When Tony Hadley left Spandau Ballet, it could have finished them. Instead – for a short time at least – they recruited a younger singer – in musicals star Ross William Wild. In this interview from 2018, they told us: “We’d gone a bit stagnant and were taking life for granted. Now we’ve got our excitement back.”
Culture Club with Sam Butcher. Genesis with Ray Wilson. INXS with J.D. Fortune: the history of bands replacing their lead singer can be ugly at times. But it can go gloriously right, too – AC/DC thrived with Brian Johnson and then Axl Rose, and Genesis didn’t do badly with Phil Collins instead of Peter Gabriel… The peril of the newbie is an unpredictable saga that Spandau Ballet 2.0 are very much aware of.
When Spandau first reformed after 19 years for a tour in 2009, it was hugely unlikely, given that the last time they’d been seen in public together was at the High Court after Tony Hadley, Steve Norman and John Keeble unsuccessfully sued Gary Kemp for a share of songwriting royalties – an experience the neutral Martin Kemp likened to “seeing your parents get divorced”.
That tour was a triumph, as was a second run in 2014 alongside the compelling Spandau documentary film Soul Boys Of The Western World. There were new songs, too: two spiced up that year’s singles compilation, Once More.
And then, in July 2017, Tony Hadley was gone. The singer’s announcement on Twitter that “circumstances beyond my control” were forcing him out of the band seemed sudden. Hadley has since mysteriously claimed that “the others know why I’ve had to go”, without so far going into details.
This June, just under a year after Hadley’s departure, Ross William Wild joined – little-known publicly, but a singer with a strong reputation in West End musicals, where he’d played Freddie Mercury in We Will Rock You and Elvis Presley in Million Dollar Quartet. The latter musical’s co-stars included Martin Kemp as Sun Records boss Sam Phillips.
Musical youth
It’s Martin who acknowledges the battles the band face for a new vocalist to be accepted. “There are bands where the new singers haven’t worked out for them, but there are bands where it has,” he states. “There’s lots of each, and all you can do is realise you have to play it sensibly.
“We’re building things back up slowly, bit by bit. If people want more, we’ll give them more. What wouldn’t have worked is if we’d got Ross in and gone: ‘Right then, we’re back!’ and immediately announced three shows at The O2.”
Instead, Spandau are playing a one-off show at Hammersmith Apollo on 29 October. Well, it’s a one-off for now, but all five of the band talk excitedly about plans to play “as much as possible” in 2019, with a string of festival shows likely.
It’s clear Spandau want to succeed with Ross and that they feel they have to make up for time lost thanks to Hadley’s non-committal second spell in the band.
As Gary Kemp puts it: “Ross is so excited and thrilled to be in Spandau. Our expectation for our future is now so much higher, because there’s no longer any edginess when we rehearse. That’s a shame, because it would have been nice if it was like that with Tony. But it just wasn’t.”
Ross is the last member of Spandau to be interviewed for our feature – the Kemps had spoken separately a few days before, with Ross meant to join Steve Norman and John Keeble at the West London office of Spandau’s affable manager Steve Dagger, the former schoolfriend of Gary and Steve who has masterminded the band’s success since Day One. Ross, however, is late.
There’s an irony here: Tony Hadley was perpetually late “for everything” when he was in the band. Now, so is their new singer. “Turns out it’s same old, same old,” says a smiling Steve. Where Ross differs from the Tony Hadley of Spandau’s two reunion tours is the energy the rest of Spandau all note about the new boy.
Speaking about the audition process for a new singer just before Ross’ arrival, Steve had said: “The look of the new singer was important. The energy some people have affects the room more than others and Ross definitely has that. He’s the life and soul of the party, without having to push it.”
When Ross does skitter in after half an hour, it transpires his bandmates weren’t wrong about his energy. Breathlessly full of hugs and apologies about having to collect a passport, Ross is tall, slim, classically good-looking enough to be in a boy band.
As excitable as the 30-year-old is to find himself suddenly singing in one of pop’s best-selling bands, there’s also a calm authority to Ross when he joins in the conversation.
He’s not out of place with his elder bandmates. “Ross is a great singer, he looks good and he can perform,” says Gary. “They’re the most important qualities. But we also now know that Ross isn’t egotistical, he’s very friendly, easy to get on with and there’s not a father/son dynamic going on. We’re not condescending to Ross and he’s got his own ideas for the band. So it all works.”
Spandex ballet
Early on in Million Dollar Quartet, Martin claims that, when he praised Ross’ performance as Elvis, his co-star responded: “You should hear my Tony Hadley.” Martin admits: “I thought it was a throwaway remark, but you never know…”
Steve and John hadn’t heard this, and roar with laughter, drawing in to hear Ross’s response: “I didn’t mean anything by it, I was just being cheeky. I wasn’t thinking of joining the band then, honest – I’d no idea they were looking for a new singer. But I’ll admit to showing off in front of Martin. Playing Elvis, my vocals had to be super-low, but I prefer singing high. So in warm-ups backstage, I’d sing operatic rock in front of Martin.
