ABC Biography

With the publication of Look of Love: The Best of ABC, the band marked their comeback to the studio and to high-profile performances, fueled by some stunning new songs and a run of stadium shows with Robbie Williams. ABC is one of those bands that comes along every ten years or so to cause a paradigm shift in the way music is heard and made, one of those bands that pushes the music forward, alerting us to the possibilities of unusual combinations, employing radical ideas while never conflating pomposity with ambition. If a group of white northern students decided to form a band tomorrow, it would be inspired by Aphex Twin, NER*D, and The Beta Band's collective irrationality and transcendent imaginations rather than the Beatles-Kinks-Stones' integrated-to-the-point-of-invisibility Beatles-Kinks-Stones. You'd still only be halfway to understanding how fundamental a break with tradition ABC caused in the period between punk and Madchester. Image an alternative/indie band whose vision of a fantasy version of pop music incorporates Iggy Pop's steely dread circa 'The Idiot' and Earth Wind & Fire's symphonic splendor circa 'I Am'; imagine The Sex Pistols' ferocity barely buried beneath the surface of a Chic refinement. ABC was (and still is) that band. They took that concept and turned it into reality. Across numerous continents' hit parades. This is why ABC was lauded to the heavens in the 1980s, and why they are still adored now. It's not a matter of nostalgia; it's a matter of current necessity. ABC isn't a museum piece; they're a lesson on avoiding the obvious. They ought to be included in the curriculum. Their recordings, on the other hand, are national treasures. With its brass constructions and guitar ravishments, Anne Dudley's shivers of strings, and Trevor Horn's epic bombast transforming the drum beats into epochal bomb blasts, the first, now and forever, was 'The Lexicon Of Love' 1982). The self-immolating exercise in hard rock style/anti-style that was 'Beauty Stab' (1983) came next, and it would be an understatement to say that it provoked more dismay than joy upon its debut. The third album, 'How To Be A Zillionaire,' (1985), rode the tide of electronic rhythm innovation and was released in cartoon colors. 'Alphabet City' (1987), with its gleaming neo-soul, positioned ABC midway between Motown and ZTT, Philly and Ze, musically and conceptually if not alphabetically. Energized by the then-thriving house movement, ABC's Phase V brought us 'Up' (1989) and 'Abracadabra' (1991), borrowing moves from Chicago just as those fellas took from ABC and their electro-funk colleagues. If Martin Fry didn't have a brain load of new songs and fresh ideas under his iconic blonde fringe as he continues to produce recordings, 'Skyscraping' (1997) may have offered a great conclusion to the ABC saga.

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