page_title: Spandau Ballet
section_title: 2009–2019: Reunion
hierarchical_section_title: Spandau Ballet / History / 2009–2019: Reunion
caption_attribution_description: English: Spandau Ballet at Michalsky StyleNite
context_page_description: Spandau Ballet were an English New Romantic band formed in Islington, London, in 1979. Inspired by the capital's post-punk underground dance scene, they emerged at the start of the 1980s as the house band for the Blitz Kids, playing "White European Dance Music" as "The Applause" for this new club culture's audience. They became one of the most successful groups of the New Romantic era of British pop and were part of the Second British Invasion of the Billboard Top 40 in the 1980s, selling 25 million albums and having 23 hit singles worldwide. The band have had eight UK top 10 albums, including three greatest hits compilations and an album of re-recorded material. Their musical influences ranged from punk rock and soul music to the American crooners Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett.
  The band's classic line-up featured Gary Kemp on guitar, synthesiser and backing vocals, his brother Martin Kemp on bass, vocalist Tony Hadley, saxophonist Steve Norman and drummer John Keeble. Gary Kemp was also the band's songwriter. Their debut single, "To Cut a Long Story Short", reached No.5 in the UK in 1980. It was the first of ten UK Top 10 singles.
context_section_description: In early 2009, the official Spandau Ballet website encouraged fans to sign up "for an exciting announcement", fuelling rumours that a reunion was imminent. Jonathan Ross mentioned during his BBC Radio 2 programme on 21 March 2009, that the band were re-forming and that he had been invited to the reunion party.
  The band confirmed the rumours at a press conference on 25 March 2009, on board HMS Belfast in London, a return to the venue of one of their first gigs to announce their comeback tour. They were introduced by friend and broadcaster Robert Elms after a Billy's and Blitz era DJ set by Rusty Egan. John Keeble and Gary Kemp revealed current musical influences as The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, MGMT and Florence and the Machine.
  The band began a world tour in October 2009, starting with eight dates across Ireland and the UK, the first of which was in Dublin on 13 October 2009. The tickets for the UK and Ireland shows went on pre-sale on the official Spandau Ballet website on 25 March 2009. They went on general release on 27 March 2009. For the general release tickets, the London O2 arena tickets sold out within 20 minutes and an extra two dates were added there because of demand. The band also announced an extra date in Birmingham and added Liverpool to the tour. Members gave their "first public performance and interview anywhere in the world for 19 years" on the BBC television show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on 24 April 2009 performing "Chant No.1" with the original Beggar & Co and “Gold.”
  On 19 October 2009, the group released a new album, Once More, which featured reworked semi-acoustic versions of 11 Spandau favourites and two new songs, the title track, written by Gary Kemp and Steve Norman, and Love Is All, the first Spandau song to be written by Tony Hadley. The album went Gold in Italy and Silver in the UK. Virgin Media honoured Spandau Ballet as the Best Comeback of 2009 in the Virgin Media Awards.
  Spandau Ballet went on tour in Australia during April 2010 with Tears For Fears as part of a world tour. After a headline set at the Isle of Wight Festival on the same bill as Paul McCartney, The Strokes, Jay-Zee and Pink, the group played their last UK show of the Reformation Tour at Newmarket Racecourse on 25 June 2010.
  In 2014, all five played live again with an anthology world tour to promote a critically acclaimed feature-length archive-only documentary of the band's story and the pop cultural history of the Eighties, Soul Boys of the Western World. It world premiered at South By Southwest with Spandau also playing as part of the music festival, their first public appearance in North America since 1985. The band played five numbers for the film's European premiere at the Royal Albert Hall. There were gala screenings in Sydney, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Auckland and Hamburg. The film had a UK cinema release. It was directed by George Hencken, produced by Steve Dagger and Scott Milaney with archive producer Kate Griffiths and included never-before-seen footage of the band playing and being interviewed at NYC's Underground club in March 1981.
  It was confirmed on 31 July 2014, that Spandau Ballet were working on new material in the studio with Trevor Horn. In the UK, the band appeared in an ITV show, Spandau Ballet – True Gold, in which they performed several hits and were interviewed by Christine Bleakley in front of a studio audience. The band performed their 1980s hit single "True" and a new song called "This is the Love" on Jimmy Kimmel Live on 11 November 2014. It was their US late-night TV debut and their first US TV appearance since 1985 when they played on Soul Train. They were there to promote their new greatest hits collection called The Story – The Very Best of Spandau Ballet, which also contained three new songs. The album reached the UK Top 10. Both "Steal" and "This Is The Love" appeared on the US Adult Contemporary chart.
  The band embarked on another world tour in 2015. In January 2015, they appeared on The Today Show, performing "True". They also appeared on The Talk on 27 July 2015 to perform "True".
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caption: Reunited Spandau Ballet performing at Berlin Fashion Week in January 2010
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