ABC guide to world domination

Rip It Up, Issue 64, 1 November 1982, Page 8

ABC guide to world domination

Kerry Doole

All young bands picture themselves as modern-day Alexanders the Great, with guitars or synthesisers as weapons in their drive for world conquest, but few groups in recent pop history have merged ambition and strategy to such telling effect as ABC. Here are four English lads in their early twenties who have just seen their debut LP, Lexicon of Love, enter the British charts at No 1, yet they scarcely pause to sip a celebratory champers before carefully calculating the next step towards world domination. "We are conscious of a world market," stresses guitarist/keyboardist Mark White, sounding like the entrepreneur with a new product to peddle that, in fact, he is. "Other countries look at the UK and see a constant stream of fads and fashions. We want to transcend that, we want to appeal to other nations. One of the reasons we signed with Phonogram was that they are a world-wide company. They have the same machinery in Greece and Spain as in London." When they formed two years ago, ABC already had their own label, Neutron, dating back to the band's predecessor, Vice Versa. "With ABC, we decided to aim for the sky and then looked for the best marketing and distribution offer. Technically we have complete control over our product. We have a definite idea of how to sell our records and the statements we want to make. We knew what we wanted to say with our videos and sleeves, but a lot of bands neglect that. There are more elements to a band than hitting guitar strings to form a chord." ABC's trek to the top has gone so smoothly one could have paranoid visions of subliminal 'buy me' messages etched into the record jackets or videos, but Mark White leaves Joe Public at least some say in the matter: "One element is completely unfathomable the public's taste. It is down to consumer democracy, there are no 50/50 bets. When I read the charts it feels like bingo, waiting for the numbers. Right now we're going for a full house." Such stress on marketing and packaging often suggests that the music is vapid formula fodder, but happily the ABC sound is genuinely exhilarating. Pop music has now incorporated so many elements it is difficult to imagine any totally new sounds

appearing, but ABC have intelligently blended their different influences into a distinctive dish. The ABC recipe for Modern Dance music takes those familiar ingredients of Bowie/ Ferry vocal stylings and stirs them with Motown soul and funk rhythms. The dressing is orthodox High Chic, silk suits et al, but the real icing on the cake that puts ABC a class above the electrobeat set comes with their grandiose orchestral arrangements. A couple of synthesisers won't do for these guys; they bring in complete horn and string sections that elevate lyricist Martin Fry's reflections on love to the level of Wagnerian epics. The James Bond soundtrack music of John Barry is a reference point for Lexicon of Love and songs like 'The Look of Love' and 'Poison Arrow'. To White, "that is a compliment, but any resemblance is accidental. His music was made to suit a wide screen and we make music in a similar way. Our songs are tightly structured with a plot and a statement. We aim to make listening to our records an experience, a Technicolour/Panavision effect." Cinematic references recur in ABC's work and, as with Ultravox, Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran etc, imaginative videos are a key to their success outside Britain. Mark White agrees: "Videos are becoming vital. They are part of the reason we are now successful in places like Australia and New Zealand which we obviously cannot fly to every week. They are our ambassadors, they express what the group is about." As the title indicates, Lexicon of Love's lyrical concerns are restricted to that perennial topic, love. Martin Fry's degree in English literature helps explain his clever use of the language, something noted approvingly by another contemporary master wordsmith, Elvis Costello. "We tried to write songs that controverted all the moon in June, cliche, trite love songs. It is contemporary. People can relate to a bitter tale that bears a resemblance to life," claims White. While opening up the possibility of different themes in future material, he stressed that "music is not the place for overt political statements. They often come over as trite sloganeering, but music is a great medium for a topic like human relationships."