Spandau Ballet release lost track

Author: Dan Biggane

Read Time:   |  22nd August 2025

The never-before-released song Eyes was recorded while the band was still called Gentry

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Spandau Ballet have released a lost track that featured in their early sets at the legendary Blitz Club nights.

Eyes was recorded at Halligan’s rehearsal studio while the band were still called Gentry. It was at the studio that they were given the name ‘Spandau Ballet’ by future broadcaster and journalist Robert Elms.

The song can be heard on the ‘Demos’ disc of Everything Is Now – Vol 1: 1978-1982, a definitive early-years collection released on 12 September through Parlophone.

Eyes was performed on the night which truly launched Spandau Ballet – 5 December 1979 at the legendary Blitz club’s Christmas party.

Listen to it below:

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Modern But Retro

While Eyes didn’t make it onto the band’s debut album, today fans can hear a slice of history ahead of the release of the comprehensive nine-disc Everything Is Now – Vol 1: 1978-1982, featuring their groundbreaking first two albums alongside a wealth of previously unavailable material.

Songwriter Gary Kemp said: “Eyes, which we demoed at Halligan’s, was one of the early songs that I wrote with the synthesiser. It’s kind of gothic post-punk. It suits what was going on at the time with Joy Division, Siouxsie and Magazine.

“We liked the dirty garage quality of that period. We had all been brought up on guitar riffs and now we could riff in a way that was very monophonic and grainy that had a very modern but retro sound. I would write on the synth and on an upright piano in our hallway at home.

“Producer Richard Burgess didn’t think Eyes was right for the album. I like it but it went by the wayside.”

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Tony Hadley at Halligans - credit: Graham Smit

Tony Hadley at Halligans - credit: Graham Smit

Journeys To Glory

Spandau Ballet, featuring Tony Hadley (lead vocals), Gary Kemp (guitar, songwriter), Martin Kemp (bass), Steve Norman (saxophone, percussion) and John Keeble (drums), and the Blitz Club influenced generations of artists following the punk explosion, not only with the New Romantic movement but in the aesthetic of the pop music that would follow.

The meticulously curated new collection captures the band’s origins and meteoric rise from Blitz Club favourites to chart-topping innovators. The set includes a 44-page book with original photos from fellow Blitz Kid Graham Smith and new commentary from the whole band. It features Spandau Ballet’s seminal albums Journeys To Glory (1981) and Diamond (1982) on vinyl, plus six CDs of singles, remixes, BBC sessions, demos, and a Blu-ray of Dolby Atmos mixes, videos and rare live footage.

The collection showcases their evolution through their formative and revolutionary period, from the electronic-infused new wave of early singles like To Cut A Long Story Short and The Freeze to the funk-influenced sophistication of Chant No. 1 and Instinction.  They were simply the most cutting edge, futuristic band in the world, at the centre of a creative scene that defined the 1980s.

Shaping The 80s

The release coincides with London’s Design Museum’s exhibition ‘Blitz: The Club That Shaped The 80s’ which opens on 20 September 20.

“The Blitz was a real sweatbox when we performed there,” recalls Tony Hadley, “but we just had this sense that things were changing. As a young person you want to create a stir. And we did.”

The exhibition explores the ‘Blitz Kids’ who pioneered new music, fashion, film, design and more from the tiny Soho nightclub The Blitz, all to a soundtrack provided by a nascent Spandau Ballet (the only artist to ever play the club). For tickets click here

Everything Is Now – Vol 1: 1978-1982 stands as the definitive document of Spandau Ballet’s revolutionary early period, when they helped define the sound and style of a generation. For full tracklistings and to pre-order click here

Featured image credit: Graham Smith

Read More: Top 40 New Romantic songs

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Written by

Dan Biggane

Dan Biggane is a writer for Classic Pop and Vintage Rock magazines. A former entertainment editor at the Bath Chronicle newspaper, he’s interviewed countless big names from the world of rock and pop including Robert Plant and John Lydon, as well as members of The Specials, The Selecter, The Cure, The Go-Go's, Echo & The Bunnymen, Dexys, Deacon Blue, and Suzanne Vega.