October 13, 2025 • 14 mins
Spandau Ballet's Tony Hadley chats with Nick Mills on Wellington Mornings, before his show at Hutt Sounds next March.
The True and Gold, singer talks about the old days with Spandau Ballet, their impact on the music industry and how his family keeps him strong.
Hadley will headline Hutt Sounds at Brewtown, Upper Hutt Sunday 8 March 2026 and which will include a full set of Spandau Ballet classics alongside selections from his acclaimed solo career. Get tickets at www.huttsounds.co.nz
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Said b the iconic voice of some of the eighties
best anthems is on.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
His way to Wellington.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Tony Hadley rose to fame as the lead singer of
Spandau Ballet, and his voice is behind the hits like
True and Gold Classics. More recently, Tony has had a
successful solo career. Tony Hadley headlines Hut Sounds at Brewtown
and Upper Hut in March next year, and Tony joins me. Now, Tony,
(00:49):
good morning from Wellington. Good evening to you in Europe.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Yeah, good even there. It's all dark. He's getting wintry,
it's like, but it's kind of nice. It's the pubs.
The pubs are looking good at the moment.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Oh fantastic.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Now you're coming to New ze Well, you've been here
a couple of times before, haven't you. You've done two
tours with Spendal Ballet with the original band.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
Yeah, I mean, but yeah, a couple of times. I
also first time.
Speaker 6 (01:16):
I ever played in New Zealand was with in Auckland
and that was back in nineteen eighty four, and I
went on stage with Freddie and Queen.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
Wow. Wow, that was kind of amazing.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
But unfortunately that was the day before the days of
mobile phones, so there's only two pictures that exist.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
From that.
Speaker 6 (01:37):
Encounter with me and Fred and we had a few
drinks and I ended up trying to out Fred Fred
from forty thousand people.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Wow, were you made some of us?
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (01:51):
Yeah, he's a lovely for him and the rest of
the guys, I mean, you know Top of the Pops
when I was a kid, you know you're watching heroes.
It be Queen, it'll be Bowie, Roxy Music, Mark Bolan,
Elton Rods and I've had the good fortune over the
years to to meet all those guys and they've all
turned out to be, you know, smashing fellas, really good lads.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Tell us about the Romantic era? What was then?
Speaker 5 (02:17):
Well, it was I mean, if I start where we started.
Speaker 6 (02:20):
We were a school band nineteen seventy six, nay Aliso
in school, and then we became we became a punk
band really so a bit like Generation X, which was
Billy Idol's band. So we played all the punk clubs
in London seventy six seventy seven, and then things started
to change around London sort of punks, sort of went
(02:40):
slightly out of fashion, and then a club open called
Billy's and then the Blitz Club, and there was loads
of influences from Berlin from you know, there was lou Reed, there,
there was Bowie, there, there was craft Work, then there
was lab Dusseldorf. So he had all this kind of
electro music coming over and that that influenced the Human League.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
Juram spanned out.
Speaker 6 (03:04):
Depeche Mode and we became, I suppose in the way
the house band for the Blitz Club, and everybody was
really flamboyant and it was great fun, and we had
partly every Tuesday night and we got attracted lots of
record company attention, and before Unit we got signed.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Why why do you just keep going?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
I mean, I mean, I don't take that as a
rude way, take that as a positive way.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I mean, you've had it all.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
You've had some of the bigger songs in the world
that still get regurgitated all the time.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
On movies, on shows.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I mean, you know, I played one of your songs
in an office that I'm in with a whole lot
of young people yesterday they said, oh, no, the song
is that of that look at them, go.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Really you're too young.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
Yeah, I mean I did the same thing as well.
I mean, I don't know what I mean. I love
what I do. I mean, I'm I'm lucky and blessed
that my voice is still there. I could still sing
in the same key, so all that it's true gold
barricades only when you leave highly strum, so it's all
in the original key, if any, if anything, I mean
the two years I spent, as he coughs, two years
(04:09):
I spent with a wonderful opera singer called Pamela Dodds
when I was about eighteen, and she really, you know,
she really put me in on the road to kind
of having a voice in folly years time. So I'm
really lucky touchwood and blessed that it still works.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
And I love what I do. I've got a.
Speaker 6 (04:27):
Fabulous band, they called the Fabulous Thch Band. They're great
fun with great mates. We've even written a couple of
songs together on the new album and that'll be out
sometime next year, the contemporary album.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Yeah, what am I going to do? Gardening? Golf?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
No?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Do you get excited? Do you like? You know? An
hour before the show when you're having your shower and
you're getting ready and you're going through your vocal training.
