Say the title Tony Hadley to anybody who was younger within the 80s and so they’ll immediately think about him as he was on the zenith of his Spandau Ballet fame, all ruffled shirts, satin fits, costume jewelry and cantilevered hair.
Converse to the person himself, nonetheless, and he’s mortified by the thought of being compelled right into a pair of leather-based trousers ever once more. ‘There’s nothing worse than seeing folks from a sure decade who’re 50, 60, 70 years of age, nonetheless dressing as in the event that they have been youngsters. Embarrassing,’ he shudders.
‘I feel you must develop previous gracefully. Have a look at Robert Palmer, he was tremendous cool, a kind of gentleman rocker. I like that.’
Forty years on from when Tony’s voice was the soundtrack of my teenagers, he might lay declare to being a gentleman rocker himself.
He’s craggier today, has a dodgy knee (he slipped in Italy this August) and has deserted his former peacockery in favour of well-tailored fits from Savile Row tailor Souster & Hicks.
Tony Hadley, 63, has an album due out quickly, a full diary of summer season 2024 competition bookings plus a brand new present touring the nation in March
However that voice, the one which helped outline a decade and made Spandau Ballet a supergroup, properly, nothing’s modified there. It’s nonetheless a factor of uncooked energy and wealthy emotion, simply because it was when lyricist Tim Rice described it as a present ‘few of his contemporaries got here close to to matching’.
Tony says, ‘No matter I sing I sound like Tony Hadley. I simply preserve transferring ahead, making music. The very last thing I need is to turn out to be my very own tribute act.’
This cheerful acceptance of the arc of his lengthy profession, with its triumphs and hardships and his personal advancing years is – endearingly – not very rock’n’roll.
Tony, now 63, doesn’t thoughts recounting the time he fell down an extended flight of stairs, touchdown in entrance of 10,000 followers at Wembley, as a result of he’d forgotten to scuff the soles of his new cowboy boots. ‘A schoolboy error.’
Or admitting, extra not too long ago, he forgot the lyrics to the evergreen Spandau hit Gold on stage at Cheltenham Jazz Competition. ‘Somebody within the viewers did one thing which distracted me and I misplaced my place. I simply mentioned, “That’s jazz…”’
Ask him for an actual rock star anecdote, one thing to do with groupies or non-public jets or 24-hour benders from the period when he fronted a band that’s bought 25 million information, and he laughs and says, ‘Oh no, I’m an actual Norman Regular. I made a decision that was going to be the case from the beginning.
‘There was no method I needed to dwell on this gilded cage, which irritated a number of the Spandau boys within the early days, as a result of I might nonetheless go to the pub with my oldest mates. I simply do a job, it occurs to be an exquisite job, a blessed job, nevertheless it doesn’t make me any completely different from anyone else.
‘Plus you’ve got a accountability to that job. The one factor that’s going to cancel a present is the singer – it’s not going to be as a result of the amp doesn’t work or the strings have bust on the guitar or the skins have gone on the drums.
’Touring, I’d actually have a few beers and fall asleep. If you happen to stayed up till 4 or 5 within the morning clubbing, screaming, it’d be a miracle in the event you have been capable of carry out the subsequent day. I couldn’t try this.’
So the Hadley voice continues to be in mint situation and he sings in the identical key he all the time has, in contrast to some vocalists who’re unable to achieve their heyday excessive notes in older age. He has an album due out quickly, a full diary of summer season 2024 competition bookings plus a brand new swing present touring the nation in March.
Swing was the music of his childhood, his mum Pat enjoying requirements by Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra as she made the Sunday roast on the north London household house.
Later, when a teenage Tony advised his mom and his father John (who labored for the Day by day Mail as {an electrical} engineer) he needed to be a pop star, they insisted he be taught his craft by listening to swing classics in addition to the Intercourse Pistols, The Conflict and Buzzcocks.
Tony really met Sinatra when he was a 17-year-old wannabe, ducking safety and diving throughout the stage of the Royal Albert Corridor to thank his idol for the present. ‘Sinatra mentioned, “Hey son, good to see some youthful folks right here!” which is precisely what I say to folks right now.
‘He requested me what I did and I mentioned I used to be in school however I used to be additionally in a band and needed to be knowledgeable singer. He shook my hand and wished me all the very best. Six years later Spandau Ballet performed the Albert Corridor.’ So it hasn’t labored out too badly then, has it? ‘It’s not labored out badly in any respect,’ he smiles.
Tony (centre) with Spandau Ballet in 1985. The band break up in 2017, which adopted a 2009 reunion after twenty years aside
He’s fortunately settled along with his second spouse Alison, whom he married in 2009. They’ve two daughters, Zara, 16, and Genevieve, 11, and he has three youngsters from his earlier marriage. (Touchingly, the woman with whom he shared his first kiss at 13 behind her dad’s van nonetheless often involves his reveals.)
Profession-wise, he simply needs to maintain on doing what he’s doing. ‘I’m by no means going to retire. I’ve one other 20 years in me. I’m not good at golf, I hate gardening, I don’t acquire stamps. I’m nonetheless like a child in a candy store relating to making music.’
He loves his new materials however has by no means uninterested in the songs that made him well-known. He’ll be singing the crooning Paul Anka model of True and a swing model of Gold in his forthcoming present. He’s pondering the best way to embrace his favorite of all of the Spandau songs, By The Barricades.
Straight, on the piano, he thinks. ‘It actually annoys me when artists deny their previous as a result of when you’ve got a longtime previous, then you must give folks what they need. It’s disrespectful to the followers as a result of these musical moments in time set off reminiscences, they set off feelings, so give folks what they need.’
Besides that, irrespective of how a lot we Boomers and Gen X-ers need one, there received’t be one other Spandau Ballet reunion. Not after their latest break up in 2017, which adopted a 2009 reunion after twenty years aside.
‘That’s a no, it’s not going to occur,’ says Tony. There received’t even be the comfort of a biopic within the method of Elton John’s Rocketman. ‘Not with me concerned. Sorry. I’d need nothing to do with it.’
The band first fell out over royalties, culminating in a courtroom case the place Tony and two different band members sued songwriter Gary Kemp (brother of fellow band member-turned-actor Martin Kemp) and misplaced.
He’s not able to reveal why he walked away for good in 2017 after two smash-hit comeback world excursions. ‘It’s not for me to say. I actually want considered one of them would have the center to confess, “We did this to Tone and that’s what compelled him to depart the band.”
’Possibly considered one of them could have the braveness to do it someday. I’ve fond reminiscences of fantastic instances however in 2017 I utterly resigned. That’s life.’
Then he brightens. ‘That’s Life! That’s one of many songs I do in my swing reveals. It’s a track that sums up most individuals’s lives, they’re up and so they’re down however you simply need to preserve transferring ahead.’
- Tony’s The Large Swing Tour 2024 begins 3 March. MyTicket.co.uk.