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True: The 40th Anniversary Diaries

Sun, December 31, 2023

Once again we have gained access to Steve Dagger’s Spandau Ballet diaries, look out for updates focussing on what the band was up to as we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the ‘True’ Era.

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Saturday 31st December 1983 – Spandau’s performance at Saddlers Wells earlier in the year, as part of the “True Spandau Over Britain tour”, is broadcast on Radio 1. On the same day Spandau’s performance of 4 songs on ShowTime’s “Rock of the 80’s” is broadcast across America.

Friday 23rd December 1983 – Spandau’s appearance on the Old Grey Whistle Test is included in the series ‘Best of the Year Show.’ Click here to watch.

Saturday 17th December 1983 – Thommy’s Popshow featuring Spandau’s performance of ‘Gold’ and ‘Pleasure is broadcast all over Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Click here to watch.

Also, in the US, MTV broadcast the “Spandau Ballet Over Britain in Concert” film live at Saddlers Wells. In what was a busy day for the band, the Spandau performance of “Gold” on the legendary US pop show Solid Gold is broadcast all over the US.

Friday 16th December 1983 – Spandau perform ‘Pleasure’ and ‘Gold’ on Thommy’s Popshow.

Thursday 15th December 1983 – Spandau Ballet fly to Dusseldorf and then drive to Dortmund for rehearsal of Thommys Popshow special presented by Thomas Gottschalk at the Westfalenhalle, Dortmund.

Thursday 8th December 1983 – SB performs the first of two nights at the Savoy Theatre in New York.

Sunday 4th December 1983 – SB performed at Royal Oak in Detroit.

Saturday 3rd December 1983 – SB performed their first-ever show in Toronto which was a sell-out at the Massey Hall. Enthusiastic fans invaded the stage and in the crush many fainted and were lifted to safety in the backstage area and the band’s dressing room. The after-show was at the Voodoo Club.
Spandau Ballet?

Friday 2nd December 1983 – SB play at the Variety Theatre in Cleveland.

Thursday 1st December 1983 – SB performs a sell-out at Shubert Theatre in Chicago.

Wednesday 30th November 1983 – Spandau Ballet play a sell-out show in Minneapolis.

Tuesday 29th November 1983 – SB record an appearance on Showtime TV show “Rock of the Ages” at the Hollywood Palace.

Sunday 27th November 1983 - Enjoying a day off, Spandau Ballet visit Disney Land in LA.

Thursday 24th November 1983 – Thanksgiving Day. After selling out 3 nights at the Wilshire Theatre, another show is booked at short notice at the Hollywood Palace due to public demand.

Wednesday 23rd November 1983 – Spandau Ballet plays the third-night concert at Wilshire Theatre in LA.

Tuesday 22nd November 1983 – SB plays their 2nd sell-out concert at Wilshire Theatre in LA.

Monday 21st November 1983 – A big day in LA for SB.  Firstly they appeared on KROQ morning show, interviewed by Richard Blade, lots of fans went to the studio in Pasadena. At 3 pm the band appeared at a record signing in-store appearance at Tower Records on Sunset Blvd – hundreds of fans attended this event. In the evening SB played their first show in LA at the Wilshire Theatre

Friday 18th November 1983– SB play a sell-out show at Warfield Theatre in San Francisco.

Wednesday 16th November 1983– First US date of the tour was at the Paramount Theatre, Seattle.

Monday 14th November 1983 - SB recorded a performance on the iconic American TV show “Solid Gold” in Los Angeles.

Tuesday 15th November 1983 – The first live concert of Spandau Ballet’s North American tour was at Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver.  Many fans were drenched at the band’s hotel afterward by a freak accident in the hotel bar, where a drainage pipe showered the whole area with rainwater.

