TONY Hadley still looks suave.

Nice jacket, silk scarf around his neck, hair perfect . . .

In another life he would have been a gentleman actor working for a distinguished repertory company in Hampshire.

Instead, he's a pop star. Or to be more accurate, a born again pop star.

Back with iconic Spandau Ballet for a gig at the Hydro, the 54 year-old is clearly pleased to be playing with his Islington pals again.

But for ten years the return to the band looked as likely as the singer becoming a rag and bone man.

"I said hell would freeze over before we got back together," says Tony, relaxing in a Glasgow hotel lounge.

"I've been a solo artist as long as I had success with the band, and I've made more money as a solo performer. I couldn't see a reason to get back together.

"And the bad feeling was such I never wanted to see Gary again. But then things changed."

And how. The band initially disbanded in 1992, but seven years later ear plug levels of acrimony developed after Tony, drummer John Keeble and saxophonist Steve Norman took the band's creator and songwriter Gary Kemp to court.

The one-time best friends found themselves in a war over shares of songwriting credits and Gary Kemp came out on top.

And Spandau 'were consigned to the bargain bins of vinyl record shops.' Or were they?

In 2009, the band announced they were getting back together. What changed? The singer with the voice that re-defined pop expectations explains; "Johnny, our drummer, was very much instrumental in all of it," he recalls.

"He'd been trying to smooth things over but the main problem had been with me and Gary. It always was.

"Then one day I was on a radio programme with Shane Richie, who was a massive Spandau Ballet fan, and he kept pushing me, asking if the band would every get back together.

"To get him off my back I said I'd think about it. That was it. And of course, the next day it was all over the papers that Spandau would re-form."

The notion put the idea in Anthony Patrick Hadley's head. Perhaps it was time to forgive and forget?

"The thought did enter my head but it wasn't as easy as that. For the longest time I was having a massive argument with myself. I was turning into Jekyll and Hyde. And there was the nasty court case which had a huge effect.

"But then you start to realise it takes a lot of energy to carry that sort of bitterness around with you."

John Keeble managed to bring Gary Kemp and Tony together. But it took six months. Tony was enjoying huge success; as well as solo concerts he'd starred in Chicago in the west end and was the winner of the ITV reality television series, Reborn in the USA.

He didn't need Spandau Ballet that sunny afternoon when he met Gary in a pub in Highgate - which could well have been the street scene .in High Noon.

"It was pretty heavy," Tony recalls. "I began by saying 'Before we can move forward, I'd like to get a few things off my chest.' And I just let rip at Gary. And then he did the same."

Once the blood had been wiped from the walls, Gary said to Tony; 'Look, is there any way we can make this work?'

And they agreed they would try. But the only way to move forward was to forget the past.

Having said they're piece, they performed that symbolic act so many men have performed over the years which suggested the relationship still had a basis; they bought more beers.

"We carried on drinking," says Tony, smiling. "And before we knew it we were caught up in stories of fun times, about what had happened when we were young kids in the band while still at school.

"We spoke about people we knew, adventures we had. And it was good. It wasn't that we were best friends again - Gary and me and always had our little moments in the band - but we knew we could make the band work again."

Timing was important. It was a far from desperate Tony who approached the meeting with the band's creator.

"When the band split up I was lost," he admits of the 1989 period when album sales slowed. "It was all I knew what to do. So I had to go out there and re-invent myself."

He adds, "That all helped with the meeting. I didn't need the band. But I wanted to be part of it all again."

Tony loves the idea of Spandau coming and going.

"I feel it's a bit like Phil Collins and Genesis, where we'll come together and then do our thing for a while.

"Now, we'll write new album and then tour again in a couple of years."

And when not working together, do they all get together for a beer?

"Yeh, we do," says Tony smiling. "It's great. And the end of the day, it's five individuals who make up Spandau Ballet. It's the sum of the parts that's made us successful."

* Spandau Ballet, the SSE Hydro, March 8.