ABC’s Martin Fry On The 40th Anniversary Of ‘The Lexicon Of Love’

It is a story that may solely be uniquely rock and roll: in 1977, musicians Mark White and Stephen Singleton shaped an digital band in Sheffield, England, known as Vice Versa. At one level, Vice Versa have been being interviewed by a younger author and punk rock fanatic named Martin Fry for his fanzine known as Fashionable Medicine. “They purchased into my madcap enthusiasm,” Fry remembers at present of that encounter many years in the past. “In order that they let me be a part of the band. We have been actually into Kraftwerk and the early Human League, Cabaret Voltaire, [the Normal’s] “Heat Leatherette”—all these nice digital information.”

With Fry added to the lineup, Vice Versa by the early Nineteen Eighties morphed into the glamorous pop group ABC, who would discover success on the British and American charts starting with their distinctive debut album, 1982’s The Lexicon of Love. The file captured the zeitgeist of British New Pop: aspirational pop music that blended punk, disco and R&B sounds together with such influences as David Bowie, Roxy Music and Kraftwerk. Helmed by the widescreen cinematic manufacturing of Trevor Horn and lead singer Fry’s romantically jaded lyrics, The Lexicon of Love was a important and business success due to such hit singles as “Poison Arrow,” “The Look of Love” and “All of My Coronary heart ”

Final month, The Lexicon of Love turned 40 years previous—an event that Fry and ABC celebrated with latest reside performances of all the album within the U.Ok., accompanied by the Southbank Sinfonia performed by Anne Dudley (who carried out keyboards and dealt with the orchestrations on the unique album). Earlier this week, ABC kicked off their North American tour dates that included a cease at New York Metropolis’s Sony Corridor on Wednesday night.

“Should you requested me, ‘The place did 40 years in the past?’— I am unable to reply the query,” says Fry. “I am amazed, actually. I by no means thought once we completed making the file that I might be sitting right here speaking about 40 years onward. I can’t even think about. And to be remembered by an viewers that is nonetheless wanting to listen to that music–that actually does encourage me to place collectively one thing particular.”

Final month’s U.Ok. reveals have been distinctive in that they featured an orchestra accompanying ABC’s efficiency of The Lexicon of Love in its entirety. “We wished it to sound very glamorous and shiny and bigger than life,” Fry says of the album. “Anne Dudley simply mentioned, ‘I am going to go residence tonight, and I am going to rating it.’ And she or he’d are available within the morning and he or she’d play it on piano and we labored it out. It was identical to step-by-step. We have been naive. Folks assume there’s a great deal of orchestra on the unique studio model, and there’s and there is not. We by no means had the funds for that. So it’s a nice luxurious 40 years on to have the ability to have loads of violins and viola and cello, and even a horn part.”

Previous to recording The Lexicon of Love, ABC—whose unique lineup consisted of Fry, White, Singleton and David Palmer—launched their first single, “Tears Are Not Sufficient” in 1981, which went High 20 within the U.Ok. Throughout that point, the band heard the Greenback single “Hand Held in Black and White,” produced by Trevor Horn, who had beforehand been within the Buggles (of “Video Killed the Radio Star” fame) and Sure. “We heard them on the radio,” Fry says of Horn’s work with Greenback, “they usually simply sounded widescreen, type of epic sound high quality to them. I imply, we beloved “Do not Cease ‘Til You Get Sufficient,” the Quincy Jones productions of Michael Jackson. We favored numerous the Philly sound, the strings on the O’Jays and stuff like that. And Motown, clearly…Roxy Music and Bowie. So it was a mix of that.”

Fry remembers an early dialog with Horn at a pizza restaurant forward of the album’s recording. “Once we met Trevor, we mentioned to him straightaway: ‘We wish to do one thing far more refined, far more polished. How far can we go?’ And he goes, ‘Effectively, you’ll be able to order a pizza. You do not have to prepare dinner the pizza, however you’ll be able to eat the pizza. You’ll be able to have a clarinet participant come on to your file. You do not have to go away and spend 15 years studying the best way to play clarinet after which make the file. Get the clarinet man in. Your creativeness must be on the forefront. Do not sacrifice your creativeness by not being formidable.’”

The Lexicon of Love’s trendy retro sound harkened again to Nineteen Fifties and early Sixties swinging pop and R&B with showbiz Vegas-styled glitz, whereas Horn’s state-of-the-art manufacturing sensibilities additionally pointed towards the longer term. “We might say issues to Trevor like, ‘It should be like Frank Sinatra with a Fairlight. Can or not it’s like Songs for Swinging Lovers however trendy? I bear in mind we might sit round The Nutty Professor by Jerry Lewis. We wished the file to be humorous and uplifting and unhappy on the identical time.”

The disco and post-punk music of the late ’70s, particularly from New York Metropolis, additionally knowledgeable the sound of The Lexicon of Love. “I like ZE Information, that kind of left-field disco: Lydia Lunch, Child Creole/August Darnell, Christine. These have been information that will get performed alongside the experimental stuff within the golf equipment, the New Romantic stuff. I additionally love the standard of the Motown songwriting and Cole Porter and old-school songwriting.” And amid the glamorous sheen, the music on The Lexicon of Love even revealed a kind of punk edge, too. “The previous punky roots are nonetheless in there someplace. That was our background. We weren’t traditionalists, we wished to be widespread. I believe that is why the file works as a result of there’s slightly little bit of a bitter kick to it. It is bought to be sugary, however then you are going to have slightly little bit of spice in there, too.”

