Gig review: Spandau Ballet

Published on Sunday 18 October 2009 23:10

SPANDAU BALLET SECC, GLASGOW * * *

WHAT'S most impressive about this latest in a line of revival packages from the great pop artists of yesteryear is the way it doesn't try to be anything other than a straight period piece.

It's like an episode of The Tube beamed on to the stage in glorious 3D, with Tony Hadley modelling a dark suit and a tie that's skinnier than he is. Gary Kemp's blue velvet waistcoat is an anachronism, but not as much as the camp black leather vest his brother Martin sports during the encore.

Even backing singer Dawn Joseph, much younger than the others on stage, proudly wears a black leotard and suit jacket combination, her blonde hair heaped on her head in a sheer quiff which puts La Roux's to shame.

Spandau Ballet were never going to be able to emulate the zeitgeist-recapturing efforts of other revived boybands such as Take That or even Duran Duran: they remain the teen fantasies of a hall full of game middle-aged women, and the gasping and whooping and singing along during the bigger hits Gold, True, Through the Barricades suggests their heart-throb status survives intact.

During the brazen, time-locked electro-funk of Instinction, Chant No.1 and Fight for Ourselves, the Kemps and multi-instrumentalist Steve Norman stalk the stage with a poseurish strut that's entirely acceptable in the face of their female fans' appreciation.

For those who never thought they'd see this reunion, though, the sight of the once bitterly-feuding Hadley and Gary Kemp sharing the stage for a joint acoustic break must have been the highlight of an evening that took them right back to the good old days.