ABC - Alphabet Soup (2022)

As you will know from my recent post from Vice Versa, ABC came about almost by accident, when Vice Versa were touring in the Netherlands and they were invited to jam in a studio in Rotterdam. Martin Fry improvised some vocals, and after the initial surprise at the quality of his voice, they decided to make him the lead singer of the band. After spending the next year writing new songs, they re-christened themselves ABC and set off to have a stab at pop stardom. The new band retained some of the old Vice Versa line-up, with Fry singing, Stephen Singleton playing saxophone and Mark White on guitar and keyboards, and they were joined by Mark Lickley on bass and David Robinson on drums, with the band's very first single, 'Tears Are Not Enough', making the UK top 20 when it was released in 1981. Soon afterwards, Robinson left the band and was replaced by David Palmer, shortly followed by Lickley, who was not replaced. In 1982, the band released their Trevor Horn-produced debut studio album 'The Lexicon Of Love', which reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, and it often features in UK critics' lists of their favourite albums. Three further singles were extracted from the album, with 'Poison Arrow', 'The Look Of Love' and 'All Of My Heart' all being top ten hits in 1982. Following the culmination of the Lexicon Of Love tour, Palmer joined the Yellow Magic Orchestra for a series of tour dates, but when Fry, White and Singleton decided to reconvene in order to commence work on their next album, Palmer had to leave ABC in order to honour Yellow Magic Orchestra's touring commitments. The remaining members found it difficult to follow-up on the success of their debut, and their Gary Langan-produced second album, 'Beauty Stab', was released in November 1983, performing poorly in comparison to its predecessor, and peaking at number 12 on the UK album chart. 

The first single from the album, 'That Was Then But This Is Now', briefly appeared in the UK top 20, followed by a top 40 showing for 'SOS', and rather perversely they decided to eschew remixes, and so the 12" single for 'That Was Then But This Is Now' featured the disclaimer "This record is exactly the same as the 7" version. The choice is yours." Singleton left the band shortly after the release of 'Beauty Stab' as a result of Fry and White's reluctance to spend much time touring the band's material, and so Fry and White enlisted the services of Fiona Russell Powell (under the name "Eden") and David Yarritu in the band's new line-up. They recorded their next album 'How to Be A ... Zillionaire!', which was released in 1985, but the band's chart success dwindled further in the UK with this album, although they did score their first US top 10 hit with 'Be Near Me', which also made the UK top 30. The album also featured the singles '(How To Be A) Millionaire', 'Vanity Kills' and 'Ocean Blue', although none of them could crack the UK top 40. After a hiatus, during which Fry was being treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma, he and White reconvened ABC as a duo, releasing the album 'Alphabet City' in 1987, which returned them to the UK Top 10 for the first time in five years, peaking at No. 7. It featured 'When Smokey Sings', a tribute to Smokey Robinson, which narrowly missed the UK Top 10, although it did give the group their biggest hit in the US, where it peaked at number 5 in September. In 1989, the duo issued 'Up', and their fifth and final PolyGram studio album experimented with house music, scoring a minor UK hit with the single 'One Better World', although a second single, 'The Real Thing', and the album itself were less successful. During this period, the duo worked on a couple of outside productions aimed at the house music scene, one for Paul Rutherford's (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) solo album and first single release, and also for Lizzie Tear on the duo's own Neutron label. 

In 1990, they released a greatest hits compilation album, 'Absolutely', which covered all of ABC's albums up until 1990 and featured most of their singles, and it made the UK Top 10. In 1991 the duo moved to the EMI label (and MCA in North America), where they recorded the album 'Abracadabra', and  two singles, 'Love Conquers All' and 'Say It', which narrowly missed the UK Top 40, though a remix of the latter by the Italian production team Black Box appeared on the US dance charts. Fry also collaborated with M People in 1991 on their first album, 'Northern Soul', recording vocals for the song 'Life', although when the album was re-released in 1992, and again in 1995, this track was omitted. After a six-year hiatus, Fry, now the sole member of ABC, resurrected the band's name in 1997 for the album 'Skyscraping', an homage to several of his musical heroes, including David Bowie, Roxy Music and the Sex Pistols. With Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 and Keith Lowndes contributing to the sessions and songwriting, the album was commercially unsuccessful, though a single, 'Stranger Things', did reach No. 57 in the UK, while two other singles, 'Rolling Sevens' and 'Skyscraping', did not fare as well. In 1999, ABC released their first live album, 'The Lexicon Of Live', and two years later came 'Look Of Love – The Very Best of ABC', which was essentially a reissue of the 1990 greatest hits compilation, but featured two new songs by Fry, 'Peace And Tranquility' and 'Blame'. In 2004, the VH1 show Bands Reunited attempted to get the band's classic line-up of Fry, White, Singleton and Palmer together for a reunion concert, and although Fry and Palmer appeared and played together, Singleton and White opted not to participate. 

