When ABC returned in 1985 with a new line-up comprising founder members Martin Fry and Mark White, plus David Yarritu and Eden aka Fiona Russell Powell, it seemed to be met with an unfair level of sniffiness.
Admittedly, ABC had set the bar impossibly high with their debut album The Lexicon Of Love a mere three years previously and the follow up, Beauty Stab, but commercially speaking, less successfully attempt to do something different.
Third album, How To Be A Zillionaire, was somewhere between the two: songs were peppered with classic ABC musical motifs, Fry's lyrics were typically sharp but accessible; on the other hand, the production reflected the shift in the times and the image...? Well, could it have been more mid-80s/MTV-friendly?
I think some of the ire directed at ABC may have been because the newbies weren't 'proper musicians': David Yarritu was a photographer, Eden a journalist. But what did it matter, really?
The singles were great, the look was striking, not just Eden and Yarritu, but Mark White with his Tin Tin quiff and Martin Fry swapping his gold lamé suit for drainpipe trousers and a huge belt circling an impossibly thin waist.
There were four singles from How To Be A Zillionaire, only one of which cracked the Top 30, peaking at 26 in April 1985, two places higher than the parent album six months later.
Be Near Me is one of my favourite ABC songs. Although I didn't buy my own copy on 12" until a few years later, I was surprised to find that it wasn't a bigger hit at the time. Then again, the competition at the top was stiff: Philip Bailey & Phil Collins, Pie Jesu by Sarah Brightman, Tears For Fears and Go West; even the #2 success of the umpteenth single from Frankie Goes To Hollywood's debut album was also a sign that the wheels were coming off the bus.
A couple of years later, ABC would have another hit single (When Smokey Sings) and Top 10 album (Alphabet City), but Be Near Me stands out as a classic single that should have been on the radio everywhere back in 1985.
No comments:
Post a Comment