Gary Kemp is open to a Spandau Ballet reunion.
The chart-topping band – which also comprised Tony Hadley, John Keeble, Steve Norman and Martin Kemp – were at the forefront of the New Romantic movement in the 1980s and they topped the charts all over the globe with hit songs such as ‘Through the Barricades’, ‘True’ and ‘Gold’.
Tony quit as lead singer in July 2017 and insisted he wanted nothing more to do with the band, while the group briefly hitting the road with since-disgraced singer and actor Ross William Wild, who quit in 2019, and was found guilty of rape, sexual assault and voyeurism.
In a new interview to promote his new solo album ‘This Destination’, Gary admitted he would be willing to discuss getting the group back together – if Tony gives him a call.
He told The Telegraph: “I mean, it’s not like a kind of Johnny Marr-Morrissey thing where one person’s gone mad… If Tony phoned me. I’d definitely talk about it.”
However, the chances of Tony – who regularly tours solo – picking up the phone is slim, as in 2023, he told The Mirror: “You could offer me all the tea in China and I wouldn’t get back with them.”
Gary, 65, claims he only ever had a working relationship Tony, 64, and never saw him as a friend outside of the band.
He said: “People said, but you used to be such great friends. Well, actually, we were just workmates, really, because, you know, he was the only bloke who played drums. He was the only bloke we knew who could sing.”
Gary, who was lead guitarist, backing vocalist, and principal songwriter for Spandau, accepts that his solo music will never do as well as the popular group, but he relishes the chance to pen “serious music” for himself.
He noted: “I can’t write pop songs for Spandau Ballet, but I can write serious music for myself. I mean, it’s not going to sell as much but, you know, I’m prouder of it.”
Spandau acrimoniously went their separate ways in 1990 and were locked in a High Court battle over royalties, which saw Tony, Steve and John launch an unsuccessful court case against Gary for a share of his songwriting royalties.
The new wave legends – who formed in 1979 – made a comeback in 2009 with a world tour, before parting ways again in 2019.