- Born
- Birth nameGary James Kemp
- Height6′ 2¾″ (1.90 m)
- Gary Kemp was born in Islington, London in October 1959. On his 10th birthday, he got his first guitar from his parents. In the 70s, he and his younger brother, Martin Kemp, went to learn drama at Anna Scher's acting school. Then, in 1978, Gary Kemp formed "The Makers". After Richard Miller left, his brother replaced him on bass. That's when Gary changed the name to Spandau Ballet. Spandau's break came in March 1980 when they were filmed for a documentary on ITV. When the documentary was broadcast, the record companies were bursting out of their ears. They chose to sign to Chrysalis, as they were offered the most money. For 10 years, they had hits like "To Cut a Long Story Short" (1980), "Chant No. 1 (I don't need this pressure on)" (1981), "True" (1983), "Gold" (1983), "Only When You Leave" (1984) and "Through the Barricades" (1986). After Spandau Ballet completed a tour in 1987, Gary and Martin decided to go into acting once again. They auditioned for the part in The Krays (1990) and, in 1989, they played "Ronald" and "Reggie". Soon afterwards this, Spandau Ballet would split. During the '90s, Gary continued to act, most notably playing a part in The Bodyguard (1992). In 1999, Gary was involved in a court battle over £1,000,000 royalties against John Keeble, Steve Norman and Tony Hadley, his 3 other bandmates. Gary won the case. However, in March 2009, all 5 members of Spandau Ballet called a truce, and they announced on the HMS Belfast in London that they would be reuniting for a world tour later in the year.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Richard Baker
- SpousesLauren Barber(September 5, 2003 - present) (1 child)Sadie Frost(May 7, 1988 - August 19, 1997) (divorced, 1 child)
- He has only one kidney while his brother Martin has three.
- He became famous as the guitarist, songwriter and occasional synthesizer player of Spandau Ballet, one of Britain's biggest bands of the 1980s.
- He is the older brother of Martin Kemp and brother-in-law of Shirlie Kemp. The brothers trained at the Anna Scher Theatre School. Their contemporaries included Phil Daniels, Linda Robson and Pauline Quirke.
- The first album he bought was T. Rex's "Electric Warrior".
- His biggest hit, "True", was directly influenced by his love of Marvin Gaye and Al Green. The lyrics were delicately influenced by Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita. It was later sampled for the PM Dawn hit "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss".
- Spandau Ballet is a brand name. Part of me never wants to do it again. Part of me is fascinated of what it would be like. Because we spent the most amazing time together.
- I can't get away from 'True'. It's been played 3 million times on American radio.
- I think that Will Young is this generation's Des O'Connor or Max Bygraves. Where is the sex, drama and outrage in music anymore?
- The thought of going on tour with people like Toyah Willcox is just appalling. I'm certainly not tempted.
- Kevin Costner told me that "True" was his and his wife's song. I'm not sure if that's a good thing because they split up soon after.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content