Tony Hadley - Solo Career

Solo Career

After Spandau Ballet disbanded, Hadley pursued a solo career, signing to EMI and recording his first album, The State of Play, in 1992. After leaving EMI, Hadley formed his own record company, SlipStream Records, and his first release was to be the single "Build Me Up", from the film "When Saturday Comes". Shortly after that, in December 1996, Hadley embarked on an orchestral tour of Europe, along with Joe Cocker, Paul Michiels, Dani Klein and Guo Yue, playing to 500,000 concertgoers in six weeks.

On his return from that tour, Hadley signed a joint deal with PolyGram TV, and released his next eponymous solo album, Tony Hadley, in 1997, which included covers and songs that were chosen to match his voice. The album also featured some of his own self-penned songs, such as "She", which he wrote for daughter Toni.

To plug the gap between studio albums, Hadley also released Obsession (later re-released as Obsession Live), a live album recorded, in just one night, in 1995, at the club Ronnie Scott's, in Birmingham.

He also collaborated, in the past and present, with various dance acts and DJs, such as Tin Tin Out, Eddie Lock, Marc et Claude, Regi Penxten (Milk Inc.) and the Disco Bros, and played alongside people such as Alice Cooper, Paul Young, Jon Anderson, and Brian May. Hadley's permanent band line up nowadays features John Keeble (drums), Phil Taylor (keyboards), Phil Williams (bass guitar), Richie Barrett (guitar), and Dawn Joseph on backing vocals. His early band, with whom he realized his debut album, included instead, besides himself and Keeble, Spandau Ballet's regular keyboard player, Toby Chapman, Jerry Stevenson (guitar), and Kevin Miller (bass guitar).

Hadley was also the subject of some newfound respect in the 2000s, rooted in an "ironic" appreciation for his old group Spandau Ballet; John Darnielle of the indie folk rock group The Mountain Goats wrote about his admiration for Hadley's vocal strengths. In 2000, his solo greatest hits album was issued, entitled Debut, made up of some early solo songs.

In 2003, Hadley was the winner of the ITV reality television series, Reborn in the USA, appearing alongside other singers, such as Elkie Brooks, Peter Cox from Go West and Leee John from Imagination. Capitalizing on his victory of the American reality show, his Debut compilation was re-issued, and his second collection was also released in the same year, True Ballads, including some of his solo tracks, most of the cover songs which were already contained in his second studio album, and historical hits from the Spandau Ballet period.

Hadley has continued with a busy performing schedule, and also toured with both Peter Cox from Go West and Martin Fry from the band ABC. He released a jazz-swing album 2006, entitled Passing Strangers, and travelled on a "by request" tour from March to May 2006. This was followed by a big band tour in late the same year.

In January 2007, Hadley performed in the West End musical Chicago as crooked lawyer Billy Flynn, at the Cambridge Theatre. Hadley took over from ex-Emmerdale actor Ian Kelsey, and featured from 29 January to 14 April 2007. He said: "Three months was long enough, I didn't want to out-stay my welcome. I got a phone call offering me the part. I went to see the show, which I thought was great. While I was in it, I got great reviews. Chicago tied in with my swing album, Passing Strangers, so the whole thing worked well."

Hadley performed a set with other 1980s acts, at Retro Fest, on 1 September 2007, at Culzean Castle, in Ayrshire, Scotland. This appearance included a rendition of "Addicted to Love", with Martin Fry of ABC and Peter Cox of Go West.

In February 2008, he took part in the Italian Sanremo Festival, where he dueted in both English and Italian with contestant Paolo Meneguzzi on Meneguzzi's song, "Grande" ('Big'), during the third day of the contest (where all contestants re-interpreted their songs with guest artists). On 22 February 2008, he performed as an interval act at the semi-final of Dora 2008, the selection of the Croatian entry for the Eurovision Song Contest.

In 2011 he collaborated with the Italian rapper Caparezza for the song "Goodbye Malinconia": as Caparezza said to Radio Deejay (an Italian radio station), Hadley was very happy to work with him and not merely sang his part but wrote some additional lyrics.