Gary Kemp (Image courtesy of BB Gun Press)

Fri Jun 4, 2021 5:45 PM

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“Too Much” is the second single from “INSOLO”, the second solo album by Spandau Ballet songwriter and Saucerful Of Secrets guitarist and co-singer Gary Kemp.

“Too Much,” starring Queen’s Roger Taylor on drums, is the sequel to “Ahead Of The Game” and “was born out of a feeling of being overwhelmed by bad global news that constantly seems to bring us down.”

Kemp said, “That feeling of helplessness and exhaustion that it sometimes creates in us. That feeling that too much is happening to be able to change anything can set you back in your family shell. I was touched by it one day and I sat down at the piano – my usual comfort with the guitar – and that melody and those lyrics came out in one sitting. If it cheers me up to declaim it and not write a song about what we should all be doing.

As with “Ahead Of The Game”, Charlie Lightening directed the music video for “Too Much”. The film complements the reflexive nature of the song by showing Meaghan Grace, a principal dancer of the Royal Ballet at the National Opera, in an urban setting. The ballet routine was choreographed by Melanie Hamrick, formerly of the American Ballet Theater and performed in the Alexandra Road Estate in Camden, a post-war brutalist masterpiece designed by Neave Brown, featured in numerous films including “Clockwork Orange” and “Kingsman”. Watch HERE .

Kemp said, “I wanted the dancer to be like my alter ego, my wish-fulfilling character, feeling free and expressive, as the real me struggles to cope with the ‘crisis’ around it.”

The track features Richard Jones of The Feeling & Loup Garoux on bass, as well as Matt Clifford, who plays keyboards for the Rolling Stones, playing the French horn. For “Too Much” drums, Kemp turned to someone he had known since the mid-1980s.

“While recording I sent a few songs to my friend Roger Taylor from Queen, wondering if he wanted to play drums on anything,” Kemp said. : He chose it and I’m so glad he did. The power of his playing seems to help the lyrics and lift the song just at the right time.

Twenty-five years after his solo debut, “Little Bruises”, Kemp has written and produced an album that focuses on two dominant themes: the paradox of loneliness in an urban landscape and his growing obsession with life seen through a mirror. mirror and how the past infects our present.

When asked why do a solo album now, he replied, “It’s trust; playing around the world with Nick Mason gave me a certain reputation as a guitarist and singer that I never gained with the Spandau Ballet. It allowed me to go and make my own record; and I have a certain age where I feel the need to understand the issues of the world and of my own life. The only way for me to do that is self-songwriting therapy.