PREVIEW: ABC's Martin Fry announces Lexicon Of Love 40th anniversary tour

BUY TICKETS: Tickets for all 10 dates in June 2022 - see venue links below - go on sale Friday, September 17, 10am, at www.gigsandtours.com and www.ticketmaster.co.uk. For VIP packages visit sjm-vip.com.

ABC with the Southbank Sinfonia orchestra, conducted by Oscar winning long time collaborator Anne Dudley, will perform the album in it entirety which fused dance floor finesse with a post-punk attitude and spawned timeless tracks including Poison Arrow Tears Are Not Enough, All Of My Heart and The Look Of Love.

And there will be a very special homecoming at Sheffield City Hall, exactly 40 years to the day since the album was released, on June 21.

Other dates on the SJM Concerts promoted tour - full details and links below - include London' s Royal Albert Hall, on June 23, where the album's first orchestrated show won the hearts of critics and fans alike.

The show will play Oxford New Theatre, Friday, 17; Bath Forum, Saturday, 18; Birmingham Symphony Hall, Monday, 20; Sheffield City Hall, Tuesday, 21; London Royal Albert Hall, Thursday, 23; Newcastle City Hall, Friday, 24; Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Saturday, 25; Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Monday, 27; Manchester Bridgewater Hall, Tuesday, 28; Southend Cliffs Pavilion, Thursday, 30.

ABC were formed in Sheffield in the 1980’s, when they decided they wanted to fuse the world of disco funk with their own unique post punk vision

Floppy fringed frontman Martin Fry, in his trademark gold lamé suits, provided the powerful and melodic vocals with flamboyance and rock swagger, as he delivered clever lyrics dealing with treachery and heartache.

The Lexicon Of Love iconic ABC debut album

The result was the Trevor Horn produced album using real string and brass sections.

It went straight to number one upon release and sold over a million records.

ABC went on to enchant the world with their own unique brand of pop and the album remains widely acknowledged as one of the greatest of all time.

Expect other ABC hits on the tour such as When Smokey Sings, The Night You Murdered Love, Ocean Blue, plus The Flames Of Desire and Viva Love, from 2016's The Lexicon Of Love II.

To date ABC have released nine studio albums, The Lexicon Of Love (’82), Beauty Stab (’83), How To Be A Zillionaire (’85), Alphabet City (’87), Up (’89), Abracadabra (’91), Skyscraping (’97) and Traffic (’08).

Then, a mere 36-years since the release of their landmark debut album, ABC returned with their resounding triumph, The Lexicon Of Love II, which entered the UK album top five.

Worldwide hits and six studio albums later, ABC demonstrate that even now 40 years on from The Lexicon Of Love, Martin’s song-writing and musicianship is still as contemporary as it was in the beginning.

Conductor Anne Dudley, who provided all the original and lush signature orchestrations before she went on to become part of Art Of Noise, later solidified her Sheffield connections when she won an Oscar for her score of 1998's steel city based The Full Monty.

She also served as music producer for the film version of Les Misérables, acting as arranger and composing some new additional music.

Martin says of touring The Lexicon Of Love album with a full orchestra: "It has to be done the right way and with Anne at the helm, it kind of all pulls together.

“I’ve never flown a jumbo jet, but I imagine it's a little bit like that to stand in front of an orchestra - you have all this power behind you and you've got to make sure it lands safely.

"So there's excitement in the air when we play. We play a lot of different types of shows. But this is one of the most exciting ways of doing it for me."

ABC THE LEXICION OF LOVE JUNE 2022