Do you still get the buzz the same excitement.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
Well, it's an interesting So if you go to pretty
much any band backstage, before that final hour before you
go on stage, everybody's sitting around. There's a sort of
there's a kind of melonist everybody. He kind of just
is chilling out and everything. And then the tour manager says, right, guys,
come on, we're going one hour to go. And then
I was right, here we go. And then you're in
(05:15):
the shower doing the vocal exercises, you know, polishing his
shoes or whatever. And then before we go on, we
have a thing called a ninety nine, So she's basically
a shot of vodka and he'll smash our glasses together.
Someone says a little anecdote from the day, a little
funny quick bang the glasses together, put something on that,
(05:37):
put the glass on her head, and then shake hands
and last minute trip to the toilet for a nervous
week and we're on stage.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
That's what happens every single night.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
I was talking to a rock star, a young rock
star that had become an older rockstar, probably around about
the same age as us. And he said that, and
he was the vocalist. He said, he's singing bitter now
than when he had mess of hats.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Are you the same?
Speaker 6 (06:04):
Yeah, I mean, funny enough, we had a guy who's
people playing me and worked with for quite a while,
and he came in in debt for the weekend we
had some shows and he said to me, wow, he said,
your voice. He said, it's better than ever. He said,
you're singing higher than you ever ever did, he said,
And he said, you're sounding great. And I think it's
(06:24):
just because you know you've got to take care of it.
You can't abuse you. I mean, I learned very early
on in the span our days that you cannot do
a two hour show or our hour and a half
show and go to a nightclub and start screaming and
drinking because you'll have no voice left and you have
a responsibility to the people.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
That have paid tickets to come and see you.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
So so, I mean, it happened once with spand Out
where I was so excited, Yeah, there we go, and
then the next day I couldn't talk. So so the
best thing to do, as PAVERROTI said, they said Mace.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
Wow, do you keep it your voice? He said, sleep?
And so when I'm on the road, I'll sleep nine
ten hours a day.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah, can I say that?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
And I've got the advantage of seeing you over zoom
and I just can't believe how young you look.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I mean, I'm thank you.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I'm half British, so I know how the British love
to have a drink, and I know they love to
have a drink when they're on the road and bends
and shows and stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
But you're amazing, well.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Thank you very much. I mean, I haven't got any
makeup on her. It's just just me.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I do you know you
try and keep as fit as possible. But the troublers
with this business, it's the only business I know that everybody.
You walk into a dressing room, there's a bottle of
Volker bottle Jack forty eight beers three reds three. You
go to a meeting anywhere, thanks, I just bought my
(07:46):
wife's just brought me a cup of coffee.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
Thanks. So and so wherever you go there's oh, would
you like a drink? Would you like a Gin and Tony?
Speaker 6 (07:55):
So you have to really try and kind of keep
and keep it, not keep away from it, but just moderation.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
And you know what, you know what the key to
it is also just what happened just then, wife, cup
of coffee.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
That's what keeps you saying that.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Well, I'm lucky. I mean, I've got five beautiful kids.
Speaker 6 (08:13):
My eldest is forty one, Tomas forty one, Tony's thirty nine,
just become a granddad, We've become grandparents. Little Freddie my grandson, grandson, lovely,
beautiful little boy. Mackie's thirty four. Zara has just gone
to the university, Newcastle University. She wants to be a
war correspondent. Brilliant, thank you, thank you very much. And
(08:36):
then my youngest is thirteen. So I've got five gorgeous
kids and a great family.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
So my wife puts up with me.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Wow, well that's that is the best part of the
story so far.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
We're talking to Tony Headley.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
If you just joined the show, he was obviously the frontman,
the voice of Spandau Ballet.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
We'll remember them for True and Gold.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
But they changed music, and you did change music, didn't you.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I think we did.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
I mean certainly at the very beginning, when when you
heard the cutlong story short. I mean people were sort
of number one. It was you know, it was four
on the floor, that big synth thrist and everything else.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
And everything was quite angular musically in those days. And
then you've got the way I was singing at the time.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
I mean I was very influenced by early Frank Sinarcher,
early Tony Bennett. If you listened to Frank Sinarchra in
his young days, he sounds almost semi operatic. You got
people like Mariolanza and stuff like that. So there was
a real kind of influence from those guys towards me.
So when I started singing you know, it's a car along,
(09:40):
it was all kind of it was all quite posh.
