|
4 |
Scarborough Futurist Theatre |
|
5 |
Glasgow Apollo |
|
6 |
Edinburgh Playhouse |
|
8 |
Manchester Apollo |
|
9 |
Sheffield City Hall |
|
10 |
Preston Guildhall |
|
11 |
Leicester De Monforte Hall |
|
12 |
Stoke-on Trent Kings Hall |
|
14 |
St. AustellCornish Coliseum |
|
15 |
Poole Arts Centre |
|
17 |
Oxford Apollo |
|
18 |
Birmingham Odeon |
|
19 |
Bristol Colston Hall |
|
20 |
Coventry Apollo |
|
21 |
Brighton Centre |
|
23 |
London Hammersmith Odeon |
|
24 |
London Hammersmith Odeon |
Halfway down the queue, two long-haired indie types were conducting a scholarly discourse. `ABC've almost been written out of the history of rock, but they were incredibly important,' said one. `They were the link between punk and dance,' said his pony-tailed friend..It wasn't necessary to see their faces to know that they were in their early thirties - too young for punk, too old for Prodigy. That's ABC's fanbase (which is still considerable enough to fill the Empire's 1,200 seats) all over. Their fans' Year Zero was 1982, when the Lexicon Of Love album was released. It distinguished itself from the era's Haircut 100s and Heaven 17s by virtue of its violins, madly romantic lyrics and gold Elvis suits. It may well have been the link between punk and dance; at least, it happened midway between them. And Eng Lit graduate Martin Fry was definitely different from other lead singers of the day - possessed of the rare combination of nostalgia, open-mindedness and musical ambition. Their disappearance in the late eighties was simply due to their swoony tunefulness reaching its sing-by date. Now that revivalists like The Divine Comedy have made tunefulness modish again, ABC have wasted no time making a new album, Skyscraping (out March 24) and doing their first show since 1983.
The Guardian
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18 |
Moles Bath |
|
19 |
Alleycat Live Reading |
|
22 |
Lomax Liverpool |
|
23 |
The Room Hull |
|
25 |
Lemon Tree Aberdeen |
|
26 |
King Tuts Glasgow |
|
27 |
Zone Dundee |
|
28 |
Esplanade Southend on Sea |
|
1 |
Fleece Bristol |
|
4 |
Wedgewood Portsmouth |
|
5 |
Zap Brighton |
|
6 |
London |
|
7 |
Shepherds Bush London |
ABC Concert in the Shepherds Bush Empire, 7th March 1997, 8.30 - 9.40 PM
Special Guests: Earl Brutus (5 drunken hooligans from the local pub, unfortunately the truth!!!)
ABC are Martin Fry and 8 new musicians (3 background-singers, 2 keyborders + saxophone, drums, bass, guitars) + Band is young and international (5 blacks and 3 whites), great groove, they did not wear suits but jeans + No merchandise available except T-Shirt with abc-logo on it + Neither new single nor album were available + Shepherds Bush Theatre almost looked like theatre seen in MANTRAP- Video, great atmosphere
New songs sound like taken from Beauty Stab-album + Show was sold out (about 2000 people) and unfortunately much too short, tickets cost 10 pounds
Obviously no one recorded this gig
Here is the complete song list:
encore
From Thorsten Blankertz.
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5 |
Sheffield City Hall Ballroom |
|
6 |
Middlesbrough Town Hall |
|
7 |
Mancherster Academy |
|
8 |
Leeds Town & Country |
|
12 |
Ipswich Corn Exchange |
|
13 |
Brighton Dome |
|
14 |
London Kentish Town Forum |
Set list for Sheffield
Great concert, we stood at the front at the stage, there were between 3 or 4 hundred people Martin seemed very pleased by the reaction of the crowd, especially as he was home.
The set rolled along, although the guitar was far too loud and Vocals very quiet.. When it came to Look of love Martin started with the second verse and realised his mistake and stopped the band, then asked us what the first verse was..After prompting they started the song again, still a few mistakes included!
Thanks to Darran