“He went: ‘Fuck, you’ve got some voice!’ and because he knows people in the entertainment industry, I thought: ‘Maybe he can take me away from all this!’” To which a deadpan John interjects: “Then you found out Martin was only a bass player and you were wasting your time.”
When Ross auditioned for Spandau, he actually had no idea which band he was trying to join. A secretive ad on Twitter forwarded to Ross by a casting director friend merely said a British band was “looking for a singer for an arena tour”.
Ross became frustrated trying to find out what type of song he should sing at the audition, with the secrecy surrounding Spandau’s search meaning no clues were forthcoming. Ross says: “I told the casting director: ‘Look, you’re just confusing me about what they want. So here’s a video of me singing Queen, and if the band likes it, I’ll sing their stuff at the next stage’.”
It turns out the other four members of Spandau Ballet liked Ross’ take on The Show Must Go On very much indeed.
The Spandau Ballet auditions must go on
Before seeing Ross, they’d auditioned roughly 15 singers. “There was no blueprint about what type of singer we wanted,” says Martin. “It was all up for grabs, and we tried all different styles.” None were quite right; some were total disasters. “Some of them lost the room as soon as they walked in, before they even got to the microphone,” recalls John.
None of Spandau were particularly comfortable with the idea of auditions in the first place. “The last time I’d had to say: ‘Yeah, that’s our singer’, I was 17, when we found Tony,” laughs John. “And even then, I said: ‘I’m not being in a fucking band with him.’ I had to be persuaded by the others that Tony was right.
“This time round, it felt so much like judging The X Factor that at times, I thought I should be wearing a red dress like Nicole Scherzinger. Nobody was right, and when some of them sang I could see Martin give me a look of, ‘Why am I even here?’”
Despairing of finding the ideal candidate, Steve admits the band began considering a compromise singer from the auditionees. “We didn’t know any better, so we started going: ‘Well, that guy can handle the tunes, I guess…’ And then we hit on Ross, and it was just such a massive step up on everyone else.”
Martin says Tony’s departure made the band reassess their future. They’d been back for eight years, but only completed two tours and two new songs. How convincing was the comeback, after all? “When Tony was back in the band, we were taking life for granted a bit,” confesses the bassist.
“Spandau had gone slightly stagnant. We’d all become too set in our ways, thinking Spandau was going to go on forever. Tony leaving made us realise, no, this didn’t have to go on forever. We had to really want it if there was to be a future.”
It’s Martin who is most amenable to Tony’s reasons for leaving the band. Having seen both sides of the ‘brother vs. bandmates’ court case in 1999, he accepts that Tony Hadley enjoys being a solo singer more than being one-fifth of Spandau Ballet.
- Read more: Tony Hadley interview
- Read more: Making Spandau Ballet’s Journeys To Glory
“Tony wanted to do his own thing, and I absolutely respect that,” Martin considers. “Nobody should ever be in a position where they’re being held back by others from wanting to do their own thing. You only get one crack at life, so if that’s what you want to do, go do it. Tony was part of my life growing up, and I’ll always love and respect him.”
Martin’s elder brother insists he’d happily swap small talk if he bumped into Tony – “The same as ever: ‘How’s the family? How’s the kids?’” – but admits he was frustrated at the singer’s attitude before the second reunion tour of 2014.
Gary says: “If you’re in a band, it needs to be fun. If you don’t want to do it, it’s like being in an office job. There was a lot of tension in the room when Tony was in the band. When we came back again, so much persuasion was needed – lunches and begging went on to get Tony back a second time. There was a great divide between us, because we’d always have to rehearse without Tony until the very end.”
Five years
Far from forcing Tony out of the band, his former bandmates maintain Hadley eventually resigned. After the 2014 tour, Tony initially insisted his solo career meant he’d be unable to do anything with Spandau for another five years.
“We’re all too old to be sat around waiting for five years,” sighs Gary. Offers were coming in for prestigious shows; Steve confirms these included headlining the British Summer Time festival at Hyde Park and a slot second on the bill to Queen at Isle Of Wight Festival. “These were great offers, and we kept asking Tony to do things sooner than five years, but he wouldn’t budge,” explains Gary.
Steve adds: “At our age, it was so frustrating. I hope I never have to retire, but you’ve got to think about it. So when these great gigs are cancelled, what else do you do? ‘Oh well, I’d best get back to my own solo project’… I don’t need that when I’m knocking 60!”
To end the impasse, Gary says Tony sent an email shortly before his Twitter announcement. He says: “We got an email from Tony saying, ‘Look, I wouldn’t mind if Gary or Steve want to sing, or if you find someone else new’. And at that point, we started looking for a new singer. Tony’s announcement was irrelevant, because we knew he didn’t want to be in the band, anyway. He’d told us to find someone else.”