And then I went, oh mate, how are you?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
So? How did were you when you realize you were
going to be a.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
Pop star at fourteen fifteen?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And who is your big influencer?
Speaker 6 (09:52):
I mean Beatles, loved the Beatles, love the Stones as
Actually there's a picture behind me of Mick and Keith
So and there's Frank Sinarcher there, Eliza men Ellie out there,
Audrey hit Bert and I'm a massive Sinarcha fan.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Did you meet him? Sorry, did you meet him.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
Yeah, I did when I.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
Was seventeen and I met him at the Royal Albert
Hall and he was very, very very lovely, and I
kind of was the cheeky schoolboy and ran across the
stage got to shake his hand and he said, so
what do you do? I said, when I'm at school,
I'm in a band and I want to be a singer.
And he said, well, son, I wish you really good luck.
And it's nice to see some young people in the audience,
(10:35):
which is exactly what I say, the seventeen year olds.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Now, do you get young people turning up?
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I mean, obviously because it's movie tracks and everyone still
knows your stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So do you get young people turning up? Do you laugh?
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Do you sit there and see them dancing to you
and think, God, damn, it's like my kids, you know,
dancing to me?
Speaker 6 (10:53):
It kind of it's kind of weird because you know,
the young kids know the words better than I do
most of the time, and they're quite incredible. So and
so we get obviously it's an audience of thirty five
plus going right up to the gods, but we get
young people as well, and they love the festivals, They
love the festivals and they're seeing al Onto Gold and
(11:13):
to True and barricades and so yes, it's.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Great to see young kids. That's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Do you like the travel?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
I mean you obviously got to come from a very
close family, so the travel, especially coming to the side
of the world, I mean it's pretty adduous.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Do you like traveling?
Speaker 4 (11:27):
And what are you looking forward to when you do
come to New Zealand wineries?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Are you're going to say.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
That we love when we go to the places like
New Zealand, Australia, Italy or whatever. For us love Choya.
You know, if we can, we'll go to a winery
and that's just great fun.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
I mean, is you know we.
Speaker 6 (11:48):
Love tasting of the local wine, local food and everything else.
The traveling, if I'm honest, is the one thing I
think if you ask anyone in the pop business, what
do they hate most is the traveling. To be honest
with you, I much prefer a long haul flight then
I do a short haul because you get on the plane,
I've got no internet, no one can get hold of me,
(12:08):
and I can I can watch film after film after
film and excuse me, do I can have another glass
of your Veno collapse.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
So yeah, so I never I don't sleep on plays.
I hardly ever sleep, but I just watched lots of films.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Tony.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
I hope you have a great flight coming down under
and when you arrive here for Hot Sounds in March,
I'm going to make sure here's a good bottle of
wine on the side of the stage waiting for you
in Wellington.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
Well come along if you can.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Great fun, I'm sure it will, Tony Hedley. Enjoy your coffee,
enjoy your family and looking forward to having you in Wellington.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
We're looking forward to it as well. Thanks very much,
thanks for having me. Cheers.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
That was Tony Handy. What amazing guy.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I had the advantage of seeing him over zoom and
he looks amazing. He looks like a young, well youngish
pop star and you know, married with five cares, grandkids.
Just a great guy and really happy to talk to
us and really looking forward to coming to Hut Sounds
in twenty twenty six, Brewtown Upper Hut Sunday, March the eighth.
(13:18):
The actual whole lineup is Tony Hadley with his band
Ex Spandal Ballet with his new band. He promised me
off air that the band is worth seeing. He said,
it's a really really good band. Now, anyone that goes
to concerts knows how important the good band is. Fun
loving Criminals from usas on the lineup as well when
the Cats Away from New Zealand are in the lineup
(13:39):
and Lloyd.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Cole from the UK.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Tickets are available at www dot Hutsounds, dot co dot
z and I tell you for one, I'll be there now,
I said earlier in the show. I wasn't a fan
of Spandal Ballet. That weren't funky enough for me in
the day. But the more I've listened to them.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
The more I really really like them.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
So get along and support Brutown Hut Sounds two thousand
and twenty six gotta be a fabulous concert.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news Talks It'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from news Talk.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Said b the iconic voice of some of the eighties
best anthems is on.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
His way to Wellington.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Tony Hadley rose to fame as the lead singer of
Spandau Ballet, and his voice is behind the hits like
True and Gold Classics. More recently, Tony has had a
successful solo career. Tony Hadley headlines Hut Sounds at Brewtown
and Upper Hut in March next year, and Tony joins me. Now, Tony,
(00:49):
good morning from Wellington. Good evening to you in Europe.
