ABC

**ABC** are an English pop band hailing from Sheffield, founded in late 1980. Core members Steve Singleton and Mark White had been performing and recording experimental electronic music using synthesisers and drum machines since 1977 under the name of Vice Versa. After meeting vocalist Martin Fry, they invited him to join the band which then became ABC with a radical change in musical style, preferring a pop/funk approach. Fleshed out with a bass player and drummer, the group had a hit with their first single Tears Are Not Enough in October 1981 and went on to record their multi-million selling debut album The Lexicon Of Love, with producer Trevor Horn and orchestra arranger Anne Dudley giving the snappily dressed ABC and the album their final pop shine. (Horn and Dudley would later go on to form Art of Noise).

After enjoying a string of hit singles from the album during 1982 ("Poison Arrow","The Look of Love", "All Of My Heart") the original three piece returned a year later with a follow-up album Beauty Stab and a further change in style. This time the band preferred a more rock music based approach, which disappointed many fans however and failed to replicate the commercial success of the debut album.

Mark White and Martin Fry returned in 1985, flanked by two new members, and a distinctive 'cartoon' image and the electro-pop charged album *How To Be A Zillionaire!* and related singles which met with only modest success. White and Fry re-adopted the slick 'Lexicon of Love' image once more for 1987's *Alphabet City* which spawned the hits When Smokey Sings and The Night You Murdered Love, and then rode the new dance wave of the late eighties for *Up* in 1989. *Abracadabra* in 1991 was the final ABC album to feature founding member Mark White, who departed the band in 1992.

Martin Fry continued with the ABC name to produce two more albums *Skyscraping* (1997) and *Traffic* (2008) before finally going all the way with the nostalgic *The Lexicon of Love II*, the 2016 'follow-up' to the original 1982 classic, which remains unbeaten in quality.

*tbc*

#### Further albums

* *Abracadabra* (1991)
* *Skyscraping* (1997)
* *Traffic* (2008)
* *The Lexicon of Love II* (2016)

## TV appearances

### Top of the Pops

1. 05/11/81 : Tears Are Not Enough (rpt 19/11/81)
2. 18/02/82 : Poison Arrow
3. 04/03/82 : Poison Arrow
4. 20/05/82 : The Look Of Love
5. 03/06/82 : The Look Of Love (*opening live show*)
6. 30/12/82 : The Look Of Love
7. 03/11/83 : That Was Then But This Is Now
8. 18/06/87 : When Smokey Sings
9. 02/07/87 : When Smokey Sings
10. 24/09/87 : The Night You Murdered Love

## Scrapbook

### 1981

Melody Maker, November 1981 (as reproduced in *The History of Rock: 1981*NME, live review Oct 81NME cover, 18 July 1981
### 1982

Smash Hits, Jan 1982Smash Hits, March 1982Record Mirror, July 1982Smash Hits, Sept. 1982
### 1984

*Record Mirror* Jan. 1984*No.1*, Jan. 1984*Record Mirror* Nov. 1984

### 1987

Smash Hits, June 1987Record Mirror, June 1987Smash Hits, August 1987

## Further reading

* "*Missing In Action: MARK WHITE & STEPHEN SINGLETON*", electricity club.co.uk, 04 May 2019

## External links

* Official site
* Official Charts archive