More than a decade after their last Australian tour, ABC are heading back for a national run in March 2027, with Martin Fry once again leading audiences through The Lexicon of Love and a catalogue that helped define British pop in the 1980s.
The six-date tour will celebrate the band’s landmark 1982 debut while revisiting four decades of material, including enduring singles ‘Poison Arrow’, ‘The Look of Love’, ‘All of My Heart’, ‘When Smokey Sings’, ‘Be Near Me’ and ‘That Was Then But This Is Now’. For Australian fans, it marks the first opportunity in more than ten years to see Fry perform the songs that established ABC as one of the most distinctive acts of the new wave era.
Emerging from Sheffield in 1980, ABC stood apart from many of their contemporaries through a blend of sharp songwriting, orchestral arrangements and visual flair. Produced by Trevor Horn, The Lexicon of Love topped the UK Albums Chart and has long been regarded as one of the defining records of the decade. Its influence extended well beyond Britain, reaching the Australian Top 10 and producing local hits with ‘Poison Arrow’ and ‘The Look of Love’.
Rather than repeating the formula, ABC spent the rest of the decade pushing into new territory. Beauty Stab traded polished pop for a more abrasive edge, How to Be a… Zillionaire! embraced electronic experimentation, while Alphabet City delivered the international success of ‘When Smokey Sings’. Fry has continued to revisit and reinterpret the band’s legacy, releasing The Lexicon of Love II in 2016 before celebrating the original album’s 40th anniversary with acclaimed orchestral performances across the UK.
Now 67, Fry remains one of British pop’s most charismatic frontmen. NME once described him as “the missing link between Bryan Ferry and Jarvis Cocker,” an observation that still rings true as he continues to perform with the same theatrical elegance that first set ABC apart.
ABC AUSTRALIAN TOUR 2027
Tue 9 March Perth, WA Astor Theatre
Thu 11 March Melbourne, VIC Palais Theatre
Sat 13 March Brisbane, QLD Fortitude Music Hall
Sun 14 March Sydney, NSW Enmore Theatre
Tue 16 March Hobart, TAS Odeon Theatre
Thu 18 March Adelaide, SA The Gov
Tickets on early bird presale from Wednesday, 5 August
General onsale from Friday 7 August via destroyalllines.com
