Through the Barricades (song)
"Through the Barricades" is the title track of Spandau Ballet's 1986 album "Through the Barricades". Released as a single, "Through the Barricades" entered the UK Singles Chart on 8 November 1986 and became the band's tenth and final top ten single, peaking at number six and spending a total of ten weeks on the chart. Background. A song about love prevailing throughout the violence and sectarianism of the Troubles, the song was inspired by the murder of Thomas Reilly, who had worked for the band, by a British soldier in Belfast during the Troubles  on 9 August 1983. In 2015, songwriter Gary Kemp spoke to the "Belfast Telegraph" about his inspiration for it: "We had a guy called 'Kidso' (Thomas Reilly), who worked for us on merchandise during the "True" tour. He went back to Belfast after the tour and was killed. Kidso's brother, Jim, who played drums for Stiff Little Fingers, subsequently took me along to see his grave and the song was inspired by walking down the Falls Road. I got to experience some of the emotion of that first-hand and it just stuck with me. I didn't expect  it to come out in the shape of a "Romeo and Juliet" sort of song, but it did." The lyric "it's a terrible beauty we've made" alludes to W. B. Yeats's poem "Easter, 1916", about the Irish Easter Rising. Accepting his award for Outstanding Song Collection at the 2012 Ivor Novello Awards, Kemp singled it out as a particular favourite of his, stating: Through the Barricades' is one I'm really close to." Tony Hadley said that he considers it to be the band's best song. Reception and legacy. The song, which is in the form  of an acoustic ballad, has been described by AllMusic as "the best song by far" on its album. However, Ian Gittins was critical of the song in "The Guardian", describing it as "one of Spandau's more ponderous, clunky numbers." Tony Hadley performed the song as part of his three-song set in the final of ITV reality show "Reborn in the USA" in 2003, which saw him win the public vote against Michelle Gayle.