— Dave Rimmer
It has been more than two and a half years since I first began blogging from two separate points of Smash Hits time. Back when I started this blog in the spring of 2018, I kicked things off with "Skin Deep" by The Passions which was about the point in which the term 'Single of the Fortnight' began to be used on a regular basis. I then went from there. It was only later that I decided to go back almost to the beginning, to the early part of 1979 which allowed me to fill in the blanks. Not every I wrote about had been specifically named 'SOTF' or 'best new single' or 'single of the week [sic.]' but I made a few educated guess along with the odd wild stab in the dark in order to piece the whole thing together.
Since that point I've been blogging three times every two weeks. As I approach each fortnightly period, I try to spot links between the trio of acts up on deck. So far there haven't been many — and even then they've been tenuous at best. It was just about two years ago in which I blogged about Duran Duran's "Skin Trade" (phenomenal song), The Cure's "Jumping Someone Else's Train" (good but they would go on to do much better), and — keep note of this one for later — Boy George's "Everything I Own" (pitiful though I tried to be as generous as possible). All were or remain major acts in British pop and I figured that was enough of a connection. Similarly, there was this past August in which I covered George Michael's "Praying for Time" (fantastic), The Human League's "Love Action" (even better) and INXS' "Suicide Blonde" (not their best but still strong). Again, a formidable threesome of giant chart acts but with little otherwise in common.
It is only now that I'm able to find a real link between artists. Back (BACK!) is George Michael from the last time I blogged, this time it's ABC's turn and next time we'll be looking at (also back (BACK!)) Boy George. They've all been written about a number of times in on this blog and, more importantly, they were all at the forefront of Britain's New Pop (aka the Second British Invasion) movement of the early eighties. What separates them is how well each of them navigated their way out of it.
Given that I'm looking at both the Georges (christian and surname respectively) in '91 and ABC a full decade earlier, I'm approaching them all at different points of their careers. The former leader of Wham! was at the end of his imperial period while the erstwhile Culture Club vocalist was vying for yet another comeback. ABC, however, were just getting started, the "latest in a long line of incredibly hip Sheffield bands" but one that no one could've predicted would go on to rule British pop for a short time — even if Dave Rimmer did correctly identify them as saviours of UK blue-eyed funk.
ABC are not typically thought of as a DIY group. After-all, they put a premium on production, they used horns and strings and Martin Fry owed a songwriting debt to the likes of George Gershwin and Cole Porter. These are not the kinds of people who get lumped alongside bands with guitars and surly, deadpan vocalists and a modest sense of melody. And, yet, they were as DIY as anyone. They were on a tiny indie label based in their hometown (one they stuck with for an unusual length of time, even if they also had the backing of a major at the same time) and they had yet to hook up with Trevor Horn.
I previously blogged that "Tears Are Not Enough" owed a great deal to Chic, a band who influenced as many British groups as Joy Division or The Sex Pistols, if not more so. Leaders Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers may have been jazz-trained studio cats but their addictive grooves were copied by guitar-bass duos up and down the country. (In Manchester, teenagers and future Smiths' Johnny Marr and Andy Rourke were aspiring to their some Chic-ism of their own) Fry admitted to Rimmer in the following issue of ver Hits that they were using the Smokey Robinson & The Miracles' classic "Tears of a Clown" as a model ("you've got to aim high") and this is exactly the type of song that appealed to the soul/funk crowd at the time: first class songwriting, musical precision, hooks aplenty and all of it is deceptively simple. Some DIY groups aspired to more than others. (By the way, did Fry have "When Smokey Sings" in mind at this early stage?)
"Tears Are Not Enough" (not to be confused with the song of the same name by the Canadian Band Aid/USA for Africa) would later be spruced up for ABC's remarkable debut album The Lexicon of Love. It is one of the LP's many highlights but its bitter, cynical message gets lost among the lush production and so much misidentified romanticism (Lexicon's ten tracks are all much darker than they initially appear but lumped together they somehow become a sweet selection from a box of Christmas chocolates). As a first single from the band once known as Vice Versa (as an aside, those people who insist on saying 'vica versa' are just the worst), it is more obviously sour. The funk beats and horns are a bit more in the background as Fry's irritable voice dominates. This makes for a welcome reminder of how he may have desired to sound like Smokey Robinson but he sure didn't sing like him. For sure he was capable smoother singing but he could rage well before his brave creative left turn/disaster Beauty Stab.
ABC were off to a strong start. "Tears Are Not Enough" gave them a Top 20 hit and they would soon be back (BACK!) with three more excellent singles that took them within inches of a number one. The Lexicon of Love would go on to be 1982's album of the year and it still finishes well in greatest albums of all time lists to this day. But the long term future wouldn't belong to them. George Michael would enjoy a lengthy period of massive success, first in Wham! and then later in his solo career. Boy George would be just about as big in Culture Club though his musical pursuits on his own would be more up and down. Nevertheless, he remained a tabloid favourite and his comebacks at least did well before inevitably petering out. ABC started the nineties off with a greatest hits album and a horrifically bad remix but they were non-factors for the rest of the decade. They would eventually be back (BACK!) but not until they had reverted to the group everyone always wanted them to be.
~~~~~
Also Reviewed This Fortnight
Scritti Politti: "The "Sweetest Girl""
They don't get much more "incredibly hip" than Scritti Politti, even if they hailed from Glasgow or Wales or New York or someplace other than Sheffield. (Sheffielder Martin Fry — from (huh!) ABC — would go on to give his stamp of approval to Scrit single "Faithless", just as compatriot Martyn Ware would do for Prefab Sprout; Sheffield approved!) If ABC were able to deftly hide their darker elements, then Green Gartside was right there with them. I like this period of their's in which the DIY of their old sound remained as they began adding elements from soul and dance music. Pop kids would've surely taken to "The "Sweetest Girl"" (those double quotation marks are giving me some pain) had it been done in the style of future hits "Wood Beez" and "The Word Girl" but that's the journey of pop. Not quite as strong as ABC this fortnight but, as Rimmer suggests, they weren't all that far off. Not quite the future of New Pop but aren't you glad we live in a world in which Scritti Politti have occasionally graced us with records? Or is it just me?
(Click here to see my original review)
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