Steve is furious at Tony’s statement that he was forced out of the band, saying: “I don’t want to come across as angry at Tony, as we had so much great joy and love in the past. But, personally, yes I am angry. I can’t work out why Tony seems to think we kicked him out. He left, and that’s fine, but why not just say that and move on?
“Even after the last show together, at the airport coming back from Hong Kong, I asked him: ‘Tone, you are definitely going forward with all this?’ And his attitude was cagey – ‘Yeah… well… yeaaahhh… I’ve got to look after myself.’ And that’s fine, but don’t try to create this mystery, because there is none. ‘They know why I had to leave’? That’s a joke, it’s bollocks. That pisses me off.”
While John doesn’t offer his opinions on Tony’s departure, Steve and Gary believe Tony remained upset at the fallout of the High Court songwriting royalties case. Asked what he’d say to Tony now, Steve says: “I’d ask him, ‘Why don’t you just let it all go? Things have pissed you off in the past. They’ve pissed me off, too, but you know what? I’ve left them in the past. I’ve moved on, and you can do that, too.’”
- Read more: The story of the New Romantics
All of the original Spandau line-up bar Spurs-supporting Steve are hardcore Arsenal fans, and Gary uses a football analogy to compare Ross and Tony’s attitudes to being in Spandau: “We’re like a football team whose striker had fallen out with the rest of the dressing room, because he isn’t really turning up on the day of the match and has no enthusiasm to score. And we’ve just signed a new striker who wants to put the ball in the net.”
Take an early lead
Ross’ debut for Spandau Ballet’s five-a-side team was in June, with a show at intimate London club Subterania to 600 fans. Ross confides: “I was incredibly nervous. The initial idea was that nobody knew who the new singer was going to be until I walked on stage, but one of the tabloids found out it was me a few days before. As the week went on, I thought it was fine people knew.
“But on show day, just before going on stage, I started thinking it added even more pressure, because there was no anonymity to hide behind. The fans knowing my name and what I look like added an expectation that hadn’t been there before. So, yeah, I was really nervous! No joke, one of our roadies had to give me a little push to get me on stage.”
At Martin’s suggestion, the gig started with the ultimate Spandau fan favourite, Through The Barricades. “Martin doesn’t say much but, when he does, it’s always worth listening to,” laughs Steve. Ross says: “I was massively aware how important Through The Barricades is in Spandau’s history.
“The weight of that song was on my shoulders. But I was really happy to start with it, because it got it out of the way straight away and lets people know who I am. And it’s actually easy to sing – it’s soft and tender at the beginning, there’s an intimate moment and then it smashes out. It’s got a nice gradient for a singer.”
United as the new line-up are in wanting to tour copiously next year, there is one remaining divide in the ranks: the importance of new songs. Intriguingly, it’s Gary Kemp – the sole songwriter in Spandau’s golden years – who’s most cautious about new material.
Gary reasons: “I wrote quite a bit early on this year. Lyrically, my songs tend to be about me now. At 58, what should I do with those? Should I give those to a 30-year-old to sing? Maybe I should, maybe I shouldn’t. They’re about life experiences, not kids and grandkids.
“But it’s important to bed Ross in as a member of the band first. His voice is so new to people used to Tony’s voice, to pile new material on top of that would put us at a disadvantage,” Gary continues.
“We need to do more shows and feel comfortable as a live unit first – that’s what we enjoy most in Spandau. Look, when Spandau play live, our existing canon has to take up 7/8th of the set. When I see The Who, I don’t want to hear new material!”
John believes Gary’s reticence over new songs is partly because his focus has changed in the 29 years since Spandau’s last full album, Heart Like A Sky. Gary has recently toured in Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason’s band.
“Gary is a songwriter who used to play a bit of guitar, and now it’s the other way round,” says John. “Gary’s gone back in time, to how he was 40 years ago, playing guitar in his garage.”
For his part, John believes Spandau’s next songs could showcase any of their different styles, while Steve believes new songs are “essential” to Spandau’s future. “We’ve had the boat rocked, and we know we have to prove ourselves again. That’ll come out in new material.
“We all know Gary is the best songwriter in the band, but that doesn’t mean no one else can come up with a tune… On the next album, I think there should be one song where all five of us go in and write together.”
Ross is equally keen to contribute, saying: “Writing songs has been my biggest passion since I was eight. It’s why I do what I do. I’d love to do it with Spandau.”
It’s Martin Kemp – who admits being in Spandau is “the only time I can take a backseat in my life” – who best sums up Spandau Ballet’s future. “Things have been shaken up,” he admits. “But we’ve brought in some younger blood, and he’s given a bit of excitement back into the pack. That can only be good for our future.” There can be no guarantees, but for now, Spandau Ballet Mk II are looking more AC/DC than INXS.
- Read more: Gary Kemp interview
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The post Spandau Ballet interview: Brave new world appeared first on Classic Pop Magazine.
