ABC - The Look Of Love

This was the credit song for one of my favorite comedies, Hamlet 2.

Fuck, that was a long time ago.

Poison Arrow was the best and first hit they had.

Sisters and brothers! Should help each other!

ABC has a fantastic greatest hits comp.

I was obsessed with ABC in high school. I taught myself how to dance to their music, such that I became a platform dancer for the clubs in S.F. during the late 80's/early 90's.

"If you judge a book by its cover/Then you judge a look by the lover"

Makes zero sense, but just a great lyric in a wonderfully overdone song.

Be Near Me is my favorite, it’s just so English

Almost all New Wave bands were English but few actually sounded English

What did late 80 and early 90 possess?

ABC released an almost-unknown sequel to [italic]The Lexicon of Love[/italic].

I was always convinced that Martin was family, because he dressed so well (to my American eyes). Just looked him up, and he's been married to a woman for decades.

I was ia high school senior when this song aired on MTV. It was one of the music videos I looked forward to on rotation. Had the How to Be a Zillionaire album on vinyl my sophomore year in college, which was recorded with a mostly different lineup of the band.

Be Near Me is my favorite as well.

But every one of their hits was excellent.

Another thread stolen. This is getting nuts. Shooting an email to Muriel right now 👏🏽

I like Martin Sheffield Lickly's version.

I LOVE this song. So much fun to sing along to it.

[quote] I was always convinced that Martin was family, because he dressed so well (to my American eyes). Just looked him up, and he's been married to a woman for decades.

The British musicians of that era were generally very stylish, heavily influenced by Bowie and Bryan Ferry. How I miss those days…

It brings back so many good memories. I had just turned 21 and was going to clubs and this song reminds me of that.

R8

Thank you for the reminder of Be Near Me - what a swoon!

[quote]Almost all New Wave bands were English but few actually sounded English

New Wave actually refers to the second Wave of British acts that swept America after the first wave of British Acts like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the Who the Kinks - the British Invasion. So I think for the most part aren't New Wave bands by definition British? Or am I wrong?

Not all of them (Talking Heads, Blondie).

But most New Wave bands don’t sound particularly English, case in point OMD, because (assuming) they adjusted their voices to appeal to Americans, who were the bigger market

Listen how hard he comes down on his consonants and vowels (“We’ve gotta make LLLLAAAASSSSTTTTTTT”) like an American

"Be Near Me" is my favorite too. It's just plain, old-fashioned romantic.

Love the whole "How to be a Zillionaire" album, even with the weird conceit of adding two members who essentially did nothing.

Never understood that.

I really loved, "When Smokey Sings"

When Shmokey Shingsh

I hear violinshz

I saw Martin Fry/ABC (it’s just him and session band members now) perform at Cruel World festival in July and he was incredible! He looks great but more importantly sounds exactly the same!

If you ever get a chance definitely go see him.

WHET the rest of the bad? I was going to ask about all of them, but then you updated on the lead singer, R25... so now I'm curious why the others aren't touring.

Loved the song and the whole album! I was 24.

I'll say it again: those were the days.

r25, I saw him during an 80's revival show 7 years ago. He, Tony Hadley, Howard Jones, Dave Wakeling, Terri Nunn, were all really terrific- you could tell they really loved performing. Tom Bailey from Thompson Twins, Marc Almond, the guy from Naked Eyes, When in Rome, Human League, Flock of Seagulls, Missing Persons, Dramarama, and When in Rome were duds (I had to look up the lineup because I forgot about most of them).

If an 80's revival show comes around, definitely go- it's good clean fun.

According to Wikipedia...

"After the success of ABC's debut album The Lexicon of Love and the disappointing reception to their follow up Beauty Stab, ABC's Martin Fry and Mark White decided they wanted a completely new image for ABC. To that end, they asked Powell to join the band as well as American David Yarritu.

Neither Powell nor Yarritu were allowed to contribute musically. When Powell admitted she couldn't play any instruments, ABC frontman Martin Fry replied "It doesn't matter. You can pretend. We want you because you've got a great look".[2] Vocals attributed to Powell as Eden on the album How to Be a Zillionaire were not performed by her either – for example, in the song "A to Z", the words "Hi, I'm Eden, and I want you to kiss my snatch" was actually Martin Fry's voice sped up and was recorded entirely without Powell's knowledge.[5]

Inflatable instruments were made for the band with the aim to be as luridly bright and "cartoony" as possible. Eden even wore a dildo belt she made on The Tube, the 1980s Channel 4 live music show, which was a belt covered in "ladyfingers" – very small white dildoes – to look like a bullet belt.[6][7] The new look ABC went over well enough; in the UK and the US How to Be a Zillionaire charted in the top 30,[8][9] while "Be Near Me" was the highest-charting track off the album at No. 26 in the UK[8] and in the top ten on the US Billboard Hot 100."

I think Lisa Van der Pump appears in one of their videos.

Saw Martin Fry singing out front of ABC on the YouTube earlier this year. He looks bloody good and still dapper with his white hair. Not bad at all for 65.

