TONY HADLEY isn't lessening the workload as he celebrates the 25th anniversary of his pop career. The former Spandau Ballet singer of global hits such as True has just started rehearsing for a tour which brings him to North Wales next month - and after just three days he's already had to do a serious amount of crooning. "Within three days we rehearsed something like 60 or 70 songs, doing each song three times, so that's 200-odd songs in three days," he says, his chirpy London accent sounding raspy on the phone first thing in the morning. The reason he's had to rehearse so many songs is that his show is "By Request" - so his set-list for each show is at the mercy of the audience. "The first half of the show is mainly a kind of musical biography," he says.. "It's the first song Spandau ever did at the school music hall when we first started out, the first record I bought, which was from Hunky Dory by David Bowie. I'm not going to give away what the first song is, but it's a difficult one to sing for the first track." The second half of the show is the "By Request" part, where the audience get to choose what Tony sings. Before the show starts everyone in the audience is given a song menu to choose the song they want and give their selection in at the interval. "Then we literally pull the first 12 songs out of a hat, print off a set list and we're ready to go for the second half," he says.. "It's going to be really interesting to see whether what people choose is Spandauheavy." What if the old Spandau classics aren't in that random selection? "People might be thinking 'What if True doesn't get chosen," Tony replies.. "But if they want me to do an encore people can just shout out what they want. "I saw Hall and Oates do it in America, and I thought it was such a great show I'd do a similar thing myself." Tony's song menu pays tribute to some of his musical heroes, including Freddie Mercury, who he says "gave me a lot of advice when I was a young singer". Tony has also just finished recording a swing album due out in October, and will go back on tour with a 17-piece orchestra following its release. He took time out recently to perform a benefit concert for a Buckinghamshire teenager with special needs, and saw the opening of a children's hospice in Chiswick for which he won £64,000 on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Keeping up the theme of charity work, Tony also just returned from a jungle trek in Venezuela in aid of Action Medical Research - despite having only just recovered from having his appendix out in the New Year. He's glad to still be able to help charities. "Especially with it being an anniversary year since I started in showbiz, I'm trying to do as much as I can. Some of these charities are in desperate need of money to keep them going - there's no big fanfare, you just try and do what you can. "I love singing, I love performing - the only thing I don't like is the photoshoots. We've got a tour bus and I don't mind sleeping on that, I still get a kick out of it." At 45, does Tony worry he's getting past the age of wowing the crowds with pop classics? Not at all - in fact he insists his singing is "better than ever". "I'm very lucky that my voice is okay and I'm in good health," he says. "I went to see Tony Bennett recently - he still sounds great and he's 82." | 
