#111 ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’ by Spandau Ballet (31 Aug)

Album: Journeys to Glory, 1980

Justification: Like Duran Duran’s ‘Planet Earth’, this is never the wrong thing to play when you’re DJing (right, Britpop folks?). Spandau Ballet were to become trans-Atlantic masters of sophisticated soul pop with ‘True’ and ‘Gold’ (and then completely misjudged the leap when they attempted to follow U2 and Simple Minds across the chasm between “hitmakers” and “stadium rock gods” before splitting up), but when they kicked off their career in 1980 they were weird little Blitz Kids aiming to have their stuff played in the clubs they would preen in. And, frankly, they succeeded, and they get bonus self-awareness points for the line “I am beautiful, and clean, and so very, very young”.

It’s been claimed on Wikipedia that Vince Clarke was inspired to write Depeche Mode’s ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ after hearing this song. Can’t see it myself.

They opened with this on their reunion show at the Sydney Entertainment Centre earlier this year and it was kick-arse. In fact, leaving the whole crass-pre-retirement-cash-in angle aside, they were remarkably great. They played like demons for two hours, which was impressive enough for men of their vintage.