The ABCs of Martin Fry
A new memoir and current tour cements the legacy of England’s sophisticated pop purveyor
“If you want to see a band that represents the 1980s, come and see ABC,” says that group’s frontman, Martin Fry, calling from a recent tour stop in Texas. “There’s a little bit of glitz and glam. Forty years on, our songs soundtrack that MTV era, alongside the days of Michael Jackson and Madonna and Prince.”
Formed in 1980 in Sheffield, England, ABC went on to release an impressive string of international New Wave pop hits throughout the 1980s, such as “Poison Arrow,” “The Look of Love,” “(How to Be A) Millionaire,” “Be Near Me,” and “When Smokey Sings.” Fry promises that all of these songs, and more, are included in the band’s set during their current North American co-headlining tour with Howard Jones (who has also had an impressive run of well-known singles, including “What Is Love?,” “Everlasting Love,” and “Things Can Only Get Better”).
Fry and Jones have crossed paths many times during the past four decades, so it seemed like a natural fit for them to tour together now. Given the many hits that Jones and ABC have each had, “It makes for a very strong set,” Fry says.
Despite performing some of these songs for more than 40 years, Fry says he hasn’t grown tired of them yet. “It’s a real privilege to stand in that spotlight and sing ‘Be Near Me’ and ‘When Smokey Sings’ and ‘The Look of Love’ and all those songs,” he says. “They become a part of yourself as you perform them through the years.”
It helps, he says, that many of ABC’s songs have a certain timeless quality to them. Their 1982 debut album, The Lexicon of Love, has “still got a very sort of contemporary feel to it,” Fry says. “We always tried to make records that were kind of classic sounding. You try and make your stuff sound as original as possible. You try and pioneer, you try to experiment and make something brand new.”
VIDEO: ABC “The Look of Love”
He points to “The Look of Love” as a prime example of ABC’s unique blend of danceable yet sophisticated pop. “To have a sort of signature song is great. Every act has to have that if you’re going to last more than ten minutes.
“From day one we wanted to write songs that were passionate and romantic,” Fry continues. “We wanted to write love songs, but a lot of our songs are about when everything goes wrong. In ‘The Look of Love,’ it’s when your world is full of strange arrangements and somebody has walked out on you, and how you’ve got to get up off the floor and dust yourself down. ‘Poison Arrow’ is like that, too, I suppose. A lot of people share the same experience and have had tough times or broken hearts, and I think that’s what gives a lot of those songs durability. That’s why they work today as well as they did back in the day.”
Listening to Fry sing these songs — or watching his elegant performances in the many videos that were in heavy rotation on MTV — makes it seem like he was clearly born to do this, but he claims that wasn’t always obvious. “I was a really shy kid. Very introverted,” he says.
But he was passionately interested in music — and he was fortunate enough to grow up in a part of Northern England where many significant artists would come to play. “I used to go see about three or four bands a week in Manchester, where I lived as a kid — Tangerine Dream, Roxy Music, Queen,” Fry says. “I think it was a way of escaping the suburban place I lived. I really wanted to go to the big city and just do something else, and I think that’s what triggered me. They were very extreme people onstage [who] you wouldn’t meet in your suburbs. You realized there was a world out there. That’s definitely what took me on my path with music.”
He moved to Sheffield, another Northern English city, to attend university, “but I was really devoted to music: I was hanging out with bands. I had a fanzine called Modern Drugs, and I’d write about bands. And I was kind of daydreaming. But at the same time, when I look back now, I realize how focused I was, and how I wanted to be in music.”
He joined a dark synth band named Vice Versa, playing the synthesizer — and it was only by accident that he discovered that he had an exceptional singing voice. “We were jamming, and I started singing, and the other guys in the band said, ‘Right, you can be the singer,’” he says.
Fry shifted to the lead vocalist role, and the band changed names to ABC. They also began playing more up-tempo music: “In the early ’80s, we had this sort of manic belief in getting everybody out onto the dance floor,” Fry says.
Two years after their formation, ABC released The Lexicon of Love, and their singles “Poison Arrow” and “The Look of Love” both charted in more than a half dozen countries. Since then, the band have released eight studio albums – and Fry says he’s starting to think about making another one, though there are no solid plans on that front just yet.
Fry also recently published his memoir, A Lexicon of Life, which is available in the U.S. as an import. “I sat down and wrote the story of when I first got interested in music, and it felt good,” he says. “It was like making an album, really.”
His main focus these days is putting on memorable shows with ABC, though. “I’m amazed when I walk onstage and I see that warmth of feeling, and the excitement people have for the music,” he says. “Unless we can get onstage and crank an audience up high and make them feel good with their hands in the air and a smile on their faces when they head home, it’s not worth doing – so that’s what I always try and aim for.”
He knows that audiences have high expectations when they come to these shows: “People don’t want to come to a show and go, ‘Oh yeah, he was great in 1987.’ They want to come to a show and go, ‘Wow, that was fantastic!’ That’s what it’s about for me. There isn’t such a thing as nostalgia, because when I step out on the stage tonight, it’s in the moment. You have to be great tonight. What you did back in the day is irrelevant as soon as you get out on the stage, and I think that’s why I like playing live — there’s a challenge.”
And, Fry adds, this is something he plans to keep on doing with ABC for the foreseeable future. “We’re committed to it. At the heart of it, that’s the reason bands continue, really, because they believe in the songs. Music, it’s been an adventure — and an adventure that continues.”
VIDEO: Martin Fry talks about his autobiography on BBC This Morning
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