Tony Hadley announces 19-date Christmas big band tour and pub rescue campaign

Tony Hadley has announced a 19-date Christmas big band tour and backed a community campaign to save a pub in Haddenham.

The Spandau Ballet singer appeared in a television studio to talk about both projects. With 88 days still to go before Christmas, he said last year's festive big band run had sold out every ticket. He recalled playing the Royal Albert Hall and having trouble even getting family into the show. The new run will keep the classic big band swing songs but change a couple for other standards. Hadley said the set will include 'My Kind Of Town' and a version of 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' using the Elvis Presley arrangement, along with more Christmas songs.

Hadley also reflected on his career, which he described as spanning 50 years. He told how, at 17, he sneaked into the Royal Albert Hall three nights running to meet Frank Sinatra, using a fake pass under the name Anthony Holt from Melody Maker. He said he brought his mother along and saw Roger Moore and Michael Caine in the audience. Sinatra asked him what he wanted to do, and Hadley told him he wanted to be a singer. Six years later, Spandau Ballet performed at the Royal Albert Hall.

On the pub campaign, a video message from the team at the Rose and Thistle in Haddenham thanked Hadley for helping publicise their effort to save the venue. Hadley said he had been involved in another local pub community buyout. He argued that brewers are not running pubs as they should, charge too much for beer, and leave tenants struggling. The best route, he said, is for communities to buy the freehold and control the pub themselves because pubs are the hub of the community.