Spandau Ballet - Paint Me Down

What this video is

Released 2 November 1981, 'Paint Me Down' arrived at a pivotal moment for British new wave: Spandau Ballet had broken through with 'Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On)' but were under commercial pressure to sustain momentum for their second album, Diamond. The single peaked at only number 30 on the UK Singles Chart, representing a commercial disappointment that the band itself acknowledged. The video's…

Why it matters

A key artefact of the early British music video form, demonstrating how the promotional clip was already being used in 1981 as a self-reflexive career document — intercutting new performance footage with archival clips and press cuttings to construct a band mythology. The Mulcahy–Spandau Ballet…

The director

Born 23 June 1953 in Melbourne, Australia. Mulcahy began directing music videos in Australia before relocating to the UK, where he directed The Buggles' 'Video Killed the Radio Star' (1979) — the first video aired on MTV. He became one of the most prominent…