• Source: Heart Like a Sky

Heart Like a Sky is the sixth studio album by English new wave band Spandau Ballet, released on 18 September 1989 by CBS Records. Several of the songs were written as a result of lead guitarist and songwriter Gary Kemp's new relationship. The band, however, was not happy with the material, and lead singer Tony Hadley had so little confidence in the songs and the direction of the band in general that it affected his mental health. That and the involvement of Kemp and his brother, bassist Martin Kemp, in the making of a feature film created tension during the recording sessions. Preparation for filming interrupted the recording of the album and postponement of principal photography delayed the album's release. Gary Kemp alienated some of the band members even further by deciding to receive a separate production credit for the album and discontinuing regular payments of a share of publishing royalties to them, which caused them to file a lawsuit against him.
Heart Like a Sky was much less successful in the UK than their other albums, peaking at number 31 during its three weeks on the chart there. A music magazine review only gave a weak recommendation. The singles also fared poorly, the first two narrowly missing the top 40 on the UK Singles Chart and two more barely making its top 100. Although the first of these releases, "Raw", received very good responses from critics, the rest elicited mostly or completely negative reviews. The album was the group's last release before disbanding and is their last to be composed entirely of new material.




Background


In October 1987 Spandau Ballet lead guitarist and songwriter Gary Kemp serendipitously reconnected with actress Sadie Frost, who had appeared in the band's videos for "Gold" and "Fight for Ourselves". He began a romance with her that replaced his tendency to be cautious with a devil-may-care attitude. The newfound freedom he felt as a result of the relationship recharged his desire to write again, which lead to several songs for their next album, Heart Like a Sky, but the rest of the band was not impressed with the demo cassette he presented. Drummer John Keeble was especially bothered since Kemp was planning to use programmed drums to record the album. Saxophonist Steve Norman gave Kemp a demo for a song he had written called "Motivator", which Kemp agreed that the band should record for the album.
The band disagreed upon where to record it. Kemp wanted to stay in London to be near Frost and also because he and his brother, band bassist Martin Kemp, had accepted the roles of twin gangsters Ronnie and Reggie Kray in what became the 1990 film The Krays and needed to be there since the rehearsal for the film would coincide with the recording of the album, meaning they would be need to take time off from the band. The band's manager, Steve Dagger, wanted them to record the album in Los Angeles, thinking that it would help their relationship with the US branch of their record label, which had not shown much interest in their work. Lead singer Tony Hadley felt that recording their albums away from England had elicited great results and wanted to travel again for this one, but he was outvoted by his bandmates. In his 2004 autobiography To Cut a Long Story Short, he wrote, "I'm convinced that, had we gone away together to make that album, we'd still be on speaking terms now."




Recording


Hadley described his emotional state while making the album as a "breakdown" because of the anxiety, sleeplessness, sweaty palms and tightness in the chest he experienced before each recording session. As to the reason for the breakdown, he explained, "The album was weak. I had no faith in the songs, my confidence had gone, and I had no idea where we were going as a band." He was also reluctant about the fact that they were recording at several studios and that there was new recording technology being used. He believed that Gary Kemp thought he could produce the album by himself. He wrote,
As a result there was a sense of detachment about Heart Like A Sky. It was Gary Kemp in tandem with the producer, Gary Langan, saying, This is how it’s going to be. The rest of us weren’t all that involved and it showed. It was like working in a vacuum and it sucked the life out of the band, sucked the life out of the songs. The whole process became difficult and unsatisfactory. Ultimately, the record had no soul.
Hadley felt pressure from Kemp about the quality of his vocals while recording "Empty Spaces", a song Kemp wrote about the end of the relationship with his previous girlfriend, so much so that Kemp eventually wanted to split the vocals with him. Hadley told him, "I'm the lead singer of this fucking band. Now fuck off." Hadley later infuriated Kemp when he criticized his lyrics for "Windy Town" but was able to calm him down. Hadley recorded the new lines for it that Kemp gave him but was still unhappy with how they sounded.

The disruption of the recording of the album caused by the rehearsal for The Krays led Gary Kemp to believe that the three band members not involved in the film saw the Kemps as being "unfaithful". He felt this was an unfair assessment considering his dedication to the band from its very beginnings. In his 2009 autobiography I Know This Much: From Soho to Spandau, he wrote that his anger over the situation made him realize, "Self-preservation was suddenly everything." Because of the amount of work he had put into the demos for the new album, he decided he wanted a production credit that was separate from the band. Hadley and Keeble were upset when they heard and objected, but Dagger insisted they cooperate and finish the album.




