Hadley excited with band reunion

Oliver Rogers
BBC Essex

Tony Hadley with a Ford Granada in Dagenham

Spandau Ballet lead singer, Tony Hadley, visited the Ford plant in Dagenham ahead of the band's comeback gig at the O2 Dome.

Ford have provided some of the vehicles for the 2009 Spandau Ballet UK tour.

Hadley told BBC Essex: We're getting on brilliantly well, better than I expected and that's the truth

"Time is a great healer, getting older and wiser makes you take stock of your life. We realised we could make it work," he added.

'Once More' is the new single from Spandau Ballet

"We have seven articulated trucks, and quite a few crew. The production is a million dollar show and people are walking away saying 'wow the lights are good'."

Spandau Ballet's first release, 'To Cut A Long Story Short', came in 1980 and they had a run of hits including 'True', 'Gold' and 'Through the Barricades'.

The band originally split up in 1990 and had an acrimonious court case in 1999 over song writing royalties.

"Its not been an overnight thing," said the band's frontman.

"Its taken some time as there were several offers of tours over the last few years and I just thought it wasn't the right time.

"But slowly and surely the technicals have been right and over time we've realised we could make it work again," he said.

"Things are obviously different between us for sure," he added.

Original members, John Keeble, Gary and Martin Kemp, along with Steve Norman have reunited with Tony Hadley to complete the classic line-up.

"I hope our home town will be as excited as we are about the shows at the O2 Dome," he said.

The band's new single is called 'Once More' and an album will be out before Christmas.