Glow (Spandau Ballet song)

Spandau Ballet was already having success on the pop charts as they were completing their first album, Journeys to Glory, but their guitarist/songwriter Gary Kemp was worried that the LP already sounded dated.{{Harvnb|Kemp|2009|p=135}} He was noticing a renewed interest in funk around Soho and wanted to get back to songwriting.{{Harvnb|Kemp|2009|pp=134–135}} In his autobiography I Know This Much: From Soho to Spandau, he recalled, "I sat with my guitar in my bedroom, and with the sound of [American disco acts] the Fatback Band and Dr. Buzzard in my head, I ground out a groove and made an attempt to write a song that combined funk with the stark European music that we had created already. The result was 'Glow'." In a May 1982 interview with New Sounds New Styles magazine, he explained how all of the songs on the first album had a "similar European flavour" and how "Glow" was their first attempt at "American style funk – but still with white lyrics".{{cite magazine|title= Spandau Ballet: A Girl's Best Friend |magazine= New Sounds New Styles |date= May 1982 |issue= 11 |page= 26 |url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/57779449@N02/sets/72157712752496953/with/49413927346/}}

Spandau Ballet saxophonist and percussionist Steve Norman learned to play the conga and bongos very quickly, which allowed them to get the song recorded and released as soon as possible as a way of, as Kemp put it, "announcing our credentials and proving that we were at the epicentre of Soho nightlife". The song was recorded using synthesised horns, which provided some of the inspiration for their next single, "Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)".

Spandau Ballet's contract with Chrysalis Records included complete control over which songs were put out as singles,{{Harvnb|Kemp|2009|p=122}}: "What we want is the promise that we can have control over all those mediums: artwork, video, choice over whatever tracks are singles." and since they had already planned for "Muscle Bound" to be one of them, they decided to include "Glow" with it on its 7- and 12-inch releases.{{cite magazine|title= Spandau Ballet: A Girl's Best Friend |magazine= New Sounds New Styles |date= May 1982 |issue= 11 |page= 26 |url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/57779449@N02/sets/72157712752496953/with/49413927346/ |quote= It came out with "Muscle Bound" because we wanted it out as soon as possible, and yet we still wanted to put "Muscle Bound" out as a single anyway.}} They continued their idea of using the same motif on the cover art for both the Journeys to Glory album and singles,{{cite magazine|title= Spandau Ballet: A Girl's Best Friend |magazine= New Sounds New Styles |date= May 1982 |issue= 11 |page= 28 |url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/57779449@N02/sets/72157712752496953/with/49413927346/}} and Graham Smith did a cover for each song on the "Muscle Bound"/"Glow" releases, with the artwork for "Glow" on the front of the 12-inch single and the back of the 7-inch and vice versa. Smith was inspired by the works of John Flaxman for both covers.{{cite web| url=https://shapersofthe80s.com/2011/01/24/1981-%e2%9e%a4-why-naked-heroes-from-antiquity-stood-in-for-spandau-on-their-first-record-sleeves/| title= 1981 ➤ Why naked heroes from antiquity stood in for Spandau on their first record sleeves| publisher= Shapersofthe80s.com |date= 24 January 2011| access-date= 24 September 2021}}

"Glow" was issued in the UK as a double A-side single with "Muscle Bound" on 27 March 1981.{{cite magazine |date=21 March 1981 |title=Singles Time |url=https://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Record-Mirror/80s/81/Record-Mirror-1981-03-21.pdf |magazine=Record Mirror |page=3 |access-date=5 April 2022}} The 7-inch began 10 weeks on the UK pop chart on 4 April and got as high as number 10. In the US, the 12-inch mix of "Glow" charted by itself on the Disco Top 100 and got as high as number 62.

The band was putting the finishing touches on Journeys to Glory when Kemp started working on "Glow",{{Harvnb|Kemp|2009|p=135}}: We finished recording our first album — written more than a year earlier — but I feared it was already out of date. We’d started to strip back some of the synthesisers on the tracks and develop the guitar parts but I wanted to start writing again. so it was not on the original 1981 album release.{{cite AV media notes|title= Journeys to Glory|others= Spandau Ballet|date= 1981 |type= liner notes |publisher= Chrysalis Records|id= CHR 1331|location= London}} The 2010 CD reissue, however, included the 7- and 12-inch versions as well as a recording of the song taken from a March 1981 BBC session.{{cite AV media notes|title=Journeys to Glory|others=Spandau Ballet|date= 2010 |type= CD booklet |publisher= Chrysalis Records|id=CHRR 1331|location=London}}

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• 7-inch single{{cite AV media notes|title= Muscle Bound |others=Spandau Ballet|year=1981|type= 7-inch single liner notes|publisher=Chrysalis Records|id=CHS 2509}}

1. "Muscle Bound" — 3:58
2. "Glow" — 3:48

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• 12-inch single{{cite AV media notes|title= Glow |others=Spandau Ballet|year=1981|type= 12-inch single liner notes|publisher=Chrysalis Records|id=CHS 12 2509}}

1. "Glow" — 8:10
2. "Muscle Bound" — 4:54

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Credits adapted from the liner notes for Journeys to Glory, except as noted:

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• Tony Hadley – vocals, synthesizer
• John Keeble – drums
• Gary Kemp – guitar, synthesizer
• Martin Kemp – bass
• Steve Norman – bongos, conga, guitar

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• Richard James Burgess – producer
• Graham Smith – graphics

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{{Reflist}}

• {{Cite book|last=Gimarc|first=George|year=1997|title=Post Punk Diary, 1980–1982 |place= New York |publisher= St. Martin's Press |isbn= 978-0-312-16968-8}}
• {{Cite book| last=Kemp | first=Gary | year=2009 | title=I Know This Much: From Soho to Spandau | place=London | publisher=Fourth Estate | isbn=978-0-00-732330-2 }}

{{Spandau Ballet}}

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Category:1981 songs

Category:1981 singles

Category:Spandau Ballet songs

Category:Chrysalis Records singles

Category:Songs written by Gary Kemp

Category:Song recordings produced by Richard James Burgess