chant No. 1 was a revolutionary white-funk record – although even there they were beaten to the punch by Heaven 17 – and their switch to lush blue-eyed soul with 1983’s True came one full year after ABC’s groundbreaking The Lexicon Of Love. And yet each time Spandau cleaned up by offering a version of their peers’ more radical experiments, one that would prove palatable for mainstream consumption. They’ve capitalised on being tardy again with their decision to reform this year, long after all the other 80s bands have attempted their comebacks. And it’s been the most successful one to date, with sell-out shows at the prestigious 02 when even Duran Duran, far bigger in their pomp, only managed academies and indoor arenas when they returned a few years back. Timing, then, has always been Spandau’s forte. They’ve also tended to have a keen sense of what the British public likes at any given moment, and on Once More they tap into the current national penchant for overblown adult balladry. And so, with producer Danton Supple, responsible for Coldplay’s X&Y, they decamped to Hook End studios in Oxfordshire to rework their back catalogue and give it the full X Factor treatment. There are two new songs here – the title track and Love Is All – and they are, in this context, and given the consistently bland treatment, virtually indistinguishable from their 80s hits. To Cut… is redone, to near comical effect, as a semi-acoustic rock song, and Chant No. 1 has been reduced to supper club vamp. True isn’t so dramatically different, but it’s far less lavish than the original, and thus less compelling – Swain and Jolley’s production was a key part of its journey to glory. That production would also provide balance for Tony Hadley’s foghorn croon – now, on Gold, the voice overpowers the song. In 1982, She Loved Like Diamond was a radical gesture, a bold foray into John Barry territory; it is now a generic MOR ballad.

Paul Lester - 2009-10-22
BBC Reviews



New wave/'80s fans found 2009 to be a year of reunions. The Midge Ure-era Ultravox lineup toured, even after keyboardist Billy Currie spent years spewing venom in Ure's direction. The Specials reconvened, albeit sans keyboardist Jerry Dammers. Heck, even Haircut 100 decided to give it another go with Nick Heyward at the helm (only percussionist Mark Fox and saxman Phil Smith sat it out). Perhaps the most successful and least likely reunion occurred when all five members of Spandau Ballet announced that they were getting back together. What makes this so amazing is that, just a handful of years ago, vocalist Tony Hadley, drummer John Keeble, and multi-instrumentalist Steve Norman had taken guitarist Gary Kemp to court over songwriting issues (they lost), and any chance of a reunion seemed to have gone sour. But, against all odds, the five members (who also include bassist Martin Kemp) ironed out their differences and undertook an enormously successful tour. Fans who were not able to catch them live were treated to a live DVD plus this acoustic-based studio creation called Once More. Apart from the acoustic reinterpretations of some of their biggest hits, the real attractions here are the two new tracks, "Once More" and "Love Is All." Both tracks are wonderful ballads that may not be as drop-dead gorgeous as "True," but they are right up there with other favorites like "How Many Lies." Perhaps as some sort of truce, "Once More" is credited to Gary Kemp and Steve Norman, while "Love Is All" is Hadley's baby. Both are proof that the Spandau magic is intact and ready to conquer the world again. As for the rest of the album, the boys in the band have rearranged songs from their catalog, putting the emphasis on the "song" itself and not the production. Some of the songs are given new life in the mostly acoustic arrangements, with only one, "Chant No. 1," sounding awkward and not entirely successful. The rest, though, are delicious new looks at songs that served as a soundtrack to a generation: "True," "Gold," "To Cut a Long Story Short," and "Only When You Leave," to name a few. They add a bluesy, funky feel to "Communication," while retaining its hook-filled melody. Lesser-known tracks like "Through the Barricades" and "With the Pride" are stunning in these new, simple arrangements that showcase Hadley's still-fantastic voice. Thankfully, the Spandau boys are still in top form, and one can only hope that a full studio album will hit the racks before they start suing each other and fall apart again.

Steve "Spaz" Schnee - All Music Guide



Spandau Ballet are recording their first album of new material in 25 years.

The Eighties new-wave group, comprised of Tony Hadley, Gary Kemp, Steve Norman, John Keeble and Martin Kemp, made the announcement via their Twitter account alongside news that they will be recording with veteran producer Trevor Horn.