Other than the stellar performances by the band and Horn’s manufacturing, an integral a part of why The Lexicon of Love resonates to today was Fry’s heartbroken and cynical lyrics on the dilemmas of romance on such tracks as “Date Stamp,” “Valentine’s Day” and “Many Joyful Returns.” “More often than not life is not actually unicorns and rainbows for anyone, particularly residing in Sheffield within the late ‘70s-early ‘80s,” the singer says. “It was robust. So I type of thought it could be good to have an actual gritty realism to a few of the songs like “Poison Arrow,” however on the identical time have a really shiny glamourous shine to it.

“You bought to steal from the very best in case you are a songwriter, so you are taking your inspiration and also you create one thing new. And even in a few of the lyrics you’ll be able to hear, it was post-modernism. The world was a seize bag. You could possibly put on a gold lamé go well with like Elvis or a pirate’s outfit like Adam Ant in scenes of numerous Hollywood movies. So it’s important to assume lyrically. “The Look of Love”— “When your world is stuffed with unusual preparations/And gravity will not pull you thru” is a nod to Bob Dylan, and “Present Me” was “I Second That Emotion” as a nod Smokey Robinson. There was that occurring.”

Fry acknowledges the intelligent and ironic lyrics for the album have been autobiographical. “You simply take all of the worst experiences and throw all of them within the again collectively. It is by no means one individual. But in addition all these moments whenever you’re rising up and also you’re simply ignored otherwise you really feel invisible out of your mother and father–that emotional curler coaster. It wasn’t nearly girlfriends, boyfriends, courting. “Poison Arrow,” for instance: whenever you love somebody they usually do not love you again—it is mind-blowing. It destroys your world. That is what the tune’s about: you type of hate the entire notion of it for some time—mistakenly, as a result of the world is an exquisite place. And I wished to get a few of that right into a tune as a result of most love songs have been a bit bland. Some aren’t—those Cole Porter appeared to put in writing and those Sammy Kahn would write for Sinatra had an actual bit to them.”

Armed with the success of the album, which went to primary on the U.Ok. chart, the hit singles and the conceptual trendy movies (particularly “Poison Arrow,” which was directed by Julien Temple), ABC made their entry into the U.S. and scored a High 20 hit with “The Look of Love.” “I bear in mind arriving in America, Mr. Submit-Fashionable, Submit-New-Romantic, Lexicon-of-Love man,” Fry remembers, “and we had my gold go well with and my tuxedo. We had a six-piece string part. The roadies needed to put on tuxedos, we weren’t having him operating on in T-shirts. However clearly, once we arrived, America was a really completely different place. It was a really, very completely different place [and] vibe musically.

“Stevie Surprise got here to the gig in Los Angeles. It was simply unbelievable. I like Stevie Surprise, so he is there with all these guys and he mentioned, ‘I might hear “The Look of Love” on my native station, KJLH.’ ‘Oh, nice. You reside close to the station, Stevie?’ And he mentioned, ‘No, I personal the station.’ I simply thought he meant he simply lived down the highway.

The tune [“The Look of Love”] itself: in a lifetime, you aren’t getting many songs. You simply should roll with it and glide. I do bear in mind we wished to attempt to counsel this kind of feeling of euphoria and ecstasy whenever you really feel good or confused. Different folks on the planet felt the identical manner. I believe that is the attraction of the tune, actually… It is bought nothing to do with me. They’ve all had damaged hearts or doubts in regards to the individual they love and themselves. In order that’s just about the core.”

Following The Lexicon of Love, ABC launched 1983’s Magnificence Stab, which carried a harder-edged sound than its predecessor. Afterward, the band, which by that time consisted of Fry and White, carried on with extra albums and stylish-sounding singles, together with the U.S. High 40 hits “Be Close to Me” and “When Smokey Sings.” In the meantime, the recognition of The Lexicon of Love continued to loom giant over the profession of ABC, now led solely by Fry. In 2013, the band launched a sequel titled The Lexicon of Love II.

“We performed a present on the Albert Corridor with the orchestra,” says Fry, “showcasing The Lexicon of Love. I seemed into the viewers and simply thought, ‘Man, would not or not it’s fascinating to see what’s occurred to everyone 35 years on: all these mortgages, the marriages and the loopy sh*t that occurs in folks’s lives. The good things, the unhealthy stuff, the loopy stuff. It makes for an fascinating story. So I began writing and rewriting a few of the songs: “Viva Love,” “Ten Under Zero,” “The Flames of Want.” The label simply mentioned, ‘Hear, we wish to put it out. Go make the file.’ That is the way it occurred. It was very profitable within the U.Ok. I labored with some unbelievable folks on that file. Rob Fusari was integral to it, Anne Dudley, Marcus Vere, Charlie Mole. So I type of pulled folks I felt actually snug with.”

Right now the legacy of the The Lexicon of Love shines brilliant each with the airplay of “Poison Arrow” and “The Look of Love” and the band’s reside performances of its songs. “I like Sly Stone and I nonetheless take heed to [Sly and the Family Stone’s] There is a Riot Goin’ On,” Fry says. “I nonetheless take heed to Ziggy Stardust by David Bowie, or Roxy Music’s For Your Pleasure. I take pleasure in listening to one thing new in these information. I carry these with me dearly. I suppose for The Lexicon of Love, it has type of entered [that level]. It is bought nothing to do with me. It is not vanity or me being big-headed right here. It is had a lifetime of its personal. I am so lucky to be part of that.”