CRISP N FRY

ABC were more essential to the pop alphabet of the 1980s than virtually any other band you might care to mention. Looking back on all the flamboyant acts who raided the Top Of The Pops make-up room during that decade, there were some great singles bands and a lot of bloody awful singles bands but, with the exception of the Human League, no-one else could sustain it over the course of a full album.
The ephemeral, roll-in, roll-out nature of the 80s pop aesthetic was, by definition, anathema to the idea of an enduring piece of art that would be handed down to the next generation. The 80s was about disposable heroes and biodegradable music. And I loved it. For those reasons? Nah because that s when I grew up.
But how does Fry himself view the 80s? Most nightclubs these days have at least one night a week dedicated to it.
I think it s inevitable that after a certain period of time has elapsed, there s going to be a re-evaluation of what went on; of what it was all about. There s a nostalgia for all types of music from speed garage to acid house. It s only now that we re at a sufficient distance from it, that we can stand back and see what was good and what was naff about it.
The Lexicon Of Love, though, is as good a read now as it was then. Released in 1982 and re-mastered and re-issued on this, its fifteenth anniversary, ABC s debut album was an epochal moment in the New Romantic movement; a golden child of the era where the keyboard and synth ruled over the guitar.
The new-fangled studio technology was used as a base with which to fashion a monumental sonic pyramid built from the Motown soul of the 60s Fry acknowledges Marvin Gaye in particular as a touchstone and the funk and disco grooves of the 70s. And don t forget Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, adds Fry.
The result was an album which is certainly of its time, but which also transcends it. Songs like All Of My Heart , Poison Arrow and Many Happy Returns , for instance, thematically reside at an address that was always more Heartbreak Hotel than 16 Lover s Lane.
I always loved Elvis, he declares. The showmanship and glamour of his Las Vegas shows was incredibly exciting to me. He was definitely an influence. The first movie I ever saw was Girls, Girls, Girls, which my grandad took me to see in Salford when I was a kid.
What do you think when you see old clips of yourself on Top Of The Pops? Do you cringe or are you proud of the way you were then?
Well, it s like looking at an old school photograph. All I know is it felt right to wear a gold lami suit in 1982.
Would you wear it now?
Well, I handed it on to Bono and Gold Blade. Jake (Shillingford, lead singer of My Life Story) has got it now. Elvis, of course, had it before me. We re all part of the lami army. We go marching on.
You must be glad to see glamorous pop music making a comeback?
Yeah. The Divine Comedy, for example, are a joy to see. I think people are getting bored with all those Britpop bands who just stand there motionless on stage and stare at their feet for two hours. Most of the contemporaries of Oasis have no charisma at all. There s nothing happening.
ABC are making their first live appearance in Ireland since the early 80s when, according to one George Byrne, they bamboozled the SFX with two astonishing gigs of pure pop genius. Unfortunately, I was still spinning my yo-yo and bunking off swimming lessons at school when all this was going on.
It is therefore quite a momentous occasion to have Fry and his nine-piece band, which includes a string section, perform at the Heineken Weekender in Cork this month. The only original member left of the original line-up, Fry will be drawing heavily on Lexicon, as well as getting to grips with the new album, Skyscraping.
Although it has its moments, Skyscraping is a flawed album that nevertheless will probably benefit from live performance, away from the studio lip-gloss.
Heaven 17 s Glenn Gregory, who helped write, produce and even sing on the new album, is not, however, Leeside bound.
Glenn can t come over because he s got this dog and it goes with him everywhere. It was even with him all the time he was in the studio but they ve got quarantine laws so he d never be able to get it on the plane, Fry chuckles.
The photos inside the sleeve of Skyscraping depict Fry alone and palely loitering around some sterile-looking building in the middle of nowhere. The architecture appears to belong to at least the 21st century; it s as if Fry is the only survivor of the Second Great Thermonuclear War or something.
That was an amazing place to visit. It s actually in Brazil. They tried to build a modern city in the desert that would become the brand new capital. They called it Brazilia. It was built in 1960. It was a very odd feeling being in the middle of a Brazilian desert and finding yourself in this futuristic setting. The photos capture it very well, I think. It s like J.G. Ballard meets The Prisoner.
Indeed, the picture of Fry ascending the stairs on the front cover, dressed in a white suit, with his back turned, could be mistaken for a still of Patrick McGoohan from the cult 60s TV series. (Strangely enough, Prisoner trainspotters might also remember that one of the actors who played No. 2 bore an uncanny resemblance to Fry as well.)
What made Fry travel all the way to South America for a photo shoot? Did the journey have a deeper significance? Was he trying to find himself ?
No, nothing like that. I had read about it and it fascinated me. For me, making records is how I find myself. That s my form of psychotherapy. I see recording an album as like having a blank canvass - you can paint whatever you want on it and whatever does come out, is where you re at at that time.
Do you take drugs at all when you re recording?
It s hard to make records on drugs or at least good ones. Brian Wilson and Jimi Hendrix did it, I suppose. But they re the exceptions. There s not that many records where it seems to have worked. I know it s a clichi but I find that adrenalin is the best drug. The feeling I get when I m up on stage is like nothing else in the world.
At one stage, Fry was quite seriously ill so ill that he thought he might die.
That was ten years ago. I m over that now. An awful lot is made of that and it s always written about as though it only happened last year but it didn t.
How did it affect you as a person?
Well, I lost a few years. It helped put things into perspective. I appreciated life a lot more after that, I ll tell you.
And now for potentially the trickiest question. One of the former members of ABC, Fiona Russell-Powell, a founder member who had departed before the band hit the big time, recently wrote a scathing attack in a leading British newspaper on Fry, around the time he played his first gig in an age at London s Shepherd s Bush Empire. He was, she said, just cashing in on a long-dead cow.
How does he respond?
With all respect, Fiona is as mad as a hatter. Her sense of logic is different to mine. . . it s different to most people s. Sure, I m going to play a lot of the old stuff but I don t intend to fuck around with a legacy. I ve got too much respect for it to do that. If I thought that what I was doing was anything other than vibrant and exciting, I d stop right now.
But it s alive. I don t live in the past. I live in the present. I m fighting against people preconceptions. n
Skyscraping is out now on Blatant/deConstruction. ABC play the Heineken Weekender in Cork on Sat 28th June.