Best known as the lead singer of Spandau Ballet, British singer Tony Hadley has gone on to enjoy a varied career. Born in Islington, London, on June 2, 1960, Anthony Patrick Hadley became familiar with the jazz his parents listened to in his youth, before being drawn to pop music with the formation in 1976 of the group Spandau Ballet, which scored a major hit in the early 1980s with titles such as the number one "True", "Gold" (no. 2) and "Through the Barricades " (no. 6), among some twenty chart hits. Part of the neo-romantic new wave movement, Spandau Ballet broke up in 1990 after recording four albums, and its singer, hailed for his smooth voice, embarked on a solo career with the album The State of Play, released in 1992. Lack of success and rejection by EMI led to the creation of his own label, SlipStream Records, which released his 1997 self-titled album of covers, distributed by PolyGram TV. After collaborations with Tin Tin Out and Alan Parsons, Tony Hadley continued in the same pop vein with the EP Get So Lonely, released on his new label Blueprint Recordings in 2001. In 2002, he joined forces with his former Spandau Ballet partners, John Keeble and Steve Norman, for a tour entitled An Evening of Gold. Official reunions of the group will take place in 2009 and 2019. Meanwhile, the singer releases two collaborative albums, one with Peter Cox and Go West in 2004 and the other with Martin Fry and ABC in 2005. Tony Hadley then turned to a repertoire of retro jazz covers and original songs with Passing Strangers (2006), followed by a big band tour and further crooner albums such as Live from Metropolis Studios (2013), The Christmas Album (2015) and Talking to the Moon (2018). He has also taken part in several charity events, such as the Comic Relief project in 2013 and the cover of Robbie Williams' song "Angels " in 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2022, he returned to the stage to celebrate 40 years in the music business, then released the album The Mood I'm In in 2024.
