ABC

“ABC’s Martin Fry is a revelation, a soul man supreme, belting out pristine Vegas glitter pop and uptown House in his electric blue lounge suit. An ageless performer, Fry is the missing link between Bryan Ferry and Jarvis Cocker. For the inevitable encore of ‘The Look of Love’ he returns dipped in sparkly gold lame, a self-ironising pop genius on top form.”
Stephen Dalton NME

ABC’s debut album, ‘The Lexicon of Love’ was one of the defining albums of the eighties. Crashing straight in at No. 1 on the UK album chart in 1982, it included the hit songs ‘Poison Arrow’, ‘The Look of Love’, ‘All of My Heart’ and ‘Tears are Not Enough’.

With a majestic production from the legendary Trevor Horn it remains a classic to this day. Voted by many as the best British album of the decade.

Headed up by the irrepressible Martin Fry, the band released four further albums and broke America through the 1980s, spawning further hit singles such as ‘That Was Then But This Is Now’, ‘SOS’ and ‘When Smokey Sings’.

The band flipped between luxuriant soul and electronica – ‘How To Be A Millionaire’, ‘Be Near Me’, ‘Vanity Kills’ and ‘Ocean Blue’ were all Billboard dance chart number ones.

Since the 80s, ABC continued to experiment with musical styles and collaborations including the live album ‘The Lexicon of Love’ and collaborations with King Britt in Philadelphia and David Arnold in London.

Martin Fry worked on several songs for the romantic comedy “Music and Lyrics” starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore. He also served as Grant’s vocal coach for the movie, his influence being very evident in the final edit.

ABC continued to be productive through the noughties releasing their first studio album in over 10 years, ‘Traffic’, in 2008, and sold out the Royal Albert Hall in 2009.

2012 saw both a professional and personal highlight for Martin when more than 30 years after he graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in English Literature he returned to be made an honorary Doctor of Music for his contribution to music, receiving his degree on the same day as his daughter.

34 years since the release of the first album, ABC return to the scene of their most resounding triumph with the 2016 release of ‘The Lexicon Of Love II’, debuting at no. 5 in the UK album charts. It might take a less innocent, more experienced view on affairs of the heart than its million-selling predecessor, but it still concludes that all you need is love.

Over 40 years after ‘The Lexicon of Love’, ABC are active on the festival circuit and in fine form ahead of their appearance at Forever Young Festival 2023.