Horn has previously worked with Frankie Goes To Hollywood, ABC and Pet Shop Boys. Such was his influence on the industry, he was famously nicknamed 'The Man Who Invented The Eighties.' The group last worked with him on the Band Aid single Do They Know It's Christmas? in 1984.

Since breaking the news, they have been posting regular photo updates of their recording studio experiences.

Spandau Ballet were one of the most successful groups to emerge during the New Romantic era, a pop culture movement originating in nightclub scenes during the Eighties. Their hits include 1983 number one single True and Gold, which reached number two that same year.

After initially splitting in 1989, the five-piece became locked in a legal battle which saw Hadley, Keeble and Norman unsuccessfully sue Gary Kemp over royalties. Despite the fallout, differences were put aside when Spandau Ballet reformed for a 2009 world tour. The album Once More followed, a release which mainly consisted of re-workings of their classic tracks.

No release date has been set for the new album, but they will be releasing documentary Soul Boys of the Western World, this coming October.

Jacob Stolworthy, 04 Aug 2014
© Copyright 2015 Telegraph Media



2009 album from the reunited '80s New Romantic quintet. On Once More, the band revisits eleven of their biggest hits and throws in two brand new tracks: 'Once More' and 'Love Is All'. While many have said that a Spandau Ballet reunion would never happen, the band surprised everyone in early 2009 by announcing that they were, indeed, giving it another go. After a very successful UK tour, this exciting release will whet the appetites of those outside the UK who were not able to catch the band on that historic tour. 13 tracks including 'True', 'To Cut A Long Story Short', 'Lifeline', 'Only When You Leave' and many more. Universal.

Amazon.com



It's only 9.30am – the crack of dawn, by most musicians' standards – but in a warehouse in east London, five fortysomething pop stars are already at work. Having reunited with much fanfare in the spring after 19 acrimonious years apart, Spandau Ballet are in the final stages of preparing for their first tour since 1990. Today, a few weeks before the first show Dublin on 13 October, they've slotted a photo shoot into a schedule filled with intensive live rehearsals, during which they've been adjusting to the novelty of occupying a stage together again.

The photographer has arranged them on a pair of big leather chairs, with singer Tony Hadley standing up, lounging against a mirror. Sleekly done up in Gieves & Hawkes suits and Prada cravats, they could be a group of unusually well-dressed City CEOs; the one exception is drummer John Keeble, not a suit man, who is wearing a teddy-boy frock coat and blue suede brothel-creepers. Time has made inroads in the form of wrinkles and receding hairlines, and Hadley – imposing anyway at 6ft 4in – is beefier than he used to be, but they've actually improved with age. The erstwhile pretty boys have become good-looking middle-aged men, news that won't disappoint the fans who greeted the reunion by snapping up gig tickets (the first London date, at the 20,000-capacity 02 Arena, sold out in 20 minutes, and they've since added European shows that will see them into next year).

They follow the photographer's directions with practised ease, moving closer together and mustering a collective expression of amused detachment. In the test Polaroids, they look cool and rather dignified. Visually, they've come a long way from the days when they were the chieftains of the new romantic movement – the early-80s music and fashion scene that employed flamboyant clothes and synth-based pop as a way of "escaping the grey, horrible, miserable 70s", as guitarist/songwriter Gary Kemp puts it. (He hasn't kept any of the pirate costumes or kilts from those years, and now regrets not hanging on to the shirt a then-unknown John Galliano made and signed for him.)

Inspecting a snapshot is bassist Martin Kemp, who's probably better known to under-30s for his spell as Steve Owen in EastEnders: "We look great." Hadley, still posing against the mirror, laughs and momentarily loses his balance. Kemp clucks sympathetically. "The old knee, Tone?" The chummy banter and tight-knit band mentality would have been unimaginable a couple of years ago. One of the definitive and top-selling pop groups of the 80s, with 10 top 10 hits, Spandau broke up in especially niggly circumstances. Not only had their suave pop been rendered redundant by dance music, but Hadley, Keeble and saxophonist Steve Norman had fallen out with the Kemps over the brothers' decision to star in the 1990 gangster biopic The Krays. The other members felt they'd been shunted aside, and were also irked by Gary's decision to stop using his songwriting royalties to underwrite some of the band's costs. When their final album, Heart Like a Sky, only reached No 31, dissolution was inevitable.