Sunday 13th November 1983 - The band touches down in Vancouver to start the North American leg of the ‘True’ tour. SB appeared on the Don Harron show, a Canadian chat show filmed in Vancouver. They performed and were interviewed

Saturday 12th November 1983 – SB’s appearance on the French national TV show ‘Champs Elysees’ is broadcast. Click here to watch.

Sunday 6th November 1983 – SB’s appearance on the national Belgium TV show ‘Supercool’ is broadcast.

Saturday 5th November 1983 – SB fly from Brussels to London

Friday 4th November 1983 – SB fly from London to Brussels to record an appearance of a TV show called ‘Supercool ‘.

Saturday 8th October 1983– Spandau perform two numbers as part of a multi-artist show at the Dortmund Westfalenhalle which is broadcast live on RTL radio. On the same day, Australian TV show Music Express broadcast “Spandau Over Britain”, the live In Concert film of their show at Saddlers Well, plus the Veronica Rock night TV show, featuring the band’s triumphant performances at the Ahoy in Rotterdam, is broadcast on Swiss National TV.

Thursday 6th October 1983 – The band flies back to Berlin and perform for the first time in Berlin to a sell-out crowd at the Metropole.

Wednesday 5th October 1983 - The band travels to Copenhagen to appear on a national Danish TV show performing ‘Gold’. Click here to watch.

Tuesday 4th October – SB travel by coach to Berlin.

Monday 3rd October 1983 – In the morning, the band takes part in media duties with press and radio interviews. In the afternoon they fly to Dusseldorf and then travel by car to Essen. The band played their first-ever concert at Essen Sallbau - it was a sell-out.

Sunday 2nd October 1983 – SB play a sell-out concert in Munich at Circus Krone.

Friday 30th September 1983– SB makes their first live appearance in Holland at the Ahoy in Rotterdam in front of a capacity crowd of 10,000 people. The show is broadcast live on Dutch National TV as part of Veronicas Rock Night special (click here to check out some footage). The show also featured Peter Tosh and 10cc, but Spandau blew them off the stage and had the crowd in the palm of their hands! This show and live broadcast cemented the group’s fantastic relationship with their Dutch fans. Click here to watch.

Thursday 29th September 1983 – The band continues rehearsals for the Ahoy show in Rotterdam.

Wednesday 28th September 1983 – SB began rehearsals for their live-in-concert debut in Holland at the Ahoy in Rotterdam as part of the Veronica Rock night

Tuesday 27th September 1983 – Spandau travels to a ZDF studio at Wiesbaden where they perform on the TV show “Tele-Illustrate” after which they travel by car to Frankfurt and fly to Amsterdam and then drive to Rotterdam.

Monday 26th September 1983 – Spandau performs at the Musik Halle in Hamburg, this is the band’s first-ever show in Germany. 

Sunday 25th September 1983 –Spandau Ballet travel to Hamburg.

Saturday 24th September 1983 – Spandau Ballet performs ‘Lifeline’ and ‘True’ at the Garda Lake festival which is televised all over Italy.

Friday 23rd September 1983 - Spandau records appearances on “Superclassifica” and “Musica E” and then travels to Lake Garda, where they rehearse for an appearance on the Garda Festival TV show.

Thursday 22nd September 1983 – Spandau fly to Milan and do various press and radio interviews

Wednesday 21st September 1983 – Concert at Circus Royale Brussels. This was the band’s first-ever gig in Belgium and the first of the tour

Tuesday 20th September 1983 - an appearance on a TV show in Germany called Set 83 which was filmed in a TV studio in Baden Baden

Thursday 18th August 1983 – Gary and Tony flew to Munich to be interviewed for the popular German music show Formel Eins. TH and GK then flew back to Malmo to join the rest of the band to prepare for the concert the next day. Watch here.

