Coming to a venue near you, if you live in Bristol (it’s at the Fleece), is a ‘DJ set from the Spandau Ballet bass player and actor Martin Kemp. For a mere £25, our Martin will spend an hour or so playing records from the decade in which the music very nearly died: the 1980s. Why, unless you want to shag his arse off, would you want to watch Kemp play someone else’s records?
There is actually an art to being a DJ which is something more than turning up with either a laptop or a box of vinyl. For all I know, Kemp is an excellent DJ. I’ll wager a large and wholly imaginary sum that people of a certain age will not be going along just to hear the music he plays.
Kemp is a celebrity. He was in a popular beat combo outfit who made some of the most average music in history and he became even more famous when he appeared in EastEnders. If Katy Price, who has no discernible talent at all, could draw thousands of teenage girls to Cribbs Causeway when she was selling stuff a few years ago, goodness knows how many fifty-somethings will pack the dance floor at the Fleece.
Good luck if the idea of a fading pop star and actor playing someone else’s records floats your boat. There’s a huge nostalgia market in Britain and someone like Kemp will happily help satisfy it.
I saw the 1980s as the very worse decade in the history of popular music, yet much of what I see as the dross has managed to survive and even flourish. All I don’t need is Radio Gaga. I feel very sorry for you if that is what you do need.
