Song(s) of the Day # 3,999 Spandau Ballet

 'I've bought a ticket to the world. But now I've come back again. Why do I find it hard to write the next line. Oh I want the truth to be said.'

Generally I post about things I like on here. I try to keep things positive if I can. In Spandau Ballet's case I'll make an exception. Well they started it.  Named themseleves after a notorious prison which housed repellant Nazi  criminals. Added Ballet to Spandau and considered it political comment. Wore kilts on Top of The Pops. It would take a while to list their crimes. 

I don't wish to spoil your Sunday breakfast. Anyway I'm off to church. Spandau Ballet should be rounded up and taken to church. To confession. In the words of Black Francis. 'Repent ! Repent!' You bloomin' London soul boys, Especially you. Foghorn Hadley ! As for that guy who played the sax. Never mind the Kemp brothers. Who went on to play for Melchester Rovers. The drummer always seemed to be alright.

So to True. Their zenith. Ot nadir. I bought a copy last week. From an RPM  blowout.In Newcastle. Ten minutes from where I live. For a pound I hasten to add. I only spent a quid.  Now I've just taken off a Television record, my traditional fare as your archetypal NME and Mojo reader and I'm listening to True as my bath runs and I prepare my breakfast. Pour myself a glass of orange juice in the hope that it will sweeten the experience of listening to this album for the first time in its entirity. Fat chance. 

This was an album that was aimed at Smash Hits and Face readers and never intended for me. I know a lot of the tracks already. It was ubiquitous in 1983 when it came out. And into 1984. They and record company Chrysalis plundered it for every last seven inch it had. It was a marketing man's wet dream . They sing about heart and soul a lot. But singing about heart and soul does not mean that your songs have either.Or that you do actually. 'Listening to Marvin all night long'. Why not take this off and listen to Marvin instead. This is what I resolve to do when I've had my bath.

Return to Sender. Catcher in the Rye. Gary Kemp wrote like Simon Le Bon did. All surface. He'd read a few books. But ultimately he, like Le Bon and the bands they led. were aspirational not existential. They were after the yachts and the beach in Barbados. Both bands played Live Aid in 1985. Much cocaine apparenty was taken backstage. Kemp always maintained that Spandau were socialists. Saying you're a socialist does not make you one. The songs you write and the the lives you change are ultimately the real testament of your political allegiancies. 

What does it matter. It's just Pop Music in the final reckoning. Reckoning. Now there's an album. But this stuff matters to me.Yesterday I got in a Social Media discussion when people were seriously trying to tell me that The Damned were better than The Clash, The Damned are a band that I honestly have no idea what they said about life. About anything. Punk mattered. It genuinely changed the cutural landscape. That was not down to The Damned. They had a few good songs.

 But from what I remember they were not major players in the Rock Against Racism. The Clash were at the vanguard of this. They played raucous songs to get sweaty to in the moshpit . Poured flour over each other onstage. Neat, Neat, Neat ! It's all just a laugh isn't it? That's part of the story sure. But they didn't write any number of songs like English Civil War and London Calling that actually reflected the terror and urgency of frightening times when you genuinely felt that a nuclear bomb might drop on you. I remember. I was at secondary school at the time. We never stopped talking about it.

Those times are back. Look around. Look at Gaza. Human tragedy being used as a real estate possibility by a new American administration. I'd rather listen to The Clash than The Damned or Spandau Ballet. I was too young for The Clash utimately. A late developer. But I do remember my fourteen year old self. I remember what those times felt like. I eventually settled on R.E.M. as the band for me. Another band that were committed. Emotionally and politically. 'Always believe in your soul!' 'I'll go with that. But could we have some real soul please. Time for my bath. Then some real soul and church.