Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Spandau Ballet Reformed

Spandau Ballet is further along....

But first,
This is a picture-heavy post on what I did on Friday.

A brilliantly sunny day meant a ferry ride to Mosman Rowers for a work lunch.  The Rowers is situated opposite Mosman Bay ferry wharf in an oldish building surrounded by moored pleasure craft and luxurious homes.

The food at the restaurant/bistro has an emphasis on seafood, with a couple of steak and chicken dishes thrown in.
(top to bottom, left to right):
seafood platter ($50 min 2 persons)); grilled salmon with chips (around $28);
pan-fried barramundi with asparagus (around $28); sides of chips and vegetables;
eye fillet steak with salad (around $30); banana split ($15) for dessert

The seafood platter had mussels, prawns and squid. I bit into a mussel that was off, so I delicately spat it out - the other mussels were okay, apparently.  Then I had barramundi in a very tangy garlic lemon butter sauce, with fried asparagus spears. The asparagus was lovely, the fish was okay. 
Others at our table ordered the eye fillet; they asked for them to be cooked 'medium', but they arrived 'overdone', which is several steps beyond well done.  It looked at tasted really dry, which is a shame as it was a good-quality cut of meat.
Dessert included 'banana split', which included a banana wrapped in puff pastry, in a custard sauce, with a scoop of ice cream. One scoop of ice cream - the picture above is after someone played silly buggers with the plate...
Overall, Mosman Rowers is alright to visit if you live nearby, but, personally, I wouldn't travel to eat there.

I had to leave early to catch the ferry back to Circular Quay, for my date with Spandau Ballet, but here are some scenes of the trip back (below):
(top to bottom, left to right):
Local Mosman wildlife on the water; closer view of the exotic wildlife;
habitats and transportation in Mosman Bay; view from the ferry
After a quick snack of McDonald's fries and small Coke, we made out way into the Sydney Entertainment Centre with high expectations.

Jack Jones was the pre-entertainment, and he was pretty good.  I don't know that much about him, but he played to an appreciative number of fans.
Then Tears for Fears came on:
'Mad World', 'Shout', 'Everybody wants to rule the World' - they played all their hits.  There was a bit of distortion in the sound of the instruments, but Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal sounded great.
Roland talked about his last visit to Sydney, 25 years ago, and how he walked through the Rocks area and was pickpocketed. He walked there again the other day and got a goat's cheese salad. As he said, "That's progress!".

Then, Spandau Ballet...
I am unashamedly a HUGE fan of Spandau Ballet, and saw them at the Ent Cent in 1985. After their acrimonious breakup in the 1990s, I never thought I'd see them again.  Thank goodness I was wrong. By the way, I got my tickets to this concert via pre-sale from Mastercard Applause - but never again: the tickets had a $50 premium (each) on top of the price, and the seats were nothing special.

But the concert was so worth it. Spandau Ballet went OFF!!!

Martin Kemp is my favourite but Tony Hadley is an incredible singer.
They played for 90 minutes, with 'Gold' as an encore.
*sigh*

After the concert, we stopped at Golden Century for supper. It's become like BBQ King - enough said. The food is still good, though.
We had pig's trotters with jelly fish (didn't look anythin like pig trotters to me), and rice porridge with preserved egg and pork, and fried dough sticks ($34 all up)

When I got home, I played my old Spandau Ballet CDs on high rotation. Then I bought the Reformation tour DVD. 
I also dug out the program from the 1985 tour.  For old time's sake, of course.
Bel {loves} Spandau Ballet 4 ever

13 comments:

  1. Pity you had shitty seats at the concert. Nonetheless ... You were there! I can see you at home post concert singing into you hair brush, dancing away while serenading Tabitha!

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  2. Pity the food at Mosman rowers was average because the view is awesome.

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  3. Bad mussel and overcooked meat... tsk tsk. Tis a big pity

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  4. $50 premium on the seats???? Boy you must be a fan! Looks like it was a good day out except for the bad mussel and the overcooked meat, I love those "treating myself like a star" days!

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  5. Hmm? Funny you say that 'you wouldn't travel far to go there'. I live in a vacation destination pretty much, an I can never understand why people want to come here from so far away...
    Hope you guys had enough fun (smile).

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  6. Looks like you had a fab time! Love all the photos. And Tabitha is CUTE!

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  7. I'm jealous that you got to go see Spandau Ballet. I too saw them in '85 but couldn't afford the tickets this time round :(
    Glad you had a good time though, shame about the seats.

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  8. I was at the concert too! It was great value too, with it going almost four hours!

    Jack Jones was in Southern Sons, who had a few hits in the 80s, and he performed a few of them acoustically on the night. His voice is still great, but his breathing was terrible, and he was either stoned or drunk (I couldn't tell because we were so far away!).

    Weren't Tears For Fears and Spandau Ballet great? I've never seen them before perform live, but was very surprised how good they sounded, especially for their age! Puts a lot of modern 'singers' to shame I reckon!

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  9. nice recap ive never heard of spandou ballet till now... and what a great idea for supper afterwards :)

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  10. Haha long live 80s music! Great to hear that they were really good! There's always the worry that they might have lost it but it doesn't sound like they did at all. I'm holding out for another Duran Duran tour :D

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  11. You love Spandau?! Ah - I was a Duranie! heehee

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  12. haha, check out Tabitha! Like she had a choice! LOL I was trying to convert Creamy into liking John mater bfore hos concert..didn't work! Seemed like an amazing show!

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