Live in 2023: Spandau Too at Acapela Stdios, Pentyrch on Saturday 15th April 2023

 

It was going to take something a bit special - a lot special actually - to bring me out of my self imposed blogging retirement. Lockdown and no gigs took away my musical spirit for a while and I've been gradually getting it back.

Tonight at Acapela, I witnessed something a LOT special. Spandau Too blew the roof off the Acapela,

Now, I'm there at least every other week watching a huge variety of bands and artists and I've had some great nights there but not many leave me hoarse from singing. Tonight did.

A relatively new tribute band, less than a year, Spandau Too have chosen some of the toughest songs to present live. Ove their six album career Spandau Ballet went from young Soul Boys to a sophisticated purveyor of fine songsmithery with intricate arrangements and instrumentation. And TOO deserve applause for successfully recreating these fabulous tunes. All famously composed by Gary Kemp - except for 2 Tony Hadley solo songs, tonight's 2 hour set recreated the band at their height of their power.

With the normal Acapela 'game of two halves' the band played two 1 hour sets with a break, which for an audience now of certain vintage was a relief for a couple of reasons.

The band kicked off set one with the first single - To Cut A Long Story Short

It's obvious from song one that these know how to play. And Ian's voice is enough like Hadley's to carry off the songs with the same conviction, power and drama that Tony put into every song he sung. 

All six of the albums were visited in tonight's set with most of the biggest hits held over for the second half. a wise choice as a section of the crowd were up and dancing in the second half.

Part one included such beauties as Communication, I'll Fly For You and Round and Round

We were also treated to lesser known Spandau songs such as Foundation, a fabulous version of Swept and a two part version of Pride.

Swept

The highlight of part one was a storming version of the Through The Barricades where vocalist Ian Pont really showed the power behind his vocals.

Spandau Too - Through The Barricades

Part one ended with one of the Tony Hadley solo songs - the uplifting Because Of You - the perfect way to leave the crowd wanting more.

Tony Hadley - Because Of You

Part Two opened with the second of Tony Hadley's solo songs - Take Back Everything, another uplifting and uptempo number.

As I said earlier, most of the big hits were held back for part 2 and with the audience now up and dancing it was lift off in Acapela.

The first big surprise of Part 2 was a spirited version of Glow which was part of the Musclebound release as a double A side in 81 and never appeared on the Journeys To Glory debut.

Spandau ballet - Glow

Next up we had the The Freeze from Journeys before two of my favourites,

Lifeline from True and Instinction from Diamond with enough of the Trevor Horn dynamism which made the remix probably my favourite Spandau song. 'Stealing Cake To Eat The Moon', indeed.

Spandau Ballet - Instinction

Spandau Ballet - Lifeline

Only When You Leave was up next - a slight breather before we return to Diamonds and the powerhouse duo of Chant Number 1 and Paint Me Down.

By now the band had the audience in the palm of their hand and they saved the 2 biggest hits until the final two songs. Unbeliveably as i write, the true album has just celebrated it's 40th birthday. Where the hell did that 40 years go????????

Acapela was now singing on the top of it's voice and really, it was quite moving. Even the boys were singing!

The final song, was of course Gold!

It really was a privilege to be here tonight to hear these fabulous songs played live. The audience loved the show - plenty of handshakes at the end didn't go unnoticed and hopefully the band will be invited back to play another show - if so, please include Heaven Is A Secret. 

Please visit the Spandau Too website for the full line up of tonight's band.

All photos copyright ©️ Nick Baker 2023

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