The band members lost touch in the 90s, until Hadley, Keeble and Norman launched a 1999 court action against Gary for a share of writing royalties. Much covered by the media at the time, the proceedings involved Spandau's CDs being played to the court; according to Gary, the judge tapped his toe as he listened. Hadley, Norman and Keeble lost, and the two sides became estranged.

"I didn't think I'd ever work with them again," says Norman, who had argued during the court case that his distinctive sax solo on the band's signature tune, True, entitled him to royalties as arranger. "We'd grown so far apart I couldn't see a way back, and there was a lack of respect for each other. We never got closure on Spandau – we split up and just ignored phone calls. We really were like a band of brothers, like siblings, and they suddenly weren't there any more. That took a lot of adjusting, and there was so much hurt over the years, I couldn't see us working together again."

That they're together this morning, joking and trading jibes ("Lace up his girdle!" the raffish Keeble tells the stylist as she lifts Hadley's jacket to adjust his shirt), is the result of several years of delicate negotiation. Gary Kemp instigated it after watching a video of the band on tour in 1986, when their mullets and soulboy smoothness were enmeshed in the fabric of British pop. He was swamped by nostalgia. As he recalls it in his recent autobiography, I Know This Much: "I needed closure. The idea of not being able to meet up and talk together about the most powerful experience of our lives was dreadful."

He first contacted Norman, who was working as a producer in Ibiza, and the other members gradually came round to the idea, Hadley being the last to agree. "I'd said, 'No, this is never going to happen,'" says the outgoing, blokey singer. "I've done three or four solo albums and I've worked hard and built up a following – I do 200 shows a year. I said no to a [Spandau] tour three or four years ago, no to Bob Geldof [about reforming] for Live 8, but time's a great healer and as time goes on, you look at it more softly. It was down to John Keeble, my drummer in my [solo] band for 20 years, talking me into it. So Gary and I met at the Flask in Hampstead, and I said to him, 'Right, there are a few things I've got to say to you,' and I said a few words and then we shook hands and had a pint."

He rises to submit to a smattering of powder from the makeup artist, whose job is to keep their faces shine-free and emphasise their eyes with mascara. Clearly tickled to find himself, at 49, involved in band life again, Hadley grins. "It's all good now. We'll do the tour, hopefully the album will be successful, and in a couple of years, we'll do a new album with 12 original songs."

Said album, which will be released this month, is a speculative venture consisting of acoustic versions of some of their old hits, plus a new song called Once More. It's being bankrolled by a major label and Gary Kemp talks it up enthusiastically – "I was a bit worried, because I didn't want it to be softer versions of what we're going to do [on tour], so we decided to make it darker and more menacing; To Cut a Long Story Short is dark and brooding, and Chant No 1 has ended up a swamp track from the southern states of America" – but to me the idea sounds like a halfway measure. While it's easier to rerecord their own songs than to write a whole new album (and, as the experience of old rivals Duran Duran has shown, new material by reunited bands isn't necessarily welcomed by fans), there's something slightly defeatist about the idea.

But what do I know? "A lot of fans are hankering for the nostalgia of the past," Hadley insists, and he's not wrong. The online fan forums are buzzing with excitement about the album and tour: on spandauballet.myfastforum.org, for instance, an admirer called GaryzGal declares: "Oh God these men have made me so f-ing emotional" – and there are numerous posts from other women who've been waiting for this moment for two decades.

"With this new album, we worked really hard," Hadley goes on. "We sat around a coffee table with acoustic guitars and tried to give it a new feeling. The enthusiasm from the fans for a new album after 20 years is pretty big."

The new track, Once More, written by Gary Kemp and Norman (the first time Kemp has ever composed with another member), is reminiscent of the silky lounge-pop sound they achieved with True. It's also not far removed from the lush balladry that Take That have produced, to amazing success, since their own reunion. It received its first British play on Radio 2 last week, and if the station decides to throws its weight behind it, they could be looking at their first hit since 1989.

