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HOWARD JONES & ABC
with Richard Blade
FRI, 28 FEB 2025 at 07:00PM EST
Ages: All Ages (under 16 with adult)
Doors Open: 06:00PM
OnSale: Fri, 22 Nov 2024 at 10:00AM EST
Announcement: Tue, 19 Nov 2024 at 10:00AM EST
Electronic music pioneer Howard Jones has been a constant presence on the international touring scene
for the past four decades, playing live in a number of different configurations including intimate solo
shows and dates with his full high
-
tech band set
-
u
p.
He
first burst upon the contemporary music scene
in 1983, with his very English songwriting and
pioneering synthesizers with “New Song”
. His first two
albums HUMAN’S LIB and DREAM INTO ACTION were worldwide hits.
HUMAN’S LIB reached #1 in 1984
in the
UK and featured the hits “New Song,” and “What Is Love?”
In 1985, Jones released the follow
-
up, DREAM INTO ACTION, which quickly became a Top Ten Platinum album in the United States and
featured the smashes: “Things Can Only Get Better,” “Life In One Day,
” “No One Is To Blame,” and “Like
To Get To Know You Well.”
Howard Jones has sold upwards of 10 million albums worldwide and continues to make new music and
tour the world.
Jones has performed on NBC’s top
-
rated morning and nighttime shows respective
ly,
Today and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
His ubiquitous hits can be heard in such high
-
profile
television series and films such as “Stranger Things,” “Breaking Bad,” “Watchmen,” “The Carrie Diaries”,
“Superstore” and “Bumblebee”.
Howard Jone
s’ most recent album is DIALOGUE, which was released
in September, 2022.
DIALOGUE is the third album in a trilogy of electronic releases from Jones with
multi
-
media project ENGAGE coming out in 2015 and studio album TRANSFORM out in 2019.
DIALOGUE
garner
ed serious coverage in outlets such as
Spin
,
Stereogum
and more.
“ABC’s Martin Fry is a revelation, a soul man supreme, belting out pristine Vegas glitter pop and uptown House in his
electric blue lounge suit. An ageless performer, Fry is the missing link between Bryan Ferry and Jarvis
Cocker. For the
inevitable encore of ‘The Look of Love’ he returns dipped in sparkly gold lame, a self
-
ironising pop genius on top form.”
Stephen Dalton NME
ABC
has enjoyed a glittering career to date. Very definitely one of a number of groups who came a
long and kick
-
started the Eighties with
their own brand of pop for a ‘new decad
e’. On it’s release in May 1982,
their debut album
‘The Lexicon of Love’ crashed straight into the UK album charts at number
one. Showcasing the hits songs
‘Tears
Are Not
Enough
’, ‘
Poison Arrow’, ‘The Look Of Love’ and ‘All Of My Heart’. A ground
-
breaking collection of
modern love songs. With a majestic production from the legendary Trevor Horn it remains a classic to this day.
Voted by many as the best British album of the decad
e.
ABC’s second album ‘Beauty Stab’ was a very different proposition to the polished beauty of ‘The Lexicon of Love’
and spawned the hits ‘That Was Then But This Is Now’ and ‘SOS’. It developed a much rawer
,
hard
-
edged sound.
These were protest songs from
a band that was constantly evolving.
Next came
the
1984
album
‘How To Be A Zillionaire’. ABC again conquered American audiences with a series of
devastating club mixes and pre Gorillaz animated cartoons. ‘How To Be A Millionaire’, ‘Be Near Me’, a
longsid
e
‘Vanity Kills’ and
‘Ocean Blue’ were all Billboard dance chart number ones. The emphasis here was unashamedly
electronic.
1987 saw the release of
their fourth album ‘Alphabet City’,
co
-
produced by Chic’s Bernar
d Edwards. By the
summer
the worldwide hit
‘When Smokey Sings’ had powered its way toward the top of the American charts.
Representing a
return to luxuriant soul, along
side the songs ‘The Night You Murdered Lov
e’ and ‘King Without A
Crown’
the
album captured the
cosmopolitan
fe
el of the moment and
is both urban and chic.
Heavy MTV rotation
and an appearance on legendary show Soul Train cemented even greater success in the U.S.A for the band.
Inspired by the bur
geoning House music scene ‘Up ‘
the fifth ABC album reflected the euphoric and uplifting
spirit
of the times. ‘One Better World ’an idealistic and Ibiza influenced anthem champions the radical changes that were
taking place in music in London, Manchester, Chicago and Detroit in 1988.
