Iconic band (weren’t they all?) Spandau Ballet have reformed and will be touring Australia in April this year – their first visit to Oz since 1985.

The original line up will be there with Tony Hadley and Gary Kemp sharing the stage again so it will be a real blast from the past. Last October they played to over 100 000 people in the UK and from what I read, that was more tickets sold to a single concert than back in the 80s when they were so popular.

What makes the tour even better is that they are being supported by Tears For Fears.

Tour Dates and Venues (and for some reason Sydney misses out!) are:

Sat 17 April – Sandalford Winery, Caversham Perth
Mon 19 April – Adelaide Entertainment Centre
Wed 21 April – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne
Tue 27 April – Brisbane Entertainment Centre

Spandau Ballet played a reunion gig this week – their first in about 20 years in Dublin, Ireland.

Playing in front of around 9000 fans, all reports indicated that they put together a pretty good show in the 2 hours that they were up on stage for.

All the original guys were there, and the opening song was the classic ‘to cut a long story short’. The final song of the night was ‘true’, a song that Tony Hadley dedicated to the late Boyzone star, Stephen Gately. Stephen was a close friend of Tony’s.

Read more on the concert and check out the photos here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1220246/Spandau-Ballet-turn-clock-20-years-comeback-concert.html

The are plenty of 80s radio stations online, but I was surprised to find one here in Australia. It’s 77.4 FM on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.

Tried it out today and I love it. I enjoyed listening to the 80s music whilst playing the 80s flash games that can be found on the website too.

Last night I saw Human League live here in Sydney. It was my first I have seen them even though I love them. All the previous occasions they have visted I have missed them for various reasons.

Last week the venue and date were changed. Not sure why but the venue where it was at is a smaller place which I enjoy more. We arrived at 8.30pm when the support band was playing. The League werent due on until 9pm for a 2 hour set.

We got some great standing room about 4 rows from the stage in front of Phil. How great for some decent pics!!

Prior to them coming on, I was wondering what song they would play first. I t had to be something boppy but not on eof their major hits. When the concert started, I realised ‘of course!!!’ – They started with ‘The sound of the crowd’ to get everyone going.

I wish I could remember the full playlist, but I do recall the songs that went off – the first one being ‘the things that dreams are made of’. Everyone really got into it.

Also, huge crowd reactions came from ‘the lebanon’, ‘mirror man’, and ‘electric dreams’. Everyone really got into these three songs. My favourite Human League songs are ‘fascination’ and ‘love action’ which were also played.

Here are some of the shots I took with my mobile phone (not great but better than nothing)….

Joanne Catherall

Susan Anne Sulley

The Human League

Phil Oakey

Phil looked great, Susan better(!) and Joanne had put on a bit of weight but I loved the concert very much. The gig only lasted about 90 mins (was supposed to be 2 hours?) and my only criticism was that ‘louise’ and ‘darkness’ weren’t included in the playlist :-9.

That aside, I would highly recommend any 80’s fan seeing Human League live. I reckon they are getting better with age!

Peter Gabriel, yes the same guy who founded the band Genesis, went solo in the mid 70s.

His most popular work was from his 1986 album titled ‘So’. Such songs as Big Time and Sledgehammer were iconic of the 80s. Big Time topped at #8 on the Billboard top 100.

The music video had muc to live up to after Sledghammer, and he did it well with effects such as stop motion, claymation, and strata-cut animation which showed Peter leaving his small town for the big city.

Bit of trivia about the song:

Big Time was the official theme song of WWE WrestleMania 22.
Big Time was used in the trailer for the film Big.
Big Time was used in the film Spaceballs.
Big Time is featured in the Wii video game Imagine Fashion Party

Enjoy the (extended) music video here:

For you Aussie readers, Rage which is the music video show on the ABC is going retro this month.

As they have done in previous years around this time, reruns of the the classic music shows countdown and rock arena are being shown this month.

As always with Rage, you can look at the playlists beforehand to see what is coming up.

