ABC
ROYAL ALBERT HALL, LONDON
16 APRIL
★★★★
© Harry Herd/Redferns
Artists who arrive fullyformed can be left with nowhere to go. ABC’s 1982 No.1 debut album, The Lexicon Of Love, was such a masterpiece of romantic, erudite electropop perfection that they were to find its impact impossible to repeat. Cupid’s Arrow rarely strikes twice.
Martin Fry reportedly came to regard this glittering album as ABC’s albatross. However, he has now made his peace with it sufficiently to play it live, in full, accompanied by the lush strings of the Southbank Symphonia conducted by Lexicon’s original arranger, Anne Dudley. Before this main event, we get a mixed-bag opening set.