Following a tour of the United States in May and June 2006, Fry and Palmer, together with session keyboardist Chuck Kentis, put together a new ABC album, 'Traffic', which was released in April 2008. In January 2016, Fry announced that a new ABC album would be entitled 'The Lexicon Of A Lost Ideal' and would be released in the UK in May 2016, featuring tracks penned by Fry, with contributions by Rob Fusari, Marcus Vere, Matt Rowe, and with orchestrations by Anne Dudley, who worked in a similar capacity on 'The Lexicon Of Love'. In May 2016, the re-titled 'The Lexicon of Love II' was released in the UK and the US, and it entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 5, the first time ABC had reached the Top 5 since the original 'Lexicon Of Love' album in 1982. The same year the band contributed a new song called 'Living Inside My Heart' to 'Fly: Songs Inspired By The Film Eddie The Eagle', and they closed the year by releasing their first Christmas song, entitled 'A Christmas We Deserve', as part of a 4-track EP. On Thursday 28th May 2020, the band released a new track 'Look Good Tonite', which was  available for 24 hours only as a lockdown-download, but it was later pressed up as a 7" single with 'Sixty Seconds Later' and given away free with issue 90 of Electronic Sounds magazine. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of 'The Lexicon Of Love', the band performed at Sheffield City Hall on 21 June 2022, including a performance of 'The Lexicon Of Love' in its entirety, and a recording of the concert was released as a limited edition live album on 19 May 2023. With the band still going strong 40 years after they formed, it's a good time post a collection of their non-album b-sides and compilation appearances, to celebrate one of the most iconic bands of the 80's. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1981-1985
01 Alphabet Soup (b-side of 'Tears Are Not Enough' 1981)
02 Overture (From The Lexicon Of Love) (b-side of 'All Of My Heart' 1982)
03 The Look Of Love (Part Three) (b-side of 'Valentine's Day' 1982)
04 The Look Of Love (Part Two) (b-side of 'The Look Of Love' 1982)
05 Theme From "Man-Trap" (b-side of 'Poison Arrow' 1982)
06 Into The Valley Of The Heathen Go (out-take from 'Lexicon Of Love' 1982)
07 Vertigo (b-side of 'That Was Then But This Is Now' 1983)
08 How To Be A Billionaire (b-side of 'How To Be A Millionaire' 1984)
09 What's Your Destination (b-side of 'Be Near Me' 1985) 
10 Judy's Jewels (b-side of 'Vanity Kills' 1985)

Disc II - 1987-1997
01 Chicago (Parts 1 & 2) (b-side of 'When Smokey Sings' 1987)
02 Minneapolis (b-side of 'The Night You Murdered Love' 1987)
03 The Night You Murdered Love (The Whole Story) (b-side of 'The Night You Murdered Love' 1987)
04 What's Good About Goodbye? (b-side of 'Love Conquers All' 1991)
05 Snakebite (bonus track on re-issue of 'Abracadabra' 1991)
06 Kiss Me Goodbye (original version - bonus track on re-issue of 'Abracadabra' 1991)
07 The World Spins On (b-side of 'Stranger Things' 1997)
08 All We Need (b-side of 'Stranger Things' 1997)

