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ABC go orchestral at York Barbican on Saturday to glory in The Lexicon Of Love

HOW does Wikipedia describe ABC’s iconic, chart-topping 1982 debut album The Lexicon Of Love?

New pop. Pop. Sophisti-pop. New Wave. Disco. Dance-pop. Blue-eyed soul. Synth pop.

On Saturday at York Barbican, one word will suffice: orchestral. That night, as part of the Sheffield band’s now extended tour, Martin Fry and co will be joined by the Southbank Sinfonia, conducted by longtime collaborator Anne Dudley, who played such a key role along with producer Trevor Horn on the original recording sessions.

They will perform the million-selling album in its entirely, complemented by further ABC hits such as the two-hour set-opening When Smokey Sings, Be Near Me and The Night You Murdered Love.

Fry, now 65, first dusted off his trademark lamé suit for a one-off orchestral performance of The Lexicon Of Love at the Royal Albert Hall, but such was the reaction that a 2009 tour ensued, and 15 years later, the Fry-Dudley partnership is off on the road again.

“When we first did it in 2009, it was a novel idea, and we spent a lot of time getting the arrangements right, not a band with an orchestra in the background but a full show,” he recalls.

Anne beavered away on the orchestral charts, filling two suitcases for the 36 members of the Southbank Sinfonia. “It’s cast of thousands on stage, more than 40 people, for these shows,” says Fry.

What a contrast with the peace and quiet of his location for this Zoom interview (on January 11). “I’m in Barbados. It’s 8.30 in the morning over here,” he says. “In the Tropics, I get up every day at about five or six. It’s really nice! Running on the beach each day.”

The cover artwork for ABC’s 1982 debut album The Lexicon Of Love

Soon he would be heading to London for the tour rehearsals with Dudley and the orchestra, but Fry spends “quite a lot of time” in Barbados, as well as going to Miami and “being in Yorkshire quite often”.

Yorkshire was where it all started for Stockport-born Martin Fry and ABC, the band that grew out of his original group, Vice Versa, in Sheffield in 1980. “I think a lot of it came from the double dejection of knowing there were no outlets unless you were a footballer or a hairdresser. It was a very depressed area,” he says.

The result was a debut that was both velvet and steel, fuelled by the romantic longing of Motown soul and a post-punk attitude that chimed with the South Yorkshire industrial decline and strife of the time.

“We were from an experimental background, rehearsing in an old steelworks building, where I cleaned out the building for [Sheffield band] Clock DVA, but we wanted to make a record where we’d compete on an international level.”

Fry and ABC were driven by a “combination of ambition and experimentation”. The look, the suits, came from “jumble sales where widows took their husbands’ clothes”, evoking B-movie films stars, while the sound was driven by the dancefloor and the possibilities brought on by technology changing all the time.

“I loved Pere Ubu and Joy Division, but we wanted to make music that was more polished, like Gamble & Huff and Motown, mirroring what was happening in the car plants, producing something every day.”

Living in Sheffield’s Hyde Park flats [later demolished in 1992-93], Fry did not want to patronise anyone by writing “Coronation Street dramas” in song, but instead he would showcase the counterpoint: the nightlife.

“Going to Pennys; the people that would go into Sheffield city centre in zoot suits. Very aspirational. Looking incredible,” he says. “It was that romance we were capturing – and the idea that we might one day play Las Vegas.” A dream that would indeed come true.

Martin Fry with Anne Dudley and the Southbank Sinfonia

Released on June 2 1982 and topping the charts a week later, The Lexicon Of Love and its quartet of single, Tears Are Not Enough, Poison Arrow, The Look Of Love and All Of My Heart, felt like pop perfection from the city of Cabaret Voltaire, Clock DVA and The Human League.

How could ABC and the king of the clever couplet follow it up? “We didn’t want to Xerox it but go off in a different direction with Beauty Stab and How To Be A Zillionaire,” says Fry. “But The Lexicon Of Love has never felt like a burden…no, it’s a blessing.”

He continues to write songs. “It was great to do The Lexicon Of Love II; all new songs. That came out of playing on the road with the orchestra,” he says. “It’s just therapeutic when you stumble across something good in a song.”

The thrill of “creating a new moment” still delights him as Younger Now, Older Then joins the list. “I’m too stubborn for writing songs to become a grind,” he says.

