Artist · chart history
Spandau Ballet
Band Islington United Kingdom Active 1979–1990
Spandau Ballet formed in 1979 in Islington, United Kingdom and was active until 1990. Spandau Ballet has 36 chart appearances on 26 radio countdowns from 13 stations on RockLists, spanning 1981–2026. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “True”, which appears on 14 lists with a best position of #32. The station that charted Spandau Ballet most often is KROQ (Los Angeles, CA), with 12 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1984.
Spandau Ballet came out of Islington in 1979, kids from London's post-punk dance underground who started out as the Applause, the resident band at the Blitz Kids club night, serving up what they called European dance music. Gary Kemp wrote the songs and played guitar and synthesiser, his brother Martin Kemp played bass, Tony Hadley sang, Steve Norman played sax and John Keeble played drums.
Journeys to Glory (1981) carried their debut single "To Cut a Long Story Short", all clipped synths and chilly New Romantic swagger. But the band's real heart was in soul and the old American crooners like Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett, and on True (1983) they let it show. The title track is a slow, silken ballad with Hadley giving it the full velvet-lounge treatment, and alongside "Gold", "Lifeline" and "Communication" it turned them into one of the New Romantic era's biggest success stories, on the way to selling 25 million albums in all. Parade (1984) kept the gloss high with "Only When You Leave", "Round and Round" and "Revenge for Love".
They won a Brit Award for technical excellence in 1984, were the first act Bob Geldof approached for Band Aid, and played Live Aid at Wembley in 1985. The band played its last show in 1990, then fought over songwriting royalties in court, before reforming for The Reformation Tour in 2009.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by Spandau Ballet on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | True | 14 | #32 | – | – | |
| 2 | To Cut a Long Story Short | 4 | #29 | – | 1981 | |
| 3 | Only When You Leave | 5 | #56 | – | 1984 | |
| 4 | True (Spandau Ballet) | 1 | #59 | – | – | |
| 5 | Lifeline | 4 | #52 | – | 1983 | |
| 6 | Communication | 3 | #94 | – | 1983 | |
| 7 | Round and Round | 1 | #680 | – | – | |
| 8 | Gold | 2 | #460 | – | – | |
| 9 | Revenge for Love | 1 | #75 | – | 1984 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Year-end chart timeline
Combined year-end countdown points per year. Taller bars mean more songs placing higher across more stations.
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