Disc III - 1997-2022
01 Skydubbing (b-side of 'Skyscraping' 1997)
02 Peace And Tranquility (single edit from 'Look Of Love: The Very Best Of ABC' 2001)
03 Blame (exclusive track from 'Look Of Love: The Very Best Of ABC' 2001)
04 High And Dry (from the '80's Recovered' compilation album 2015)
05 Living Inside My Heart (from 'Fly: Songs Inspired By The Film Eddie The Eagle' 2016)
06 A Christmas We Deserve (single 2016)
07 Look Good Tonite (7" single included with issue 90 of Electronic Sounds magazine 2022)
08 Sixty Seconds Later (b-side of 'Look Good Tonite')

Vice Versa - Aspects Of Vice Versa (1980)

Vice Versa was formed in 1977 by Stephen Singleton, Mark White, Ian Garth and David Sydenham, with Singleton and Sydenham on synthesizers, Garth on guitar and synthesizer, and White on vocals. Their first concert took place at the Doncaster Outlook club supporting Wire, and their first major Sheffield gig was with the Human League at the Now Society at Sheffield University, called "Wot, no Drummers", in reference to the fact that drum machines were used by all participating bands in place of real drums. In 1978 they supported Human League on tour, and later that year White and Singleton founded their own independent record label called Neutron Records, in order to release their music, as synth-based music was still being ignored by the major music labels. Their first release on their label was 1979's 'Music 4' EP, which was followed up by the release of a set of prints and a manifesto. In 1980, the band released a six-sided fold-out EP named '1980: The First Fifteen Minutes', featuring one song apiece from Sheffield bands Clock DVA, The Stunt Kites, I'm So Hollow, and Vice Versa themselves. This was the first proper vinyl exposure for all of these group, and eventually led to individual record deals for all of them. Around this time Sydenham decided to leave the band, and was eventually replaced by Martin Fry, who at that time was writing for his fanzine Modern Drugs, for which he interviewed White and Singleton, and then stayed on and joined the band. During 1980 Vice Versa recorded more music, releasing the cassette-only album '8 Aspects Of', followed by their only single release, 'Stilyagi'/'Eyes Of Christ', which were taken from the cassette album and remixed. While touring in the Netherlands they were invited to jam in a studio in Rotterdam, where Fry started to improvise on vocals, and after the initial surprise at the quality of his voice, they decided to make him the lead singer of the band. They then spent about a year writing new songs and thinking of a new name and concept, eventually resulting in the change of name from Vice Versa to ABC. But that's a whole other story, and this post expands the original eight track '8 Aspects Of' album by adding in the four songs from the 'Music 4' EP, one of them an extended take, plus their contribution to '1980: The First Fifteen Minutes', and one other recording from the same period, to make up a 46-minute album of superb electronic pop from 1979/1980. If you liked my earlier posts of the embryonic Human League and The Future then you'll love this, as it's very much in the same style of Sheffield-based synth-pop.  

Track listing

01 Genetic Warfare
02 Democratic Dancebeat
03 Riot Squad
04 Stilyagi
05 Jazz Drugs
06 Body Sculpture
07 Camille
08 Artists At War
09 New Girls Neutrons
10 Eyes Of Christ
11 Chainsaw Pop
12 Idol
13 Science Fact
14 Trapped In Celluloid

Phil Manzanera - ...and on guitar (1992)

IT'S BACK!

Phillip Geoffrey Targett-Adams, a.k.a. Phil Manzanera, was born on 31 January 1951 in London to a Colombian mother (nee Manzanera) and an English father, who worked for BOAC. He spent most of his childhood in different parts of the Americas, including Hawaii, Venezuela, Colombia, and Cuba, and it was in Havana that the six-year old Manzanera encountered his first guitar, a Spanish guitar owned by his mother. His earliest musical accomplishments were Cuban folk songs inspired by the Cuban Revolution, but by the age of eight he started experimenting with the sounds of the electric guitar, and during his teenage years he was absorbing the twin influences of 1960's rock and roll and Latin American rhythms. In his late teens he formed a series of school bands with his friends Bill MacCormick, later a member of Matching Mole and Random Hold, MacCormick's brother Ian (better known as music writer Ian MacDonald) and drummer Charles Hayward, later of This Heat and Camberwell Now. The final incarnation of one of Manzanera's College bands was a psychedelic outfit dubbed Pooh & The Ostrich Feathers, who later evolved into the progressive rock quartet Quiet Sun, with the addition of keyboard player Dave Jarrett. They wrote a number of original songs and instrumental pieces, none of which were recorded until years later, and the band broke up when McCormick joined Matching Mole. 

