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Audience figures put Arena among world's
best
Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena has made its debut at 11th place in the world’s
busiest venues chart.
Ranked by attendance figures in the first six months of 2009, it appears ahead of
world famous venues such as Madison Square Garden, New York and Staples
Centre, Los Angeles.
The table is compiled by POLLSTAR, the leading entertainment magazine.
Paul Tappenden, Marketing Director for the venue said, “We had a record breaking
year in 2008, but 2009 is shaping up to be even better! With over 35,000 people
having just seen the incredible ‘Walking With Dinosaurs’, 30+ forthcoming shows of
MAMMA MIA! coming in December and a very full concert programme with three or
four big shows still to be announced, we feel confident of moving up even further,
possibly even within the top six at the end of the year.”
Some 20 years after
the band broke up,
following the
release of 1989s
“Heart like a Sky”
album and almost
30 years since
releasing their
debut album,
“Journeys to
Glory”, Spandau
Ballet reunited in
2009.
Spandau Ballet
emerged at the start
of the 1980s and grew
out of the same new
romantic scene that
spawned Duran
Duran and for a while the bands had a playful rivalry similar to the Beatles and
Stones, two decades earlier.
Elegant, well dressed, and rather bizarrely obsessed with cleanliness (the band
were quoted saying that they hated most gigs because everyone was so dirty),
they were, to put a fine point on it, the in crowd. Spandau Ballet lasted ten
years, a career arc that spanned the Eighties in perfect symmetry, from the
nightclubs of Soho, Ibiza and the stadiums of Europe and Australia. The bands
enormous success was rubber stamped by their appearance on the historic
Band Aid record and by their performance at Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in
the summer of 1985.
For all you Spandau Ballet fans around the world, they came, they saw, they
partied.
This best of collection is the original 2000 remastered release, packaged with
an additional DVD which includes all the promos, from 1980s “To Cut a Long
Story Short” through to 1986s “Through the Barricades”, the first time they
have been available on DVD. Only a handful of singles are missing from this
collection including “Pleasure” from the True album and 3 later Sony era hits,
“How Many Lies”, “Raw” and “Be Free with your Love”.
Released to coincide with a UK and European tour, starting in Dublin on the
13th October and finishing in Madrid on the 15th March, I would expect most
Spandau Ballet fans already own a copy of the original release. “Reformation”,
a 3 C.D package released in July 2003, which includes demo and extended
versions of their greatest hits and a live recording at Sadlers Wells on the 1st
March 1983 is a far better purchase.
With a new album due to be released on the 19th October called “Once More”
including re-workings of 11 classic and two new songs, I would question the
integrity of this release. Like many other 80s bands that have reformed in
recent years I ask… is this release intended to reflect the music. Click here to
Gold..The Best of Spandau
Ballet...
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