Journeys to Glory
Journeys to Glory is the debut studio album by English synth-pop band Spandau Ballet, released on 6 March 1981 by Chrysalis Records. All of the songs on the album were produced by Richard James Burgess and written by band guitarist Gary Kemp to appeal to the patrons of a weekly Tuesday night club the band started attending called the Blitz, where they were accustomed to hearing "white European dance music". Their performances at the Blitz and other exclusive venues attracted the attention of record labels eager to sign them, and one of the songs they had been performing, "To Cut a Long Story Short", gained popularity through a recording session made at BBC Radio 1.
Journeys to Glory
6 March 1981
September 1980 – December 1980
- The Manor (Oxfordshire)
- Jam
- Trident
- Utopia (London)
36:37
- Chrysalis
- Reformation
The high demand for their music instigated the commencement of recording the album and the release of "To Cut a Long Story Short" as their first single. The song reached number 5 on the UK Singles Chart, and two subsequent hits, "The Freeze" and "Muscle Bound", peaked at 17 and 10, respectively. A music video was made to promote each of the three songs, whose success warranted appearances on the British music chart television programme Top of the Pops. The album got as high as number 5 on the UK album chart and received Gold certification from the British Phonographic Industry for shipment of 100,000 units.
The influence of David Bowie on Journeys to Glory has been discussed by Kemp as well as critics of the album, who gave it mixed reviews upon its release and years later. After their composer attempted to shift to a more American style of funk with songs like "Glow" and the first single for their next album, "Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)", he remembered that the songs from Journeys to Glory had been rehearsed at concerts before they were signed to a label and had received the approval of their original fan base. When some of the new songs for the second album did not chart as well, the band recovered by remixing a fourth single as a more pop-flavored tune and lost the interest of the hipsters that Spandau Ballet had initially courted with the songs that were recorded for their debut. Kemp then felt freed from trying to please that crowd and began writing mainstream pop songs that were the band's biggest hits.
Recording[edit]
In September 1980 Spandau Ballet began recording Journeys to Glory at The Manor in the village of Shipton-on-Cherwell, Oxfordshire.[21] Because "To Cut a Long Story Short" was so well received at BBC Radio 1, the record labels competing for the band agreed that they could start recording it as a single in addition to the rest of their first album and that the label they signed with would pay for the studio time.[29] Looking back, Burgess wrote, "I have never seen that happen before or since."[15] The rural setting, however, put them out of their comfort zone,[30] and they were much closer to home at Jam recording studios in Finsbury Park by the time they signed with Chrysalis Records on 10 October.[31]
Some of the sessions were also done at Trident Studios, where The Beatles, David Bowie, Elton John and Queen had recorded.[21] Norman said, "The sound of all the legends must have been in all the walls," and described the effect of those particular surroundings: “The place had such an energy to it; it makes you raise your game." Its location in Soho also made a difference in that their friends from the Blitz could hang out and provide support.[32]
On recording the songs, Norman pointed out that, on "Mandolin", lead singer Tony Hadley's voice is "really exaggerated and over-the-top…, but he's acting in it."[21] He also said, "I remember when we were recording 'Toys' that I suddenly had my feet on the monitors, rocking out, despite wearing a kilt."[21] Because Hadley had no lyrics to sing during the chorus, Norman added guitar to fill out the arrangement.[33] On that particular song he admitted, "I felt like a rock god when we were making it, even though I immediately knew we weren't."[21]
They completed the recording of Journeys to Glory by the end of the year.[34]
Singles and videos[edit]
Since "To Cut a Long Story Short" seemed destined for success,[53] Dagger and the band chose a release date of 31 October 1980 for the single[54] and the song debuted on the UK Singles Chart dated 15 November and peaked at number 5 during its 11 weeks there.[55] It also reached the pop charts in Australia,[56] Ireland,[57] New Zealand[58] and Spain,[59] and in the US, Billboard magazine paired the 12-inch remix of the song with the dance version of "The Freeze" for their appearance on the Disco Top 100.[60] The band wore Culloden and Edwardian Scottish military regalia for the music video[61] and for their debut on Top of the Pops to perform the song.[62] It received mixed reviews at the time of its release, with some critics describing it as "ordinary"[63] and others as "a massively competent record".[64] Retrospective reviews have described it as "a minor lost classic of the early '80s UK synth pop scene"[65] and "an era-defining slice of electronic myth-making, and a great dance record to boot".[66]