On Saturday, York can enjoy The Lexicon Of Love once more, not only the sharp suits and sharper words of Fry, but also the orchestral arrangements of Anne Dudley.

That skill was first exhibited when producer Trevor Horn wanted to do more than merely replicate strings on synthesisers on the recording sessions. Dudley was ostensibly there to embellish the keyboards, but such was her precocious talent, she said, ‘let me come up with some string arrangements’.”

“I think they were the first ever ones she did,” says an admiring Fry. Strings reattached, those songs bloom anew this weekend.

ABC: The Lexicon Of Love Orchestral Tour, York Barbican, Saturday, doors, 7pm. Box office: ticketmaster.co.uk.

A Way With Media’s promotional picture for the launch of Martin Fry’s memoir A Lexicon Of Life

MARTIN Fry will perform ABC hits and share personal stories from more than four decades in the music industry in his ABC – An Intimate Evening With Martin FryTour.

Yorkshire dates will be at King’s Hall, Ilkley, on November 21 2024 (box office: bradford-theatres.co.uk); Dewsbury Town Hall, May 8 2025 (creativekirklees.com); Scarborough Spa on Saturday, May 10 2025 (scarboroughspa.co.uk); Northallerton Forum, May 11 2025 (forumnorthallerton.org.uk); Harrogate Theatre, May 21 2025 (harrogatetheatre.co.uk) and Leeds City Varieties Music Hall, May 23 2025 (leedsheritagetheatres.com).

“I have been very lucky in my career to have played venues around the world from massive arenas in the States to Sheffield Town Hall in my hometown, where we marked 40 years of The Lexicon of Love,” says Fry. “However, this tour really is something a bit different; an opportunity for stripped-back music and conversation with my fans. It will be really special, I can’t wait.”

Fry will be promoting his upcoming autobiography, A Lexicon Of Life, now available for pre-order in two formats ahead of its summer publication. The first is a signed, numbered edition of 2,500 with an exclusive CD featuring newly recorded acoustic versions of ABC hits and two new tracks .

The second, a deluxe edition, is limited to 350 signed and numbered copies, including the autobiography, hand-bound in the gold Savile Row fabric used for Fry’s iconic jackets, an exclusive gold vinyl record featuring Fry’s new acoustic versions and a rare bonus CD of ABC’s Traffic album.

The featured songs will be Tears Are Not Enough; Ten Below Zero; Poison Arrow; The Look Of Love; When Smokey Sings; How To Be A Millionaire; Never Get To Be The King; All Of My Heart; Be Near Me and The Luckiest Man Alive.

Head to: awaywithmedia.com/buy-books/martin-fry.

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REVIEW: The Full Monty, Grand Opera House, York, leaving hats on until Sat ****

Bill Ward’s Gerald, left, Danny Hatchard’s Gaz, Nicholas Prasad’s Lomper and Neil Hurst’s Dave watch understudy Leyon Stolz-Hunter’s Horse go through his audition moves in The Full Monty. Picture: Ellie Kurttz

AT the midweek matinee, there appeared to be more men on stage than in the audience. It was very much the same febrile atmosphere that greeted the Chippendales on their York Barbican visits.

Outnumbered, dear reader, yes, but ironically The Full Monty is just as much a show for blokes too. Hence the link up with Menfulness, the York mental health charity.

Throughout this week’s run, the Grand Opera House will be collecting donations at bars and kiosk card payment points to provide funds towards urgent counselling for men at crisis point.

Men don’t talk to each other. Not about their problems, neither their own, nor each other’s. Just the football. But they do talk in this play. A lot. Men would benefit from doing it more often.

In the meantime, let’s talk about this terrific touring revival of The Full Monty, the spin-off play that the 1997 film’s scriptwriter, Simon Beaufoy premiered in 2013 in his first work for the stage.

In essence it is another strip off the same block, The Fuller Monty that goes even further, replaying the film’s greatest bits and greatest hits (Hot Chocolate, Donna Summer, Tom Jones finale), but with resonance anew and a political punch to the gut amid the cost-of-living crisis, rising rate of men’s suicides and a Tory government mired in long-reigning powerplays.

Just as was the case in the Sheffield of 1990s’ industrial strife, whose skyline forms the backdrop to Jasmine Swan’s fold-out set design of scaffolding and gauze.