Friday 12th August 1983 -  SB flew to Stockholm to prepare for a concert at Tivoli Gardens which was to be broadcast live on TV. Upon arrival, they went straight to Radio Stockholm to be interviewed live on it at 2 pm

Tuesday August 9th, 1983 – ‘Gold’ enters the UK charts at No.2 and the promo video is broadcast on TVAM along with a pre-recorded band interview. The band also feature on Radio 1’s Newsbeat and Tony and Martin are interviewed on Radio London by Tony Blackburn.

Monday August 8th, 1983 - A photo session in London for Rolling Stone with David Montgomery. On the same day, a young researcher called Jonathan Ross working for another long-forgotten TV show “Loose Talk”, came to see Steve Dagger to try to book the band.

Friday August 5th, 1983 -  The ‘Gold’ video debuts on The Switch, a long-forgotten youth TV programme. The band does a photo session for Smash Hits.
Watch ‘Gold’ here.

Wednesday August 3rd, 1983 - The band is taken from London Battersea heliport to Cleethorpes to appear at The Radio 1 Roadshow in front of thousands of ecstatic fans. Gary does a phone interview with Jim Henke of Rolling Stone as the ‘True’ single is rocketing up the US Billboard charts. That evening the final edit of the ‘Gold’ video takes place at Carlton Studios in St Johns Wood.

Tuesday August 2nd, 1983 - The band is on the promo trail for the ‘Gold’ single and appears on BBC1’s “6.55” programme, specially filmed at Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham.

Saturday July 30th, 1983 - The exterior footage of the ‘Gold’ video is shot with just Tony and various extras including Gary’s wife-to-be Sadie Frost as the girl painted gold.

Monday 25th July 1983 - The interior performance shots of the ‘Gold’ promo video are shot in Holland Park in Leighton House. The director is iconic 60’s photographer Brian Duffy.

Thursday 23rd June 1983 - Spandau played their very first live gig in Germany at the Alabama-Halle, the famous venue in Munich, the show was filmed for TV later that Autumn. The band were building momentum in Germany following promo activities in the country, the aforementioned show was fantastic, the ‘True’ single was heading towards the Top 10, and the band in general, were receiving a great reception wherever they went.

Thursday 10th June 1983 - The band continues the German promotion of the ‘True’ album and single with a performance on WWF Club. Click here to watch.

Thursday 9th June 1983 - Germany TV promotion included this rather spooky intro to a performance of ‘True’ on Vorsicht Musik. Click here to watch.

Sunday 22nd May 1983 - After a few days of interviews and a quick dash to Amsterdam for a performance, the band gets back to the UK and Steve Norman heads to the studio to record overdubs for the US 12” version of Lifeline at Marcus Studios in London.

Thursday 19th / Friday 20th May 1983 -  Spandau Ballet pose for photos with Jill Furmanovsky for a Record Mirror feature and are interviewed by Jim Reid. Meanwhile, I started my day in the office and then left mid-morning to fly to New York to set up the release of the True album in North America.

On arriving in Manhattan, I checked in to my hotel in Gramercy Park and headed up to mid-town to visit “Black Rock “, as it was known, the monolithic and forbidding-looking building which housed CBS Records NY headquarters. They had recently taken over distribution of Chrysalis in the US and I wanted to check in with the marketing and promo people who were supposed to be handling the album.
While I was there I bumped into Muff Winwood, A&R man from CBS London, who had tried to sign Spandau Ballet 3 years earlier. We got on well despite their disappointment and he invited me to go with him to see Marvin Gaye at Radio City Music Hall. It was brilliant, one of the best shows I have ever seen, to this day.

Muff went back to his hotel, but I was buzzed up and decided to go downtown and drop into Studio 54, now re-opened under new management after Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager’s imprisonment. It was OK, but kind of passee. It really felt like something from the last decade. I left and headed over to Danceteria, Jim Fouratt and Rudolph’s fantastic dance club which by contrast was very NOW and cool. Totally 1983.

