Showing posts with label ABC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ABC. Show all posts

Saturday, 10 March 2018

Yippee-i yippee-i-ay


Exactly the kind of 80s album cover we love to try and emulate in photos

It has been a rather busy day, having arisen at 6.45am, travelled to Portsmouth to spend the day with Mother (lunch, a walk by the sea-side, rummaging through charity shops and junk shops - it all went very well), and only got home about an hour ago...

However, in a rather interesting weekend for nostalgic music, not only has Robert Smith (as curator for 2018) announced the initial batch of acts in his chosen line-up for this year's Meltdown Festival - including the Psychedelic Furs, Placebo, Nine Inch Nails and Manic Street Preachers - but I discover (with a "Gulp!") that yesterday a certain Mr Martin Fry of the legendary ABC celebrated his 60th birthday!

So, by way of a tribute, here is one of their timeless classics:


[That video is - ahem - something else, is it not, dear reader?]

When your world is full of strange arrangements
And gravity won't pull you through
You know you're missing out on something
Well that something depends on you

All I'm saying
It takes a lot to love you
All I'm doing
You know it's true

All I need now
There's one thing
Yes, one thing that turns this grey sky to blue

That's the look, that's the look
The look of love
That's the look, that's the look
The look of love
That's the look, that's the look
The look of love

When your girl has left you out on the pavement
(Goodbye)
When your dreams fall apart at the seams
Your reason for living, your reason for leaving
Don't ask me what it means

Who's got the look?
I don't know the answer to that question
Where's the look?
If I knew I would tell you

What's the look?
Look for your information
Yes, there's one thing, one thing that still hold true
What's that?

That's the look, that's the look
The look of love
That's the look, that's the look
The look of love
That's the look, that's the look
The look of love

That's the look, that's the look
The look of love
That's the look, that's the look
The look of love
That's the look, that's the look
The look of love
(Look of love)

If you judge a book by the cover
Then you judge the look by the lover
I hope you'll soon recover
Me, I go from one extreme to another

And though my friends just might ask me
They say, "Martin, maybe one day you'll find true love"
I say, "Maybe there must be a solution
To the one thing, the one thing we can't find"

That's the look, that's the look
Sisters and brothers
That's the look, that's the look
Should help each other
That's the look, that's the look
Ooh, ooh Heavens above

That's the look, that's the look
Hip hip hooray
That's the look, that's the look
Yippee-i yippee-i-ay
That's the look, that's the look
Be lucky in love
Look of love


Magnificent.

Thursday, 16 March 2017

You think you're smart - stupid, stupid



Timeslip moment alert...

We're off in Buck Rogers' "Ranger 3" to the wild'n'wacky world of 1982 - a year dominated by E.T., the Falklands War, Michael Jackson's Thriller, tabloid newspaper Bingo games, the SDP, the Israeli war in Lebanon, IRA bombings in London and the births of the compact disc, The Smiths and Prince William.

In the news in March thirty-five years ago: the Argentines raised their flag in the British territory of South Georgia, sparking the political and military drama of Britain's first war in decades; the reprehensible "moral campaigner" Mary Whitehouse was stopped in her tracks from pursuing a lawsuit of "gross indecency" against the National Theatre over the play Romans in Britain (which featured a male rape scene) by the Attorney-General; loony Christians in the USA started burning Iron Maiden albums because of their "satanic lyrics"; HM The Queen opened the Barbican Centre arts complex in the City of London; in the ascendant were Charles Haughey (who became Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland), Adobe Systems (newly founded, its software - which eventually became Photoshop - sparked the "desktop publishing revolution"), and Canada (which, with the passing of The Canada Act 1982, was able to take over authority for amending its own constitution from the British parliament), but "Blues Brother" John Belushi was found dead (aged just 33) of an overdose of heroin and cocaine. In our cinemas: Made in Britain (with Tim Roth), Death Wish II, and the faboo Evil Under the Sun. On telly: On Safari (with Christopher Biggins), the debut series featuring the fifth Doctor Who (Peter Davison), and Crown Court.

And in our charts this week in 1982? Tight Fit's supremely camp version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight was at #1, with the dreaded Goombay Dance Band Seven Tears snapping at its heels. Also in attendance were Toni Basil, Haircut 100, Fun Boy Three with Bananarama, Bow Wow Wow and J Geils Band. But ascending the scale with an eye on the top slot (ultimately thwarted by the bloody Goombay lot) was that most glamorous of the post-punk revolutionary bands ABC - with the peerless Poison Arrow!


If I were to say to you
"Can you keep a secret?"
Would you know just what to do
Or where to keep it?
Then I say, "I love you"
And foul the situation
Hey, girl, I thought we were
The right combination

Who broke my heart?
You did, you did
Bow to the target
Blame Cupid, Cupid
You think you're smart
Stupid, stupid

Shoot that poison arrow to my heart
Shoot that poison arrow
Shoot that poison arrow to my heart
Shoot that poison arrow

No rhythm in cymbals
No tempo in drums
Love on arrival
She comes when she comes
Right on the target
But wide of the mark
What I thought was fire
Was only the spark
The sweetest melody
Is an unheard refrain
So lower your sights
Yeah, but raise your aim
Raise your aim

Who broke my heart?
You did, you did
Bow to the target
Blame Cupid, Cupid
You think you're smart
Stupid, stupid

Shoot that poison arrow to my heart
Shoot that poison arrow
Shoot that poison arrow to my heart
Shoot that poison arrow

I thought you loved me
But it seems you don't care
I care enough to know
I can never love you

Who broke my heart?
You did, you did
Bow to the target
Blame Cupid
You think you're smart
That's stupid
Right from the start
When you knew we would part

Shoot that poison arrow to my heart
Shoot that poison arrow
Shoot that poison arrow to my heart, heart, heart
Shoot that poison arrow


I love it...

Sunday, 11 September 2016

And did those feet...





We've been having a bit of a "recovery day" here at Dolores Delargo Towers, after the excesses of yesterday's Proms in the Park celebrations - and what a fab event it was, too!

OK, we could have done without the rain, the "amateur orchestras", Tim Minchin and the precocious brats from the cast of his musical Matilda, School of Rock The Musical and, for that matter, The Feeling (who weren't bad, just not "our type of music"), but the rest was excellent.



What a joy to sing along in a torrential downpour to Rick Astley - like this lot did (whoever they are):


Only in Britain...

After the break, ABC brought back happy memories of that golden era of the early 80s:


Despite not performing our fave Under the Bridge, the re-formed All Saints were in fine voice:


And speaking of voices... even at 82, Frankie Valli's still got it!






The "pop bit" dispensed with, it was time to go over live to the Royal Albert Hall ["Hello Hyde Park" Hello, Hall!"] for the grandest of grand finales, with the massed talents of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Sakari Oramo, and the star of the show, Peru's finest [hence the costume!], tenor Juan Diego Flórez:

Rule, Britannia...


...Land of Hope and Glory...


...and [in its centenary year] Jerusalem:


And, with God Save The Queen, Auld Lang Syne and the fireworks, that was it for another year (and another summer, sob)...



Utterly unforgettable!