Policemen’s drill: Nicholas Prasad’s Lomper, left, understudy Leyon Stolz-Hunter’s Horse, Jake Quickenden’s Guy, Bill Ward’s Gerald and Neil Hurst’s Dave in the finale to The Full Monty. Picture: Ellie Kurttz

The Republic of South Yorkshire’s steel industry had been knifed in the back, steelworkers stripped of their jobs, their dignity, their future. Men like former prisoner Gaz (Danny Hatchard, from EastEnders and Not Going Out) and his best mate, big Dave (Neil Hurst), who operated the steelworks crane.

The lads are now consigned to the scrapheap, the forlorn job club form-filling, and thieving from the foundry, where they have snuck into as the play opens, looking up at the crane, named Margaret after you know who, once mighty but now dormant in the damp, ever since the factory was shut down.

They will encounter insecure security guard Lomper (Nicholas Prasad), stuck in a dead-end job that he wants to end with a rope around his neck. Next will be Gerald (Bill Ward, from Coronation Street and Emmerdale), the jumped-up foreman with a sideline in dance tuition at the Conservative club and a free-spending wife (in Mrs Thatcher blue suits and stiff blonde hair), who is yet to tell he has lost his job. Six months ago.

On a night out at the Chippendales are Jean (Harrogate Theatre regular Katy Dean), Dave’s long-suffering yet devoted cleaner wife, and Mandy (Laura Matthews), Gaz’s ex-wife, who is threatening to cut off his links with son Nathan (Jack Wisniewski, sharing the role on tour with Cass Dempsey, Theo Hills and Rowan Poulton) as he falls further behind with the maintenance.

Ever the Billy Fisher dreamer, Gaz hits on the fundraising idea of forming a strip act, a Yorkshire fish-and-chips answer to the Chippendales’ T-bone steak, for one night only. Gerald will teach the routines, joined by Gaz, lovable, ever-dieting Dave, offbeat Lomper and who else?

The auditions, always a highlight, bring the first half to a double climax under Michael Gyngell’s perfectly weighted direction. First, step forward, a tad gingerly, Horse (Ben Onwukwe), with his James Brown/Northen Soul moves and dodgy hip.

Next, the moment the matinee hordes had been waiting for: the arrival to whoops and cheers of Jake Quickenden, last seen in York stripping down to his golden hot pants as a hunky cowboy in Footloose at the Theatre Royal. This time, Jake and his fabbadabbadoo abs are playing Guy, although audience members are quick to shout out Jake’s name, demanding rather more than a pound of flesh.  

The full package: Jake Quickenden’s Guy in The Full Monty. Picture: Ellie Kurttz

He takes it all in his stride, staying in character, gay, gorgeous but still coming to terms with a lost love, in keeping with Gyngell’s production playing the big tease, but always being true to Beaufoy’s original spirit.

For many, The Full Monty will be familiar, and that familiarity breeds contentment amid the discontent of the lives depicted, played here as if the for the first time.

The bare truths surround impotence, unemployment, loneliness and suicide attempts. You laugh because otherwise you would cry, and sometimes you do both at once, faced by comedy and pathos, mischief and melancholia in tandem, dealing with the stuff of life:  resilience, community, fighting back, and love, in whatever form, whatever shape. The Yorkshire of Keith Waterhouse, John Godber, Alan Plater.

This Cheltenham Everyman Theatre and Buxton Opera House touring production delivers the Fullest Monty yet, superbly cast, with spot-on lighting by Andrew Exeter, ace choreography by Ian West, and a soundtrack not only of the film favourites but Pulp, Primal Scream, The Verve and Chumbawamba too.

It feels wrong to pick out performances: Ward, Onwukwe and Prasad all shine, but partnerships are particularly strong in Gyngell’s company. Take your pick:  the friendship of Hatchard’s Gaz and Hurst’s Dave (with his echoes of York’s Mark Addy). The bond between Hatchard’s Gaz and Wisniewski as his canny-beyond-his-years son, at once amusing yet deeply moving too.

Or the ups and downs of Hurst’s Dave and Dean’s Jean, so been there, done that. And then there’s Quickenden’s Guy and his appendage, his Monty python, if you like.

Performances: 7.30pm tonight and tomorrow; 2.30pm and 7.30pm, Saturday. Box office: atgtickets.com/york

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‘The Full Monty will make you feel part of a community again. Who doesn’t want to experience that’ on 25th anniversary tour?