My friend Lee Barrett, had Sade performing there. She and all her band were close friends too and I really wanted them to do well. Unbelievably, and despite all our best efforts, she was still unsigned at that time. They went down pretty well, but I didn’t see any record labels there (Muff could not be persuaded to come), I checked in with them all afterward, but then called it a night and went back to the hotel. I had an early meeting the next day with Chrysalis NY staff and was determined to get stuck into the True album campaign…Steve Dagger (Spandau Ballet Manager)

Wednesday 18th May 1983 - The band has a photo session for Melody Maker at the ICA in London. The issue came out the next month featuring Gary on the front page and a centre page feature.

Tuesday 17th May 1983 - The band gets the news that ‘True’ was the No.1 single for the 4th week running in the UK. Spandau spent the morning in a photo session with German magazine Bravo and Tony spent the afternoon in Odyssey Studio with Tony Swain and Steve Jolley recording extra vocals for a 12” version of “Lifeline “ for the US club scene. Listen here.

Saturday 14th May 1983 - The band performs ‘Gold’ and ‘True’ on the Get Set For Summer TV show. Click here to watch.

Friday 13th May 1983 - SB fly to Manchester for an appearance on the ‘Get Set for Summer’ show the following morning. On arrival, they go straight to Piccadilly Radio for an interview on the Timmy Mallet show, who is assisted, at that time, by a young Chris Evans! The band were mobbed at the airport, the radio station, the hotel, and everywhere they went!

Tuesday 10th May 1983 - Back in London, SB woke up to their 3rd week as the No.1 UK single with True. A busy day followed, with Tony and Gary being interviewed by Simon Kinnersly for Sunday Magazine, followed by interviews for NBC and LBC plus a full band photo session with Chalkie Davies for No1 Magazine.

Sunday 8th May 1983 - The band fly from Milan to Bari where they perform on another Italian National TV show.

Saturday 7th May 1983 - Spandau Ballet, with a No.1 album and No.1 single in the UK and an appearance on the 1,000th Top of the Pops, fly to Milan for an appearance on Italian National TV performing ‘Lifeline’ and ‘Communication’, their then-current single in Italy. Click here to watch the ‘Communication’ performance.

Thursday 5th May 1983 - The band appears on the 1000th edition of Top of The Pops, which is broadcast live. Afterward, they attend a party at the Kensington Roof Gardens thrown by the owner Richard Branson to celebrate the show. The party is attended by all of the pop stars of the day including the Human League who were at No.2 at the time with “Fascination”. Click here to watch the TOTP performance.

Tuesday 3rd May 1983 – ‘True’, the single remains at No.1 and the album climbs to the top spot too. Listen to ‘True’ @ https://spandauballet.lnk.to/true40

Sunday, May 2nd 1983 - The band completes their two-night residency at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Click here to watch ‘Instinction’.

Sunday, May 1st 1983 - The band plays the first of two nights at Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Click here to watch ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’

Friday 29th April 1983 - Following a sold-out show at the London Royal Festival Hall and with the ‘True’ single at No.1 and the album at No.2, the band enjoyed another party, this time on a boat on the River Thames. For photos and a write up click here.

Wednesday 27th April 1983 - The band recorded an appearance on the BBC music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test at Regal Theatre in Hitchin. Watch ‘Gold’ here and ‘Code Of Love’ here.

Tuesday 26th April 1983 - ‘True’ officially goes to No.1 in the UK Singles Chart, the Razzmatazz performance is broadcast and the band play at the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall.
“I called them with the news that they were No.1 in their hotel in Sheffield, they partied there and then in the hotel with champagne. That night they played the Nottingham Royal Concert Hall and celebrated once again after the gig with Steve Strange, who had come up from London to join them.” Steve Dagger (Spandau Ballet Manager)

Click here to watch the Razzmatazz performance.

Monday 25th April 1983 - Sheffield City Hall hosted Spandau Ballet.

Sunday 24th April 1983 – Spandau play the Palace Theatre in Manchester.

