ABC – BEAUTY STAB LP – Nr MINT A2/B2 UK

ABC – Beauty Stab
(Neutron Records  1983  NTRL2)
Matrix No’s: A2/B2 – UK Pressing

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are some surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

Sleeve & Inner Sleeve in Nr MINT condition

ABC are an English pop band that formed in Sheffield in 1980. Their classic line-up consisted of lead singer Martin Fry, guitarist and keyboardist Mark White, saxophonist Stephen Singleton and drummer David Palmer.

ABC developed from an earlier band, Vice Versa, and established themselves as part of the New Romantic movement, with Fry being famed for his gold lamé suit. Their 1982 debut album, The Lexicon of Love, was a UK number-one and they achieved ten UK and five US Top 40 hit singles between 1981 and 1990. The band, now essentially singer Fry solo, continue to tour and released their ninth studio album, The Lexicon of Love II, in 2016.

Beauty Stab is the second studio album by English pop band ABC. It was originally released in November 1983, on the labels Neutron, Mercury and Vertigo. The album was recorded over a period of three months between August and September 1983, in sessions that took place at Sarm Studios East and West, Townhouse Studios and Abbey Road Studios. It was a departure from the stylised production of the band’s debut album, The Lexicon of Love and featured a more guitar-oriented sound.

The album was produced by ABC with Gary Langan, who was the audio engineer on the band’s first album. The band employed the rhythm section of Andy Newmark (drums) and Alan Spenner (bass guitar) both of whom had recently recorded and toured with Roxy Music at the time. The cover photography was by Gered Mankowitz.

On release, the album was received negatively by the majority of music critics. In a 1995 article, music journalist Simon Reynolds listed Beauty Stab among “the great career-sabotage LPs in pop history”. In retrospect, the band members themselves have been quite vocal in that they were less satisfied with the album with founding member Stephen Singleton leaving the band soon after promotion for the album was completed. Martin Fry later stated that “we were eager to go in a totally different direction [to The Lexicon of Love]. We didn’t want to do a sequel. In retrospect, perhaps that is exactly what we should have done”. The album was certified Gold by the BPI for shipments in excess of 100,000 copies, but was not as commercially successful as its predecessor. It peaked at No. 12 on the UK Albums Chart and spawned only two Top 40 singles (neither of which made the Top 10).

Track listing

All tracks written by Martin Fry, Mark White and Stephen Singleton.

Personnel

ABC

• Martin Fry – lead and backing vocals
• Mark White – guitars; piano; Roland Juno-6; E-mu Emulator; synthesizer
• Stephen Singleton – alto saxophone

Additional personnel

• Howie Casey – tenor and baritone saxophones
• Andy Newmark – drums
• Alan Spenner – bass guitar
• David Theodore – oboe
• Luís Jardim (misspelled as “Louis Jardin” on album notes) – percussion

Production team

• ABC – producer
• Gary Langan – producer
• David Bedford – string arrangements
• John Kurlander – engineer at Abbey Road Studios
• Bob Kraushaar – engineer at Sarm Studios East and West
• Keith Nixon – engineer at Townhouse Studios
• Gered Mankowitz – photography