Tony Hadley has shared how he calms himself before every show.
Despite making performing to thousands look effortless throughout his 50-year career, the singer revealed he would “almost be nearly sick” before shows as a teenager, but Tony has since learnt to control his nerves, now just battling “butterflies in the tummy” before showtime.
Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz, the Spandau Ballet frontman said: “It’s because you want to be the best you can be, and you just want it to go swimmingly well and everything to work.”
Tony, 66, added: “The butterflies are there just before I go on, but as soon as I start to sing, as soon as I open my big mouth, I feel at ease. It’s almost euphoric.”
He continued: “But you do learn to control it over the years and enjoy it. The most important thing is to enjoy it. And if you’re enjoying it, then the audience can see that. All you want the audience to do is walk out with a big smile on their face, and say, ‘Oh, wow. That was great!'”
The True legend has found one way to tackle the butterflies before he and his Fabulous TH Band take to the stage.
Tony revealed: “We find the nearest pub, we have a couple of pints, and then before we go on, we have what is called a 99, which is basically a vodka shot.
“And then we drink it, we put the cup on our head, and someone says an anecdote, something stupid that happened during the day, and we all have a weird saying and shake hands, last-minute wee, and then we’re on!”
He noted: “None of us go on drunk or anything. It just helps to kind of taper the nerves.”
The Gold hitmaker’s close bond with his band helps create a relaxed atmosphere before each gig.
Tony said: “We’re all mates. I know all the brass boys, obviously all my band, and so there’s a really great atmosphere amongst us before we go on.
“We like hanging with each other. We’re all sleeping on the sleeper bus together, so we have to like each other.
“We come off stage, we sit around, have a few drinks. We don’t dissect the show. To be honest, normally we come off and go, ‘Wow, that was brilliant. That was good.’
“Very rarely do we ever come off and say, ‘Well, that was a bit weird.’ I can’t remember the last time we did that because we all love playing together.
“Then we’ll sit around and get on the tour bus, probably stay up till about two o’clock in the morning and get up 10 hours later.”
Tony and the band are going to need all the sleep they can get as he prepares to celebrate 50 years in music with a 19-date The Christmas Big Band Tour throughout November and December.
Also joined by a full brass section, the Brit Award winner will put his powerful vocals on Big Band and swing classics from the likes of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra, alongside delivering some Spandau Ballet hits and beloved Christmas songs.
Tony said: “I’m always excited to do a big band tour. It’s one of those things that’s very expensive; there’s a lot of people to take on the road, we’ve got trucks and sleeper buses and all sorts of stuff.
“But it’s one of the best tours you can do because you’ve got the core band, the electric band, you’ve then got the big brass section behind you, and you’re singing all these wonderfully beautiful classic songs from Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Jack Jones, Dean Martin.
“I grew up listening to that kind of stuff, as well as Sex Pistols and Queen and Roxy and Bowie, and I just love singing those kind of crooner kind of songs.”
He continued: “We called it The Big Band Tour because it means we can incorporate – for instance, I’m a massive Elvis fan, so we’re going to do a couple of great Elvis tunes.
“There’s also some Spandau numbers in there as well. We’ve done an orchestration from Lifeline, which sounds amazing with the big brass section behind it.
“And we’ve got some Christmas songs, too.
“So it’s a real musical journey, but primarily it’s that wonderful swing, Rat Pack kind of stuff, which is fantastic.”
Tony Hadley is celebrating 50 years in music with The Christmas Big Band Tour this winter, and tickets are on sale now via myticket.co.uk.
The Christmas Big Band Tour dates:
November:
07 – Plymouth – Plymouth Arena
08 – Hastings – White Rock Theatre
09 – Southend-on-Sea – Cliffs Pavilion
12 – Oxford – New Theatre Oxford
13 – Cambridge – Cambridge Corn Exchange
15 – Ipswich – Ipswich Regent Theatre
16 – Bournemouth – Bournemouth Pavilion
17 – Truro – Hall for Cornwall
19 – Birmingham – Symphony Hall
20 – Manchester – O2 Apollo Manchester
21 – York – York Barbican
23 – Edinburgh – Usher Hall
25 – Hull – Connexin Live, Hull
26 – Blackpool – The Blackpool Opera House
27 – Gateshead – The Glasshouse
29 – Glasgow – The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall
30 – Nottingham – Royal Concert Hall
December:
03 – Bristol – Bristol Beacon
04 – London – London Coliseum
