Spandex Waistcoats or Spandau Ballet

Spandau Ballet at the LG Arena (NEC as was), Birmingham - Sunday25th October

This was our first visit to the NEC since Metallica in March and our first look at the revamped arena, and we were suitably impressed with the arena itself. It has an airport lounge like entrance hall, very spacious and a range of food and drink vendors with everything from fish and chips and pie and mash to champagne, wine and cheese, and almost everything in between, so everyone is catered for. The jacket potatoes at the NEC were always pretty good and I can confirm they are still as good, Mike had a burger which seemed pretty substantial too. Whilst the prices were more than the high street they were not exhorbitant as both came with a drink and we had change from a tenner.

The main problem we found was that as you always expect at the NEC you have to park somewhere over near Coventry and get the bus service to the arena, and pay £8.00 for the priveledge too. The buses used to drop you right outside the arena but now they drop you well away from the arena itself and now you access the arena from the new entrance which is a 10 plus minute walk to and from where the buses drop you. Plus we were not told where the buses would pick us up so after the concert lots of people were looking for the buses. We found this strange as a road runs alongside the arena but that seemed to be solely for taxi's and a new corporate area.

So overall great new entrance and catering, but serious issues with the parking.

Now for the concert, some pictures and the set list below. I have always liked what Spandau did in the 80's so I'm loathed to say really that it didn't travel. It was for me just a little bit too much style over substance, I guess it always was, but these days I am looking for a little more from music and especially live peformances. Tony Hadley sang well, Gary Kemp appeared to have rediscovered his London accent, Steve Norman looked amazing and Martin Kemp was the crowd favourite, probably a few of the many many ladies in the audience were Eastenders fans! I have seen a lot of 80's music this year and this concert was not up with the best of them, but I am pleased to say I have seen Spandau Ballet. Sad but true, so true ....!!

The Photos (pleased with some of these)

Great to hear those early ones from the New Romantic days, like the new single too, bit dull mid set, picked up again with Through the Barricades. Would have liked to have known the DJ pre their set was Rusty Egan before the end of the show!

The Setlist

To Cut A Long Story Short

The Freeze

Highly Strung

Only When You Leave

I'll Fly For You

How Many Lies

Virgin

She Loved Like Diamond

Once More

Round and Round

Man in Chains

With the Pride

Through the Barricades

Instinction

Communication

Lifeline

Paint Me Down

Chant No1

True

Fight for Ourselves

Gold

Ciao

Sue

XX

Reading challenge 9/16 - currently reading Lovers and Players by Jackie Collins
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