He wrote world hits like “True”: Gary Kemp Solo: Between Spandau Ballet and Pink Floyd

Gary Kemp is a phenomenon. He became known in the 1980s as a guitarist and songwriter by Spandau Ballet. As an actor, he was in front of the camera with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston for “Bodyguard”. For several years now, as a member of Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, he has been thrilled with music from the early phase of Pink Floyd. He also makes a podcast. Now Kemp publishes a very personal solo album.

“This Destination” is the name of the record that the 65-year-old also made for himself. “For me, writing this album is a kind of personal therapy-like every music that I am doing now,” said Kemp of the German Press Agency in London. “I am not the guy who can sit down with other songwriters and say:” Come on, we write something for someone else. “That would be just too calculated for me.”

“People no longer know who I am at all”

In a way, the first albumtrack of Spandau Ballet and Pink Floyd combines, because it begins with a gentle saxophone and culminates in an atmospheric guitar solo. “Borrowed Town” revolves around Kemp’s home London, a city in constant change, the population of which is constantly changing – a “borrowed city”.

“I wrote the text for this in the subway,” says the musician, from whose spring immortal world hits such as “True” and “Gold” come. “There are always someone who is king of the street in London. And for a while it was my buddies and I. But now not. Now people don’t even know who the hell I am at all.”

An album with soul, rock and a lot of atmosphere

To London- more precisely about the emerging New Wave and New Romantic scene in the British capital in the late 1970s- is “Windswept Street (1978)”. It was a special time for Kemp. “You could experience the changes and the graduate elevator in pop culture and youth culture.” He didn’t have a plan B.

He plays on the new album with various genres – there are Northern Soul (“This Destination”), classic rock (“Johnny’s Coming Home”) or a gentle, encouraging ballad (“put your head up”). “Work”, with which the musician who grew up in simple circumstances, reminds of his hard -working parents, or “I know where i am going” are almost cinematic – or like a piece from a musical. All together results in an entertaining and very worth hearing mix with a lot of atmosphere.

Two Spandau Ballet classics and a hope

The fact that Kemp has a good voice has been known since the 1980s. Finally, the guitarist – and pianist – always sang in the background at Spandau Ballet and at “True” the famous “Ha haha ​​ha Haaa” in the chorus. The songs “True” and “Through the Barricades” are available on “This Destination” in new acoustic versions as bonus tracks – of course with his voice. “I wanted people to hear how it sounded when I was sitting in my bedroom in 1983 or 1985 or something and wrote these songs.”

By the way, according to Kemp, the door for a new Reunion of Spandau Ballet is not closed. “No. I never struck them,” emphasizes the musician and brother of Spandau-Ballet bassist Martin Kemp. “I would like to do that because I want to play this music again in front of an audience that grew up with her.”

Until one day it may come, you can hope that Gary Kemp will go on a solo tour with his new songs – and a few old ones. Because “This Destination” is a great album of a gifted songwriter.