Gary Kemp (1)

After watching a highly cheesy ITV 'special' on Spandau Ballet, who seem to be everywhere at the moment, I was prompted to read Gary Kemp's autobiography, released after the group's initial reunion in 2009. I have previously read and enjoyed his brother Martin's life story (2000), and still have a copy, but then I have long nurtured a crush on 'the best looking bloke' in the band! Gary is a better wordsmith - obviously, being a songwriter - though not as open or likeable as his little show more brother.

The opening chapters, describing the Kemp family history and growing up in Islington, are the best - humorous and warm, bringing to life a poor but loving background, filled with hideous knitted jumpers but lacking pretension. When Spandau begin to take off, under the neurotic control of Gary, his narrative loses some of its original charm. Gary does cover the rift in the band - he stopped paying contributions to the others from his publishing company, which Tony, Steve and John took to be a breach of promise - but skips over his brother's health scare in the mid-1990s, which is covered in Martin's own words, but still. The last chapter, however, recounting the loss of Gary's parents in 2009, is absolutely heart-wrenching, and more than makes up for the obnoxious twaddle about Gary's artistic vision for the band (instead of taking Gary to court, the others should just have taped his mouth shut and locked him in a cupboard). After the initial laughter, I was nearly in tears when I finally finished reading Gary's story.

A beautifully told, if selective, life story by a prince of pop. show less

Small keepsake book of Spandau Ballet founder and bassist Gary Kemp. Table of Contents & one black and white photo of Kemp. No text, only song lyrics which were sung by Tony Hadley. I was able to see the group perform with all the original members in Los Angeles 2015.