Mum, dad and the music

Bob Geldof is quoted on the cover of Gary Kemp’s autobiography with untypical succinctness: ‘Great bloke, great band, great book’.

Bob Geldof is quoted on the cover of Gary Kemp’s autobiography with untypical succinct- ness: ‘Great bloke, great band, great book’. And Sir Bob is spot on with his assessment of the memoirs of Gary Kemp, leader of the popular Eighties combo Spandau Ballet, who are threatening to do it all over again, but in a more stately manner, a quarter of a century later. This is a fine, beautifully written book, primarily describing the antics of the New Romantics, the peacock performers and their audiences whose music dominated the youth of the Thatcher years.

The tuneful supremacy of Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Culture Club and the like held sway in the final decade in which singles and chart positions actually mattered. However, I Know This Much is about a great deal more than these ephemeral musical statistics. Highly unusual for a book of this type, there is no discography at the back (although, annoyingly, no index either). Gary Kemp has many other important things in his life to write about, albeit that he eventually returns to the most celebrated factor of his existence, the band whose legacy he cannot escape. Kemp’s story is about his mum and dad.

Through Spandau Ballet he materially changed their lives; through Spandau Ballet he and his brother Martin more than lived up to their parents’ expectations. At the height of Spandau’s success, pop was power, 16 million watching Top of the Pops and ‘your nan knowing what was at number one’. When your nan is gone, when your mum and dad have gone, if you are lucky your work may survive.