Martin Kemp has closed the book on Spandau Ballet, so much so that he would be ‘physically sick’ if he was asked to go on tour with them now.
After reforming in 2009, frontman Tony Hadley left the band in 2017 and despite a brief spell with a new singer, the band hasn’t performed since 2019.
The Gold hitmakers celebrate their 45th anniversary this year, and while the other remaining band members have suggested they would like to do one last tour, Martin doesn’t think they will ever get back together.
‘For me, it’s a closed story,’ he told the Celebrity Catch Up: Life After That Thing I Did podcast, having previously suggested there was a chance.
’As much as people would like to see it get back together, I don’t think it ever will. The five of us had the most beautiful experience that you could ever get. At the age of 18, I was flying around Europe in learjets and partying like you could not imagine.
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’Being a rock star is a great experience. But do I want to go back there? I think if somebody gave me a ticket to go around the world on tour now, I’d be physically sick. So I’m quite happy with what I do now.’
He described his time in the group as a ‘beautiful memory’, but sometimes he doesn’t recognise himself when he ‘looks back’ on those days.
‘It’s kind of like I’m looking at somebody else. When I see it on TV now and again, or I hear it on the radio – it doesn’t sound like me, it doesn’t look like me anymore,’ he said.
‘It’s a young boy that had an incredible experience and I find it removed from being me. And I think that’s the best place for it in some ways.’
Speaking about the band’s original split in 1990, Martin insisted that most bands ‘fall out over girls or money’.
‘We were exactly the same as everybody else, we fell out over money,’ he admitted. ‘I’m really pleased that we didn’t fall out over personal relationships and girls and our wives.
‘The fact that we fell out over money, I can handle that. That’s just business. And business is a part of what we did.’