In 1991 ABC began work on an ambitious soul pop extravagan
za ‘Abracadabra’. Releasing ‘Love Conquers All’
and
the Black
Box mixed ‘Say It’ the following year.
‘Skyscraping’ in 1997 represented a tour de force of gilt edged ABC. ‘Stranger things’ and ‘Only The Best Will Do’
embr
ace Glam inspired rock and roll
.Col
laborating with artists as diverse as King Britt in Philadelphia and David
Arnold in London ABC continue
d
to experiment and entertain.
In 2007 Martin
worked on
several songs for the romantic comedy,
Music and Lyrics
s
tarring
Hugh Grant
and
Drew
Barrymore
.
He
also served as
Grant's vocal coach for the movie
, his influence being very evident in the final edit.
April 2008
saw the release of ABC’s
first studio album in over 10 years. ‘Traffic’ was a collaboration between
Martin Fry, David Palmer (who had been in
the
ABC
line
-
u
p
during ‘The Lexicon of Love’) and Chuck Kentis. The
magnificent firs
t single ‘The Very First Time ‘
was a massive hit on BBC Radio 2, with the follow up ‘Love Is Strong’
ABC Biography 2024 .docx
Blueprint Management,
T: +44 1296 624874 F: +44 845 2800078 M: +44 7774 443596 E: matt@blueprint
mngt
.com
W: www.blueprint
-
management.com
demonstrating that even now 26 years on from ‘The Lexicon Of Love’, Martin Fry’s song
-
writing, stage craft and
musicianship is still as contemporary as it was in the beginning.
On April 8
th
2009
,
some
27 years after its debut release
ABC performed the album
“The Lexicon Of Love”
in its
entirety to a sell
-
out audience at London’
s prestigious Royal Albert Hall.
The epic performance i
ntroduced by
Producer, Trevor Horn,
and accompanie
d
by the BBC Concert Orchestra,
reunited not only Martin Fry, David
Palmer and
Trevor Horn,
but also
original backing vocalist,
Tessa Niles
and Academy
Award winning
music
i
an,
arranger and composer,
Anne Dudley,
who
originally orchestrated the album
and who conducted the orchestra on
the night.
The night was electric
with
audience
s
joining in on
every lyric!
Martin has
since
repeated this form
ula with
the ABC band and
Anne Dudley
,
performing
shows
with
the
40 piece
Southbank Sinfonia
across the UK.
2012 saw both
a professional and personal
highlight for Martin
when m
ore than 30 year
s after he
graduated from
the University
of Sheffield
with a
degree in English Lit
e
rature he
returned
to be
made an honorar
y Doctor of Music
for hi
s contribution to music. Accepting his doctorate on stage
during the
university’s graduation ceremony, he
also saw
his
daughter
take
to the
same
stage
later
to receive her
own degree.
In 2016 Martin signed to Virgin/EMI Records and released ‘The Lexicon Of Love II’.
A mere 3
4 years since the release
of the
first ABC album
,
ABC
return to the scene of their most resounding triumph
with the May 27
th
2016 with the
release of
‘The Lexicon Of Love II’
.
Sonically doffing its cap to the original, it
features 10 brand new songs from the pen of Martin Fry abetted by various musical cohorts.
It might take a less
innocent, more experienced view on affairs of
the heart than its
million
-
selling predecessor, but it still concludes
that all you need is love.
Foremost among Fry’s collaborators on the new album is Academy Award winning musician and composer Anne
Dudley, who arranged the strings on the original Lex
icon; she has provided orchestral arrangements that give
‘The
Lexicon Of Love II’
its signature sound, and has co
-
written two of the key songs on the album: ‘The Love Inside
The Love’ and ‘Brighter Than The Sun’.
Other songwriting partners include Grammy
award winner Rob Fusari
(Beyonce, Lady Gaga), film composer Charlie Mole and Marcus Vere.
Production is by Gary Stevenson and Martin
Fry.
The album debuted at #
5 in the UK album charts with four
Radio 2 A
–
List
singles
.
In June 2022 ABC celebrated
the 40
th
Anniversary of the release of The Lexicon Of Love with a sold out UK
Orchestra Tour, performing at Sheffield City Hall and the exact date the album was released 40 years prior.
Following these shows Sky Arts filmed their own ABC special recorded
at the London Palladium in November.
The special was aired in June 2023.
Following on from the success of the Anniversay Tour and the TV special i
n
January 2024
ABC
once again
embark
ed
on a sell
-
out 21 date Orchestra tour of the UK playing to
over
35,000
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Keswick Theatre, 291 N Keswick Ave,Abington,PA,United States
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