Friday 10 May 2024.
The date when this blog’s chief steward dug deep into the 7″ singles and more than likely lost hundreds of previously faithful regular readers.
mp3 : Spandau Ballet – To Cut A Long Story Short
mp3 : Spandau Ballet – To Cut A Long Story Short (version)
Feel free to mock. I’m strong enough to withstand the brickbats. I think this is a great single. Not their best, but a splendid way with which to introduce yourselves to the watching world. Released on 31 October 1980….it reached #5.
You can pick this up on Discogs for 10p…..plus P&P……but you don’t get the picture sleeve!
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
saw/heard it for first time on Swap Shop. Excellent single.
This is a single of it’s time and it’s time was, wow. Things were changing musically in the UK. I was on board.
I thought the LP good too. I sold my copy mid-80s but re-bought it on cd many years later.
The single conjures happy times.
Chant No. 1 and all that came after, yeuch!
Flimflamfan
great pop songs no
No mocking from this quarter – regardless of what musical crimes they later committed, this single was excellent. Looking forward to hearing the B-side version. [kontroller]
I’ve been into all sorts of ‘cool’ music and scenes in my time, New York Dolls right from the first album, Joy Division while Curtis was still alive, The Fall almost from the beginning…and this single is right up there with the best. OK, they did go a bit naff later, but Kemp is a quality writer of the pop song. This single was eagerly awaited and appreciated by ‘the trendies’. I think Peel played it too.
A great single. I still have the parent album, which to this day gets the odd spin. Some very nice memories comes with it…
A musical snob against your own tastes? This will make an interesting case study…
signed,
Some Middle-European-accented psychoanalyst or another
Superb pop song
SC
I lo I lov
I prefer the more varied version version. Brings The Cure and Giorgio Moroder to my mind. If I were a DJ, I might play The Room by Ninth Arena afterward. Then probably All About You by the Scars. The 80s were such a glorious time. [sk]
Flimflamfan – You are mad, sir! The holy “Chant No. 1” is by my reckoning the band’s acme!! This was a fair single and certainly, Dave and Annie were paying attention!
I hated most of their work but this was simply a brilliant pop record!
I agree with (NVV) & Silly Kisser – the 80s were a wonderful time – so full of potential and Span’ Bal’ were just one of a thousand bands showing solid potential.
There is, in my mind, a brilliant artistic innocence about To Cut A Long Story Short. It’s one of the siren songs of the Blitz/ New Romantic lightning flash. But it was a dense Dance Pop song with lots of bravado managed to bring The Club into your bedsit or front room. It’s a marker in time for me, holding steady in the very varied halls of my musical memories.
Rich…….just wanted to say that it’s a good feeling to hear from you again after what seems like an eternity. Hope you’re well.
JC
Late to reply as somehow I got unsubscribed from the blog! Sorted now.
Great opening single of a career that slowly went to shit, probably due to Tony Hadley thinking he was some kind of brilliant crooner. Which he ain’t.