Spandau Ballet to play South Africa for the first time with special guests Alphaville

Jacaranda 94.2 have teamed up with Big Concerts to present a one very special show with newly reformed 80’s heavyweights Spandau Ballet and special guests Alphaville in May this year. The Awesome 80s concert tour, will feature some of the biggest hits that defined the music of the 80’s.

2nd May 2010 – Johannesburg, South Africa
Big Top Arena, Carnival City Casino & Entertainment World
www.computicket.com
Tel: 083 915 8000

Spandau Ballet is one of the most commercially successful bands of the Eighties. During their career they achieved 23 hit singles, spent a combined total in excess of 500 weeks in the UK charts, have album sales of over 25 million worldwide and claim numerous hit songs that have become worldwide standards.

Following a hugely successful, and critically acclaimed UK tour, playing to over 120,000 fans, including 3 sell out nights at London’s O2 Arena (Live at the O2 DVD released recently), releasing a new album and single (both titled Once More), Spandau Ballet have cemented themselves into the history books as one of the greatest live bands in the world.

Now, for the first time, they will be performing to South African fans. As Gary Kemp says: “We are so excited to be performing in South Africa. We never made it there in the past but have always wanted to visit and entertain our fans over there. We’ve had a fantastic time since we announced our reformation and took to the stage in Dublin back in October and can’t wait to show fans in South Africa exactly what we do best – play live!”

From their synth pop and dance pioneering early singles To Cut A Long Story Short and Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On), to the globe trotting smashes True and Gold, Spandau will be playing the hits once again. With a back catalogue of massively popular hit singles to choose from, this is one of the most eagerly awaited reformations of the decade.

Emerging from Soho’s ultra hip Blitz Club in 1979 during another economic depression, Spandau Ballet formed at school in North London before becoming the hottest unsigned band on the planet. From underground, fashion and music obsessed working class Londoners, to global superstars, the band set the pace, the styles and the sound of the 1980s.

Not only did their albums sell by the millions, but their look and style impacted on the fashion world and beyond. They created their own style, combining creativity with entrepreneurship and the ‘can do’ spirit of early 80s youth at a time of crisis and upheaval eerily reminiscent of 2009. Spandau Ballet are both commercially and culturally enormous.

Spandau Ballet lasted ten years, a career arc that spanned the Eighties in perfect symmetry, from the nightclubs of Soho and Ibiza to Hollywood and the stadiums of Europe and Australia. Along with the other bastions of New Pop, Spandau Ballet defined the decade. They came, they saw, they partied. And then they left, leaving a good-looking legacy. And now Spandau Ballet – Tony Hadley, John Keeble, Gary Kemp, Martin Kemp and Steve Norman are back – once more!

Alphaville, best known for their hits ‘Big in Japan’ and ‘Forever Young’ are a German Synth band, who enjoyed huge success in the 1980s.

Big in Japan was Alphaville’s biggest hit topping the charts in Europe and reaching the top 10 on the Billboard charts. In 1986 they released their second album Afternoons in Utopia, their first single ‘Dance with Me’ was a Top 20 hit in Europe and South Africa.

Their song ‘Forever Young’ has been covered by Jay Z and was also featured in Napoleon Dynamite and the OC.