During the making of his first solo album 'Diamond Head' in 1975, Manzanera briefly revived the group in order to record a full album of their original music, with 'Mainstream' being released later that year. Manzanera was determined to join a professional band, and in October 1971 he was one of about twenty players who auditioned as lead guitarist for the recently formed art rock band Roxy Music. He displayed a wide-ranging interest in music, influenced by his childhood sojourns in Latin America, and in 1972 he was invited to join Roxy Music, alongside Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Paul Thompson, Andy Mackay, and Graham Simpson. Roxy Music's rise was meteoric, with the band being hailed as a major stylistic influence of the early 1970's, and during the next 12 years they released a series of internationally best-selling albums. In parallel with Roxy Music, Manzanera has always pursued solo projects, both recording his own albums and producing for others, with his first major credit as producer being for the New Zealand group Split Enz in 1976, with their second LP 'Second Thoughts'. He also played guitar on three tracks on the first Brian Eno album 'Here Come the Warm Jets', as well as working with many of the luminaries of modern music, such as Steve Winwood, David Gilmour, John Cale, Godley & Creme, Nico and John Wetton, and he co-wrote songs with some of them, including Pink Floyd's single 'One Slip' from their 1987 'A Momentary Lapse Of Reason' album. 

In 1976 he assembled a band christened 801, and their 1976 London show was recorded for a live album, featuring contributions from Manzanera on guitar, Eno on vocals, synth and treatments, Quiet Sun bassist Bill MacCormick, Curved Air keyboardist Francis Monkman, 19-year-old drumming prodigy Simon Phillips, and slide guitarist Lloyd Watson, who had previously performed as a solo support act for Roxy Music. The success of the live album led to the creation of a more permanent incarnation of 801, without Lloyd Watson, while Manzanera's old schoolmate Simon Ainley took over from Eno as lead vocalist, but after recording the follow-up album 'Listen Now' and a short UK tour, they disbanded. In 1982 Ian Little, better known for his production of Duran Duran's third album '7 & The Ragged Tiger', started putting together his own album, and co-opted his old gaffer at Manzanera's Gallery Studio so contribute guitar to the tracks. From the mid-80's Manzanera added his guitar expertise to a number of albums by French artists, including Alain Bashung, Éric Charden and Carla Bissi, recording as Alice, and was also asked to gift a solo piece to the 'Guitar Speak' series of compilation albums, so enjoy this collection of some of his best collaborations with some well-known and some not so well-known artists from the first 20 years of his career. 

Track listing

01 You Won't See Me (from 'These Foolish Things' by Bryan Ferry 1973)
02 Cindy Tells Me (from 'Here Come The Warm Jets' by Eno 1974)
03 Momamma Scuba (from 'Fear' by John Cale 1974)
04 The End (from 'The End...' by Nico 1974)
05 The Inexorable Sequence (from 'Resolving Contradictions' by Andy Mackay 1978)
06 Clues (from 'Freeze Frame' by Godley & Creme 1979)
07 Caught In The Crossfire (from 'Caught In The Crossfire' by John Wetton 1980)
08 Extra-Ordinary (from 'Neuromantic' by Yukihiro Takahashi 1981)
09 Balance (from 'Gates' by New Asia 1982)
10 Breath Of Life (from 'Explorers' by The Explorers 1985)
11 Citta Chiusa (from 'Park Hotel' by Alice 1986)
12 Sphinx (from 'Guitar Speak' by Various Artists 1988)
13 Legere Eclaircie (from 'Novice' by Alain Bashung 1989)
14 Spellbound (from 'Abracadabra' by ABC 1991)
15 L'Amour Sourdine (from 'Je rocke ma vie' by Éric Charden 1992)

For MAC users

Press command+shift+period (to show hidden files) and a grayed out folder '...and on guitar" will appear and the mp3s will be inside. Either drag those to another folder OR rename the folder without any periods at the beginning. Press command+shift+period to once again hide the hidden files.