Day 77: Spandau Ballet – True

Album cover courtesy of Chrysalis

Spandau Ballet is one of those bands that keeps popping up here and there. Maybe that’s a UK thing, I don’t think they were even that big elsewhere but for some reason, they crop up for me often. I’ve heard the songs “True” and “Gold” before, but I don’t actually know much about Spandau Ballet and definitely haven’t sat down to ever listen to one of their records, so I thought I’d give them a go.

Formed in 1979, Spandau Ballet was a new wave band from north London. They were a part of the New Romantics movement in British pop, along with bands like Duran Duran and Culture Club. The band featured brothers Gary and Martin Kemp on guitar and bass respectively, along with vocalist Tony Handley, drummer John Keeble and saxophonist Steve Norman.

True was released in 1983 and featured their biggest hits, the previously mentioned “True” and “Gold”. It’s a perfectly decent record, albeit maybe a little bit boring. The songs are good, but nothing about it is particularly mind-blowing, it’s just somewhat enjoyable. The hits and “Code of Love” are maybe the strongest on the record, the rest of them are fine.

True is a solid 6.5/10. Maybe it’s because I’m tired or maybe it’s because of the album, but I can’t even be bothered to yammer on about it any further. It’s not bad, but there’s better ‘80s music from some of the other New Romantics.

Also, I found out that Martin Kemp starred in a 1995 straight-to-video erotic horror film called Embrace of the Vampire that somebody on IMDb called an “Embarrassment to the Vampire movie genre” – very interesting, that’s going straight on the watch list.