#### If there was a band that I listened to more than any other through my teenage years it was Spandau Ballet. It was the closest I could ever come to being cool, relevant and of course, there was a girl involved......OK, perhaps a girl per album. It was that kind of band!
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Spandau Ballet first hit the consciousness in 1980 with a post-punk electro-sound and became one of the founders of the New Romantic movement.
![spandau-12.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYKnvrwstxerWP7nEaic6bsYs9d2WAYiVqEjksT43BFgj/spandau-12.jpg)
#### From New Romantic......
####
Often accused of being style over substance, they started the 80's with a newfound optimism and freedom which contrasted starkly with the dark, bland 70's by combining music with fashion and popular subculture to create a whole package where the music was simply a part rather than the whole.

They were good-looking, well dressed, and the epitome of cool.

And I wasn't. God knows I tried. But no matter how much I spent on clothes and time spent on 'personal grooming', I was never destined to be in the 'in crowd', I probably couldn't even get into the 'out-crowd' either lol....

Their third album saw them progress into blue-eyed soul. They had grown up, and the 1983 album 'True' spawned their most popular single of the same name. I didn't like it. It was overproduced, clean and lacked that raw edge that their first two albums had. They still looked good, but this time it was all a little too contrived.
![spandauballet.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTXPJyd2bkStNm1oE758WiXj9K3vbDs8j8iembGchBVHh/spandauballet.jpg)
#### ......to blue-eyed soul
####
Many bands seem to suffer this fate in my eyes. Arctic Monkeys and Kaiser Chiefs both spring to mind. However, I digress.

In 1983, I was at college studying 'A' levels, and there was a girl I admired from afar. Her name was Joanne, and she was just so absolutely beautiful. Typically mid 80's dressed, complete with impeccable makeup, she was always to be seen with two other gorgeous girls and they were known, admired and lusted after by every guy in the college! To this day I have no idea what they were studying, apart from knowing for a fact it wasn't Pure and Applied Maths, Further Maths, Physics or Computer Science......I remember that in my classes there just 3 girls in total. A sad inditement of the times, but a bonus in terms of hormone-driven teen concentration levels.

One lunchtime, I was browsing albums in Boots. I wasn't intending to buy anything, but browsing albums was still a popular pastime for getting through my Thursday, two-hour lunch break when I caught sight of Joanne in the corner of my eye, a little further down the same row as me and she was alone. I was looking at David Bowie and she appeared to be somewhere in the Ss.
I watched as she pulled out a predominately white album, quickly flipped it around and glanced at the back and made her way to the till. As she left I sidled up to the Ss. I knew already what the album was, it was 'True'! I had just £4 in my pocket, enough to buy it, and although I knew I now faced a 3-mile walk home as I was blowing my bus money, I bought it anyway. 

Perhaps if I could also summon the bottle to actually talk to her, I might have found some common ground!

I loitered in Boots for a few minutes more avoiding the possibility I'd catch her on the way back to college and have no excuse not to talk to her and then I left arriving back in the college library a few minutes later.

And there she was. Still alone and sat at a table reading the cover notes. Looking as radiant, elegant and downright scrummy as always. I could feel my face reddening and my heart was pounding but I started the walk. Each step was forcing mind over matter,  and as I got closer, time began to slow but my focus never wavered. I murmured and rehearsed my words in my head. Square carrier bag in hand, I arrived at her table and managed to stutter;
"Wow, what a coincidence, I've just bought that album. I love Spandau Ballet. Did you enjoy their first two albums too?"
She looked up at my beetroot complexion and gave me a most sweet and sensitive smile and replied;
"I don't actually like them, I've just bought this for a friends birthday."
My rehearsed conversation hadn't had time to think of alternative endings and I was instantly defeated. I don't even remember what I said as I hurriedly left the scene. I do however remembering it raining as I walked home that night!

From that time, during the 80's, my strongest memories always seem anchored to a Spandau Ballet track. 

But it's from their 6th studio album from 1989 and the accompanying tour that I've pulled this great performance.
Tony Hadley always had this amazing quasi-operatic voice which to be fair, was often I thought lacking in a little emotion, but on this album, he was often pulled into some amazing falsettos due to the emotional nature of the track. Especially this track, 'A Matter of Time'. 
![https_%2F%2Fimages.genius.com%2F2d044befa4788c8a0fc91080535746c0.496x496x1.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmYAe6cKSeRv5q6jWhF1tSkziZ45e7sbvHoXL8EFyLjEt9/https_%252F%252Fimages.genius.com%252F2d044befa4788c8a0fc91080535746c0.496x496x1.jpg)

This album was not well received by fans or critics alike, and it marked the end of Spandau Ballet.

I went to see the Sheffield City Hall leg of the tour, and it wasn't even sold out. It was in marked contrast to the previous and sold out 'Barricades' tour which I'd gone to Manchester GMEX on 19th December 1986 with a then girlfriend but this time, I was alone after we'd just split up. I'd wanted to go alone as a matter of defiance, and knowing that the band looked like splitting up. It might be the last time I'd see them, but going alone to a gig. Not a good idea!

This song came on, and if you listen to the opening lyrics, you'll get the idea. Like in this video, Tony left the stage for a break whilst the band played out with an instrumental, and I left the gig.

>He lays alone cries on his own
For horizons that he'll never reach
And all of those dreams are washed on the beach

Take a listen, and please tell me what you think.
I was just 23, almost 30 years ago, not much has changed in my life.......and I'm definitely still not cool!

[A Matter of Time - Spandau Ballet from their 'Heart Like a Sky' tour 1989](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttZnsMgYCf4)
![3adacc4712ac32783cc6109d14653da7.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmeCBtasMf4Aq6L7VGPgzyTpjkLa7dtNQSfXmcEKjCkRLn/3adacc4712ac32783cc6109d14653da7.jpg)

#### Thanks for dropping by. Your Upvotes and Resteems are gratefully received but your comments and engagement are truly appreciated. Let's keep up the debate. Thank you
@nathen007 #greatperformances
####
### Life's not about the hustle. It's all about the humanity
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