Holly Johnson, ABC and HEAVEN 17 brought an eighties bonanza to the Scarborough Open Air Theatre on 14th August.
For any fan of the 80’s, tonight’s show at the OAT is a juicy triple bill by any means. The thought of watching and hearing those Frankie songs performed live is irresistible and the near sell out crowd gathering here in Scarborough confirms this. The Open Air Theatre is the jewel in the crown of music venues along the Yorkshire coast hosting an impressive 28 shows in total this summer.
Sheffield’s Heaven 17 begin proceedings with Martin Ware, resplendent in a gold lamé jacket and silver sparkly fedora, taking his usual position up at the keys. Glenn Gregory channels Tony Manero from Saturday Night Fever wearing a white suit and black open necked shirt; very dapper. Add to this the outrageously talented Flo Sabeva on synths and the incredible powerhouse vocalists, Kelly Barnes & Rachel Meadows, and you’ve got one outstanding band.
They kick off with the highly relevant (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang and Crushed By The Wheels Of Industry; both songs still carry a lot of resonance over 40 years later.
Play to Win is apparently Martin & Glenn’s favourite song and also marks their first appearance on Top Of The Pops but as the lead singer coyly points out, footage is impossible to find online thanks to a certain shell suited and cigar smoking presenter introducing them…
Come Live With Me is an instant singalong crowd pleaser. The dynamic duo’s effervescence is sparkling now as Let Me Go hurtles headfirst into a cracking cover of Bowie’s Let’s Dance. Gregory rightly points out that there would be no Frankie, ABC or Heaven 17 without David Bowie. How very true.
Penthouse and Pavement is 45 years old. They play the title song from their debut album with as much energy as ever. Heaven 17 are touring the full album later this year – lead us not into Temptation guys! This was indeed the final track, an almost Balearic house music version bringing the vibes and the fire….
Next on the bill are ABC, a tight & sophisticated 8 piece outfit who also hail from Sheffield. They deliver a 9 song set kicking off with When Smokey Sings which is well received, and continuing with slightly later hits (How To Be a) Millionaire, King Without a Crown, That Was Then and The Night You Murdered Love which slightly loses the crowds interest. However, Fry’s wit and charm win them back, joking that he committed “every crime against fashion in the 80s” and that he got a perm that forced him to stay inside till 1984. We’ve all been there mate.
Drawing on material from their fantastic 1982 smash hit album Lexicon of Love for the final 4 songs, Fry delivers a vocal masterclass. Poison Arrow, Tears Are Not Enough, the gorgeous All Of My Heart & arguably their finest moment and biggest hit, The Look Of Love. The audience responds by singing along with gusto.
Finally, what we have all been waiting for. The headline act: Holly Johnson. His laid back, well honed and confident performance is complemented by a 5 piece band who expertly recreate the unique sound that Trevor Horn created over 40 years ago. Just wow.
After the dramatic opening track, the instrumental The World Is My Oyster, the enigmatic front man, donning a sequined leather jacket, 3/4 length shorts and big ol’ shades, powers through the Warriors Of The Wasteland, a rollicking rock anthem that unbelievably peaked at number 19 in the UK; but just how do you follow an album like Welcome To The Pleasuredome? This is the next song; the band are really enjoying themselves as is Johnson, dryly bantering with the crowd and giving the BSL live signer a shoutout, telling him to get ready to sign accurately for hit song Relax when the time comes….
Solo tracks Americanos, Atomic City & the really quite lovely Heaven’s Here are lapped up by the crowd who are now fully engaged with the performance. The visuals are excellent too. The band and Johnson keep hitting us with bangers such as the rip-snorting Rage Hard before segueing into the lot of fun Love Train. Cue more singing.
Another solo track, Penny Arcade, which was apparently inspired by a documentary about London rent boys, and a cover of This Was Me from the movie Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, were quite emotional. It is a fantastically paced set.
But it’s the tracks from Pleasuredome that really stand out and that Johnson seems to enjoy performing the most. Covers of Springsteen’s Born To Run & the protest song War ramp up the excitement tenfold, teeing us up very nicely for a hoofing Two Tribes (I really can’t think of a better adjective) a song that is still massively relevant today, “We don’t need this baloney, it’s the 21st century” Johnson calls out all the war-mongerers without hesitation.
Time for the BSL guy to nail the signing as the pumping bass of Relax reaches our ears; a song banned by the BBC which became a surefire way to get us to buy it. They really didn’t think that one through, did they?
The rising crescendo of Relax gives us one final hand gesture before the finale, the rousing and poignant The Power of Love. It is Holly’s favourite song and this becomes apparent in his pitch perfect vocal performance. “It’s not just for Christmas” he adds. Long may he shine like a star in the night, chasing darkness away….
Interesting facts
Heaven 17
The bands name comes from the film A Clockwork Orange, a fictional group named Heaven 17 appear at number 4 in the charts during the movie.
ABC
Martin Fry survived a battle with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma; and in 2012 received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Sheffield University.
Holly Johnson
Played bass in 70s punk band Big in Japan with Budgie from Siouxsie and the Banshees and Ian Broudie of The Lightning Seeds.
Check out the latest announcements from Scarborough Open Air Theatre here.