Loved them. JUST LOVED THEM.

The Interwebz

OP I lived it. Came out when I was in college and when I had an arty persona. It was my favorite album for years. I found it thrilling and glamorous. A private passion since my friends were like, whatever. I still love it and think it's brilliantly crafted.

It's funny how the New Wave were British bands sounding more American, and then you have American Bands 20 years later trying to sound New Wave British. Does anyone remember Elkland? I can't believe this song was 18 fucking years ago, but I remember it and how retro it sounded in 2005 - an updated New Wave.

R35. That's cool. But really. 10K views. Quite obscure.

It was the song that was playing on the stereo when I test drove a Toyota Cressida in the fall of 1982.

I bought the car the following week.

Strange that I always associate that song with that test-drive.

Be Near Me is a great song along with The Look of Love and Poison Arrow - all very 80s.

Another vote for When Smokey Sings.

Tears are Not Enough, Vanity Kills!!

For more romantic pop a la Be Near Me - S.O.S.

Whoops, I meant to link S.O.S.

I think there were plenty of bands and singers that sounded British: Eurythmics, Haircut 100, Squeeze, Culture Club, Madness, Human League, Soft Cell, The Smiths, Thompson Twins, Spandau Ballet, The Fixx, Soft Cell, Thomas Dolby, Gary Numan, etc...

The Christians.

I love some of their other hits - like How to be a Millionaire.

When Smokey Sings and Be Near Me are too poppy and almost easy-listening adult soft-rock.

OP- That should be called

The Look Of A HOMOSEXUAL

This is when things started to go to shit for ABC. Not a bad song overall, but all the style and sophistication of their earlier work was gone. Martin Fry looks silly in the video. It was sad to see the great British bands of the early '80s transform their sound and image to follow the new music trends of the late '80s and early '90s.

Be Near Me is a great song, my favorite of theirs.

Egads that is a terrible song and video r46. Let's soothe our ears with Poison Arrow:

I thought it somewhat borrowed to a degree from The Supremes’ hit 1970 single “Up The Ladder To The Roof.”

Heavens above!

I love 2/3rds of it, if that makes sense., It's amazingly catchy but somehow it wears out its welcome for me.

"Be Near Me" is their best work.

And I never knew what to make of the chick and the bald twat not actually being musicians (or attractive).

Mark White was pretty hot in a couple different incarnations.

Jesus Christ! Gary Numan sounded British? Did he say HEEA-UH IN MY CAHHH or HEEEEERR IN MY CAARRR

Most of them purposely tried to avoid sounding too British. They come down heavy on the final consonants instead of clipping them like the English.

See these guys clipped their r’s. “Down in the city, night is a WHY-AHHHH.”

What does r possess?

Professor Higgins in the house.

To R7, I agree, but it's a great line& I understood what they meant by reversing the words.

I called the song "The Look of Lust"

The Human League, Thompson Twins, Bananarama, Cindi Lauper, 80's Madonna and of course the Disco from the late 1970's.

Give me an illegal black dance club near Northwestern U or in Chicago, I was there.

To R9...To me, it was Freedom from my past. I changed my name& danced through college.

Danced in the clubs, finding freedom from other men.

R57, what was the illegal black dance club near Northwestern? I was there from 1991-1999 (school and a few years after). Was this before then? Where was it? In Evanston, or right over the border in Rogers Park or something?

Phillywhore - what years were you at NU?

r3, yes to a teenaged Chicagoan, he sounded British. There were also American bands that tried to sound British- Styx, The Sparks, The Beau Brummels, Talking Heads, R.E.M.,

Heaven 17 was a great British band that sounded British as well:

Heaven 17 is one of my favorite bands ever, love them so much, but most people don't seem to care much for them or even have heard of them beyond maybe "Let Me Go" and possibly "Penthouse and Pavement".

[quote] Give me an illegal black dance club near Northwestern U

So is that in Evanston, Skokie, or Northbrook? Maybe at The Bagel in Old Orchard Mall?

[quote] I changed my name

Were you previously known as EvanstonWhore?

Be Near Me is my favorite, and David Yarritu is a delicious gay sized snack

When did Styx sound or try to sound British??

They were midwestern boys who sang about their very American upbringing.

I love the Paradise Theater LP, I recently bought it for my phone and still knew all the words. They never sounded British to me.

Admittedly, Kilroy Was Here was a sort of weird departure for them, but it became their best selling album, didn’t it?

Styx is terrible. Fun fact: I did a Kilroy Was Here puppet show in fourth grade with my friend, I shit you not. We had seen the Mr. Roboto video (all we did was watch tv) and read the liner notes of the Kilroy Was Here album and the story associated with it. My mom ran a preschool, so she had hand puppets. We made cardboard guitars and keyboards and used a small plastic toy drum kit and had the puppets rock out to a couple of songs. I'm sure my teacher was "wtf?"

This was always one of my faves with the Contessa Lady V rap in it.

r66, for sure with their Grand Illusion album.

Another band from Chicago that sounded British: