By Michael Dwyer
ROCK
Spandau Ballet
Spandau Ballet: To cut a long story short, again.Credit: Edwina Pickles
★★★☆
Rod Laver Arena
As they were: Spandau Ballet in the 1980s.
May 19
"I wanted a better ending." That was songwriter Gary Kemp's key soundbite from the 2014 doco that brought his broken band back to arena fitness. It was one of several video flashes that ticked the self-mythologising box so vital to the nostalgic reunion caper.
Spandau Ballet deserved a better ending than the ruinous royalties grab of their 1990s UK high court saga. Yes, their swishy runway aesthetic left them, like so many of their peers, looking kind of daft as the '80s expired, but Kemp's songs have lasted and so has Tony Hadley's booming operatic pitch.
Looking more senior management than young exec these days, he sweated more than his share into a sleek navy suit and spotted cravat, finger crooked over microphone with high tea etiquette as he re-lived the feisty romantic trysts of Highly Strung and Only When You Leave.
The flanking Kemp brothers (Martin on bass) made choreographed spaces for shape-throwing interloper Steve Norman, whose saxophone and congas (congas!) anchor the band's sound in the pop charts of long ago.
A medley of their early tunes was illustrated with vintage video from Blitz, the London nightclub that gave birth to the new romantic catastrophe. Keyboards were more buzzy, guitars more punky and To Cut A Long Story Short recalled a meaner edge than the slinky lounge vibe of the show's climactic selections, True and Gold.
Standing and roaring each melodramatic note, the fans gave Spandau the better ending they craved. In fact, while the two new songs were more OK than gold, this would seem to be an end with a future.