ABC und Summer Nights

There’s probably no single genre of music that represents the eighties quite as accurately, or as obviously, as new wave; it genuinely is synonymous with the decade, and among its genuine success stories were ABC, who formed in Sheffield back in 1980, right in time for the sound’s explosion. Their debut album The Lexicon of Love was a huge success on both sides of the Atlantic, topping the charts in the UK and making the top twenty-five over in the U.S., and spawned a slew of hits that were not only successes in terms of sales and radio play at the time, but continue to stand up as classics of the genre today, especially their signature song ‘Poison Arrow’. Although singer Martin Fry now remains the sole original member - he tours with a new backing group for the most part, with David Palmer only briefly rejoining him as part of VH1’s Bands Reunited programme in 2004 - the ABC name continues to be used for both live shows and new material, with Fry still proving himself both an engaging frontman and a fine singer, too. They regularly line up alongside other eighties acts like T’Pau and Rick Astley, so there’s plenty of opportunity for a multi-faceted blast of nostalgia where their shows are concerned, too.