Lost Spandau Ballet song Eyes from band’s early days to be released

A lost Spandau Ballet song named Eyes, recorded in the pop band’s early days when they were named Gentry, is to be released for the first time.

The track, which featured in the band’s Blitz Club sets, will feature on a new box set of the group’s early work called Everything Is Now – Vol 1: 1978-1982, which will be released on September 12 – with the track being made available on streaming on Friday.

The band’s songwriter and guitarist, 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.”

Eyes was recorded during the late 1970s at Halligan’s rehearsal studio, the location where they were given the name Spandau Ballet by journalist Robert Elms, with the song featuring on the Demos disc of the new box set.

The release comes as the band is due to feature in the Blitz: The Club That Shaped The 80s exhibition at London’s Design Museum opening on September 20, which they will soundtrack.

Made up of Kemp and his brother Martin on bass, singer Tony Hadley, saxophonist Steve Norman, and drummer John Keeble, Spandau Ballet are best known for their UK number one single True, and have also had a UK number one album with the LP of the same name – which was released in 1983.