Gary Kemp, you feel, would particularly love the kudos of a hit. Though open and friendly, showing me a photo of his 19-year-old son Finlay (whose mother is Sadie Frost) climbing in the Alps, he's also intense and talky. Spandau and their legacy really do matter to him. In the eloquent book he wrote, without a ghostwriter, he argues that New Romanticism was a class movement as well as a cultural one; all the peacockery was working-class youth's way of making a glamorous escape from real life. While Hadley remembers the young Spandau as "a bunch of kids trying to shock their parents by wearing eye makeup, and trying to pull the girls", to Kemp it was more significant.

"I'm certainly not working class any more, though my morals are working class," he tells me. "I was always aspirational. I'm a product of austerity [he and Martin grew up in a damp Islington flat that lacked an inside lavatory and, until 1960, electricity], but the 80s was amazing for people like me. Working-class people were soulboys who spent all their money on clothes, and we were trying to express that at the beginning. We were purposely being antagonistic, but we also wanted to cast a shadow. We spanned the whole decade and went all the way to the top, as high as you can go."

But if Spandau get to the top again, will he enjoy the 21st-century version of fame? He's been able to observe the grimness of the modern celeb lifestyle via the experience of Frost, his ex-wife, whose travails are extensively documented by paparazzi. Nonetheless, he's resigned to the fact that Spandau's comeback wouldn't exist without publicity, "and you can't control it all. But I hate these magazines like Hello!, OK! and Closer. When we started, there was one magazine worth being in – the Face."

But the Face is long gone, along with the era that produced both it and Spandau Ballet, and Kemp seems to mourn it more than the other members. Though he has kept busy, making a solo album and acting in films – including the Whitney Houston/Kevin Costner flick The Bodyguard, and Dog Eat Dog, in which he played a drug dealer – he speaks nostalgically of the 80s: "We came out of a period when UK pop was really successful."

As for the others, they seem to see the reunion essentially as a good laugh. Martin Kemp, who is "absolutely healthy" after surviving two brain tumours in the 90s, has his acting career, and has just directed his first film, a low-budget thriller called Expose. Hadley, winner of the reality show Reborn in the USA in 2003 ("At the end of the day, it was Saturday primetime TV for two months"), co-owns a brewery, which is marketing Hadley's Gold Ale around the country. He's also keenly interested in politics, noting that this will be the first time in years he won't be attending the Tory party conference. A lifelong Conservative voter, he's worked with Iain Duncan Smith on the Centre for Social Justice awards, and recalls: "I had a tear in my eye when he made a speech at the conference about dependency culture, about drugs and single-parent families. It has to change, or the fabric of the country will fall apart."

Do his views make for lively exchanges with Gary, a Labour supporter who in the 80s played the Red Wedge tour alongside Billy Bragg, and appeared at anti-apartheid rallies? He shakes his head. "We don't talk about politics in the band."

But for all his cheerful bluffness and solo career and outside interests, there's a part of Hadley that is forever Spandau. "The 80s would have been different if Spandau Ballet hadn't existed. We were the musical representation of what was happening in the London club scene. We looked ridiculous at times," he says with a glint of pride. "But we also looked really cool."

Caroline Sullivan - 1 October 2009
© 2015 Guardian News and Media



Once More is the seventh studio album by British band Spandau Ballet. It was released by Mercury Records on 19 October 2009 in UK and Ireland. The album includes eleven re-recordings from their back catalogue and two newly written songs. The first single, the title track "Once More", one of the two brand new songs, was released as a promotional single on 5 October 2009 and as a digital download on the same day as the album was released. The music video for "Once More" was filmed. The album debuted at number 7 on the UK Album Chart on 25 October 2009.

Once More is the first new recording by Spandau Ballet since 1989. Eleven of the thirteen tracks are re-recordings of previously recorded songs by the group. The first and the last track on the album, "Once More" and "Love is All" are new songs written during the band's reunion. The title track is written by Gary Kemp and Steve Norman, while "Love is All" is the first Spandau Ballet song written by Tony Hadley. The album is produced by Danton Supple, who co-produced Coldplay's X&Y album.

