Spandau Ballet

Spandau Ballet is a British band that achieved ten Top Ten singles and four Top Ten albums in the UK between 1980 and 1990. They are credited for popularizing New Romanticism genre.

The band was formed in 1976 and was originally called 'The Cut', with Gary Kemp and Steve Norman on guitar. They were joined by John Keeble, followed by bass player Michael Ellison and Tony Hadley, who joined as lead singer. Martin Kemp would take over the bassist role, joining the band a couple of years later.

They released "To Cut a Long Story Short", which was an instant British top 5 hit, in 1980. This was followed by hits with "The Freeze", "Musclebound" and the well-received and Gold-certified album Journeys to Glory in 1981.

The follow-up album, Diamond, was released in 1982. This album was certified Gold by the BPI and featured the single "Chant No. 1". Other singles included "Paint Me Down", "She Loved Like Diamond" and "Instinction".

The band released their third album, True, in March 1983 and topped the charts all around the world, and launched several international hit singles, such as "Gold (Spandau Ballet)||Gold]]" and the title track which reached number 1 in several countries. In 1991, P.M. Dawn sampled the song "True" in "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss", which also became a hit song.

The follow-up album, Parade, was released in June 1984 and its singles were again big successes in the charts in Europe, Oceania and Canada. The album's opening song, "Only When You Leave", also became the band's last American hit. At the end of 1984, the band performed on the Band Aid charity single and in 1985 they performed at Wembley Stadium as part of Live Aid. During this same year, Spandau Ballet achieved platinum status with the compilation, The Singles Collection.

In 1986, Spandau Ballet released Through the Barricades. The album, the title track and the single "Fight For Ourselves" were big hits in Europe and Australia, but not in the United States. The band released Heart Like a Sky in September 1989. The band would split up shortly afterwards.

The band reunited in 2009 for a comeback tour, followed by a new album, Once More, which featured two new songs plus reworked versions of their previous material, and the single of the same name in October 2009.