\n Tony Hadley rose to international fame as the lead singer of the new wave group, delivering iconic hits including True, Gold and Through The Barricades.\n<\/p>\n
\n The 66-year-old is renowned for his powerful, expressive vocals and has enjoyed a successful solo career since leaving the band, whilst also pursuing stage work and radio presenting.\n<\/p>\n
\n The singer recently joined the push to save The Rose & Thistle in Haddenham near Thame, over the Oxfordshire border in Buckinghamshire.\n<\/p>\n
\n Villagers are aiming to reopen the historic coaching inn, which dates back to the 18th century, but closed in 2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Hadley has urged people to buy shares to back the crowdfunding campaign and said: “It’s a fantastic little pub – I have been there many times in the past.\n<\/p>\n
\n “We have to preserve our village and small town pubs.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Now, the singer has opened up to the Press Association (PA) about the split and not seeing his bandmates in a decade.\n<\/p>\n
\n After the band split in 1990, he pursued a career as a solo artist and has since released several of his own studio albums.\n<\/p>\n
\n Although her rejoined the band in 2009, he announced his departure in 2017, saying at the time it was due to \u201ccircumstances beyond my control\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n Nearly a decade on, Mr Hadley has now revealed he has not been in contact with many of his former bandmates \u2013 which included Gary Kemp, Martin Kemp, Steve Norman and John Keeble.\n<\/p>\n
\n He told PA: \u201cUnfortunately, the wheels came off, and we went through some pretty horrid times together.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I saw Steve Norman at a festival in Germany recently, but I haven\u2019t seen the rest of the guys in 11 years.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhich is sad, but that\u2019s life. You know, bands fall out with each other. It\u2019s just the way it is sometimes.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite the falling out, Mr Hadley said he could still look back at his time in the band with fondness.\n<\/p>\n
\n He added: \u201cI think it\u2019s important. I mean, it would be really sad if what happened in recent years muddied the water in terms of what it felt in times like when True went to number one, for instance and was then in the Top 5 in America for four weeks.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI can still sing those songs and not with any kind of angst or bad feeling. I just sing them because they\u2019re great songs.\n<\/p>\n
\n “They\u2019re part of my life. They\u2019re part of the audience\u2019s life, and it\u2019s important to realise that.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n After striking out on his own, Mr Hadley admitted he found the experience \u201cbloody terrifying at first\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n He said: \u201cIt\u2019s the scariest thing because you\u2019ve got to remember that we were a school band and then all of a sudden you find yourself as a solo artist. It was kind of daunting, but I got used to it.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Years later, Mr Hadley is now celebrating five decades in the music industry, which he said was a hard-fought achievement.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hadley added: \u201cWhen you sign your first record deal, you want it so much and desperately want it to last for as long as possible.\n<\/p>\n
\n “But we all know the music business is pretty fickle and not everybody survives or lasts the course.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cBut through sheer determination and hard work, I\u2019ll always get back up no matter how many times you hit me down.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019ve managed to still be doing what I love 50 years on. It\u2019s a pretty tough business, but you\u2019ve got to roll with the punches, and I\u2019m loving it at the moment. So, I am a lucky man to still do what I love.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The singer, who has won a Brit Award and was made an MBE, is also marking his 50 years in the industry with The Christmas Big Band Tour 2026, which will see him perform 19 shows across the UK this winter.\n<\/p>\n
\n The shows will see him perform timeless big band standards, swing favourites and 80s anthems including songs by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Elvis Presley, while being joined by the Fabulous TH Band and full brass section.\n<\/p>\n
\n He also promised fans he would perform some of Spandau Ballet\u2019s best-known songs.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s musical suicide not to sing your hit songs,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf you\u2019re a new band that no-one\u2019s ever heard of and you do a 40-minute set, then of course you\u2019re playing new songs.\n<\/p>\n
\n “But if you have all these fantastic songs like True, Gold and Through The Barricades and don\u2019t perform them, the audience will just walk out.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThey want to hear those songs, and I think you\u2019d be really selfish not to perform them.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n During his time back with Spandau Ballet, Mr Hadley also took part in the 2015 season of I\u2019m A Celebrity\u2026Get Me Out Of Here! \u2013 in which he finished sixth.\n<\/p>\n
\n Although he said it \u201cserved a great purpose\u201d at the time, he has no desire to do another reality show.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Hadley explained: \u201cThere\u2019s so many reality shows now; I enjoyed that one because it was in the jungle, and I\u2019ve done various charity jungle treks.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cSo I actually love being in the jungle, but to be honest they are trying to invent celebrity this and celebrity that all over the place, and I\u2019m kind of bored with it.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI think I did it at the right time, but I\u2019m not interested in anything else now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n But when asked if he had any other projects to tick off the bucket list, he revealed there was a contemporary album in the works that he was hoping to release next year, while another goal was to perform with a big band in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony Hadley rose to international fame as the lead singer of the new wave group, delivering iconic hits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":784891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-784890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/784891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}