GIVEN that he’s spent much of the summer playing festivals around the UK at which songs written over 30 years ago have taken centre stage, Tony Hadley can see the irony when he admits he’s not one for being nostalgic.

“I suppose that could be regarded as a problem,” he laughed. “Don’t get me wrong, I love what happened and what I did. I loved being in Spandau Ballet - but I always look forward.

“With my new solo album I’ll be checking it, listening to the mixes, really getting involved in everything but the moment it’s done I’ll be moving on to the next album.”

Tony Hadley’s towering presence - he’s six feet four with a voice to match - made him one of the most distinctive pop stars of the Eighties as Spandau Ballet had hit after hit

Tony, along with brothers Gary and Martin Kemp, Steve Norman and John Keeble became the poster boys of the New Romantic movement.

A well-documented split in 1990 saw the former bandmates facing each other in court in a dispute over royalties. The band reformed in 2009 for an album and world tour and then began a second world tour in 2014.

Since then Tony has pursued a solo career which has seen him spend time in the jungle as a contestant on I’m a Celebrity, and in August he made the shock announcement that he was “no longer a member of Spandau Ballet”.

“It’s a bit complicated but the whole truth will come out eventually,” he said, “but there is still a legal process going on and we’ll have to wait until that’s sorted.

“The story of why I left will come out in the end, it’s sad but there you go….”

We speak the day after Tony and his band have just returned from a sell-out tour in the States.

“We’ve just got back Vegas so I’m a little bit ‘uurgh’ at the moment.” he said. “It’s been non stop.

“We’ve just finished in America and before that we did masses of festivals.”

Next week Tony and his band will be playing their only full theatre show in the UK at King George’s Hall, Blackburn.

“We were approached to do it,” he said.

“They said you’ve not been here for a number of years and we’d love you to do something so we’re on our way – it’s a case of have band, have voice, will travel.”

Although Tony admits he’s one to look forward, classic Spandau Ballet hits such as True and Gold remain in his setlist.

“We’ll obviously be doing some new stuff but I can’t not do and I wouldn’t not want to do those Spandau classics because that’s what people associate me with most I suppose,” he said.

“I’m not comparing myself to Frank Sinatra in any way here but if he hadn’t done New York, New York or My Way or Sting didn’t do Roxanne or Every Breath You Take there’d be uproar.

“I’ve seen artists deny their past and say ‘I’m not going to do any of my old hits, I’m just going to do the new songs’. But that’s a disaster, you cannot do that.

“Those songs from Spandau which I do as a solo artist, there are so many memories attached to them.

“When you start to play a song like True, you can see people in the audience giving each other a hug. For some it was their wedding song or it means something special.

“You are a fool to deny your past, so certainly when fans come to see me I’m not going to disappoint them but hopefully they’ll also come along and go ‘ooh, I like that new tune’ too.”

Tony admits he’s been working on his new solo album ‘for far too long’.

“The album is nearly finished,” he said.

“The problem is I keep going on tour, we’re just so busy. We’re nearly there but there are a couple of tunes we want to orchestrate but we’ll hopefully have a single out by mid January.”

Tony said that the new album was influenced by artists such as Robert Palmer and bands such as The Killers and Panic at the Disco.

“I was a big fan of Robert Palmer,” said Tony. “He was never afraid to use new production techniques in the arrangements of his songs so there would be some dance elements in there as well as more traditional things.

“And with bands like The Killers they are quite rocky but they use dance elements within their songs and I always think that combination makes it much more interesting.

“I’m always listening to new stuff and I like hybrid stuff missing traditional songs with new production techniques.

“So with the new songs I’m hopeful people will go ‘wow we didn’t expect that from Tone but we love it’.”

Tony Hadley, King George’s Hall, Blackburn, Friday, September 29. Details from 0844 847 1664 or www.kinggeorgeshall.com