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

Discography[]

UK singles and albums only

Year	Single A-side	Peak position (UK)	Weeks in Top 40	Album
1981	Tears Are Not Enough	19	6	The Lexicon of Love (1982)
1982	Poison Arrow	6	8
	The Look of Love Pt.2	4	9
	All Of My Heart	5	7
1983	That Was Then But This Is Now	18	3	Beauty Stab (1983)
1984	SOS	39	2	Beauty Stab (1983)
1984	How To Be a Millionaire	49	-	How To Be A Zillionaire (1985)
1985	Be Near Me	26	3
1985	Vanity Kills	70	-
1986	Ocean Blue	51	-
1987	When Smokey Sings	11	8	Alphabet City (1987)
	The Night You Murdered Love	31	4
	King Without a Crown	44	-
1989	One Better World	32	2	Up! (1989)
	The Real Thing	68	-	Up! (1989)