News

Spandau Ballet - Paris Theatre, London, 1982 by Steve Dagger

Tue, November 10, 2020

The show is available now @ www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08wpy5x and broadcast live on BBC Radio 2 at 3:00am on Sunday 22nd November.

This Spandau Ballet performance was recorded at the Paris Theatre, in London’s Regent Street, on Wednesday 7th April 1982, for a Radio 1 in -concert broadcast. The band was in the middle of the UK leg of their “Diamond” tour to promote the release of their second album

The tour had started in Scotland on the 29th of March and had been the band’s first venture into larger concert venues from the club/event type shows they had performed at previously. However, the band made the move up seamlessly with a series of fantastic performances that got 5-star reviews and a rapturous reception from fans.

As the tour progressed, their fourth single from the Diamond album, ”Instinction” which had been re-mixed and re-recorded with Trevor Horn producing, climbed the charts.

By the time this in-concert was broadcast on Saturday 8th of May, the single was in the Top 10 and the band was beginning to attract a wider younger audience.

That night, at their show at the Liverpool Empire, Spandau-mania manifested itself for the first time with young female fans screaming for the band and surrounding the theatre afterward. One determined fan climbed up a drainpipe to enter the band’s dressing room on the second floor. (see photo)

After that night, Spandau concerts were never the same again!

***
(Photo: David Johnson © Shapersofthe80s (www.shapersofthe80s.com)