I was young, stupid and naive – but those are the qualities you need when you want to take on the world...
ABC’S DEBUT ALBUM WENT STRAIGHT TO NUMBER ONE 40 YEARS AGO. MARION McMULLEN TALKS TO SINGER MARTIN FRY ABOUT OVERNIGHT SUCCESS
HOW do you celebrate when your first album goes to number one in the charts?
“I remember doing an interview with Smash Hits and saying I bought a washing machine I called The Look Of Love and a dryer called Poison Arrow, so I didn’t have to sit in the laundrette of an evening in Sheffield,” reveals Martin Fry.
The ABC singer’s life changed overnight in June, 1982, when the band’s debut album Lexicon Of Love entered the UK charts at number one and produced hit after hit, songs like All Of My Heart, Tears Are Not Enough, Poison Arrow and The Look Of Love.
“Forty years on, can you believe that?” adds Martin. “Unbelievable.
“Back in the day, when we were signing on the dole, we dreamt of making a record that captured a bit of the magic of Tamla Motown and the Philly Strings, but also some of that glamour from Roxy [Music] and [David] Bowie. All those elements went into making Lexicon Of Love all those years ago”
He remembers: “It was tough in the beginning trying to get our songs played on the radio at home in Sheffield, knocking on doors, sleeping on St Pancras railway station while waiting to see record companies, but that’s the beautiful thing about making music... seeing how far you can go with it.
“Our generation wanted to see the world in vivid living colour. It had been a pretty dour period, both musically and visually, so that’s what led to that whole MTV generation of bands like ourselves, the Eurythmics, Soft Cell – all those bands with very strong visuals.”
Part of the album was recorded with legendary producer Trevor Horn and Gary Langan at Sarm East studio.
“People say Lexicon Of Love is such a glamorous record and there’s Lisa Vanderpump (now best known as a Real Housewife of Beverly Hills) in the videos, but we were mainly underneath a wig shop in Brick Lane in London,” Martin points out.
“Brick Lane now is a fine place to go for a haircut and a craft beer. It’s a groovy spot, but back then you took your life into your hands when you walked down Brick Lane. We spent lot of time in that little studio and Gary and Trevor told me Queen had done Bohemian Rhapsody down there in this tiny, tiny studio.
“We did everything very quickly. There was no hanging around. People think, back in the 80s, you had six months to do everything, and, like the Rio video by Duran Duran, you had six months to loll around on a beach and think of something wonderful to put on a record, but no, Shepherd’s Bush was the most glamorous place we went to.
“We did go to Good Earth Studios though, Tony Visconti’s studios on Dean Street, and it was incredible.
“Bowie turned up. We were sitting in the basement of the studio working and he showed up and it freaked us out. He snuck in and kind of made some suggestions.
“He was really approachable and Ziggy Stardust-like and was saying it would be nice to have an answer machine message in the middle of Look Of Love.
“We played Hammersmith Odeon later and no one told me he was in the wings because they knew it would throw me. I only found out years later. I was a bit of a Bowie fan, who isn’t? He was great.”
Martin, 64, will be marking the 40th anniversary of Lexicon Of Love next month with an ABC orchestral tour with the Southbank Sinfonia, conducted by Anne Dudley, who did the original orchestral arrangements on the album.
He says: “You had to find your own original voice and fusing that world of disco with post-modern British pop, that kind of worked for us. With the album I remember saying to Trevor Horn we wanted to sound like Frank Sinatra with a Fairlight machine, which is now a very quaint machine, but back then was state-of-the-art digital sampling machine. We wanted to do something really original and emotional.
“We used little string machines to kind of equate the sound of an orchestra and cheat it a little but, about half-way through the sessions, Anne was playing some keys and said, ‘I’ll have a go at scoring something’.
“She went home that night and showed up the next morning and had violin, viola, cello parts.
“We took it down to Abbey Road Studios and we recorded some strings and then we got a bit cocky and did All Of My Heart with full orchestra, but people think there is more orchestral stuff on that record than there actually is.
“It was all smoke and mirrors and the magic of Trevor Horn’s production to create the illusion that we had those resources back then.
“To stand in the same room as an orchestra and feel the air moving... I was 22 or 23 at the time and I had never had that sort of experience.
“I was young and stupid and very naive, but I realise those were the qualities you needed when you first start out and want to take on the world.”
The ABC sound was very different to other music of the time.
“I was going to see Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks and then going to clubs and listening to Earth, Wind And Fire, Chic and Sister Sledge and great disco records and then going home in that 1978-79 period and listening to Joy Division and The Cure,” remembers Martin.
“In Sheffield at the time, where we kind of grew up, there were bands like Cabaret Voltaire, Human League and Def Leppard. I suppose Jarvis Cocker was there as a young fledgling somewhere.
“There was a fantastic, vibrant, very experimental music scene.
“We figured we wanted to go in slightly different direction. It was a great period to be in a band and writing songs.”
Martin still possesses one of his trademark gold suits – “I left one in Japan and one got stolen in Coventry and it amused me that the police should have been able to find the guy wearing it” – and calls it his pension. He says that appearing on Top Of The Pops for the first time with Tears Are Not Enough was life-changing.
“It was terrifying,” he admits. “I think Madness and Adam Ant were on it as well. You walked into a room and there were all these pop stars. For us, it was like – sign on the dole on Tuesday, go down on the train to London on Wednesday, do Top Of The Pops and by Thursday you are famous.”
He laughs: “Then you can’t sign on the dole again the next Tuesday.”
“We were suddenly travelling around Japan playing live and we had a six-piece string section for the tour. We shot a short film with Julien Temple called Mantrap, we met Andy Warhol and he came to the shows, Stevie Wonder came to a show.”
He laughs: “I’ll recommend it to anyone ... if only for the air miles. Fifty minutes can be a long time in pop music, so 40 years is incredible. I never take it for granted.”
■ ABC The Lexicon Of Love 40th anniversary tour runs from June 17. Visit abcmartinfry.com for details