Spandau Ballet

Employing a style similar to the Rolling Stones documentary ‘Crossfire Hurricane’, Spandau Ballet: Soul Boys of the Western World’ uses archive footage, riveting library film and fresh commentary from the band to create an impassioned and loving document about a band who despite global success are known yet unknown. This film redresses the balance.

Director George Hencken has lovingly assembled a document using wonderful archive footage, her tenure with Julien Temple (The Filth and the Fury, Oil City Confidential) in full evidence.

The film tells the back story of five friends from North London who coalesced at the bleak end of the 1970s and began to ascend at the dawn of the 80s. The new decade saw the emergence of the Blitz Club in London with its crowd of wannabes, gonnabes and never weres and Spandau capitalised on this nascent energy and ran with it. The thriving scene was a site of transformation, of wonderment and escapism.

Comprised of five uniquely individual characters: Gary Kemp the autocrat, Tony Hadley the single-minded vox box, John Keeble the voice of reason and lynchpin, the fragile and endearing Steve Norman and the laconic Martin Kemp the documentary tells a familiar tale of hard work, dedication, sheer will, friendship, success, acrimony and redemption this is a classic rock and roll tale of ‘money, drugs, women and ego’. In the elder Kemp’s case he had the latter in spades. He took control in every way and without his drive they wouldn’t have got out of Islington, London.

The film has a telling photograph of him reading ‘The Prince’ by Machiavelli on a plane, the go-to-tome of how to rule so beloved of political power players. There are visible signs of tension etched on his face when Tony Hadley makes a quip about Japan (the country!) not buying the records. Compared to today’s PR orchestrated, scripted and media trained, charisma-free droids, episodes like these add further credence to the mantra ‘the camera never lies’; these are revealing insights.

Following the success of the still future echo ‘New Pop’ of ‘To Cut a Long Story Short’ and the nu-soul sheen of ‘Gold’ they struggled to compete with their peers (Duran Duran, Human League) resorting to jumping on bandwagons (and a residency in St Tropez) until they hit the spot with the world bestriding ‘True’ in 1983 that classic end of school disco anthem.

By 1990 with the Kemps venturing back into the acting world and after 10 years of incessant recording, touring and promoting, the band split, familiarity had bred contempt. In 1999, Hadley, Keeble and Norman sued Kemp over unpaid royalties, a perennial bone of contention. The result swung in Kemp’s favour pouring more salt into wounds. With that in mind it is remarkable and testament to the healing powers of time and the bonds of friendship that in 2009, almost 20 years since they parted the band got together again selling out arenas in the process.

This is a warts and all summary of the exhilaration and insanity of a touring band, the thrill and spills of being young, desired, adored and how friendships can be strained, tested and fractured; capturing the togetherness and unity and subsequent deterioration. The film encapsulates the qualities that Tony Hadley believed the band to espouse, ‘elegance and romance’ and more than the sum of its parts.

SOUL BOYS OF THE WESTERN WORLD will be in cinemas across the UK and Ireland on Tuesday 30 September including a live satellite performance from the Royal Albert Hall by Spandau Ballet. Tickets are on sale now from www.spandauballetthemovie.com

The film is on general release from 3 October.