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Now it's Spandau ballads! Old Romantic Gary Kemp springs surprises with a stirring set of heartfelt new songs, writes ADRIAN THRILLS

Tackling themes such as parenthood, the anxieties of middle age, and nostalgia for his North London adolescence, Gary Kemp is in candid singer-songwriter mode for his third solo album.

A phone call from former Pulp guitarist Richard Hawley prompted the Spandau Ballet founder to sit down at his piano and compose the intensely personal Work, one of the stand-out tracks on This Destination. Kemp admits he never fully mourned his parents, Frank and Eileen, who both died in 2009, and the track is a vivid account of their working lives, his dad's as a printer, his mum's as a dinner lady. Written after singer Kieran Shudall needed life-saving surgery to remedy a blocked artery in 2023, the Liverpool quartet's sixth album is infused with the joys of bouncing back from potential tragedy.

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