Not a frilly shirt in sight as Spandau Ballet reunite

Thirty years after Spandau Ballet first came on the scene, the four members of the band that helped create the 1980s New Romantics trend put an ugly feud behind them to make their comeback at the O2 arena in Dublin on Tuesday night.

It was the first time they had played together in 20 years and the first in a series of reunion concerts planned around Britain before they begin a tour of Europe, Asia and Australia.

Gone were the frilly shirts and outrageous outfits that made a Spandau Ballet concert in their heyday as much a fashion show as a musical event. Gary Kemp, John Keeble, Martin Kemp and Steve Norman, now hitting 50, chose open shirts and jeans while lead singer Tony Hadley, his big voice still in great shape, wore a dark suit.

The band delivered just what the audience wanted - all the old hits, from To Cut A Long Story Short and The Freeze to True.

A key moment was a duet between Hadley and Gary Kemp, the songwriter the rest of the ban famously sued - unsuccessfully - for unpaid royalties.

Hadley once said that hell freeze over he would play again with Kemp. Yet the two men gave a moving rendition of With The Pride, with Kemp accompanying Hadley on accoustic guitar.

Hadley was cheered when he dedicated the group's final song - True, of course - to the Boyzone singer Stephen Gately, found dead at his Majorca holiday apartment at the weekend. "He was a good drinking mate of mine," Hadley told the 9,000-strong crowd.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
Pierre Perrone, the Independent: "In the year which has already seen amazing comebacks like those of Magazine and Mott the Hoople, Spandau Ballet are not quite in the same league, but their live dates will brighten up many an October evening."

Anita Singh, Daily Telegraph: "[After the Hadley-Kemp duet on With the Pride] the audience, mostly 30-somethings and 40-somethings reminiscing about snogging to True at the school disco, were putty in their hands." ·