Singer Tony Hadley said about the new recordings: "When we got back together and the tour dates went on sale, none of us could believe the fantastic reaction we got from fans and the press alike. When the opportunity came to get into a studio and play music together, we couldn't pass it up." Gary Kemp said about the title track that "the new song was a way for us to show that Spandau Ballet are back, not just to play the hits on tour but also to take on our contemporaries in the pop charts!"

The re-recordings of the eleven older songs are made in a semi-acoustic, unplugged-like style, which gives their songs a 21st-century flavour, according to sax player Steve Norman, taking them to some "very dark, different place". According to Gary Kemp the sound of the album is not only the sound of Spandau Ballet reinvented for the 21st century, but also "how we would have made these songs the first time around if we had the maturity and know-how to achieve it".

Wikipedia.org


Still, just in time for Christmas.

Für die einen bedeutet die Rückkehr von Bands wie OMD, Ultravox oder den nun im Herbst 2009 auch wiedervereinten Spandau Ballet ein Revival des unerträglichen Sythie-Pop der 80er mit all seiner adretten Yuppie-Attitüde. Für andere ist es ein Aufleben des coolen Pop aus unbeschwerten Jugendjahren. Die stets eleganten und top gekleideten Spandau Ballett aus London feiern ihr Comeback mit den alten und großen Hits, aber sie zeigen sich auf Once More von einer Seite, die man so weder kannte noch erwarten konnte. Die Songs und Chartsstürmer wie „Gold“, „True“, „Only When You Leave” oder „Through The Barricades“ klingen so, wie das natürlich im feinen Zwirn eingekleidete Quintett sich optisch präsentiert: schlank! Natürlich verzichten die nach einem Berlin-Besuch zu ihrem Namen gekommenen Spandau Ballet nicht gänzlich auf Streicher und Bläser, aber sie wurden reduziert. Noch weiter zurückgefahren haben die Briten die überladenen Keyboards-Sounds mit ihrem Hang zu Bombast und Opulenz. So machen die Achtziger-Superstars viel Platz für luftige, semi-akustische Arrangements mit einem Unplugged-Flair und viel Jazz-Coolness. Die Lässigkeit litt darunter nicht, nein Spandau Ballet wirken nicht wie ein Fossil einer lange vergangenen Dekade, sie sind angekommen im hier und jetzt. Selbst ihr vielleicht bestes Stück, der wilde Funk-Voodoo-Tanzflächen-Knüller „Chant No.1“ wurde genauso gestutzt wie „To Cut A Long Story Short“. Zwei Tracks übrigens, die auch von Ballet-Hassern geschätzt wurden. Neben der Neuinterpretation alter Hits präsentieren Spandau Ballet auch zwei neue Lieder auf ihrem ersten Studioalbum nach 1989: den Opener „Once More“ wie das finale „Love Is All“. Was ohne Wissen gar nicht aufgefallen wäre, denn sie reihen sich nahtlos ein. Comeback gelungen.

