ABC WITH SOUTHBANK SINFONIA CONDUCTED BY ANNE DUDLEY – BRIGHTON DOME 5.2.24
Out of the ashes of Vice Versa one of Sheffield’s big four minimalistic electronic/synth-based bands (the other trio being The Human League, Cabaret Voltaire and Clock DVA), came ABC in late 1980 who wanted to fuse the world of disco funk with their own unique post punk vision. The band then consisted of Stephen Singleton and Mark White, who when as Vice Versa were interviewed by a certain Martin Fry (of ‘Modern Drugs’ fanzine), who the duo asked to join their new ABC venture as synthesizer player and by the end of that year ABC had evolved with Fry becoming their lead singer. They had tapped into the psyche at the time and their success was immediate as the band’s first single, ‘Tears Are Not Enough’, reached No.19 of the UK top 20 in 1981. After a few inevitable lineup changes, ABC released their debut studio album ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ which was produced by guru (and Buggles founder) Trevor Horn on 21st June 1982 and it took the UK album chart by storm and reached No.1 and sold over a million records, as well as hitting No.1 in New Zealand, No.3 in both Canada and Sweden, and even made the USA top 30 – ABC had well and truly arrived!
To date ABC have released 9 studio albums: ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ (’82), ‘Beauty Stab’ (’83), ‘How To Be A Zillionaire!’ (’85), ‘Alphabet City’ (’87), ‘Up’ (’89), ‘Abracadabra’ (’91), and after a six year break Martin Fry resurrected the band name and the ‘Skyscraping’ (’97) and ‘Traffic’ (’08) albums followed. Then a mere 36 years after the release of their landmark debut album Fry’s ABC was back at it with the resounding success of ‘The Lexicon Of Love II’, which immediately entered into the UK top 5. Clearly, Fry’s song-writing was still on form and ABC were sounding contemporary, but a new exciting approach was on the cards and in 2009 ‘The Lexicon Of Love Orchestra’ tour came to fruition, with countless 5 star reviews from a one off show At The Royal Albert Hall with Fry donning his iconic gold lame suit.
In June 2022 ABC toured ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ with the full symphonic Orchestra to celebrate 40 years since its original release. The magic was captured at their hometown gig in Sheffield on the very date of release 40 years on… for this release ‘The Lexicon Of Love Live’ which is available in various formats HERE. Further 40th anniversary celebrations continued with a very special reissue release of a 4LP and Blu-ray box including the album performed live at Hammersmith Odeon in 1982 and a premiere commercial release of the ‘Special Remix’ of ‘The Look Of Love’ which is currently available from HERE.
The 29th January 2024 saw the first night of 15 date ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ tour and one which sees Martin Fry along with the Southbank Sinfonia and long-time collaborator Anne Dudley as conductor celebrating the pop masterpiece. Tonight is date six and sees the collaboration performing to a fully booked Brighton Dome audience. The evening being split into two performances, with set one being 51 minutes and running from from 7:50pm to 8:41pm consisting of eleven tunes from a career spanning 1982 to 2016 period, and set two being 49 minutes and running from 9:07pm to 9:56pm of ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ album.
The house lights went down and the many members of the Southbank Sinfonia took their positions on the stage. Four minutes later at 7:54pm conductor Anne Dudley joined them and they launched into opening number ‘Overture’ from 1982’s ‘All Of My Heart’ single which tonight sounded like a film theme. After this had concluded the ABC touring musicians graced the stage, these being to our left (stage right) Pete Rinaldi (guitar, backing vocals), Ryan Farmery (two sets of keyboards), and as far as I could tell for the second set Bob Hughes (saxophone); then on our right (stage left) there was Andy Carr (bass), Steve Turner (piano) and Tracy Graham (backing vocals). Two other band members were to the rear of the stage behind the orchestra, these being Richard Brook (drums) and Fergus Gerrand (percussion). Bringing up the rear as you would expect is the main man himself Martin Fry on lead vocals. Martin was sporting a snazzy plum coloured suit along with black shirt, black tie and black shoes.
Thankfully I was situated dead centre in the stalls and could see everything, although from experience I know that this isn’t the loudest spot inside Brighton Dome, plus the drums and percussion were played behind perspex screens, so it wasn’t exactly Motörhead noise levels. ‘When Smokey Sings’ from 1987’s ‘Alphabet City’ album was the first number performed by all of the musicians and immediately it was evident that Martin Fry’s vocals are as strong as they ever were. He first spoke to the audience by saying “Well good evening, thanks for coming out on a Monday night” and then they launched into 2016’s ‘Viva Love’ which can be found on ‘The Lexicon Of Love II’ album. This reminded me of the funky string arrangements that Donna Summer used to have around the time of her 1978 cover classic ‘MacArthur Park’ and was one of the set highlights for me.
