#23: Gold by Spandau Ballet

City: Montreal, PQ
Radio Station: CKOI
Peak Month: January 1984
Peak Position in Montreal ~ #1
Peak position in Vancouver ~ #11
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #29
Peak Position on UK Singles chart ~ #2
Peak Position on Belgian Singles chart ~ #3
Peak Position on Dutch Singles Top 100 ~ #3
Peak Position on Ireland Singles chart ~ #4
Peak Position on Spain Singles chart ~ #4
YouTube: “Gold”
Lyrics: “Gold”

Spandau Ballet were an English new wave band formed in London, England, in 1979. Gary Kemp, on lead guitar, was the principal songwriter for the band. He was born in London in 1959. From the age of eleven, he appeared in several British children’s films. He performed on guitar for the children’s television show You Must Be Joking! in 1975. The following year he formed a band called Roots. The band subsequently changed its name to The Cut, The Makers and then Gentry. At this point, Gary’s brother Martin Kemp was in the band. Kemp was born in 1961 in London. He was also a child actor, in his case from the age of 7. He quit school at age 16 and worked as an apprentice at a print factory. He joined Gentry after learning to play bass guitar in three months.

Anthony “Tony” Hadley, was born in London in 1960. He joined the band when it was known as The Cut in 1976. At age 16 Hadley became the lead singer. Steve Norman was born in London in 1960. He was considered a musical child prodigy. He joined The Cut in 1976 at the age of 16. John Keeble was born in 1959 in London, and was very athletic from a young age. He learned to play drums at age 16 and shortly afterward joined The Cut.

The name Spandau Ballet has a grim historical connotation. It refers to the twitching movements of bodies during executions, particularly associated with the Nazi era. It was a name suggested by a friend of the band who’d visited Berlin and remembered graffiti which read “Rudolph Hess, all alone, dancing the Spandau Ballet.” Spandau is a town first settled in Germany in the 7th Century. By the 20th Century it had become a suburb of Berlin. The Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was established in Spandau in 1936 and developed the most efficient methods for execution in death camps during Hitler’s Third Reich. Over 200,000 prisoners were housed in the death camp. Rudolph Hess was the Deputy Führer to Adolph Hitler who attempted a flight to Scotland in May 1941 to get England out of World War II. Hess was captured, and was imprisoned in the Tower of London. After WWII, he was found guilty of war crimes during the Nuremberg Trials, and was jailed at the Spandau Prison (different from the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp). Hess committed suicide by hanging in 1987, at the age of 93.

In 1980, the band released their debut single titled “To Cut a Long Story Short”. It peaked at #5 in the UK, #9 in Ireland, #15 in Australia and #19 in Spain. A followup from their album Journeys to Glory, was “The Freeze”. It became a Top 20 hit in Ireland, Spain and the UK. A third track from the album, “Muscle Bound”, reached #10 in the UK.

In 1981, the band released their second album, Diamond, with the debut single “Chant No. 1 (I Don’t Need This Pressure On)”. The song reached #3 in the UK, #9 in Ireland, and charted on the pop charts in Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain. A second track from the album, “Instinction”, was a Top Ten hit in the UK in 1982.

In 1983, Spandau Ballet released the album True. The debut single “Lifeline” reached #7 in the UK and #11 in Ireland. Next, “Communication” peaked at #10 in New Zealand, #12 in the UK, #13 in Ireland, and sold well in Australia and Sweden. But it was the title track from the album, “True”, which put Spandau Ballet on everyone’s radar. The single topped the pop charts in Canada, Ireland, Luxembourg, and the UK. It reached #3 in Spain, #4 in Australia, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the Billboard Hot 100 in the USA, #5 in Brazil and Switzerland, #9 in West Germany, and #10 in France and Venezuela.

The fourth track released as a single from True was”Gold”.

“Gold” was written by Gary Kemp. In the song, the band sing “these are my salad days, slowly being eaten away.” ‘Salad days’ are a Shakespearian idiom referring to a period of carefree innocence, idealism, and pleasure associated with youth. The modern use describes a heyday, when a person is/was at the peak of their abilities, while not necessarily a youth. In 1606 William Shakespeare’s play Antony and Cleopatra featured a speech at the end of Act One in which Cleopatra is regretting her youthful dalliances with Julius Caesar. She says, “…My salad days, / When I was green in judgment, cold in blood/To say as I said then!” The phrase became popular only from the middle of the 19th century, coming to mean “a period of youthful inexperience or indiscretion.” The metaphor comes from Cleopatra’s use of the word ‘green’—presumably meaning someone youthful, inexperienced, or immature. Her references to “green” and “cold” both suggest qualities of salads. At her Silver Jubilee in 1977, Queen Elizabeth II referred to her ascension to the throne in 1952 at a young age. She said, in reference to her 21st birthday broadcast (1952): “Although that vow was made in my salad days, when I was green in judgment, I do not regret nor retract one word of it.”