Saturday 23rd April 1983 – Glasgow Apollo –after the show, several hundred fans stormed the Glasgow Holiday Inn where the band was staying. There was also a party at Maestro’s nightclub.

Friday 22nd April 1983 – Edinburgh Playhouse was the stop for the Spandau Ballet Over Britain tour.

Thursday 21st April 1983 - The Top Of The Pops performance of ‘True’ is broadcast - click here to view. The band plays at Her Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen.

Wednesday 20th April 1983 - The band record their performance of ‘True’ for Top Of The Pops.

Tuesday 19th April 1983 - ‘True’ enters the UK singles chart, straight in at No.10 - the highest new entry of the week. The band record an appearance on Razzamatazz at Tyne Tees in Newcastle and then play a sold out show at Newcastle City Hall.

Monday 18th April 1983 - Blackpool Opera House date on the Spandau Over Britain tour.

Sunday 17th April 1983 - The band play the Bristol Hippodrome, the set list was: Foundation / Communication / Pleasure / Code of Love / Gold / The Freeze / Glow / Lifeline / Heaven Is a Secret / True / Paint Me Down / Instinction / Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On) / Encore: To Cut a Long Story Short

Saturday 16th April 1983 - On the way to playing the Liverpool Empire Theatre, Tony and Gary popped up on Get Set TV show in Manchester for a quick interview. Click here to watch.

Friday 15th April 1983 – Bradford St George’s Hall - On the way to Bradford the band stopped off to film an interview in Leeds that would be aired later that evening on Yorkshire TV, during which the ‘original animated version’ of the ‘True’ video was broadcast for its one and only time. This version, below, was rejected by the band on the same day and was quickly re-edited to the version we all know well today. Watch original animated version of ‘True’ here.

The band also visited Radio Aire and Pennine Radio before soundchecking for the sold out show at St George’s Hall. Friday 15th April was also the official UK release date of the ‘True’ single.

Thursday 14th April 1983 – Royal Albert Hall – This was a really big occasion for the band as Spandau were the first rock/pop band to play there for many years. It was a very high-profile show which had a lot of press coverage in the newspapers, especially The Sun which ran a large feature. The show was SOLD OUT weeks in advance with the need for very little advertising.

Tuesday 12th April 1983 - Tony, Gary, Steve, John and Martin play the Margate Winter Gardens.

Monday 11th April 1983 - In a busy week, the band travelled by coach from Cardiff to Birmingham first thing in the morning to be filmed performing both ‘Foundation’ and ‘True’ for a lunchtime broadcast of Pebble Mill, all as part of the build-up to the release of the ‘True’ single that week. Click here to watch the performance.

Sunday 10th April 1983 - Spandau Ballet play St David’s Hall in Cardiff.

Saturday 9th April 1983 - The Spandau Over Britain tour continues with a show at the Coventry Apollo.

Thursday 7th April 1983 - The second night at the Birmingham Odeon is followed by a party at the Rum Runner nightclub.

Wednesday 6th April 1983 - “The first radio play of the single version of ‘True’ anywhere in the World was by a great friend and supporter of Spandau, Peter Powel, he spun it on his Radio 1 Drive Time show on April 6th, 1983 - he raved about it, plus the next day, Mike Smith played it on his early afternoon show, again on Radio 1, and said it was so brilliant that he was going to play it again! And he did, all the way through!” Steve Dagger (Spandau Ballet Manager). The first of two nights at the Birmingham Odeon.

Tuesday 5th April 1983 - The Brighton Centre show finally takes place.

Monday 4th April 1983 - Brighton Centre (postponed). This Easter Bank holiday show was postponed for 24 hours because no crash barriers had been delivered to the venue to control the crowd.

Sunday 3rd April 1983 – Easter Sunday - No show this day but a big party is held for the band at midnight in a club in Bournemouth.

Saturday 2nd April 1983 –  The band performs their second show at the Bournemouth Pavillion Theatre.

