How Spandau Ballet got its name ... and that near-miss hit from the '80s

It's Friday and many will be heading towards the movie screens later today to catch a flick. I know this much is true: One movie that probably is not playing in Peoria is the new Spandau Ballet film Soul Boys of the Western World, so for right now pacify yourself with the lost hit Only When You Leave.

Soul Boys of the Western World made its debut on selected screens on Sept. 30, and the documentary is supposed to contain home video footage taken by the band during its '80s heyday. In 1984, Spandau Ballet graced the channel of MTV and other video programs with Only When You Leav" that reached No. 34 on the U.S. singles charts. It would be the third and final song for Spandau Ballet to hit the US Top 40.

Spandau Ballet's most popular song True has taken on a new life in sampling (PM Dawn's Set Adrift on Memory Bliss), movies (The Wedding Singer) and most importantly as the doppelganger song for SIT80's Sean Daly. Despite all the fun-filled enjoyment Spandau Ballet has given pop culture, it wasn't until reading the Mad World book that I heard the macabre origin of the band name.

While the band selected the name as something unique written on a bathroom stall, the term "Spandau Ballet" originated during World War I as a bleak description of the twitching done by shot-down Allied Forces in their last living moments when caught in barbwire after being chased and shot down by German planes using the Spandau machine gun, a new weapon that allowed the machine gun to be attached and fired from the airplane's propeller area. The term "Spandau Ballet" was recoined in WWII for the last struggled kicks made by Nazi's sentenced to death by hanging for their war crimes. On that pleasant note, have a great weekend and think of that story the next time you hear True!