Six pack; Jake Quickenden, left, Ben Onwukwe, Neil Hurst, Danny Hatchard, Bill Ward and Nicholas Prasad in The Full Monty. Picture: Ellie Kurttz

MARKING the 25th anniversary of Peter Cattaneo’s Sheffield film, The Full Monty is stripped for stage action in a national tour of Simon Beaufoy’s spin-off play that arrives in York tomorrow.

As the group of lads on the scrapheap tries to regain dignity and pride, the story of downs, more downs and ups, defiant humour and heartbreak will resonate anew amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Leaving their hat on at the Grand Opera House this week will be Danny Hatchard’s Gaz, Jake Quickenden’s Guy, Bill Ward’s Gerald, Neil Hurst’s Dave, Ben Onwukwe’s Horse and Nicholas Prasad’s Lomper.

Completing the cast will be Oliver Joseph Brooke; Katy Dean; Laura Matthews; Badapple Theatre favourite Danny Mellor; Adam Porter Smith; Suzanne Procter; Alice Schofield and Leyon Stolz-Hunter. The young actors sharing the role of Nathan on tour will be Cass Dempsey, Theo Hills, Rowan Poulton and Jack Wisniewski.

Directed by Michael Gyngell, The Full Monty tour marks the first co-production and partnership between the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham and Buxton Opera House.

Choreography and intimacy direction is by Ian West; set and costume design by Jasmine Swan; lighting design by Andrew Exeter and sound design by Chris Whybrow.

Making plans: A scene from The Full Monty as the lads audition Horse, right, for their strip act. Picture: Ellie Kurttz

Here, television stars Danny Hatchard (from EastEnders and Not Going Out), Jake Quickenden (Dancing On Ice winner and I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here! runner up) and Bill Ward (from Emmerdale and Coronation Street) discuss the joy of taking to the stage in this autumn’s 25th anniversary touring production.

The Full Monty is experiencing a resurgence, first in the Disney+ TV series and now this tour show. Why has stood it stood the test of time?

Danny: “Is there a more iconic working-class comedy than The Full Monty? I’d argue not. Especially one that covers so many incredibly important topics that are still very relevant today. Fathers’ rights, depression, suicide, impotence, homosexuality, unemployment, body image.

“Tackling important subjects like these whilst adding a sprinkle of nostalgia and a dash of humour takes the audience on a two -hour emotional rollercoaster filled with tears and belly laughter. This show is not only a cocktail of excellence, but also hugely relatable to both men and women.”

Jake: “It’s a story for everyone and it has everything – love, humour, sensitive subjects, the lot. So many people can relate to the characters. They draw on relationships that affect everyone: ex-wife; ex-wife’s new husband; kid that lives with mum; lads; being skint, the list goes on and on.

“It means that’s everyone who watches it can feel like it’s speaking to them, and then of course, there is the brilliant humour, the dancing and everything that goes with it!”

Bill: “Because at its core it revolves around a number of universal, timeless themes: male brotherhood, love, overcoming loss and adversity, and ingenious solutions to universal recognisable problems. This is essentially about six men who’ve lost not only their jobs, but their sense of identity and their dignity too, and what they’re prepared to do to get them back.”

Hitting their stride: Bill Ward’s Gerald, left, Danny Hatchard’s Gaz, Neil Hurst’s Dave, Nicholas Prasad’s Lomper and understudy Leyon Stolz Hunter’s Horse invest their all in the strip routine finale from The Full Monty. Picture: Ellie Kurttz

The Full Monty is a comedy but one that explores tough issues around male body image and mental health too. In which ways are these themes relevant today?

Danny: “They’re almost indistinguishable. If anything, times are harder now on men (and women) than they ever have been, especially regarding body image and mental health. Social media being the main driving force of that. Every day people post their idea of ‘perfection’ all over the internet, and naturally we compare.

“I’d say The Full Monty is just as important now as it was 25 years ago. There used to be more of a sense of community and care for one another, and I feel social media is pushing us further and further away from our natural way of communicating. The Full Monty will make you feel part of a community again. Who doesn’t want to experience that?”

Jake: A lot of people ask this [question] and do you know, I think The Full Monty led the way with a lot of these conversations. It was ’97 when then film came out, men didn’t really share their issues with each other, and it was still pretty taboo to be open about mental health and being gay.

