On a damp November morning in 1979, 5 school mates from Islington, got up early and delivered their first live performance as Spandau Ballet in a Holloway Road rehearsal studio. The audience on that morning comprised of the elite of London's expanding night-club scene all of whom would form the music and style tribe soon to be named "The New Romantics" by the fascinated tabloid press. Spandau Ballet were the first band to perform music specifically for that target audience. Media interest was growing and on 7 March 1980 the group performed a gig at The Scala Cinema in Tottenham Street, London attracted a lot of media interest. A second gig was arranged for 13th May 1980, which was filmed for the Janet Street Porter TV show, "20th Century Box" For an unsigned band this was virtually unheard of. At this early stage the band were offered a contract on the spot by Chris Blackwell at Island Records. This was famously rejected by their manager Steve Dagger on the premise that with such a level of interest there would be other, more lucrative offers just around the corner. He was right
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The band were then offered a stint of gigs in St Tropez. For our working class heroes this was the trip of a lifetime. They were in the South of France at the time the Janet Street Porter show was broadcast. On his return Steve Dagger found that just about every major record company in the UK has enquired about his band. He felt that to nail the best deal he needed one more showcase for the lads. Having gone for alternative venues in the past, on the suggestion of his father, he booked them into HMS Belfast for a gig on 26th July 1980. The management of HMS Belfast did not know what had hit them. They were expecting a polite student "coming down" party of Oxford students with a quintet playing. What they got is people dressed up in full New Romantic clobber out to party and record company talent scouts no doubt rubbing their hands at the prospect of getting in on the ground floor of a very big movement. The strategy paid off. Chrysalis Records won the race to sign the band and on the 10th October 1980, Martin Kemp's 19th birthday, they signed their deal. .
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