In the song, the salad days are being eaten away. But with their romantic interest, there’s “nothing left to make me feel small.” The lyrics tell the relationship is two years old, and the woman in his life spied “the man in the suit.” It suggests he was into the daily grind of “9-to-5.” But love made him lucky. He describes his amor as “indestructible, always believing.” The song offers a simile that “love is like a high prison wall.” There are obligations to being attached to someone, perhaps chains of love. In any event, in this love she leaves him standing so tall. The “prison” of their love enables him to see upright, bowed down.

“Gold” peaked at #1 in Montreal, #5 in Sherbrooke (PQ), #8 in Bangor (ME), #10 in Los Angeles, and #11 in Vancouver (BC). Internationally, “Gold” peaked at #2 in the Netherlands, and the UK, #3 in Belgium, #4 in Ireland and Spain, #6 in Peru, #8 in New Zealand and Venezuela, and #9 in Australia.

In the summer of 1984, Spandau Ballet released their fourth studio album titled Parade. The lead single from the album was “Only When You Leave”. The single cracked the Top 5 in Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. It also made the Top Ten in New Zealand and Norway. The followup release, “I’ll Fly For You”, was a Top Ten hit in Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg and the UK. A third release, “Highly Strung”, was a Top 20 hit in Ireland and the UK. A final release from Parade was “Round and Round”. It charted to #9 in Ireland, #11 in Italy, and the Top 20 in Spain, Australia and the UK. It also reached #10 in Yellowknife (NWT).

In 1986, the band released Through the Barricades. The debut single from the album, “Fight For Ourselves”, peaked at #5 in Italy, #7 in Ireland, and #11 in Spain. The title track from the album, “Through the Barricades”, climbed to #1 in Italy, #2 in Spain, #3 in the Netherlands, #4 in Ireland, #5 in Luxembourg, #6 in the UK, #7 in Norway and #10 in Belgium. A third track from the album, “How Many Lies?”, was a number-five hit in Italy in 1987.

In 1989, the band released Heart Like a Sky. The lead single, “Raw”, reached #11 in Italy. A second single from the album, “Be Free with Your Love” also climbed to #11 in Italy. In 1990, the band spilt up.

Gary and Martin Kemp both appeared in the British crime film The Krays (1990). Gary Kemp also appeared in The Bodyguard and Killing Zoe. In 1995, Gary Kemp released a solo album titled Little Bruises. Tony Hadley recorded his first solo album. Steve Norman moved to Ibiza to collaborate on chilled out Balearic records with local producers. John Keeble continued as drummer with Tony Hadley and formed his own band, 69 Daze.

Martin Kemp had brain surgery in the mid-nineties, and then went on to be a regular in the BBC soap opera EastEnders (324 episodes from 1998 to 2002). He has also been a director of a psychological horror film Stalker (2010) and crime film Top Dog (2014). From 2011 to 2014, Martin Kemp was in the West End musical production of Million Dollar Quartet. 

In 2009, Spandau Ballet reformed and released the album Once More. The band continued to perform, including on a world tour in 2010 with Tears for Fears. They appeared in concerts sharing the stage with Paul McCartney, Jay-Z, Pink, and The Strokes. The band appeared in concert on and off. In 2017, Tony Hadley made it official that he was leaving Spandau Ballet. He was replaced in 2018 by Ross Wild, a musician Martin Kemp had come to know as part of the cast in Million Dollar Quartet. However, in March 2019, Wild announced he was leaving the band for another. (Ross Wild was subsequently charged in 2021 for voyeurism and sexual assault). The band dissolved in 2019.

Steve Norman writes a regular column reviewing CDs for the magazine Ibiza Now. From 2001 on he has been a member of the band Cloudfish. John Keeble has been busy with his bands The Herbs, Pacific and Tim Deluxe.
In 2024, Tony Hadley released his sixth solo album titled The Mood I’m In. Gary Kemp released a solo album in 2021 titled INSOLO. In December 2021, Martin Kemp appeared in commercials as Father Christmas as part of a government campaign to encourage people to get the coronavirus vaccine ahead of the holidays.

June 23, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Andy Richardson, “Tony Hadley: I’m very lucky my voice still works,” Express & Star, May 29, 2017.
“Steve Norman of Spandau Ballet in Ibiza,” Ibiza-blog, March 25, 2009.
Mark Hooper interviews Gary Kemp, “Spandau Ballet: We wanted to design the next decade’s pop culture,” Guardian,
October 1, 2014.
R.W. Apple Jr., “Britain Marks Queen’s Silver Jubilee,” New York Times, June 8, 1977.
“The Gas Chamber at Sachsenhausen,” death camps.org, September 13, 2006.
John Greenwald, “Germany The Inmate of Spandau’s Last Wish,” Time, August 31, 1987.
Michael Macrone, Brush Up Your Shakespeare, (Gramercy Books, 1998), 126-127.
“Martin Kemp transforms into Father Christmas for booster jab campaign film,” Whitchurch Herald, December 7, 2021.

CKGM 980-AM  Montreal Top Ten | January 4, 1984