On a recent business trip to our London offices I got chatting to a colleague, eventually the conversation turned to music and inevitably Spandau Ballet. My colleague informed me that during the mid 1970's she was involved in 2 series of a children's show called "You Must Be Joking" for Thames TV. This was written and perfomed by teenagers from the Anna Scher Childrens Theatre which Gary and Martin attended. Gary it seems had a hand in writing some of the music for this, although he was only 14 at the time. After searching the net for some kind of confirmation I found the following links http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/y/youmustbejoking_1299003458.shtml and http://tv.cream.org/a-z/uvwxyz/u3.htm (programmes are listed in alphabetical order so you have to scroll down for this one)
For many years it has been a great mystery how Spandau Ballet lost to Duran Duran, by one point, on Mike Read's Christmas Special pop quiz on BBC t.v. At last we have an answer to this riddle from Jimmy Devlin who at that time was employed by EMI records.
The Story goes as follows
"Simon Le Bon, Dev recalled, was "a lovely guy but thick as pigs***". Dev knew there was not a chance of Duran Duran winning, so he swiped a copy of the questions and answers from the BBC and rehearsed Duran Duran. Despite drilling into them the answers, they managed still to get a lot of them wrong, but somehow scraped through to win by one point. Dev picked up his Christmas bonus and the rest is history ..."
The Scotsman 17th November 2004 http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1324412004
Browsing through the online edition of 'The Guardian' I came across a review of 2 albums being released simultaneously by the rapper Nelly, (who has sold 30m records worlwide), called Sweat and Suit
What has this to do with Gary? I hear you say! ... well, the reviewer who goes by the name of Alexis Petridis is less than complementary about these albums and says " ....... Sweat is only half the story. A collection of gummy R&B ballads on which the musical highlight is a sample of Spandau Ballet's True, Suit is enough to make you despair, or indeed despuuur".
To read the whole report go to http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/story/0,11712,1300861,00.html
17/5/04 It has been reported on the "Mega Star" website, that "The Krays" is being re-made. The film is to be called "Chain of Fear" and stars Ray Winstone as both Ronnie and Reggie. For more information go to http://www.megastar.co.uk/world/news/2004/05/17/sMEG01MTA4NDc5MTQ1MzU.html
It was suggested in a report in Chartattack (a Canadian music source) on 15/4/04, that Gary's True should be used in a world record attempt, for the most saxophonists to play a song simultaneously. For more information go to http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2004/04/1502.cfm
It was reported in "The Times" on the 27th March, that. "The Blind Beggar" public house in Whitechapel where Ronnie Kray, (played by Gary in the film) shot George Cornell, is up for sale. The sale is being handled by Christie & Co with a price tag of £125,000 for a 30 year lease. Interestingly although the colourful history of the pub is mentioned in press realeases, it is not mentioned on Christie & Co's official property details.
For more details go to http://www.christie.com/cgi-bin/shownews.cgi?Search=search&page=37&status=latest&listtype=Latest+News+Listing (article 43) or http://www.caterer-online.com/news/articledetail.asp?lSiteSectionID=3&lSectionID=1&articleID=52642
It was reported in "The Sun" newspaper on Friday 19th March that the members of Spandau Ballet, whilst not settling their differences will ignore them to mount a comeback, rumour has it that they will sign a record deal, make a new album and then tour. None of the 5, or Steve Dagger, have verified this, but watch this space.
Update 26/3/04 ....Tony was asked, after his Worthing gig on 25th March, if the report in "The Sun" was correct his exact words in reply were "I am not going to talk about it". So no affirmation or denial that the report is true/false from him.
For more on this story go to http://www.ananova.com/entertainment/story/sm_895297.html
According to the website at http://uk.tv.yahoo.com/030123/128/dmgq3.html. Gary turned down the role of being the Headmaster in "Fame Academy" due to filming commitments. Could he have been the next Simon Cowell ?
A web site at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/506266.stm carries a report dated November 5th 1999, about a ganster film based on the life of Frankie "Axeman" Mitchell that Gary was going to direct.