Why Tony loves a curry in Nottingham
TONY Hadley spoke to KEVIN COOPER before his show at the Royal Concert Hall on March 12.
The last time that you were in Nottingham was on May 21, 2022, at the Royal Concert Hall towards the end of your 40th anniversary tour. Were you pleased with how well that tour was received?
I have to say that the tour was really cool. I think if I am honest, we had already rescheduled the tour twice. And I think that we went out a bit too close to Covid. In the audience there were still people wearing masks, and I could feel the fear from the audience up there on the stage, certainly during March, but other than that it went down really well.
I tried to paint a picture and tell a story of where Spandau Ballet started; the first song that we wrote together and performed in the school music room, stuff like that. I loved it, but then again, I just love gigging.
You have been working on a new album. How is that going?
Hopefully it will be released in October. I’ve just got one more vocal to finish on that, and we are repackaging the Swing album ready for this March tour. We are recording five new tracks for that ready for its release on vinyl. So, as you can see, I am busy gigging, busy recording, just keeping going really.
People keep asking me, “when are you going to retire” but I feel that I am singing better than ever. I don’t have a hobby, I don’t like golf, so I will just keep writing, recording and gigging for the time being.
I once asked Alice Cooper if he had any thoughts on retiring and he replied: “Retire? What from, young man? Singing or golf?”
I love Alice; I have been on tour with him, and he really is a great guy. He is such a nice guy, honestly, and his family as well. He is one of those very rare genuine guys in this business. And I bought School’s Out back in 1971 and I still have the original copy.
This forthcoming tour will be a swing tour, what was the catalyst for that?
The Ronnie Scott’s Orchestra phoned me up and said, “we would love Tone to be our special guest and singer at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival” and I thought, “wow, that’s some accolade, Ronnie Scott’s Orchestra at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival”.
I immediately said yes with no hesitation. I have to admit that I was pretty nervous not having done it for a while.
Will there be any surprises?
We will be doing the Paul Anka version of True. There will be a slightly swing version of Gold, and Only When You Leave actually fits well with that Vegas big brass sound. It works quite well, so we are going to be doing that as well.
There will be a couple of Spandau numbers in there, but predominately it will be swing and Vegas really.
Do you enjoy your time in the city?
Yes, I do and there is also a flippin’ great curry house just opposite the Concert Hall. We always go there and have a curry after the show. It’s the only place that I have found in the UK that serves tandoori mackerel and I have to say that it tastes a million dollars.
■■Tickets for Tony Hadley’s Nottingham show are priced £37.50 to £122.50 (VIP, including meet and greet with Tony) from trch.co.uk and 01159 89 5555.