Spandau Ballet star Steve Norman gigging in Brighton

Spandau Ballet founder member Steve Norman offers his first home-town solo show in Brighton with a date at The Old Market on Saturday, September 8.
Steve: copyright sabrina winterSteve: copyright sabrina winter
Steve: copyright sabrina winter

“I have only been in Brighton for about for four years,” Steve says, “but it is great. I love it there.

“I lived in Ibiza for about 12 years throughout the 90s and the early noughties, and I was very spoilt living there.

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“My children grew up there, and we were all used to living by the sea. I split up with their mother, and when they came to the UK, I wanted them to be in the same country as their father, and so the nearest I could find was Brighton.

“It has got the same open liberal scene.

“I don’t know of anywhere else like it.

“It is great whether you are painting or writing or acting or making music… and it is by the sea.”

Steve spends about a third of his time there; another third on the road; and the rest of the time with his girlfriend in Berlin.

“But this is the first Brighton gig, just me. I have been doing gigs like this for a year. I love Spandau, but you can’t really rely on Spandau.

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“I love Spandau. It is my band. We formed the band in 1976. It will always be close to my heart, but you get 20-year hiatuses – and what’s that all about!”

And so Steve started doing the kind of gig he is doing in Brighton – and he has loved it, especially for the fact that it includes a Q&A.

“I was a bit nervous at the thought of it. I didn’t feel very comfortable with it. I have no problem whatsoever performing live on stage, but this is someone asking you questions and you are having to give honest answers.

“But I did something like this in Spanish and I had to translate it all in Spanish, and I thought ‘Well, if I can do it in Spanish, what I am worrying about!’, and I realised I really enjoyed it.”

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And there is plenty to talk about: “Spandau is my life, a major part of my life.

“We went through so much together. It was the fact that we grew up together and had together all those defining moments together, from children to men, from being at school to being in the office which in our case was the recording studio.

“We have had our fallings-out, but any family does, and we have come out the end of it with far more respect for each other which is far more important than any internal squabbles.

“They say that three things split up bands, money, women or drugs, but after our experience, I would say that there is another thing, and that is ego.

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“It is always about ego, someone not happy with something, but once you get rid of ego, it is so much easier, and that comes with age.

“You realise that you have grown up and it is a pleasure when you get back together. But I am still focusing on these gigs.

“ They are a little bit anarchic. You never know what questions are going to be asked.

“But I always ask the audience to dig deep and ask me something challenging, and you can always feel the huge love in the room for Spandau.”

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