Smooth. Suave. Debonair. Elegant. Classy. Retro Cool. These words not only describe the lush, orchestrated, synth-pop of ABC, but also their always-impeccably dressed and coiffed lead singer, Martin Fry.
He’s fronted the Sheffield, England-bred group since their formation in 1981 and had success with singles like “Poison Arrow,” “The Look of Love,” “Be Near Me,” “When Smokey Sings” and “(How to Be a) Millionaire.”
Almost as important were the videos for these songs, played often on early MTV and helping to cement their visual and aural image, beginning with their debut album The Lexicon of Love.
Now the sole original member still in the lineup, Fry will front the 2025 version of ABC (likely in one of his signature striking jackets) with fellow ‘80s hitmaker Howard Jones (“No One is to Blame,” “Everlasting Love,” “What Is Love?” “Things Can Only Get Better”) on February 17 at the House of Blues Houston. SiriusXM radio’s Richard Blade will open with a DJ set.
“You’re in Houston, Bob? I’m really looking forward to playing there. We haven’t been there in a long time!” Fry says via Zoom from San Francisco the day before the tour’s kickoff. “Just getting ready to do a bit of rehearsing, crush into a few tuxedos, and that’s about that. That’s show business!”
Ah yes. Fry’s trademark dress jackets have run the gamut from spangly gold to shimmering blue diamond over the years. And he has his pick for this tour from a whole large trunk that has been shipped over to the U.S.
“I’ve learned the hard way not to take any suitcases on more than three flights because they end up lost. And those [jackets] are too valuable!” he laughs.
ABC and Howard Jones are no strangers as tour mates, and Jones told the Houston Press in 2023 that part of the fun and challenge for him on double bills or package tours is trying to win over fans who came primarily not to see him, but the other acts(s). Fry agrees.
“This is a cutthroat business, and it’s all about stealing each other’s fans!” he laughs. “But we’re a great complement musically, so the audience is pretty much in sympatico.”
Fry says that it’s more when he’s performing at festivals or opening for huge contemporary acts that the concept is on his mind. He recalls opening for Robbie Williams (huge in the UK…not so in the U.S.) around the year 2000 on a stadium tour.
“It’s kind of interesting playing to a giant audience who has no idea who you are, but kind of like you at the end of the 45-minute set,” he offers. “It’s like being part of the circus. Like the bearded lady and the tightrope walker!”
Of course, the entire paradigm of the music business has changed dramatically since ABC was a fixture on the charts. Thanks to streaming services, anyone can hear all of ABC’s nine studio albums and one live album with the touch of their finger.
And that includes records which never came out in the U.S. (like The Lexicon of Love II) or those which didn’t hit well, like the band’s turn into acid house/EDM//techno sounds with Up and Abracadabra.
“Those two albums are top secret in the U.S. So, if you’ve heard them, you’re part of a small group,” Fry says. “And it was only after Madonna did ‘Vogue’ that house music got more mainstream.”
As for how music is consumed, Fry says he recently watched The Greatest Night in Pop, last year’s documentary about the recording of “We Are the World.” And it struck him that it showed the end of the era where the artists in it sold massive amounts of physical vinyl records and cassettes.
But he’s not pining for lost days, saying he’s very much in the present when it comes to expectations, and knows the main source of a band’s income these days is in live performance. Personally, Fry says that he loves it when he’s able to discover an artist, then stream their entire back catalog.
One can’t think of ABC without visually recalling those old videos, some of which were more akin to mini movies. The template was already set on the cover of The Lexicon of Love that featured a suited-up Fry dramatically pointing a gun in one hand while holding a fainted, cocktail-dressed damsel in distress with the other in a backstage setting. Fitting for the cover of some 1940s pulp magazine.
Critics have bemoaned for years that MTV and its runaway success forced more attention and money to be given to the visual rather than the aural. But the unassailable fact is that MTV exposed American listeners to an awful lot of bands and performers—and mostly British—who were not being played on mainstream radio. Until the tail wagged the dog and the videos drove radio airplay and record sales.
“That’s right, I remember those days. I remember running into the guys from Soft Cell at the airport. They had just had a hit with ‘Tainted Love’ and were off to conquer America,” he says. “You’d go to Heathrow Airport and see the Pretenders and Sting getting ready to fly across the Atlantic.”
Fry also recalls having lunch with a small group of MTV executives and their positive response about all the “crazy, bonkers” videos the English acts were making, and really utilizing the medium like Duran Duran.
For better or worse, bands like ABC, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, OMD, and Modern English were labeled as “New Romantics.” Fry himself doesn’t feel ABC fell into that catchall category, preferring “new wave.”
“Though today, everything from that era is called new wave, isn’t it?” Fry says. “We played a festival in Pasadena a few years back and it was us, the Human League, Squeeze, Gang of Four, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and Iggy Pop. And we were all lumped together as new wave. I kind of liked that. But ‘New Romantic’ is fine too.”
ABC’s last studio effort was 2016’s The Lexicon of Love II. Its music was very much reminiscent of that debut album, and even the cover was connected to the original. Though this one featured a more mature Fry, fedora over his face, watching from the shadows a couple very much like the one on that first record, the blonde male almost a younger version of himself.
He says that for years, people were “on him” to make another “big, bombastic, orchestral record” like the debut. And he had already played shows with an orchestra behind ABC, and that inspired him to start writing the sequel.
“I looked out at the audience for those shows and realized they had all grown up. They got married, divorced, and remortgaged their house during those years. So, I wanted to make music that sounded familiar, but was brand new,” he says.
Fry adds that its original title was The Lexicon of a Lost Ideal. But the label wanted that “II” in the title for commercial reasons.
Not wanting to spoil a good thing or memories of the original, Fry says he was “anxious and nervous” about its reception. Fortunately, European audiences responded very positively to it. And ABC has more dates with an orchestra scheduled overseas for late 2025.
In addition to Fry, the current lineup of ABC includes Jimmy Keegan (drums), Toshi Yanagi (guitar), Rob Hughes (keyboards/sax), Andy Coe (bass), and Ryan Farmery (keyboards). And Fry adds that Houston may hold one additional deep-dive memory for him.
“I think I met [short-lived ABC member] David Yarritu in Houston!” he says. “He did [spoken word] on the How to Be a…Zillionaire record!”
ABC and Howard Jones play at 7 p.m. on Monday, February 17, at the House of Blues, 1204 Caroline. For more information, call 713-652-5837 or visit HouseofBlues.com/Houston $55-$80.
For more on Martin Fry and ABC, visit ABCMartinFry.com.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.
