Spandau Ballet

Spandau ballet reunion tour started and their fans went wild. Everybody couldn't wait to see Tony, Gary, Martin, Steve and John all back together as we never thought it would happen again.

After splitting up 20 years ago the band finally decided to get back together and do a tour of the world. They went to London, Madrid ect. Their fans rolled in by the thousands to watch this legendary band re-united. While standing in the stalls the audience impatiently waited to see the one and only Spandau Ballet then the lights lit up ..

All I could hear was the cheers of the people around me and the screaming of the women and some of the men!!! A video showing them back in the day flashed up on a large screen above the stage. Then the lights went down and behind a siphon curtain I could see the shadows of the band. Standing there like statues they waited as the audience waited for their long lost band to play.

The clicking of the drumsticks echoed through the arena as John Keeble counted the band in. the siphon curtain was released and it rippled to the floor. On stage the band burst into life after being silenced for 20 years. The music rushed through my ears like wind running through my hair. I felt the bass underneath my feet as it pounded in time with my heart. The drum bellowed around the arena, letting everybody know that he was the boss of the band.

I know then that this was the most exciting night of my life.

The reunion tour we never thought would happen continued last night at a packed O2 Arena in London. The second of three nights at the venue began with Tony Hadley asking us "What have you been doing the last twenty years?" - with about as much enthusiasm as Amy Winehouse in a drying out clinic. Only the sixth date of a European tour lasting until March 2010, one can only imagine how tired the same lines will sound 17 dates later in Madrid.

Spandau Ballet's story about having made up after 20 years of well publicised fall outs and the infamous High Court case seemed ever so slightly unbelievable. Individually the band all look as if they are having the time of their lives playing once again to a 20,000 strong crowd. But to look at the band as a whole, you can't help thinking they did it for the money and nothing else. Martin Kemp played his bass during the two hour set with a perma grin on his face, to screams from the 40 something crowd. But it was Hadley, John Keeble and the brilliant saxaphonist Steve Norman who showed the most enthusiasm - perhaps because they need the money more than the Kemp brothers.

Tony Hadley, who receives stick these days almost everywhere he goes for being rather more chunky than he was in the band's heyday, was pitch perfect in every song. His distinctive, loud and sometimes booming voice just seems to work - with the ballads ("Through the Barricades", "Round And Round") and especially with the uptempo numbers, in particular "Only When You Leave", "Communication" and "To Cut A Long Story Short". If anything his voice has only improved over the years. And a Spandau song isn't a Spandau song without Steve Norman on his sax during the instrumental break. These two definitely stole the show, but as always, the screams were loudest for Martin Kemp who doesn't appear to have aged at all since 1990.

The band appeared on stage looking dapper in their suits and changed for the encore into jeans and vest tops (except Hadley who kept his suit on)

Overall they looked fantastic, sounded fantastic and gave the crowd what they wanted; all the hits (bar "Musclebound") and the new single "Once More" - a classic ballad with a key change and poignant lyrics. They made up for the slight lack of sincerity with two hours of well written and well performed pop songs. The Islington boys have certainly made a lot of 35-45 year old housewives very happy with their comeback.