The never-ending ’80s nostalgia trip continues. They’re all out there, doing it: Kim Wilde, Nik Kershaw, Howard Jones, Duran Duran and many more, singing their old hits for an ageing and well-healed audience who have swapped teenage years for mortgages and life insurance. Tonight, ABC are in town. This York gig is part of a sold out tour where the ’80s pop heroes team up with the Southbank Sinfonia, a full orchestra who flesh out the sound wonderfully.

By Miles Salter

I don’t think I have ever seen the Barbican stage so crowded. Martin Fry, ABC’s tall and slim front man, barely has room to wiggle, as the Orchestra and band fill up the stage. There are over 40 musicians playing. But the sound is wonderful, and in some ways the Orchestra is the star of the show. 

Tonight’s gig is a revisiting of ABC’s hugely successful Lexicon Of Love album, an album that helped define the landscape of early 1980s pop in the UK. The album was produced by the masterful Trevor Horn, with very clever arrangements that took in brass, strings, percussion and vocals. 

Fry looks good in a suit, and the audience appreciate his voice, which holds up four decades after his big ’80s success. ‘You still got it,’ shouts a female fan. ‘You guys have still got it,’ rejoins Fry, the smoothie, although in truth he looks a lot better than some of the audience. Fry is from Sheffield and reminisces briefly about some of the bands that came from that town, including Human League and Def Leppard. 

With Horn’s arrangements, and the presence of the orchestra, everything has to be slick. Andy Carr’s bass playing is top notch, and utterly on the nail.  ‘Nothing out of tune or out of time for us rock ‘n’ rollers,’ says Fry, early on. The precision cuts both ways – everything falls into place superbly well, but there’s no deviation allowed, no improvisation. 

You could see this show in three different towns and it would be precisely the same. That said, the audience loves the second half, when the Lexicon Of Love is played in its entirety. And things really take off when they play The Look Of Love, a piece of pop brilliance that is impossible to resist. It’s so good, they play it twice. Some of the audience looked like nothing was going to prise them out of their seats, but me and Caroline and Natalie were dancing at the back. Some moments don’t come round twice. 

ABC played at York Barbican on Saturday 27 January 2024.