http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment/music/2009/12/15/12165056.html

Someone
As if in-flight music isn't lame enough already, former '80s Brit-pop has-beens Spandau Ballet have reportedly signed a deal to become the first band to perform in space.

The long-forgotten New Romantic outfit - who recently reunited at the urging of absolutely nobody - are slated to play outside the Earth's atmosphere during a trip on Sir Richard Branson's newly unveiled commercial spacecraft Enterprise.

The vehicle, which was unveiled last week by Branson's company Virgin Galactic as part of his apparent quest to become a real-life Bond villain, will blast insanely rich passengers 65 miles above the planet for several minutes of weightlessness - especially in the wallet. So far, about 300 space cadets have allegedly coughed up $200,000 for a ticket, while another 82,000 dreamers have registered their interest on Virgin's website.

Six of those deep-pocketed rocket scientists will apparently be able to take in the Spandau Ballet gig, which will supposedly take place in 2011 and last five minutes - just long enough for the band to play one song. Coincidentally, that could also be just long enough for someone to accidentally open the pod-bay door and turn Spandau Ballet from The First Band to Suck in Space to The First Band to be Sucked Into Space.

LoLiL
funny how all those people 50 years ago predicted so many things for the future but never realy imagined the level of cynicism in the future. i can forsee the time when man actually travels to another star or contacts aliens and the intersteller internet will be abuzz with shit talking

Spandua Ballet ditched the new romantic thing back in their heyday and actually went on to become a half decent band. If any old/new romantics deserve to be sucked into the void, it ought to be Duran Duran, especially since Adam Ant was lost in space long, long ago.

wait...this doesn't sound paranoid....



what's going on?

lothar
i can forsee the time when man actually travels to another star or contacts aliens and the intersteller internet will be abuzz with shit talking

Ha! So true :)

That said, this Spaceship 1 stuff is a load of crap. Seriously.

Does nobody on Earth remember Concorde?
You see the thing about Concorde is that while only very rich people ever used it, it WAS actually a genuinely USEFUL piece of technology. Not only that, but it WAS genuinely commercially viable AND practical, in a niche. It was a regular means of reliable civil transport that could move a WHOLE lot people people half way around the globe at twice the speed of sound. ...Not many fighter planes can even go at twice the speed of sound you know. A lot do, but not as many as you think, and none to any useful purpose appart from threatening and or killing.

This so called "spaceship" thing is nothing more than a big fat overpriced rollercoaster ride. It is a TOURIST gimmick that costs way more than tickets on Concorde did and it serves NO really useful purpose. It doesn't even go into space. Not unless you strtch the definition to something a bit pointless and disappointing. This is basically cheap and nasty technology that can't do ANY of the stuff that government space programs have been doing routinely for FIFTY years.

I don't mean to sound hyper negative here, because I'm not trying to be, honnestly, I'm just trying to inject some realistic perspective here to deflate Branson's hype fakery.

Ironscarf
Spandua Ballet ditched the new romantic thing back in their heyday and actually went on to become a half decent band. If any old/new romantics deserve to be sucked into the void, it ought to be Duran Duran, especially since Adam Ant was lost in space long, long ago.

That's true Druran Duran got very crap.
Spandua were pretty decent. I think part of the problem is that people don't like the Kemp brohers because of the acting.

ozoneocean
This so called "spaceship" thing is nothing more than a big fat overpriced rollercoaster ride. It is a TOURIST gimmick that costs way more than tickets on Concorde did and it serves NO really useful purpose. It doesn't even go into space. Not unless you strtch the definition to something a bit pointless and disappointing. This is basically cheap and nasty technology that can't do ANY of the stuff that government space programs have been doing routinely for FIFTY years.

I don't mean to sound hyper negative here, because I'm not trying to be, honnestly, I'm just trying to inject some realistic perspective here to deflate Branson's hype fakery.

except that it can succesfully get to an altitude of 100km...which as you said is the defining point between earth and "outer space". and i'm pretty sure the curvature of the earth is going to disappointing...and these trips definatly aren't pointless. you need the gimmick to make sure the money is there for the venture...

spain would have never funded Christopher columbus if they weren't sure shorter routes to india would bring them more money.

people have been advertising so-called luxury shuttles to space since the 80s. who cares, the company will fold like a magazine same as every other one that tried it.

how many of those other companies actually got a ship into space?

what a nice band















for me to poop on.

seventy2
spain would have never funded Christopher columbus if they weren't sure shorter routes to india would bring them more money.

The difference is that Columbus was actually doing something audacious and new. Branson is making a gimmick out of a cheaper version of 60 year old technology. -_-

Rather than Columbus, you're better off comparing Branson to himself-
Branson to the Space program is like Branson to the railway system in Britain: cheap, nasty, pathetic.
Branson to the space program is like Branson to music: cheap, nasty etc.
Branson to the blah blah is like Branson to the airlines: yadda yadda yadda...

Same story with that guy really. -_-