26 January 2024 (gig)
27 January 2024
When ABC released their debut album The Lexicon of Love in 1982, the record went on to become a pop music classic that epitomised the New Romantic period in popular music.
The band, led by Martin Fry were never able to capitalise on that initial success; the follow up to the album Beauty Stab was not as successful though in 2016 their fortunes were reversed album wise, with the release of The Lexicon of Love II resulting in the record debuting in the top five of the album charts.
Celebrating the pop masterpiece of that epochal debut album, Martin Fry was joined by the Southbank Sinfonia and conductor Anne Dudley to perform the album in its entirety at the Bridgwater Hall in Manchester, as part of a UK tour.
Reminding his fans that ABC has an impressive back catalogue of music Fry took the audience on a journey through a selection of songs that were as equally impressive as those first recorded in 1982. When Smokey Sings sounded like an old soul classic, Viva Love and The Night You Murdered Love - the latter two off the Lexicon of Love II record benefited from the string section of the Southbank Sinfonia, bringing a lush and melancholy sound to the proceedings.
Whilst the majority of the audience were there to hear the Lexicon of Love album, it was refreshing to hear these other newer songs.
Looking as suave, elegant and debonair as always, Fry was in fine voice. Whilst many of his contemporaries have lost the ability to reach the higher notes he still has a fine vocal range.
The gold suit he used to wear back in the day might have faded into obscurity, however the songs from the Lexicon of Love sounded as familiar and magnificent as ever. Anne Dudley who arranged and co-wrote some of the tracks on the album, managed to create, along with the Sinfonia orchestra the brilliance of the production work that producer Trevor Horn brought to the album.
Poison Arrow along with tracks The Look of Love and All of My Heart are now rightly hailed as pop music classics and rightly so. The songs have aged well along with Fry.
As a bouquet of flowers arrived on stage for Dudley at the end of the performance the gesture summed up the mood of the evening where ABC blossomed as elegantly as ever.
