Review: Soul Boys of the Western World

Although I would argue Spandau Ballet are more Britpop/New Romantic than ‘Blue Eyed Soul’, this 2015 George Hencken documentary is a must for fans, and there are much lesser bands of the period that could’ve been covered I suppose. I’d much rather a Spandau Ballet documentary than say, an ABC, Duran Duran, Simple Minds, or Kajagoogoo documentary. I mean, let’s face it, they’re Duran Duran with more talent but crappier videos. Aside from a court case mentioned in the latter stages of the film, one could argue that there’s not enough dramatic material here, and it’s certainly no “Some Kind of Monster”. However, I kinda liked that it was a story about a bunch of pretty likeable lads whose only controversy comes from a bit of ego and the aforementioned (and frankly ridiculous) court case. No one died, no one was arrested to my knowledge or were involved in sex scandals etc. Aside from the court case, the only controversy here comes from an amusingly prick-ish attitude Tony Hadley expressed in the early 80s to touring Japan (‘Have they been buying our records?’ is the gist). That’s pretty mild for a pop/rock star don’t you think? It’s quite refreshing in that sense I suppose, if not exactly riveting to anyone outside of the fan base. I mean, some will probably be disappointed with these somewhat mild-mannered fellas, but I find the ‘throwing the hotel TV into the pool’ stuff to be kinda cliché, so I was glad to get a break from it.

 

I wasn’t remotely surprised that front man Tony Hadley’s influences were his parents’ love for Sinatra and Tony Bennett, nor was I shocked that Gary Kemp was into Bowie and T-Rex. It shows from the music and their image, really. I must admit, not being a great follower of Spandau Ballet (I like two of their songs- the big two, ‘True’ and ‘Gold’), I was a bit surprised that their accents were somewhat working class. I always thought Hadley would be really posh. So it was interesting to hear of their rather working class backgrounds, not too dissimilar to The Beatles, actually. I liked that Hencken was getting the lads to tell their own story as well, though some are more talkative/prominent than others. Perhaps one of the most interesting things about the film is the wealth of footage that has been collected from the band’s early days before they settled on the Spandau Ballet name. Martin Kemp hadn’t even joined the band at this point. I found it hilarious that when Martin did indeed join the band, it was only because the others thought he was good-looking and an obvious pop star.

 

Being that I wasn’t a die-hard fan of the band, the thing that most interested me here was that the film did a pretty good job of setting the scene from the end of Punk onwards in the British music scene. There’s an interesting point that one of the band members makes about how Punk was never really meant to last, and no one would’ve really wanted to see the Sex Pistols at Wembley or anything. It’s true, that band was born to break up. Meanwhile, the film is worth seeing just for the small moment where Margaret Thatcher lectures a clearly bemused Sir Bob Geldof on taxation. The look on Sir Bob’s face is fucking hilarious. Almost as amusing is footage from a game show seemingly from The Twilight Zone where Spandau Ballet and Duran Duran are asked to guess the song from lyrics from the other band’s repertoire. This apparently happened, folks, and Duran Duran won. The 80s in England, ladies and gentlemen. It was apparently all kinds of weird. As for their eventual courtroom spat over royalties, it was brought about by Gary Kemp (the band’s songwriter), whilst his brother Martin was the one band member who stayed the hell away from it all. I’ll leave it up to you to decide why he decided to stay away from it, I have my own theory which I’ll keep to myself, except to say that the courts seemed to disagree with me.

 

I said earlier that I don’t consider Spandau Ballet soul, and it’s interesting that during the film the band members make it pretty clear that they just wanted to be pop stars, and directly refer to Duran Duran as their rivals. So, the members of Spandau Ballet themselves might not be riveting figures of music in the way that members of the Stones, Metallica, The Beatles, or Guns ‘n’ Roses might be, but the band itself was an important part of the period and subgenre of pop in Britain. As far as I’m concerned, ‘True’ is a beautiful song, and despite being a hit at the time, I actually think it’s still underrated.

 

Although most recommended to Spandau Ballet fans, this is an interesting look at a time and place in the music scene. It’s an enjoyable and interesting look at a bunch of likeable guys who were kings (or at least co-kings) of the world for a bit and clearly enjoying it. They were pretty uncomplicated, they were enjoying pop stardom for however long they were able to make it last, and even court battles didn’t stop them from an eventual reunion in recent years. It’s nothing Earth-shattering for non-fans, but I enjoyed it and I was really surprised at how much early footage was kept. I liked this one, and although nothing especially dramatic happens during their specific reign over the pop music scene, it’s still a story that probably deserved to be told. Meanwhile, can someone please explain to me how Martin Kemp still manages to look like a male bloody model after all these years?

 

Rating: B-