21/10/2014 - George Hencken's documentary retraces the dizzying career of the British band, evoking a vibrant cross section of 1980s London

Stories about successful bands are all much of a muchness, covering first concerts held in basements, their gradual rise in the industry, the coveted record contract, success and the big-time, and then stress, misunderstandings, disbandment and, to top it all off, the inevitable reunion. And there’s no exception when it comes to a 1980s cult group who spent ten years at the top of the charts, who sold 25 million records and whose hits are still being played everywhere to this day: Spandau Ballet. The movie bringing this new romantic wave, replete with synthesizers, outrageous outfits and elaborate quiffs, to the 9th Rome Film Fest is Soul Boys of the Western World [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by British director George Hencken, who’s delivering his first directorial effort after producing multi-award-winning music videos, concert films and documentaries about key figures on the contemporary music scene, including Jimi Hendrix and the Sex Pistols.

“The only way to make a film about Spandau Ballet was to recreate the context in which they were born”, the director explained, presenting the film in Rome in the company of his five “soul boy” protagonists: Tony Hadley, brothers Martin and Gary Kemp, Steve Norman and John Keeble. Sons of London-based working-class families, the five boys had known each other since school and were starting to take their first steps in the clubs of Soho where new electronic sounds were starting to impose themselves on punk, glam rock and soul, as was fussy, OTT, posh clothing. “In London in 1979, young people were interested in two things: fashion and pop music”, Gary Kemp reminisces, explaining vis-a-vis the group that “each of us was looking for his tribe, and how you dressed also played a part”. Their earliest concerts were by invitation and their success was immediate: scores of young people chose the Spandau tribe, while Thatcher rose to power and the first strikes kicked off.

To recreate the climate of the time and the trajectory of this quintet, the director worked exclusively with footage made by the band and archive material, mostly revealed here for the very first time: “It was like a treasure hunt”, Hencken insists, “we’d look at a photo and say to ourselves: ‘Let’s look for this one, maybe there’ll be a few videos!’. I worked with over 300 hours of film; material came to us from all over the world. And their old manager also had films of their first interviews, which had been tucked away in a warehouse for years and never seen. It was an incredible journey back in time”. Not to mention a journey spanning their first disagreements, their break-up, the Kemp brothers’ Hollywood careers, illness, and the terrible legal battle which saw Hadley, Norman and Keeble drag Gary Kemp to court (with the latter winning the case and, with it, full rights to all of Spandau Ballet’s songs). And then, in 2009, the obligatory reunion, bringing concerts, nostalgia and grudging smiles - the same smiles we saw in Rome yesterday when they announced their upcoming tour in 2015 (with 5 dates scheduled for Italy). But if you’d like to catch a glimpse of their real grins and re-immerse yourselves in the glitz of the 1980s, Soul Boys of the Western World is screening in 150 Italy cinemas today and tomorrow, 21 and 22 October (distributed by Nexo Digitale and Feltrinelli Real Cinema). The list of participating cinemas can be found here.

(Translated from Italian)