Release and promotion


The band also disagreed on the name for the album. Because they were recording in London, Keeble thought Home would be appropriate, and that became its working title. Sixth Sense was also considered. Kemp suggested the title Heart Like a Sky, which was a lyric from one of the songs on the album, "Crashed Into Love". Hadley and Keeble wanted to stick with Home but were outvoted. Kemp's explanation of its meaning was that it was "about the heart being infinite in its love and grandness, just like the sky," which Hadley, years later, described as "stupid."
The first single from the album, "Raw", was released in the UK on 22 August 1988. During a photo shoot for its cover, Kemp criticized Hadley's choice of clothing and thought the other band members would agree. Instead Norman responded sharply in Hadley's defence. Hadley wrote, "You just have to look at the shots from that session to see the hostility written all over our faces."
Dagger did not want to release the album until the Kemps's work on The Krays was finished. Financial issues delayed the start of filming, however, and the release of Heart Like a Sky was pushed back to September 1989, which was when filming started. A promotional appearance on European television required stand-ins to perform for the busy band members.
When the Kemps finished filming and rejoined the band to begin rehearsals for the album's tour, the camaraderie between them and the other members was gone. Hadley wrote, "Since the early days, John had always been close to Gary, but that was no longer the case," which Hadley blamed on Kemp's choice to program the drums. Kemp was hurt by the loss of the friendship. As they toured, the Kemps stayed at the front of the bus while Hadley, Keeble and Norman stayed in the TV room at the back. The stress of trying to keep the band together was so high for Dagger that he required hospitalisation.




Commercial performance


Heart Like a Sky entered the UK Albums Chart on 24 September 1989 to begin a chart run of three weeks, the first of which was spent in its peak position at number 31. It was their lowest charting album of new material and the only one not to receive gold certification from the British Phonographic Industry. It also reached number five in Italy, number 27 in the Netherlands, number 29 in Germany, number 35 in Spain, number 47 in Sweden, and number 96 in Australia.




Critical response



Record Mirror's Robin Smith wrote, "This album is chocolate box Spandau. The work of once angry young men who've grown up into sleek executives." He liked "Be Free with Your Love" and "Raw" but not "Empty Spaces" or "Windy Town". He concluded, "Heart Like a Sky is safe, solid and accessible. It smooths your collar, but it doesn't bite at your ankles."




Singles


"Raw" debuted on the UK Singles Chart dated 3 September 1988 and peaked at number 47 during its 3 weeks there, making it their lowest charting single to date. It also reached number 11 in Italy, number 22 in Belgium, number 23 in the Netherlands
and number 79 in Australia. The 1987 film Angel Heart inspired the song itself as well as its music video. The single received mostly positive reviews, with one critic writing that it was "probably their best offering yet" and another describing it as "the stuff of which great comebacks are made."
"Be Free with Your Love" was released as the second single almost a year later, on 14 August 1989. It only performed slightly better than "Raw" in the UK, peaking at number 42. It also reached number 11 in Italy, number 37 in Belgium, number 44 in the Netherlands, number 52 in West Germany and number 110 in Australia. Its music video was filmed in Los Angeles. The single received mostly negative reviews upon its release.
"Empty Spaces" was released as the third single in November 1989. It debuted in its peak position at number 94 in the UK and only spent a total of two weeks on the chart. Number One's guest critic Taylor Dayne gave the single two-and-a-half stars out of five.
The fourth and final single from the album, "Crashed Into Love", debuted on the UK Singles Chart on 24 February 1990 in its peak position at number 96. It also reached number 28 in Italy. Its music video was also filmed in Los Angeles. The review of the single in Record Mirror was not favorable.




Aftermath






= Band dissolution

=
The band signed with CBS Records in 1986 to record six albums, but Hadley wrote in 2004 that he thought it was unlikely that they would make four more albums together after the recording of Heart Like a Sky began. However, he also wrote, "Despite what had gone on during the making of the last album, and subsequent tour, no one had spoken about splitting up. Not to each other, anyway." Regarding his request for separate production credit on the album, Kemp wrote in 2009 that he had no concerns about how the others would feel about it because he knew at the time that it would be the last Spandau Ballet album.

