The Agony & THE ABC

The Agony & THE ABC

Jim Farber

Can this be the look of love? ABC in 1985 look more like escapees from a Hanna-Barbera convention. Quite a change from the glamorous gold lame get-up they adopted for the debut elpee, which netted them two Top 20 singles and (wow!) a gold album. These days there are only two original ABCs left: a) Martin Fry, and b) Mark White. The two newies are David Warritu, an unofficial midget, and Eden, a female. David was a go-go dancer at an obnoxious club called the Pyramid, located in New York’s architectural haircut capital, the East Village. “When we met him he was dressed as Little Red Riding Hood,” Martin explains in the conference room of PolyGram’s New York headquarters. “He gave me a fortune cookie and we said, ‘let us take you away from all this.’”

Eden, the female, they knew from their hometown—Sheffield, England. When asked what the two new members play, Martin shrugs, “not much really.” Then their purpose is mainly—uh—visual? “Yes,” answers Mark. “Somebody said the new band was like a cross between the Banana Splits and Afrika Bambaataa. That suits me fine.”

Well, at least the combination is sure to draw lots of attention. That may just be the point considering the band’s last album, Beauty Stab, bit the big one commercially. Basically that album gave the finger to the formula of the debut, opting for stranger melodies, a more guitaroriented sound, plus fewer tips on how to have your heart broken in all the right places. The band’s record company hated it so much, they ignored it entirely. But now ABC’s new album has turned things around, already spawning a #1 dance hit with “Be Near Me.’’ The new How To Be A Zillionaire comes closer to the original Lexicon Of Love mold with humongous hooks, big dance beats and enough glamour/romance themes to make Bryan Ferry a truly jealous guy. Suspicious, eh? “I don’t see Zillionaire as a xerox of any of the records we’ve made before,” asserts Martin Fry. “In a funny sort of way I think it’s an amalgam of the first two. I like to think that Zillionaire is abrasive in some of the ways Beauty Stab was.”

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“Beauty Stab was abrasive by virtue of the guitars,” Mark White adds. Zillionaire still has that edge but it’s in the beat box department. We’ve tried to ally that with some of the virtues of Lexicon Of Love—the bigger melodies.”

Even though Beauty Stab croaked commercially, Martin says he’s far from disappointed with its quality. “Beauty Stab was our Nebraska,’’ he says in dead earnest. “It’s an unheralded masterpiece.”

“But,” Mark adds, “you have to face the fact that if you’re not prepared to repeat or refine your formula, then you’re going to have a hard time keeping the same level of commercial success.”

The one formula that seems to hold for ABC is their ever-shrinking ranks. These days, with just two guys running the show, joined by two human props, isn’t this less a band than a concept? “Yeah, but what a concept,” Martin says, smiling. “Most bands are concepts turned into flesh and blood. Even Bruce Springsteen—he’s a brilliant concept. We tried to be John, Paul, George and Ringo—just a self-contained four-piece unit. U2 seems to be the modern epitome of that. For us to do that would be dishonest. What we’re good at is writing songs and making records. We enjoy playing live, but that’s not the first issue. For us, making records is about taking an idea and showcasing it. Mark and myself have learned enough about putting together a record.

“We did go through the orthodox channels of trying to audition a million and one musicians, but it was totally unproductive,” Martin continues. “And so we decided to use people who had a similar sensibility, a similar way of looking at the world—who wore the same clothes we did.”

OK, OK we believe you. In fact, your trusted reporter thinks the band’s new cartoon look is actually a clever parody of hip outrageousness, as weN as a pointed rank on rock star caricatures. To back it up, Zillionaire has some real strong music, ranging from catchy ballads like “Ocean Blue” to the dance hall daze of “15 Storey Halo,” all captured with a crisp, buoyant production style. Of course, the album also includes Martin Fry’s trademark ironic lyrics. According to Fry, one of the main themes of the new LP is “that the glamorous life doesn’t always amount to dollars. It amounts to the value of life. Wealth comes in many different forms. You shouldn’t feel that you’re crushed and a nobody if you’re out of work.”

Gee—sounds a bit like Springsteen. But unfortunately, when these sort of down-to-earth themes are delivered with ABC-style irony, it’s a bit tougher for people to take ’em seriously. Especially when you dress like rejects from a Jetsons reunion. “We don’t mind if people don’t take us seriously,” Fry says, with sufficient irony. “We’re here to entertain. I would have become a priest if I wanted people to take me seriously.” OK, Father Fry. ©