Checkout the RAGE website.

Ahh the Thompson Twins – iconic 80’s music band. Who could forget Hold Me Now and Doctor! Doctor!

In preparation for this article, I did a bit of research on the band and found a few facts that I did not know about them.

The band, named after the bumbling detectives from Herge’s TinTin, first formed in 1977. Although this site is 80’s based, the band didn’t get famous until the 80’s.

Tom Bailey was a part of the original lineup. Arriving in London, The ‘twins’ had very little money and lived as squatters. Allanah Currie, who joined the Thompson Twins later was also a squatter and that was how they first met. Joe Leeway joined the twins in 1981 when the first album was recorded. Even though Currie had sang on the their first album (a product of…..participation), she was not classed as a full member of the group.

The group became famous by hitting the UK Singles chart and US billboard 100 in 1983 with their songs Lies and Love on your side.

Hold Me Now was released in late 1983 which hit the top 10 in the UK and US. Further hit singles followed in 1984: “Doctor! Doctor!”; “You Take Me Up” (reaching number two and their biggest UK hit); “Sister of Mercy”; and “The Gap” with its Middle Eastern rhythms (this song was not released in the UK). The corresponding album, Into The Gap, was one of the bestsellers of the year, and topped the British album charts. The band also commenced a world tour in support of the album.

Joe Leeway left the band in 1986, and after this the band had limited success. Whether this was because of the trio not together I am not sure.

1988 saw the birth of a child for Tom and Alannah who had become a couple. They however, didn’t get married until 1991. They actually moved to New Zealand in 1992 with their (now) two children.

According to Wikipedia, 1991’s Queer would be the band’s swansong, and was supported by various techno-induced singles under the moniker of Feedback Max (in the UK) to disguise club DJs of the source of the records. The single “Come Inside” reached number seven in the U.S. Dance Chart and number one in the UK Dance Chart. However, once it was discovered that the Thompson Twins were behind the record, sales dropped and the album never had a UK release.

Bailey and Currie split up in 2003, and are now divorced. They both left New Zealand and live separately in Britain, but are still close friends.

Their list of Albums are as follows:

* A Product of … (Participation) (1981)
* Set (1982)
* In The Name Of Love (1982)
* Quick Step and Side Kick (1983)
* Into The Gap (1984)
* Here’s To Future Days (1985)
* Close To The Bone (1987)
* The Best of Thompson Twins – Greatest Mixes (1988)
* Big Trash (1989)
* Thompson Twins – Greatest Hits (1990)
* Queer (1991)
* Love On Your Side – The Best of the Thompson Twins (2007)

Unfortunately, The Thompson Twins do not have an official website but a couple of fan sites I found are here and here.

The Twins relased some great music videos, iconic for the 80’s, and a couple of this are shown below:

HOLD ME NOW

DOCTOR! DOCTOR!

LIES! (LIVE)

This is currently being circulated around the internet, and I think it is great!

If you don’t understand it, then you obviously didn’t love the 80’s as much as the rest of us.

I was reading today that New Kids On The Block (NKOTB) are set to announce something on their website. Whether that means a new album, a tour it remains to be seen.

NKOTB rose to fame in the 80s with such hits as Hangin Tough, Step by Step to but name a few.

Hard to believe it, but the members of the group are now in the late 30s!

To jog the memory, here’s one of their best songs ….

Here’s one of the stories I read (check out the current photo).

Everyone that has an ipod uses podcasts. And there are plenty out there on the internet. But what about for the good old 1980’s?

Yep, sure is. Stuck in the 80’s is a great blog on the decade that mattered, complete with a weekly podcast hosted by Steve Spears.

On the blog pages, there are links to suscribe via iTunes and the more popular readers (including the RSS feed). ALL the past podcasts are there too, so you have plenty of listening to do in order to catch up.

Once I build the site up a bit more, I think I’ll email Steve and ask him to mention my site on one of his podcasts, or even better, write an article.