The typically ABC sounding ‘The Night You Murdered Love’ found on 1987’s ‘Alphabet City’ album was their next choice and was swiftly followed by ‘(How To Be A) Millionaire’ which can be found on 1985’s ‘How To Be A Zillionaire!’ long player. This track has that dated mid 1980’s keyboard sound, but with the orchestra present, it became so much more and the thought of it cropping up in James Bon’s ‘A View To A Kill’ crossed my mind. The late 1970’s disco sound was back again with us courtesy of ‘The Flames Of Desire’, another taken from 2016’s ‘The Lexicon Of Love II’ release. The quieter ‘The Love Inside The Love’ from the same release was next and followed by yet another in the form of ‘Ten Below Zero’ which Martin informed us was written on a cold winter’s night. The only selection from the 1989 ‘Up’ album came next in the form of ‘One Better World’, which Martin reminisced came out of his clubbing days in the late 1980’s and 1990. He noted a couple of trips to The Zap Club (now The Arch) and informed us that the Happy Mondays had played there! They signed off the first set with a couple of tunes from 1985’s ‘How To Be A Zillionaire!’ album, these being the toe-tapping ‘Ocean Blue’, followed by their biggest hit in the USA, this being ‘Be Near Me’ with its pleasant string arrangements.
After a 26 minute break, the musicians were back on stage and would now be performing 1982’s ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ album in its entirety. Anne Dudley skipped across the stage having changed her first set jacket for a trademark sparkly ABC sequinned one. Not to be outdone, Martin then returned to show off his striking pink suit, which reminded me of something that Bryan Ferry might have looked good in. It’s here that I noticed the sax player on our left. He could have been there all the time but I hadn’t noticed, but the crowd certainly wouldn’t miss him during this half as he came to the front of the stage on a few occasions. They kicked off with ‘Show Me’ which is unmistakable ABC and was followed by ‘Poison Arrow’ which saw almost all of the crowd in the stalls take to their feet and even a few up in the balconies did so as well for this song. As you would expect, this tune received the loudest applause thus far! Saxophonist Bob Hughes made his first foray to the front for ‘Many Happy Returns’, which was followed as Martin pointed out by ABC’s first single ‘Tears Are Not Enough’. Martin then dedicated the next selection, ‘Valentine’s Day’, to Antonio and Lisa who had come all the way from Italy. This composition reminded me of the early funky Heaven 17 tunes such as ‘Play To Win’.
The ABC ‘The Look Of Love (Part One)’ anthem was up next and virtually all of the punters took to their feet for this track. It was then that Martin informed us that the album was recorded in a studio in the basement of a wig shop in Brick Lane, London and that it was here that Queen had previously recorded their epic ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. After the deafening roar the track was awarded on its completion, it was time for ‘Date Stamp’, which I could truly hear the Trevor Horn funky production, no wonder he went on to work with Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Saxophonist Bob was at the front again during this decent number. ‘4 Ever 2 Gether’ came next and its intro sounded like no other ABC tune this evening, but ABC sparkly normality was resumed with set closer ‘All Of My Heart’, which Martin said was for all you New Romantics out there, and thus the punters in the main stood to their feet again. It was encore time and logistically only the band briefly left the stage and not the orchestra, so house lights dimmed and the punters shouted and clapped and were rewarded with the Southbank Sinfonia performing ‘The Look Of Love (Part Four)’, a relatively short number, after which the musicians returned and signed off with ‘The Look Of Love’, took their bows, gave thanks and departed as ‘The Big Country’ Western theme saw us out of the auditorium. In short it has been a polished set!
ABC:
Martin Fry – vocals
Pete Rinaldi – guitar, backing vocals
Andy Carr – bass
Richard Brook – drums
Steve Turner – piano
Fergus Gerrand – percussion
Ryan Farmery – keys
Bob Hughes – saxophone
Tracy Graham – backing vocals
with
Ann Dudley – conductor
Southbank Sinfonia – other instruments
ABC setlist:
Set 1:
‘Overture’ (from 1982 ‘All Of My Heart’ single)
‘When Smokey Sings’ (from 1987 ‘Alphabet City’ album)
‘Viva Love’ (from 2016 ‘The Lexicon Of Love II’ album)
‘The Night You Murdered Love’ (from 1987 ‘Alphabet City’ album)
‘(How To Be A) Millionaire’ (from 1985 ‘How To Be A Zillionaire!’ album)
‘The Flames Of Desire’ (from 2016 ‘The Lexicon Of Love II’ album)
‘The Love Inside The Love’ (from 2016 ‘The Lexicon Of Love II’ album)
‘Ten Below Zero’ (from 2016 ‘The Lexicon Of Love II’ album)
‘One Better World’ (from 1989 ‘Up’ album)
‘Ocean Blue’ (from 1985 ‘How To Be A Zillionaire!’ album)
‘Be Near Me’ (from 1985 ‘How To Be A Zillionaire!’ album)
Set 2: ‘The Lexicon Of Love’
‘Show Me’ (from 1982 ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ album)
‘Poison Arrow’ (from 1982 ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ album)
‘Many Happy Returns’ (from 1982 ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ album)
‘Tears Are Not Enough’ (from 1982 ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ album)
‘Valentine’s Day’ (from 1982 ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ album)
‘The Look Of Love (Part One)’ (from 1982 ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ album)
‘Date Stamp’ (from 1982 ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ album)
‘4 Ever 2 Gether’ (from 1982 ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ album)
‘All Of My Heart’ (from 1982 ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ album)
(encore)
‘The Look Of Love (Part Four)’ (from 1982 ‘The Lexicon Of Love’ album)
‘The Look Of Love’ (a 1982 single)
