When they return, they say, expect to see five guys with a little more mutual respect.
"We now realise how important we are as individuals in a band, five cogs that make up the big cog and it sounds like Spandau Ballet."
They also reckon they've rediscovered enough of the optimism from the early New Romantic movement to return to the studio. They've always looked on their last album, Heart like a Sky, as a failure - vocalist Tony Hadley is adamant they should have flagged it altogether and taken a break instead.
It was the disappointment that saw them disbanding before three members, led by Hadley, took songwriter Gary Kemp to court in a doomed attempt to get a cut of his royalties from hits like True and Instinction. It wouldn't have helped that he'd received a second windfall in 1991 when PM Dawn's Set Adrift on Memory Bliss, which heavily sampled True, charted worldwide.
But Hadley and Kemp are certain the old spark remains and have even included three fresh tracks on a new greatest hits collection.
None of which would have happened if they hadn't taken manager Steve Dagger's advice and dropped by Billy's, the club that launched the New Romantic movement.
Having been part of the punk movement, the band were keen to see what would happen next and immediately latched on to the androgynous, flamboyant and often kilted look of the bar's punters. The purchase of a synthesiser, a Yamaha CS10, was all they needed to find a new groove, and after their first gig at the infamous Blitz nightclub, they were established as flagbearers for a new youth movement and competitors for the likes of Duran Duran and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
"I remember we thought we had it made," says Kemp, "we were going to be the first [British act] to use a synthesiser." Then a few weeks out from debuting on Top of the Pops he turned on his television to see Gary Numan steal their thunder with Are Friends Electric. "He beat us to it, we missed that one ... but it was such an exciting time."
It was one of the last hurrahs for pop musicians as well with album sales and production budgets that seem unobtainable now. Technology has changed everything and while they believe the quality writing is still there, the money to get it to market isn't. "It's now very hard for bands and record companies to make anything," says Kemp. "I really wonder where we'll be in five years' time."
No worries, they are clearly happy for the chance to rewrite the end of the Spandau story and see what happens next. Again.
Preview
Who: Spandau Ballet
What: The Very Best of Spandau Ballet, in stores now