When the Heart Like a Sky tour ended, Dagger suggested that they do something in the studio to prompt the record company to make an advanced payment on what would have been the next album. Kemp was not interested in writing anything, so they decided to record a cover but disagreed on the song. Hadley suggested the Righteous Brothers hit "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", and Kemp wanted to do the Simon and Garfunkel song "The Boxer". Hadley and Keeble were again outvoted. Michael Kamen, who wrote the score for The Krays, produced "The Boxer", but Kemp speculated that the project was "uncomfortable" for Kamen since certain members of the band were not wanting to be there or were, at least in Kemp' view, not talking to everyone. Hadley liked Kamen but thought the song was a bad choice for them and "hated" their recording. Kemp wrote, The final product was, not surprisingly, bland, with nothing about it that might suddenly reverse Spandau's limp exit from grace. We collected the CBS cheque but kept "The Boxer" on the shelf, never to be released. It was the first time we'd ever done anything cynically, but by now there was little pride left. At the end of the recording there was no group meeting, no plans, no farewell, just a deceitful see-you-later, as I slipped out of the studio, and out of the band.
Kemp further described the fate of Spandau Ballet after recording the song as "an unspoken acceptance that the band would not be working, at least for the foreseeable future." Hadley, however, wrote of feeling completely unaware of any sort of dissolution at that point: Despite the problems during the making of Heart Like a Sky, we were still speaking to each other by the end of the process -- just about. We had agreed to disagree, but our relationships weren't beyond repair. I didn't feel at that stage that there was no going back. For years afterwards, there was confusion. Had we split or were we just having time off? No one really knew. Our lives had been run by an office for years. All of a sudden, it all went quiet. The band didn't blow apart; it deflated. There was never any real closure.




= Publishing royalties lawsuit

=
When the band first had success in the early 1980s, they created a company called Marbelow to manage their finances. At the time, Kemp decided to invest his songwriting income in the company as a way of keeping the band afloat. As he speculated that Heart Like a Sky would be their last album, he decided to stop sharing these publishing royalties with the rest of the band. He told Dagger and Martin and wanted Dagger to tell the other three instead of having a confrontation about it.
Hadley's autobiography has two incidents in which he is informed of Kemp's decision. The first is during a trip to Los Angeles to film videos for "Be Free with Your Love" and "Crashed Into Love". Martin Kemp mentioned to Hadley and Keeble while having drinks that his brother was going to stop paying the 50 percent of the publishing royalties to the band. Hadley wrote that he thought Martin was only referring to the royalties from Heart Like a Sky, which he did not think would amount to much. The second notification came in 1993 when Hadley realized that there were only very small amounts of money he was receiving from Marbelow. After investigating he understood that Kemp had discontinued the payment of all publishing royalties.
Hadley, Keeble and Norman spoke with a series of attorneys before deciding to take legal action; Martin Kemp was not interested in suing his brother. The case went to trial in 1999, and a judge found in favor of Kemp, ruling that the publishing royalties were "a gift".

The band reunited in 2009, and in a 2015 interview, Hadley said,Looking back, we should never have made the final album – I can't even bear to listen to it. Gary's said that we should have taken a couple of years off, gone away and done solo stuff and then got back together again, and he's right.




Track listing






Personnel






= Spandau Ballet

=
Tony Hadley – lead and backing vocals, arrangements (1–4, 6–9)
Gary Kemp – guitars, backing vocals, arrangements (1–4, 6–9)
Steve Norman – guitars, saxophones, arrangements
Martin Kemp – bass, arrangements (1–4, 6–9)
John Keeble – drums, drum programming, arrangements (1–4, 6–9)




= Additional musicians

=
Toby Chapman – keyboards, programming, backing vocals, arrangements (1–4, 6–9)
Luís Jardim – percussion (1, 5, 7, 9)
Deuce Barter – arrangements (5)




= The Phantom Horns

=
Gary Barnacle – saxophones
Peter Thoms – trombone
John Thirkell – trumpet, flugelhorn
Luke Tunney – trumpet




= Technical

=
Gary Kemp – production (1–4, 6–9)
Gary Langan – production (1–4, 6–9)
Spandau Ballet – production
John Brough – engineering
Matt Howe – engineering assistance
Noel Rafferty – engineering assistance
Richard Sullivan – engineering assistance
Jeremy Wheatley – engineering assistance
Tom Lord-Alge – mixing
Peter Dyer – design
Nick Bell – design assistance
David Band – painting
David Scheinmann – photography
Mixed at The Hit Factory (New York City) and Larrabee Sound Studios (North Hollywood, California)




Charts






Certifications






Notes






References






Bibliography


Hadley, Tony (2004). To Cut a Long Story Short. London: Sidgwick & Jackson. ISBN 978-0-283-07386-1.
Kemp, Gary (2009). I Know This Much: From Soho to Spandau. London: Fourth Estate. ISBN 978-0-00-732330-2.

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