“This story reminds us of lots of things that are more accepted today but still very important: talk to people if you are feeling down – there is always another way out other than suicide.

“Being yourself in the world is nothing to be ashamed of. Your body is the only one you have; love it no matter how it looks; everyone likes something different. Just because you are old doesn’t mean you can’t do something…there are just so many messages in here for everyone.”

Bill: “There are so many things in this play that resonate today. Simon Beaufoy, the writer, came to see us during rehearsals, and he was very clear it wasn’t a comedy at all. ‘A play with jokes’, is how he described it.

“It is of course very funny indeed, but the comedy actually comes from the very real tragedy that all these characters are facing in their lives…different circumstances, different starting points, but real grief and tragedy nevertheless.”

Jake Quickenden now: Playing Guy in The Full Monty, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York from tomorrow. Picture: Ellie Kurttz

In keeping with the brotherhood between the men in the play, how well have you bonded with your fellow cast members?

Danny: “The casting team have done an incredible job. I love and respect every member of this cast very much. They say time flies when you’re having fun. Well, two hours feels like 20 minutes on stage with this lot. We’re all just a bunch of good mates having a wonderful time. Every scene feels effortless, and I trust them all implicitly.”

Jake: “I don’t want to sound clichéd but literally everyone is so close. Usually, you get little cliques grow but we genuinely all get on so well, and because a lot of the scenes include all of us, we just have a laugh and get closer and closer every day.

“Then there are all the memories we’re making as we tour the UK and all those different theatres, hotels, lunch breaks end up building to create this huge happy family. Plus, we are all hilarious, which helps!”

Bill: “This is a wonderful cast and crew. Hugely talented and lovely too. We’re a very happy band of sisters and brothers.”

What do you hope this week’s audiences will take away from seeing this production?

Danny: “Pure unadulterated happiness.”

Jake: “The main thing is: be yourself, never give up, never listen to what anyone thinks and just do you! The story is sad at times, but every character overcomes their worries in some way and ends with success! It’s a feel-good show, which keeps people laughing even when they are crying.”

Bill: “This is a very beautiful, heartwarming and at times very moving story. It’s also very, very funny indeed and an absolute riot at the end. A properly banging night out at the theatre.”

Jake Quickenden then: Striking a pose in hot pants in his role as cowboy Willard Hewitt in Footloose The Musical at York Theatre Royal last year

Did you know?

JAKE Quickenden last appeared on a York stage as hunky cowboy Willard Hewitt, stripping to his golden pants in Footloose The Musical at the Theatre Royal in April 2022.

BILL Ward’s last appearance on a York stage came during the Theatre Royal’s Haunted Season, cast opposite fellow Coronation Street star Wendi Peters in Philip Meeks’s The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow in October 2021. He played not only village elder statesman Baltus Van Tassel, but also a naughty 90-year-old female cook, a hard-drinking coach driver and a crazy, delusional Dutch captain.

The Full Monty, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm plus 2.30pm Wednesday and Saturday matinees. Box office: atgtickets.com/york. Also: Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, November 14 to 18, 7.30pm plus 2pm Wednesday and 2.30pm Saturday matinees; 01274 432000 or bradford-theatres.co.uk.

The men from Full Monty say yes to supporting York mental health charity Menfulness in fund-raising drive

The Full Monty cast with representatives from the York charity Menfulness in the foyer bar at the Grand Opera House, York

THE Full Monty cast has met up with the men’s mental health charity, Menfulness, ahead of the first night of this week’s run in York.

The Grand Opera House is supporting the York charity by collecting donations at bars and kiosks card payment points throughout the week to provide funds for urgent counselling for men at crisis point.

Menfulness is an inclusive social wellbeing group that supports and promotes improvements in men’s lives through activities and counselling. The group is “led by five blokes from York who, like most of us, have struggled with mental health and the pressures of life”.  

“Our goal is to bring men together to socialise, exercise, enjoy themselves, talk and let off steam in a non-judging, friendly and supportive environment,” says the charity. “These are all essential for wellbeing and health, both physical and mental.

“Menfulness is not only changing lives, it’s saving lives. And we aim to be the leaders of a cultural shift in which men can talk, where we don’t have to man up, where it’s OK not to be OK, and where support is plentiful, accessible and affordable.”

To find out more about the charity, head to: menfulness.org