Friday 1st April 1983 – The Spandau Over Britain tour continues with a Good Friday Show in Bournemouth at the Pavillion Theatre.

Thursday 31st March 1983 – The ‘True’ promo video is shot at a studio in London.

Wednesday 30th March 1983 – Ipswich Gaumont Theatre – the first show of the True tour.

Tuesday 27th March 1983 – Royal Festival Hall tickets went on sale. They were only purchasable in person at the venue, so huge queues of teenage girls who had bunked off school for the day caused enormous problems at South Bank.

Saturday 26th March 1983 - Production rehearsals for the ‘True’ tour begin at Shepperton Studios.

Friday 25th March 1983 - The band flies to Amsterdam for album promo duties.

Thursday 24th March 1983 - Spandau’s performance of ‘Communication’ on the Kenny Everett show was broadcast. The band wearing their signature “True” suits designed by Chris Sullivan for the first time. Watch here.

Saturday 13th March 1983  – The band’s appearance on Germany’s PopStop is broadcast. 

Thursday 11th March 1983 – SB record appearance for Razzmatazz in Newcastle.

Wednesday 10th March 1983 - The album is released in France, the Top Of The Pops ‘Communication’ performance is broadcast and the band record an appearance for Kenny Everett’s TV show to be shown at a later date.

Tuesday 9th March 1983 – SB record an appearance for the Casablanca TV show in Stockholm and also performed ‘True’ on TV live for the first time.

Monday 7th March 1983 – SB are in Milan and appear on the Popcorn and Superclassifca TV shows.

Saturday March 5th 1983 – The band performs 4 songs on the Italian TV show Orecchiocchio, a 2 song performance is broadcast on the UK’s Superstore, plus an interview with Gary is broadcast on the Radio 1 show Rock On.

Friday 4th March 1983 - The eight-track ‘True’ album is released in the UK. Side 1 - Pleasure / Communication / Code of Love / Gold Side 2 - Lifeline / Heaven Is a Secret / Foundation / True

Thursday 3rd March 1983 – SB appears on the Stereo 2 Radio show in Rome to promote the album.

Wednesday March 2nd 1983 - Steve, Martin, Tony, John and Gary record an appearance on Disco Ring in Rome, an Italian music show much like Top Of The Pops. Watch here.

Friday 25th February 1983 - The band appears on the BBC programme ‘The Oxford Road Show’ performing songs from the forthcoming ‘True’ album. Watch here.

Thursday 24th February 1983 - Spandau’s performance of ‘Communication’ for Top Of The Pops, recorded the day before, is broadcast on BBC1. Watch here.

Wednesday 23rd February 1983 - Spandau record an appearance on Top Of The Pops with ‘Communication’.

Tuesday 22nd February 1983 - The band record TV promo for PopStop in Munich

Saturday 16th February 1983 - The video for ‘Communication’ is broadcast for the first time in Scotland on STV

Tuesday 15th February 1983 – Rehearsals begin for True tour of the UK at Nomis Studios.

Saturday 12th February 1983 – Tony appears on ITV’s Saturday Show where he is interviewed and the video for ‘Communication’ is shown.

Tuesday 8th February 1983 - The band record an appearance for Saturday Superstore at BBC Television Centre.

Tuesday 1st February 1983 - Gary and producer Tony Swain remain in the studio for a second day to mix a 12” version of ‘Lifeline’ for the US market. Click here to listen on Spotify.

Monday 31st January 1983 - Gary and Tony Swain enter the studio to work on the 12” mix of ‘Communication’. Click here to listen on Spotify.

Thursday 27th January 1983 - Promo video shoot for the “Communication” single in Docklands, only featuring Tony Hadley with Lesley Ash and boxing champion John Conteh with a crime storyline. This is the first version of the video, another was created later involving all of the band, specifically for US MTV. Click here to watch the video.