ABC's Martin Fry tells us the story behind his iconic gold suits and the band's formation
He chatted to Simon Mayo on Greatest Hits Radio
ABC frontman Martin Fry joined Simon Mayo on Greatest Hits Radio to chat about his upcoming tour, the formation of the band, their huge hit 'The Look of Love' and the origin of his iconic gold suits.
Explaining how the idea for the gold suit came about, Martin told Simon: "I could see all these bands had their individual look and I didn't really have any resources or money to go to Vivienne Westwood’s shop on the King's Road and buy some clobber, so we used to go to jumble sales, 3.30 outside the church hall.
"Praying that Phil Oakey wasn't in the queue there, I'd go in and get the fedora and the tweed suit and the overcoat from the widow that was bringing her dead husband's clothes in for sale."
He continued: "We call it vintage now, but jumble sales definitely set ABC off in for all that... that whole look and then the guys said you gotta get something a bit sharper than that Martin. We're gonna be doing Top of The Pops.
"So I saw a bloke on Carnaby Street called Colin Wilde and he reputedly made some clothes for Marc Bolan and he made me a gold Lamé suit."
The beginning of ABC
Before ABC, the band was called Vice Versa, and as Martin explained in the interview, they had big ambitions.
"Vice Versa was a synth band through and through and Mark White, (and) Steve Singleton had a couple of records that John Peel had played, on the independent label Neutron, so, they were going places," Martin said.
Continuing: "But when I joined they said I could become the singer, they saw something in me and at that point we became ABC. And we started to try and make music that would unite everybody on the dance floor, that was the dream.
"We were listening to our Cure and our Joy Division albums at home and then going out and dancing to the Jackson 5 and Earth Wind and Fire. This is kind of '81, '82, but we changed and developed."
'The Look of Love'
Talking about the band's huge hit 'The Look of Love', Martin revealed there are at least five versions of the song!
"'The Look of Love Part 4' was quite an ambitious move for a fledgling band from Sheffield," Martin explained. "But I think in retrospect we just didn't wanna stop recording 'The Look of Love’ because we did a version five, with all scratching and sampling on it, which got played in the clubs.
"I don't think there's a six, but there is an overture as well. When I look at it now, seems quite a pompous, pretentious thing to carry off for some lads from Attercliffe, Sheffield, but it has served us well because with the orchestral show, we come on to the overture."
ABC's tour
Coming up later this year, Martin will be taking ABC on tour, for 'The Lexicon of Love' orchestral tour. The band will perform their masterpiece 1982 album ‘The Lexicon of Love’ in its entirety alongside other hits from ABC’s back catalogue, while accompanied by The Lexicon Sinfonia conducted by Anne Dudley.
Speaking about the tour, Martin told Simon: "We go on tour with the Southbank Sinfonia is a wonderful orchestra, in fact, they've renamed themselves the Lexicon Sinfonia. I do feel a bit like Barry White having my own orchestra, the love unlimited orchestra."
Describing the set up, he said: "There's the orchestra, the band, a couple of screens to divide the two and Anne Dudley conducting. I stand centre stage and we perform a lot of songs from the ABC songbook, but ‘The Lexicon of Love’ in its entirety."
When Simon asked if the songs would be in the same order as the album, Martin paused, adding: "Just about…
"The ending climaxes more than the record, that's the plan there. But yeah, we play it pretty much in the right order. It's a kind of version that's like larger than life, a kind of expanded version of the record.
"And it's something we've been doing for, like 15 years on and off developing the scores, I didn't want it to be like a band hidden away by an orchestra or, you know, sometimes you see shows where you can't hear the violins and such like it's kind of taking a while to get it all blended with the arrangements. And it feels right for us to showcase those songs in that way."
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