Speaker 5 (00:54):
Yeah, good even there. It's all dark. He's getting wintry,
it's like, but it's kind of nice. It's the pubs.
The pubs are looking good at the moment.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
Oh fantastic.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
Now you're coming to New ze Well, you've been here
a couple of times before, haven't you. You've done two
tours with Spendal Ballet with the original band.
Speaker 5 (01:13):
Yeah, I mean, but yeah, a couple of times. I
also first time.
Speaker 6 (01:16):
I ever played in New Zealand was with in Auckland
and that was back in nineteen eighty four, and I
went on stage with Freddie and Queen.
Speaker 5 (01:25):
Wow. Wow, that was kind of amazing.
Speaker 6 (01:28):
But unfortunately that was the day before the days of
mobile phones, so there's only two pictures that exist.
Speaker 5 (01:35):
From that.
Speaker 6 (01:37):
Encounter with me and Fred and we had a few
drinks and I ended up trying to out Fred Fred
from forty thousand people.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Wow, were you made some of us?
Speaker 5 (01:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (01:51):
Yeah, he's a lovely for him and the rest of
the guys, I mean, you know Top of the Pops
when I was a kid, you know you're watching heroes.
It be Queen, it'll be Bowie, Roxy Music, Mark Bolan,
Elton Rods and I've had the good fortune over the
years to to meet all those guys and they've all
turned out to be, you know, smashing fellas, really good lads.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
Tell us about the Romantic era? What was then?
Speaker 5 (02:17):
Well, it was I mean, if I start where we started.
Speaker 6 (02:20):
We were a school band nineteen seventy six, nay Aliso
in school, and then we became we became a punk
band really so a bit like Generation X, which was
Billy Idol's band. So we played all the punk clubs
in London seventy six seventy seven, and then things started
to change around London sort of punks, sort of went
(02:40):
slightly out of fashion, and then a club open called
Billy's and then the Blitz Club, and there was loads
of influences from Berlin from you know, there was lou Reed, there,
there was Bowie, there, there was craft Work, then there
was lab Dusseldorf. So he had all this kind of
electro music coming over and that that influenced the Human League.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
Juram spanned out.
Speaker 6 (03:04):
Depeche Mode and we became, I suppose in the way
the house band for the Blitz Club, and everybody was
really flamboyant and it was great fun, and we had
partly every Tuesday night and we got attracted lots of
record company attention, and before Unit we got signed.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Why why do you just keep going?
Speaker 4 (03:24):
I mean, I mean, I don't take that as a
rude way, take that as a positive way.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
I mean, you've had it all.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
You've had some of the bigger songs in the world
that still get regurgitated all the time.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
On movies, on shows.
Speaker 4 (03:37):
I mean, you know, I played one of your songs
in an office that I'm in with a whole lot
of young people yesterday they said, oh, no, the song
is that of that look at them, go.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Really you're too young.
Speaker 6 (03:47):
Yeah, I mean I did the same thing as well.
I mean, I don't know what I mean. I love
what I do. I mean, I'm I'm lucky and blessed
that my voice is still there. I could still sing
in the same key, so all that it's true gold
barricades only when you leave highly strum, so it's all
in the original key, if any, if anything, I mean
the two years I spent, as he coughs, two years
(04:09):
I spent with a wonderful opera singer called Pamela Dodds
when I was about eighteen, and she really, you know,
she really put me in on the road to kind
of having a voice in folly years time. So I'm
really lucky touchwood and blessed that it still works.
Speaker 5 (04:26):
And I love what I do. I've got a.
Speaker 6 (04:27):
Fabulous band, they called the Fabulous Thch Band. They're great
fun with great mates. We've even written a couple of
songs together on the new album and that'll be out
sometime next year, the contemporary album.
Speaker 5 (04:39):
Yeah, what am I going to do? Gardening? Golf?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
No?
Speaker 3 (04:44):
Do you get excited? Do you like? You know? An
hour before the show when you're having your shower and
you're getting ready and you're going through your vocal training.
