Line-up

Venue

Winter Gardens Blackpool

97 Church St, FY1 1HL, Blackpool, UK

www.wintergardensblackpool.co.uk/

Capacity: 10,000

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Additional details

Doors open: 13:30

Concert in your area for Pop, Rock, and Indie & Alt.

Find out more about Pop and Rock.

ABC biography

ABC are an English new wave band from Sheffield. They formed in 1980, and have undergone several lineup changes over the years.

Frontman Martin Fry is the only permanent member of ABC, having never left the band since their formation in 1980; it’s also true that the band themselves have never officially disbanded over the course of their three-decade-plus career, which perhaps beggars belief given the undeniable fluctuation of the fortunes over the course of that time. They enjoyed their greatest success in the eighties - perhaps unsurprisingly, given the popularity of the new wave genre during that decade - and their 1982 debut album ‘The Lexicon of Love’ contains most of their early hits. ‘Tears Are Not Enough’ hit the top twenty in the UK, as did ‘Poison Arrow’, which would go on to feature in the eighties-set video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

It was the 1985 record ‘How to Be a...Zillionaire’ was the group’s biggest success on the other side of the Atlantic, with the single ‘Be Near Me’ seeing ABC hit the top ten in the U.S. for the first time. Since 1990, the group has effectively only comprised Fry, but he continues to use the name to tour - he’s especially popular on the eighties nostalgia circuit - as well as record new material, with ‘Traffic’ released in 2008.

Go West biography

Go West (formed in 1982) is an English pop and dance duo made up of Peter Cox and Richard Drummie from London, UK.

In 1982 Go West, determined to find a music producer and record label, recorded the tracks “We Close Our Eyes” and “Call Me” on a portastudio, a portable and affordable home recording studio. The songs drew some attention in the industry and landed the duo a recording contract with Chrysalis Records. Shortly after singing with Chrysalis Go West enlisted the help of British guitarist Alan Murphy, whose musical input and tonal sounds have contributed a lot to the band’s identity.

“We Close Our Eyes” was officially released as Go West’s debut single in 1985 to across the board good reviews. The single reached No. 5 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 and proved to be Go West’s highest placed UK single. The band’s video for the song, directed by Godley & Creme, became popular on MTV almost instantly and the pair were voted “Best Newcomers” at the 1986 Brit Awards.

The band’s self-titled debut album was also released in 1985 and featured the singles “We Close Our Eyes”, “Call Me” and “Don’t Look Down”. The album performed well in the charts peaking at No. 8 in the UK and No. 60 in the U.S and was followed by the album of B-sides and live tracks entitled “Bangs and Crashes” in 1986. Go West’s official follow-up to their debut was entitled “Dancing on the Couch” (1987), the album made the UK Top 20 and earned the band their first Top 40 U.S. single with “Don’t Look Down - The Sequel”.

A few years later in 1990 Go West contributed the single “King of Wishful Thinking” to the “Pretty Woman” soundtrack to chart success across the world. The song became highly popular especially in the States where it was a Top 10 hit and received an ASCAP award in 1991 for being one of the most played songs in America in 1990.

The band has subsequently released the album “Indian Summer” in 1992 which peaked at No. 13 in the UK chart and the 2008 album “futurenow” released through Blueprint Records. In 1997 Cox released his debut self-titled solo album and went on to release a string of solo album throughout the new millennium. In 2010 Go West released the first in a three-part series of EPs entitled "3D" through Townsend Records. The release features some new original material and new recordings of old songs.

Live reviews

There’s probably no single genre of music that represents the eighties quite as accurately, or as obviously, as new wave; it genuinely is synonymous with the decade, and among its genuine success stories were ABC, who formed in Sheffield back in 1980, right in time for the sound’s explosion. Their debut album The Lexicon of Love was a huge success on both sides of the Atlantic, topping the charts in the UK and making the top twenty-five over in the U.S., and spawned a slew of hits that were not only successes in terms of sales and radio play at the time, but continue to stand up as classics of the genre today, especially their signature song ‘Poison Arrow’. Although singer Martin Fry now remains the sole original member - he tours with a new backing group for the most part, with David Palmer only briefly rejoining him as part of VH1’s Bands Reunited programme in 2004 - the ABC name continues to be used for both live shows and new material, with Fry still proving himself both an engaging frontman and a fine singer, too. They regularly line up alongside other eighties acts like T’Pau and Rick Astley, so there’s plenty of opportunity for a multi-faceted blast of nostalgia where their shows are concerned, too.

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Joeg_67

In popular terms, at least, Go West are probably best remembered for hits like ‘We Close Our Eyes’, ‘Call Me’ and ‘King of Wishful Thinking’, which proved to be top ten smashes across the globe, but it’s actually in terms of their different take on the pop genre in the eighties that the duo will be best remembered; when everybody else was rushing to incorporate new wave stylings into their music at a time when that particular genre was absolutely de rigeur, Richard Drummie and Peter Cox were opting for an altogether more soulful sound, and their bravery in defying the conventions of the day was undoubtedly one that was rewarded by the success they enjoyed. In the years since their eighties heyday, the London pair have continued to write and record, releasing their first album in sixteen years, futurenow, in 2008, and following it up with an ambitious, three-part series, titled 3D, that was comprised of nine different EPs of new material - the records dropped in 2010, 2011 and 2013 respectively. In terms of live performance, they’ve continued to play eighties and nostalgia festivals across the country, with a couple lined up for later this year in the UK.

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Joeg_67

The show was good overall, Altered images opened proceedings and were very light hearted in an almost empty theatre, when the Christians arrived Garry was slightly embarrassed from the lack of turn out; however the performance was fantastic, I would have paid the money just to see the Christians and their set was full of all the hits with a fantastic cover of Marvin Gaye's Inner city blues, and I immediately bought the new album on leaving; a great cd of the aforementioned hits accompanied by a string quartet and gospel singers, chilled is not the word. I have booked to see them again in Runcorn in April.
Midge Ure rounded off the proceedings and I felt a little let down he seemed to struggle vocally, understandably on some of the top notes but 10 minutes of the show were given up to a short film about his next orchestrated album, I don't want to appear unfair but from a vocal performance Garry left the rest in his wake. Vienna was good and fade to grey was a highlight as well as tears in your eyes which for me saved Midge's set from being ok to good. But in an ideal world we can only harvest the words.

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toe_martin

Not good at writing reviews.I was told by a music friend that "Sir Fripp's wife" has a band and they are playing in London. How come I hadn't heard about the Humans!!! one of my greatest live experiences ever.2 Bass guitars by Chris Wong and Bill Rieflin whom I could not wait to see playing Drum! I am preparing myself for a 2 nights King Crimson live on September,( certainly a dream will come true),and didn't have any clue that Bill is a GENIUS, I know him first from his collaboration with Treyy Gun and Robert Fripp at a masterpiece album called " Repercussions of angelic behaviour" and you can say one of the greatest drummers ever.AND TOYAH, brilliant voice,such a character she is. the gig was last night and today I listened to their new album "Strange Tales" for my 3rd time.IMPRESSIVE,

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Behrang

We haven't been to this venue before and will definitely be coming back. Great place and Hue and Cry were fantastic, The overall sound was exceptional. Would definitely recommend and will be coming back.

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