STAGEFRIGHT is the enemy of every artist, whether a multi-album selling professional or a grandfather crooning My Way at the Silver Stars talent contest. Long before he was to pull on a ruffled shirt as a member of one of the biggest bands of the 80s, a 13-year-old Tony Hadley was to discover this lesson in front of an audience of 400 white-haired grannies and sticky children on holiday. But though he stumbled through the lyrics to Lady Madonna, having always been word perfect before, he still gained his first round of applause, gave his first autograph and attracted a kiss from a beautiful girl. It was enough to hook him and, 30 years and a diverse musical career later, he is still addicted to the sound of a happy audience. "I'm a lot more confident than I was years ago. I love what I do. I absolutely love singing and performing and I can't ever see myself giving that up. "I think I'm singing better than I've ever sung before. I feel good about things. It's a nice position to be in, it doesn't last that long sometimes," comes the warm Cockney accent. Hits with new romantics Spandau Ballet, a successful solo career for two decades and, most recently, winning reality talent show Reborn in the USA (''At least I wasn't eating maggots or putting rats up my trousers'') have led him to a point in his career where he can do as he pleases. In this case a concert at the Philharmonic Hall in Liverpool with former ABC member Martin Fry and a full brass section. "A lot of the songs are brass orientated, some really beautiful ballads and some stonking tunes as well. It's not about new songs, it's purely about fun. It's about vocalists stretching themselves. "There are certain songs there that are very hard to sing. We are in this great position where we can pretty much do what we want and have a great time at the same time," says Hadley, 44. Former Spandau Ballet drummer John Keeble will also be on stage ,but the other members of the band will not be made welcome. In May, 1999, Hadley, Keeble and the group's rhythm guitarist Steve Norman lost their fight to claim a share of £1m in royalties from songwriter Gary Kemp. Despite the ongoing bitterness Kemp recently gave an interview saying he and his brother Martin would like to reform. "They've approached me, yeah. Let me put it this way --they know what they need to do for me to even consider it. "The fallout was bad. It wasn't like we could go 'lets patch it up' and go out and have dinner and kiss and make up. "A lot of it I can't go into because it's just too personal. A lot of the stuff really hurt and it would be very hard to forgive. "Gary wrote me a letter and I wrote a letter back. And that letter contains various conditions and he knows what they are. It would take an awful lot and I'm not just talking about money either," insists Hadley. As well as the current international tour, he has a paperback version of his autobiography coming out later this year and is also planning a jazz/swing album that he has thought about for years but has previously been put off because "Popstars released a bloody jazz album". The disdain in his voice when he talks about manufactured bands is there because he believes the record industry has changed beyond all recognition: "It's become a hell of a lot more corporate without any shred of a doubt and much more accountancy driven. Unfortunately these days if you don't seem to be cutting the grade straight away you're out. You've got no second chance. "If that had been the case with Spandau then we would never have made it. The first two albums were only reasonably successful and without a doubt we would have been kicked off the label. "And that would have been the same for U2, Simple Minds and a lot of other bands as well. | 
