Born on 2 June: Tony Hadley, the velvety voice of Spandau Ballet

Without much fanfare, born in 1960 in London, UK, Tony Hadley is celebrating his 65th birthday today.

The former Spandau Ballet singer remains an icon of the New Romantics movement that emerged in London clubs such as Blitz (opened by Rusty Egan and Steve Strange of Visage) at the very end of the 1970s. With groups like Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet, this movement marked, in a way, the return of glamour and glitter to popular English music. Even if, at the start, its protagonists didn't have a penny to their name to perfect their style! We're now a far cry from the No Future mantra championed by the punks. "Punk Is Not Dead", as the last surviving members of the iconoclastic movement still declare, but the spirit has long since faded.

Spurred on by new magazines like "The Face" and "i-D" appearing on newsstands at the same time, this musical style promoted a joy of living and even a certain hedonism. And Spandau Ballet, with their ruffle shirts and carefully curated extravagance, established themselves as one of the leading acts. From punk, however, they retained a desire for independence, setting up their own label Re-formation, for example.

In 1980, their debut single "To Cut A Long Story Short" (with its numerous remixes and extended versions for nightclubs) was an instant hit. Their first album, "Journeys To Glory", demonstrated their ambition to reach the top. They achieved that two years later with the album "True" and its slightly syrupy title track, which hit number one everywhere in Europe. "When people met us, they often expected to meet really cool guys. Some were probably a bit disappointed to find we were incredibly ordinary," Hadley recalls. Spandau Ballet would go on to release three more albums, "Parade" (1984), "Through The Barricades" (1986), and "Heart Like A Sky" (1989), which garnered less attention. Their star began to fade, and one or two temporary reunions did little to change that. The chapter was well and truly closed.

Gradually, album by album, Tony Hadley transformed himself into a crooner, to the point of devoting much of one of his most recent shows to covers of Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Ella Fitzgerald. Without ever completely abandoning the hits that made his name in the 1980s, such as "Only When You Leave" and "The Freeze", "Chant No. 1" and "Gold". Indeed, the singer never forgets that it is, above all, nostalgia that draws audiences to see him perform...

A few upcoming gigs:

14 June: Dreamland, Margate (England) with Midge Ure and Nik Kershaw

12 July: The Quarry - Shrewsbury (England) with Holly Johnson

24 August: Arena - Darlington (England) with Bananarama and The Christians

26 October: Podium Victoria - Alkmaar (Netherlands)

27 October: Casino Kursaal - Ostend (Belgium)

29 October: Het Depot - Leuven (Belgium)

30 October: Metropool - Hengelo (Netherlands)

9 November: De Vorstin - Hilversum (Netherlands)

All other dates here: tonyhadley.com/ontour/

Photo: Tony Hadley with Spandau Ballet on stage at the Cirque Royal in Brussels (Belgium) on 19 October 1983