"The Freeze" was released on 12 January 1981 as the next single[67] and made its first appearance on the UK Singles Chart dated 24 January to begin an eight-week run, during which time it peaked at number 17.[55] In addition to its tandem dance chart run in the US, it also made the pop charts in Ireland[68] and Spain.[59] As with "To Cut a Long Story Short", the music video for "The Freeze" was directed by Brian Grant.[69] An appearance on Top of the Pops was also included in the promotional efforts.[70] One contemporary reviewer thought the song was "wonderful",[40] but another chided the band for "thinking that superbly chunky dance stance drums [were] enough to compensate for a lack of imagination."[71] In revisiting the album on its list of '80s debuts, Classic Pop also said, "There's a spiky funkiness about Spandau's early sound that was excised in the chase for hits, best evidenced by the choppy guitars of 'The Freeze'."[52]
The third song released from the album, "Muscle Bound", was issued on 27 March on a double A-side single, paired with "Glow",[72] which was written after the recording of Journeys to Glory was completed.[73] The single began 10 weeks on the UK pop chart on 4 April and got as high as number 10[55] and also hit the pop charts in Australia,[56] Ireland,[74] and the Netherlands.[75] In the US "Glow" was a dance chart entry by itself.[60] "Muscle Bound" was presented by Spandau Ballet on Top of the Pops,[76] and Russell Mulcahy was hired to direct the music video for the song, which was filmed in the Lake District in several feet of snow.[77] "Muscle Bound" received mostly good reviews, including one proclaiming that it "shrivels the LP under its heat [and] makes those other singles sound like tinny, teenybop jingles."[78] One critic appreciated the "romantic, poetic imagery that is not insipid or starry-eyed but powerful and thoughtful,"[79] and another thought it was "a clever, seductive spin on body politics".[66] Thompson called it "a sweaty slab of twilight homoerotica that really is as beefy as its title suggests,"[50] and categorized all three songs from the album that were released as singles as "utterly convincing white boy Funk".[80]
Commercial performance[edit]
Journeys to Glory was released on 6 March 1981[81] and started a UK Albums Chart run of 29 weeks on 14 March that included a number 5 peak position.[55] The British Phonographic Industry awarded the album both Silver and Gold certification on 28 April for reaching the respective 60,000 and 100,000 units of shipment thresholds.[82] It debuted on the Australian album chart on 4 May and reached number 14 over the course of 17 weeks.[56] In the US it spent its sole chart appearance at number 209 on Billboard magazine's list of albums that were Bubbling Under the Top LPs in the issue dated 16 May.[83]
The album was reissued on compact disc in 2010 with B-sides and remixes of the singles and previously unreleased live tracks[84] from a 1981 BBC Session.[85]
Aftermath[edit]
As the band was in the process of finishing the album, Kemp was noticing a renewed interest in funk around Soho and was inspired by American disco acts such as the Fatback Band and Dr. Buzzard to write "Glow",[86] which he described as "American style funk – but still with white lyrics".[36] "Glow" then served as inspiration for the music of "Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)",[36] their first single from an album that had yet to be written. In discussing his difficulty in composing more songs, Kemp explained why their first album came together so well: "Journeys had been developed over some time and played live before we went into the recording studio, with some songs being discarded at the last minute. It was a mission statement, cohesive and tight, with none of the indulgence that often plagues follow-ups."[87] He thought "Chant No. 1" would help guide him, but instead it slowed him down as he watched it climb to number 3 in the UK.[88]
The next two singles he churned out were not as successful, with "Paint Me Down" stalling at 30 and "She Loved Like Diamond" at 49[55] just as their parent album, Diamond, was being released.[89] They had kept Burgess on as producer of all of the new songs Kemp had written but were not pleased with the resulting LP.[90] Dagger had the idea to release another single so that the album would keep selling[89] and thought they should remix a track on the album called "Instinction" to do that because it was the closest thing to a pop song that they had recorded so far.[91] When they considered Buggles founder Trevor Horn to produce the remix, Kemp realized that Spandau Ballet needed to evolve into a pop group if it was going to survive.[92] After "Instinction" reached number 10,[55] he began to notice that the crowd of hipsters they started out wanting to please were no longer interested, and he felt free to write with no regard for danceability or the latest rhythm.[93] Their next album, True, was crafted with "a sleek and mainstream sound" and "a set of tunes aimed squarely at the charts".[94]