Spandau Ballet Celebrate Their Career With ’40 Years – The Greatest Hits’
Spandau Ballet are celebrating a sensational 40 year career with a new record, 40 Years – The Greatest Hits.
40 years ago this month Spandau Ballet signed their first recording contract and within a month had released their first single, To Cut A Long Story Short. And as the band’s critically acclaimed 2014 documentary Soulboys Of The Western World showed, Spandau were not just about music, but were the epicentre of fashion and youth culture, with their tuxedos and frilly shirts and their stylised pop sound.
By the mid-80s, Spandau Ballet – composed of Gary and Martin Kemp, John Keeble, Steve Norman, and Tony Hadley – were global megastars, becoming one of the most commercially successful bands of the decade. During their career they scored 23 hit singles and spent a combined total of in excess of 500 weeks in the UK charts, achieving album sales of over 25 million worldwide.
Some of their songs, such as True, Gold and Through The Barricades, all written by the band’s songwriter Gary Kemp, have become standards.
While the group may have originally only lasted 10 years, they returned with the hugely successful sell-out Reformation Tour of 2009/10 and then once more with the Soul Boys Of The Western World tour in 2014. And what’s more, their legacy and cultural impact has thrived across the 40 years since they arrived on the music scene.
40 Years – The Greatest Hits celebrates that legacy and brings all their hit singles and 12″ versions together for the first time. Fans can enjoy the new album on multiple formats, including 3CD and 2LP sets, as well as 40th anniversary ruby coloured vinyl.
Also included is a previously unreleased version of Simon & Garfunkel’s hit, The Boxer, recorded in 1990 with the legendary producer, arranger and film composer, Michael Kamen. The song will be available to hear on 13th November.
The album is released by Reformation/Parlophone on 27th November and can be pre-ordered here