Spandau Ballet True

"If you know this one, you're showing your age," a wry Tony Hadley says by way of introducing "Cut a Long Story Short," Spandau Ballet's 1980 hit from their formative years as a prototype New Romantics band. Still fun, still refreshing with its post-punk vitality and Bowie-esque sound, "Cut a Long Story Short" cheerfully closes out this 1990 Birmingham, England, concert before a massive crowd. Not that the preceding 17 or so songs on this performance document are anything less than spirited.

Spandau Ballet are a British band who formed in London in the late 1970s. Initially inspired by the New Romantic fashion, their music has featured a mixture of funk, jazz, soul and synthpop. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s, achieving ten Top Ten singles and four Top Ten albums in the UK between 1979 and 1990. Their 2 evergreens are "True" and "Gold" but there are others 'golds' to be dug out from the band. The band split acrimoniously in 1990, but announced their reunion in 2009. This DVD Audio extract of their 1986 performance shows the strength and power in their live music. As far as I'm concerned, even better than their studio recordings.

Spandau Ballet - Live From The N.E.C (2005) [DVD9 PAL]
DVD9 -> 6.11 Gb | All Regions | PAL 16:9 | 01:14:07 | ISO Image
Audio: English (Dolby AC3, 6 ch) / English (LinearPCM, 2 ch) / English (DTS, 6 ch) / English (Dolby AC3, 2 ch)
© 2005 SME S / SMV | 201258 9
Rock / New Wave / New Romantic

Spandau Ballet were nearing the end of their time as a commercial force when this 74-minute concert documentary was filmed in Birmingham on December 16 and 17 in 1986. However, they were still packing the seats in front of a large, enthusiastic crowd on this well-shot movie, directed by one of the most prominent figures in music documentary-making (Geoff Wonfor, most famous for directing The Beatles Anthology series). It's a straightforward record of a flashy mid-'80s hit pop band in concert, with plenty of shadowy, shifting colored lighting and much slick posing by the fashionably dressed on-stage players. The 13-song set contains a number of their biggest hit singles, including "True," "Gold," "Through the Barricades," "Fight for Ourselves," "Chant No. 1," "To Cut a Long Story Short," and "Lifeline."