Do you still get the buzz the same excitement.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
Well, it's an interesting So if you go to pretty
much any band backstage, before that final hour before you
go on stage, everybody's sitting around. There's a sort of
there's a kind of melonist everybody. He kind of just
is chilling out and everything. And then the tour manager says, right, guys,
come on, we're going one hour to go. And then
I was right, here we go. And then you're in
(05:15):
the shower doing the vocal exercises, you know, polishing his
shoes or whatever. And then before we go on, we
have a thing called a ninety nine, So she's basically
a shot of vodka and he'll smash our glasses together.
Someone says a little anecdote from the day, a little
funny quick bang the glasses together, put something on that,
(05:37):
put the glass on her head, and then shake hands
and last minute trip to the toilet for a nervous
week and we're on stage.
Speaker 5 (05:44):
That's what happens every single night.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
I was talking to a rock star, a young rock
star that had become an older rockstar, probably around about
the same age as us. And he said that, and
he was the vocalist. He said, he's singing bitter now
than when he had mess of hats.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Are you the same?
Speaker 6 (06:04):
Yeah, I mean, funny enough, we had a guy who's
people playing me and worked with for quite a while,
and he came in in debt for the weekend we
had some shows and he said to me, wow, he said,
your voice. He said, it's better than ever. He said,
you're singing higher than you ever ever did, he said,
And he said, you're sounding great. And I think it's
(06:24):
just because you know you've got to take care of it.
You can't abuse you. I mean, I learned very early
on in the span our days that you cannot do
a two hour show or our hour and a half
show and go to a nightclub and start screaming and
drinking because you'll have no voice left and you have
a responsibility to the people.
Speaker 5 (06:41):
That have paid tickets to come and see you.
Speaker 6 (06:43):
So so, I mean, it happened once with spand Out
where I was so excited, Yeah, there we go, and
then the next day I couldn't talk. So so the
best thing to do, as PAVERROTI said, they said Mace.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
Wow, do you keep it your voice? He said, sleep?
And so when I'm on the road, I'll sleep nine
ten hours a day.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Yeah, can I say that?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
And I've got the advantage of seeing you over zoom
and I just can't believe how young you look.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
I mean, I'm thank you.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
I'm half British, so I know how the British love
to have a drink, and I know they love to
have a drink when they're on the road and bends
and shows and stuff.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
But you're amazing, well.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
Thank you very much. I mean, I haven't got any
makeup on her. It's just just me.
Speaker 6 (07:26):
Yeah, I mean, I mean, I do you know you
try and keep as fit as possible. But the troublers
with this business, it's the only business I know that everybody.
You walk into a dressing room, there's a bottle of
Volker bottle Jack forty eight beers three reds three. You
go to a meeting anywhere, thanks, I just bought my
(07:46):
wife's just brought me a cup of coffee.
Speaker 5 (07:48):
Thanks. So and so wherever you go there's oh, would
you like a drink? Would you like a Gin and Tony?
Speaker 6 (07:55):
So you have to really try and kind of keep
and keep it, not keep away from it, but just moderation.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
And you know what, you know what the key to
it is also just what happened just then, wife, cup
of coffee.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
That's what keeps you saying that.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
Well, I'm lucky. I mean, I've got five beautiful kids.
Speaker 6 (08:13):
My eldest is forty one, Tomas forty one, Tony's thirty nine,
just become a granddad, We've become grandparents. Little Freddie my grandson, grandson, lovely,
beautiful little boy. Mackie's thirty four. Zara has just gone
to the university, Newcastle University. She wants to be a
war correspondent. Brilliant, thank you, thank you very much. And
(08:36):
then my youngest is thirteen. So I've got five gorgeous
kids and a great family.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
So my wife puts up with me.
Speaker 4 (08:43):
Wow, well that's that is the best part of the
story so far.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
We're talking to Tony Headley.
Speaker 4 (08:48):
If you just joined the show, he was obviously the frontman,
the voice of Spandau Ballet.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
We'll remember them for True and Gold.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
But they changed music, and you did change music, didn't you.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
I think we did.
Speaker 6 (09:01):
I mean certainly at the very beginning, when when you
heard the cutlong story short. I mean people were sort
of number one. It was you know, it was four
on the floor, that big synth thrist and everything else.
Speaker 5 (09:12):
And everything was quite angular musically in those days. And
then you've got the way I was singing at the time.
Speaker 6 (09:20):
I mean I was very influenced by early Frank Sinarcher,
early Tony Bennett. If you listened to Frank Sinarchra in
his young days, he sounds almost semi operatic. You got
people like Mariolanza and stuff like that. So there was
a real kind of influence from those guys towards me.
So when I started singing you know, it's a car along,
(09:40):
it was all kind of it was all quite posh.
