Gary Kemp was born in Islington, London in October 1959. He grew up in the same area he was born in. When he was 10 he really got interested in music. So on his birthday he got his first guitar from his parents. He then learned how to play it and started to write songs. In the 70's he and his brother Martin went into acting in the theatre. Then in 1978 Gary Kemp formed the Makers. Then Richard Miller left and his brother replaced him on bass. That's when Gary changed the name to Spandau Ballet. Gary started to play the synthesizer as well. Spandau's break came in March 1980 when they were filmed for a documentary on ITV. Then when it came out record companies were bursting out of their ears. They chose to sign to Chrysalis because they 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 their tour in 1987 Gary and Martin decided to go into acting once again. They auditioned for the part in the Krays and in 1989 they turned into Ronald and Reggie. Soon afterwards Spandau made their last tour and a concert was even made into a DVD in later years. Gary has spent the last 11 years still acting, getting a messy divorce and last but not least winning a major battle over £1,000,000 royalties with John Keeble, Steve Norman and Tony Hadley, his 3 other bandmates.
Brother of Martin Kemp Former co-leader of the band Spandau Ballet. Guitarist, songwriter and sometimes the synthesizer player of Spandau Ballet. His song "True" was sampled for the P.M. Dawn hit "Set Adrift on Memory Bliss". The first album he bought was T-Rex's "Electric Warrior". The first band he saw was Slade when he was 11. The first single he bought was "Apeman" by The Kinks. "True" was directly influenced by his love of Marvin Gaye and Al Green. The lyrics were delicately influenced by Nabokov's novel, Lolita. Spandau Ballet won the Sony Award For Technical Excellence in 1984.