interview
From Spandau Ballet to EastEnders and CBB, Martin Kemp has been there and done that, as Jordan Paramor finds out
If heat could travel back to any era, we would choose the hedonistic 1980s, when social media didn’t exist, but outrageous partying and living a life of excess definitely did. From Wham and Spandau Ballet, to Duran Duran and Madonna, it was a riot of DayGlo outfits, lashings of backcombed hair and jaunty head scarves – and that was mainly the chaps. Now, someone who was there for the whole period has decided to document it.
Martin Kemp played bass in Spandau Ballet and witnessed the decade in all its glory. The 61 year old has been with his partner, former Wham member Shirlie, 60, for 40 years, and the couple have two kids, singer-songwriter and photographer Harley Moon, 33, and son Roman, 29 (you know, that presenter fella). His new book, Ticket To The World, gives us an insider view of his wild years. And he doesn’t hold back, taking us on a journey of club life, fame and failures.
To use a cliché, it’s a roller-coaster ride…
We’ve loved all the ’80s stories and gossip in your book…
Thank you so much. I didn’t want it to feel like a standard autobiography. I wanted it to reflect other peoples’ lives, too. If you lived through the ’80s, you get to go back and remember it, and if you didn’t, it’ll take you there.
It was such a vibrant time, wasn’t it?
It really was. I’ve always felt like the New Romantics were the last of the great pop subcultures. It was in an era when there was no social media, so you had to go out and find people who dressed like you and liked the things you did. It’s when life went from black and white to colour.
Spandau Ballet were super-famous, but you admit that you were really shy as a kid…
I was a painfully shy kid to the point where, if I was walking home and I saw someone from school, I would want to bury my head in my mum’s buttocks. I joined a drama club and that kind of moulded me into half of who I am. Steve Strange [legendary ’80s singer and club host] moulded the other half when I started going out. They brought me out of myself.
Your wife Shirlie was in Wham and George Michael played matchmaker, didn’t he?
Do you know, I fell in love with Shirlie the first time I saw her on TV when Wham were performing Young Guns on Top Of The Pops. I then met her in a bar and gave her my number and she didn’t call – probably because I was wearing too much make-up. Three weeks later, George dialled my number and handed Shirlie the receiver and we finally talked. He wasn’t the world superstar he was going to become – he was just Shirlie’s school friend. But George became a part of my family, and he always will be.
You must miss him
