A Chat with Tony Hadley Prior to his Concert at York Barbican

Tony Hadley has announced a UK tour for 2024, where he will perform some of the greatest swing songs from a classic era of music, alongside some stylish reworkings of his own classic hits.

The Big Swing Tour 2024 will see Tony perform songs by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, and Frank Sinatra; alongside solo songs as well as Spandau hits like ‘True’ and ‘Gold’ that introduced the world to his iconic voice.

Here, he speaks to Graham Clark about the concerts, and more…

What can people expect on the Big Swing Tour?
I will be singing a lot of the old swing standards, along with new versions of the Spandau Ballet songs such as ‘Gold’ and ‘Only When You Leave’. I always try and have a bit if a laugh on tour and try to engage the audience as much as I can. In the past I have done some jazz type shows at Ronnie Scott’s in London and after that I got invited to perform at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival – my manager suggested that maybe I should go out on tour with the show, so that is what we are going to do next spring.

Have you always been a big fan of jazz music?
In my youth I was mainly a punk rock fan – you would have found me down the front of a gig seeing The Damned rather than going to a jazz club! It was my parents who were massive jazz fans. I remember my mum cooking Sunday lunch, in the background there would be all those singers from a bygone age singing to the smell of a Sunday roast cooking! My mum told me that if I wanted to be a proper singer that I should listen to people like Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett.

Did you ever see any of these artists in concert?
I met Frank Sinatra when I was 17 – I slipped past security and met him at the Royal Albert Hall in London. He said to me that it was nice to see some younger people in the audience. I replied that one day I would like to be playing in front of an audience at the Royal Albert Hall. Six years later I was there performing with Spandau Ballet which just goes to show that dreams do come true. I met Tony Bennett a few times including the last time he came over to England before he died. Jack Jones was very humble when I met him – a great singer in my opinion.

Looking back over your time in Spandau Ballet, what were your proudest moments?
Signing a record deal must be the main one. The second one would be having our first top five single. Performing at Live Aid was incredible too as I got to meet all my heroes, such as Queen – Freddie was such a friendly person and a pleasure to meet. Even to this day I still get a kick out of meeting fellow performers.

Was there a lot of rivalry between Spandau and Duran Duran?
The press used to make out that there was – it was a load of nonsense. Duran are a great bunch of guys who I have always admired. I have been listening to their new single recently that they did with Nile Rodgers and am very impressed with what I hear.

Do you worry about getting older?
I slipped on a wet dressing room floor a few months back – my tendon popped out and they had to reconstruct my knee, it was quite painful. As you get older you do not heal as quickly as when you were younger. I might be 63 years of age but in my head I am still thirty-three, though people keep telling me to slow down. I have a gym at home and that keeps me fit.

Do you still get excited discovering new artists?
My daughter, Zara introduces me to a lot of new music. I quite like Anne-Marie, The Wombats, Foals – all good music. I also enjoy Panic! At the Disco and The Killers – you can hear a lot of eighties influences in there.

Would you like to be starting out in the music industry in 2023?
Not really – there is so much music being released. The problem is getting it exposed and I really feel for younger bands. I am glad that vinyl albums are making a comeback. In my youth I used to listen to my Bowie albums time after time, I remember reading the names of the producer and musicians on the album, something you cannot replicate from a stream on Spotify!

Tony Hadley plays York Barbican on Friday 8th March 2024 – tickets here