THE FREEZE PLUS

Д¬amberwell College of Arts graphics student Graham Smith continued the work he began with the design for the 'To Cut a Long Story Short' cover where he intended all of the singles from Spandau Ballet's first album, Journeys to Glory, and the album itself to have matching art work. The same classical motif used for the cover art can be seen on the walls, floor and ceiling of the music video set. The B-side of the 7-inch single of 'The Freeze' was also labeled 'Version' to indicate that it was a dub track, while side two of the 12-inch was labeled 'Special Mix'. One dub version of that song was put on the B-side of its 7-inch single and simply subtitled 'Version' in the way those producers labeled their dub releases and a different one was on the flip side of its 12-inch dance remix. While working on 'To Cut a Long Story Short', the band's guitarist/songwriter Gary Kemp reminisced with producer Richard James Burgess about the reggae dubs and remixes done by producers King Tubby and Lee 'Scratch' Perry dating back to the sixties, and they used those recordings as inspiration for the remix of 'To Cut a Long Story Short'.

THE FREEZE PLUS

In 1981 the pathfinding band were consolidating the new approach they had styled White European Dance Music - led on 'The Freeze' by Gary Kemp's two-fingered synth arpeggios, plus enough percussive kick-drum snaps underpinned with bassline rhythms to fill dancefloors.' Puzzled by the opening line, 'Blue sing la lune, sing lagoon', former Evening Standard and music magazine journalist David Johnson did not see the song as an obvious choice to follow their top 5 hit but pointed out that ''The Freeze' was not chosen for singability but for its New Romantic clubbing credibility.

'To Cut a Long Story Short' became a number 5 hit on the UK singles chart, and 'The Freeze' was selected to be released on 12 January 1981 as the next single. Problems playing this file? See media help. 'The Freeze' includes 'two-fingered synth arpeggios, plus enough percussive kick-drum snaps underpinned with bassline rhythms to fill dancefloors.' As other DJs at the station also added that song to their playlists, the demand grew for its availability as a single to purchase, and the record labels competing to sign the band agreed that the chosen one would pay for however much studio time they had racked up to record 'To Cut a Long Story Short' and start on their first album. Before they were signed they also recorded a demo of 'To Cut a Long Story Short' for BBC Radio 1 DJ Peter Powell to play regularly on his show. To catch up with what he missed, he offered to pay for the recording of a demo of some of their songs, so on 31 August 1980 the band recorded 'To Cut a Long Story Short', 'The Freeze', 'Confused' and 'Reformation'. Spandau Ballet gained the attention of record labels eager to sign them through a television documentary that included footage from a concert attended by A&R executives, but the representative for Arista Records was unable to attend.

The freeze