And then I went, oh mate, how are you?
Speaker 3 (09:46):
So? How did were you when you realize you were
going to be a.
Speaker 5 (09:48):
Pop star at fourteen fifteen?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
And who is your big influencer?
Speaker 6 (09:52):
I mean Beatles, loved the Beatles, love the Stones as
Actually there's a picture behind me of Mick and Keith
So and there's Frank Sinarcher there, Eliza men Ellie out there,
Audrey hit Bert and I'm a massive Sinarcha fan.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
Did you meet him? Sorry, did you meet him.
Speaker 5 (10:13):
Yeah, I did when I.
Speaker 6 (10:14):
Was seventeen and I met him at the Royal Albert
Hall and he was very, very very lovely, and I
kind of was the cheeky schoolboy and ran across the
stage got to shake his hand and he said, so
what do you do? I said, when I'm at school,
I'm in a band and I want to be a singer.
And he said, well, son, I wish you really good luck.
And it's nice to see some young people in the audience,
(10:35):
which is exactly what I say, the seventeen year olds.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
Now, do you get young people turning up?
Speaker 4 (10:41):
I mean, obviously because it's movie tracks and everyone still
knows your stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
So do you get young people turning up? Do you laugh?
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Do you sit there and see them dancing to you
and think, God, damn, it's like my kids, you know,
dancing to me?
Speaker 6 (10:53):
It kind of it's kind of weird because you know,
the young kids know the words better than I do
most of the time, and they're quite incredible. So and
so we get obviously it's an audience of thirty five
plus going right up to the gods, but we get
young people as well, and they love the festivals, They
love the festivals and they're seeing al Onto Gold and
(11:13):
to True and barricades and so yes, it's.
Speaker 5 (11:17):
Great to see young kids. That's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
Do you like the travel?
Speaker 4 (11:20):
I mean you obviously got to come from a very
close family, so the travel, especially coming to the side
of the world, I mean it's pretty adduous.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Do you like traveling?
Speaker 4 (11:27):
And what are you looking forward to when you do
come to New Zealand wineries?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
Are you're going to say.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
That we love when we go to the places like
New Zealand, Australia, Italy or whatever. For us love Choya.
You know, if we can, we'll go to a winery
and that's just great fun.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
I mean, is you know we.
Speaker 6 (11:48):
Love tasting of the local wine, local food and everything else.
The traveling, if I'm honest, is the one thing I
think if you ask anyone in the pop business, what
do they hate most is the traveling. To be honest
with you, I much prefer a long haul flight then
I do a short haul because you get on the plane,
I've got no internet, no one can get hold of me,
(12:08):
and I can I can watch film after film after
film and excuse me, do I can have another glass
of your Veno collapse.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 6 (12:17):
So yeah, so I never I don't sleep on plays.
I hardly ever sleep, but I just watched lots of films.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
Tony.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
I hope you have a great flight coming down under
and when you arrive here for Hot Sounds in March,
I'm going to make sure here's a good bottle of
wine on the side of the stage waiting for you
in Wellington.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
Well come along if you can.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
Great fun, I'm sure it will, Tony Hedley. Enjoy your coffee,
enjoy your family and looking forward to having you in Wellington.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
We're looking forward to it as well. Thanks very much,
thanks for having me. Cheers.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
That was Tony Handy. What amazing guy.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
I had the advantage of seeing him over zoom and
he looks amazing. He looks like a young, well youngish
pop star and you know, married with five cares, grandkids.
Just a great guy and really happy to talk to
us and really looking forward to coming to Hut Sounds
in twenty twenty six, Brewtown Upper Hut Sunday, March the eighth.
(13:18):
The actual whole lineup is Tony Hadley with his band
Ex Spandal Ballet with his new band. He promised me
off air that the band is worth seeing. He said,
it's a really really good band. Now, anyone that goes
to concerts knows how important the good band is. Fun
loving Criminals from usas on the lineup as well when
the Cats Away from New Zealand are in the lineup
(13:39):
and Lloyd.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Cole from the UK.
Speaker 4 (13:41):
Tickets are available at www dot Hutsounds, dot co dot
z and I tell you for one, I'll be there now,
I said earlier in the show. I wasn't a fan
of Spandal Ballet. That weren't funky enough for me in
the day. But the more I've listened to them.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
The more I really really like them.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
So get along and support Brutown Hut Sounds two thousand
and twenty six gotta be a fabulous concert.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news Talks It'd be Wellington from nine am weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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