rivers2cross

I met Steve Norman from Spandau Ballet almost 4 years ago, in Brighton with his partner Sabrina Winter, for The Record. That meeting and their inclusion in the book has led to me making lots of new friendships on social media and I’ve had some terrific support for my fundraising as a result. Friday night finally gave me the perfect opportunity to see Steve and his band The Sleevz play live at The Whitty Theatre in Wokingham, which is only a 15 minute drive from Reading. This gig was delayed due to the pandemic, but this tour is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Spandau Ballet’s debut album Journey To Glory. When I met people for my books I always tried to see those that are performers doing their stuff, so this finally kind of completed that circle with Steve.

It was a fantastic gig. The reinterpretations of the songs worked brilliantly and Steve is a great frontman for the band. Anyone who has met Steve or seen him perform will know that he likes to talk 😊 So there was never a dull moment and the band really were on fine form. An extra bonus for me was the recent addition of Steve ‘Smiley’ Barnard from The Alarm on drums. I never bought the album back in the day. As a teenager you really had to pick and choose what you bought. I did buy the 7″ single To Cut A Long Story Short and also the 12″ of the next single The Freeze, which remains my favourite Spandau song to this day. After the band finished performing the album they played some of the band’s biggest hits including True and Gold, which gave Steve the chance to play the iconic sax parts. Getting to see such high calibre music in such an intimate venue really is the way I like to enjoy live music these days. I’d highly recommend seeing Steve Norman & The Sleevz. A top night out! I will certainly be going to see them again x

This was my 4th gig in 10 days. I love my live music, but with a global pandemic, gigs went very much on the back burner. So all these gigs coming together was a bit of a shock to the system and has left me feeling absolutely shattered this weekend! 🤣 I must admit that the pandemic has left me needing a good kick up the bum to motivate myself to start going out and enjoy doing all the things I had been doing. Live music is just so good for my soul, so I need to keep booking up the gigs x