Martin Fry fronts ABC at Sony Hall in New York City on July 6, 2022. (Photo by Mickey McCarter)
About a decade ago, I was in Manhattan for an umbrella Bowie party that featured local performers riffing on The Thin White Duke and the new wave musicians he inspired. One of the acts was a wonderful interpretive dance set to “Mantrap,” the long-form music video directed by Julien Temple to promote the Lexicon of Love, the sensational debut album by soulful sophisticates ABC. (As I recall, the dancer was New York City’s own Alison Clancy.)
The Cold War-colored video starred Martin Fry, the square-jawed frontman of ABC, and it was truly inspired as the always well-dressed Fry cuts still a figure who appears wholly emerged from a romantic spy thriller — today perhaps even moreso with his shock of silver hair and authoritative eyes. I was appreciative to be there too when Martin made his first concert appearance inside Manhattan in quite some years at a recent sold-out show on Broadway’s Sony Hall with his contemporary ABC band, and it was absolutely transcendent.
