Tony Hadley

I've been a fan of Spandau's since the early days, yes I am that old.  And I've had the opportunity to meet the man in question a couple of times and he's so lovely.
When Tony Hadley announced his few dates in the UK for this latest tour, with the backing of the Southbank Sinfonia I knew it was gonna be something special, so I jumped right on that bandwagon.

Having a career spanning a lifetime, which is what it seems like, A Pioneer of the 80s Romantic movement, Spandau Ballet formed in 1978, so yes it is a lifetime, I've been through every emotion being a Spandau fan, seeing them on the 'Parade' Tour and 'Through the Barricades' tour and obviously just recently frequenting both the comeback tour and the last Spandau tour.  The saddest fact is, I can remember playing all my vinyl on a Saturday afternoon, doing my homework in my Mom's front room, those were the days eh?

So tonight was gonna be an epic evening of gigantic proportions to say the least. Hadley never disappoints vocally and tonight was no surprise, he showed he still has it, even after all these years.

Symphony Hall provided to be the most amazing venue for this show, the orchestra fitted snuggly on stage with Hadley's band, the acoustics were perfect, the arrangements of the songs were astounding and Hadley did himself proud.

The show was over two sections with an interval, slap bang in the middle, with Hadley covering just under two hours of first class entertainment.  The first section of the show was a selection of Hadley's favourite tunes, mainly covers, standout tunes of the set were Bowie's 'Life on Mars',  The Killers 'Somebody Told Me' and Queen's 'Somebody to Love'.

Hadley referred to the second portion of the show as "Singalonga Tone", and he was right there.  It was the Spandau back catalogue with hit after hit, but obviously having a new twist with all the different arrangements with the accompaniment of the Orchestra.

Everyone was up for a party and they were on their feet for much of the second half of the show.  It kicked off with early Spandau number 'To Cut A Long Story Short', the crowd lapped it up, obviously they were all my age, forties and fifties and had lived through all the original hits in their teens.  

It was a definite trip down memory lane, I kept thinking bout when I was a Teen thinking how hot all the Spandau boys were.  But what epic memories I had of standing on my seat at the then NEC waving my arms to 'True'.

We were treated to a hit extravaganza, 'Highly Strung', 'Round and Round' and 'Musclebound', Hadley showed tonight that he's still the man and he still has that strong, epic voice from back in the day.

Obviously the best tunes were last on the running order of the set, 'True', which was truly outstanding and the epic and spine chilling 'Through the Barricades',  if this didn't give you goose pimples your dead inside, the audience were doing the cheesy sway from side to side, Hadley had them in the palm of his hand now,  A stonking rendition of 'Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)', as well as the wonderful 'Lifeline'  and epic 'Fight For Ourselves' went down an absolute storm.

As if that wasn't enough the audience were left wanting more with the Encore and again Hadley didn't disappoint finishing the set off in style with Spandau classic 'Gold' and topping that off with Sinatra's 'My Way'.

All I can say is if Hadley still sings like this at 56 and gives such astounding entertainment value, there's life in the old dog yet, you must do your utmost to catch one of these shows for sure.