Sven Niechziol - Amazon.de



"Wir bestellten ein paar Pints und kamen gleich super miteinander aus. Es ist immer wieder erstaunlich, wozu Bier in der Lage sein kann." So sprach Spandau Ballet-Sänger Tony Hadley im Sommer zwar über ein geplantes Duett mit Take That-Kollege Gary Barlow. Das Wiedersehen seiner alten Londoner Jugendfreunde dürfte kurz zuvor jedoch ähnlich verlaufen sein. Mir ist zwar absolut schleierhaft, welch gigantische Erfolgswellen die Reunion dieser konturlosen 80er Pop-Band in der Heimat England zu Tage fördert (Ausverkauft-Meldungen nach zwanzig Minuten, Zusatzkonzerte in größten Hallen), schönsaufen muss man sich "Once More" jedoch auch nicht. Dazu klingt die Platte einfach ... zu beliebig. Aber zeichneten sich Spandau Ballet-Songs vor 25 Jahren nicht genau durch dieses Attribut aus? Hierzulande hatte das Quintett streng genommen nur zwei richtige Hits: "True" und "Gold", beide Jahrgang 1983. In Großbritannien war das Volk standhaft und verlor erst 1989 das Interesse, was die Band prompt mit der Auflösung quittierte. "Once More" ist nun jedoch nicht, wie weithin kolportiert, ein Best Of-Album mit zwei neuen Songs. Es ist ein komplett neu eingespieltes Album mit zwei neuen Songs ("One More", "Love Is All") und vielen alten Melodien. Dies wiederum hat zur Folge, dass man die Band kaum wieder erkennt, da die alten Trademarks - seichte Synthie-Sounds und Beats aus der Konserve - völlig verschwunden sind. Ähnlich wie der Kollege Midge Ure auf einer Tournee überführen nun auch Spandau Ballet ihr 80er-Oeuvre in ein zeitgemäßes Poprock-Format, das in letzterem Fall seinen Platz problemlos zwischen Take That und Ronan Keating finden sollte. Nur Steve Normans gutes altes Saxophon macht den Unterschied. Was nicht heißt, dass die Versionen schlecht umgesetzt wären: Der Megahit "Gold" behält seinen zeitlos melancholischen Refrain, ein neuer Songpart fügt sich wie selbstverständlich ein und Sänger Hadley schluchzt tatsächlich noch genau so ergreifend (oder nervtötend, je nach Gusto) wie zu Jugendzeiten. "Chant No. 1" zeigt die Oldies sogar überraschend funky. Dass sich selbst ehemals schwer synthetische Songs wie "To Cut A Long Story Short" dem neuen Gitarrenkorsett fügen müssen, mag bedauerlich erscheinen. Mit "I'll Fly For You" und "Through The Barricades" haben Spandau Ballet aber leider auch Songs geschrieben, die man nicht einmal mehr in einer Panflötenversion hören mag. Es gibt dennoch wenig Gründe, warum sich das Formatradio an der neuen Single "Once More" stören sollte, einem schluffig runtergespielten Popsong ohne jegliche Ecken und Kanten. Der zweite neue Song "Love Is All" stammt nicht von Hauptsongwriter Gary Kemp, sondern von Sänger Hadley, was sich für die Zukunft der Band auf Dauer eher hinderlich auswirken könnte. Wie sagte Helge Schneider einmal so schön: "Alkohol bringt die Menschen zusammen - und auseinander." Manchmal ist beides tragisch

laut.de



Die alten 1980er-Hits in neuen Versionen.

In den 1980er-Jahren konnte man als junger Musiker schnell ein paar Millionen Platten verkaufen. So auch Spandau Ballet, eine der englischen Bands, die an das Erbe von Roxy Music anknüpften. Sie waren nie so glamourös wie ihre Konkurrenten, weil ihnen der Goldanzug von ABC oder die Yacht von Duran Duran fehlten. Doch die im Kern aus Sänger Tony Hadley sowie den Brüdern Gary und Martin Kemp bestehende Band hatte Songs, die zu den einprägsamsten der meistgeliebten, meistgehassten Pop-Dekade zählen. Fürs Comeback hat nicht nur Hadley ein paar Pfunde abgespeckt, auch „True“, „Gold“ und „Only When You Leave“ bekamen eine Diät verordnet. Statt eine weitere Best-Of-Platte zu veröffentlichen, ging man ins Studio und arrangierte die Hits halbwegs stilvoll um. Wo früher Keyboard und Synthie waren, erklingen Orgel und Piano. Die pathetischen Effekte, zum Beispiel in der Ballade „Through The Barricades“, wurden durch Subtileres ersetzt, nur das häufig präsente Saxofon blieb. Die Songs klingen wie aus einem Guss, das düstere „To Cut A Long Story Short“ und der Karaoke-Hit „Gold“, die früher nichts gemeinsam hatten, stehen hier gut nebeneinander. Die neuen Stücke „Once More“ und „Love Is All“ hätte man sich dagegen sparen können. Hier wird der Unterschied zwischen gutem, seelenschürfendem Kitsch und banalem Kitsch allzu deutlich. Sie sollen den Applaus genießen, aber     besser kein neues Studioalbum mehr machen.

Sebastian Fasthuber
© 2007-2009 by now!

 

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