MEET Tony Hadley, man of action. He treks into Conan Doyle's Lost World in South America, plays football with the stars, skis "all over the place" and goes scuba diving in some of the great oceans.
He was even going to have a televised boxing match in The Fight until the British Board of Boxing Control stepped in to stop it on safety grounds.
Yes, this is the same Tony Hadley who was lead singer in the New Romantic band Spandau Ballet and, in his early days, played in a kilt.
But we all grow up - he is now 46 - and Spandau Ballet is the past. He has been a solo singer for the past 15 years.
As if to emphasise the change, Hadley has just recorded his first swing album, Passing Strangers, and is going on tour with his own swing band, a tour which concludes at Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall, on December 13.
It is an album and tour he has been planning for years, and one that recalls memories of his London childhood.
"Every Sunday morning before lunch, the family would all get together and mum and dad would always put on records by people like Frank Sinatra, Jack Jones, Tony Bennett and Frankie Vaughan. Playing those records did have an effect on me, especially as I was in a band as well."
His school band was a punk band, however. "But it was pointed out to me that you should embrace all kinds of music and that, if I wanted to be a singer, I should listen to these guys."
So he did listen and enjoyed what he heard.
While he enjoyed the swing singers, it did not change his musical direction at the time.
