Against all odds, I got a wild hair to visit abcmartinfry.com for my semiannual visit last week and saw they are undertaking a US tour with HoJo (him again) and the original Haircut 100 lineup and they are in Cleveland the same weekend we are in Akron for a family reunion. So I will finally get to cross ABC off of the bucket list. After all, I’ve been hot to see them following “Skyscraping.” Which was …27 years ago!
These days, it’s easier to cluster several acts together on a single bill to use the economies of scale to make it viable, so we’ve got ABC★★★ and perennial synthpopper Howard Jones co-headlining with a most intriguing opening act on the bill… a band that have only ever played in The States in 1982 before imploding into the lead singer’s solo career, and the band’s soldiering on with a single album afterward. That band is Haircut 100. Quite frankly, I wasn’t even aware that they had reformed! But here is the combo as they appear today.
Haircut 100 were a band that I only ever heard three singles from: “Fantastic Day,” “Favourite Shirts [Boy Meets Girl],” and “Love Plus One.” No… wait, I also heard “Calling Captain Autumn” on this tape. They never offended, but I wasn’t tempted. There were bigger fish to fry in 1982, by my reckoning. Yet, 42 years later, how can I be anything but intrigued by their presence in America on this tour?
I’ve long been cool to Howard Jones’ brand of synthpop. We basically missed his set on the HoJo/OMD/Barenaked Ladies 2016 Summer Tour due to…lunch being fabulous, but when we got to the Red Hat Amphitheater, we were offered Howard Jones playing ghastly EDM versions of two songs I didn’t like to begin with. Fortunately, Howard Jones has actual content on his website. Content that reveals that his long time backing band on this tour will include one Nick Beggs on bass!
I have been an admirer of Nick Beggs’ stellar bass work since the early days of Kajagoogoo and once Limahl left the band he took over on lead vocals and got seriously into Chapman Stick. And I actually have those Kajagoogoo [a.k.a. Kaja] records in my Record Cell! If Howard Jones has enlisted him to play, one hopes that he will let Beggs be Beggs! This could be transformative to the material and I’m definitely interested in seeing the results.
As for ABC★★★, Martin Fry has released three albums under that name in the last 30 years that I hold in very high esteem. It’s about time that I finally get to cross ABC★★★ off the bucket list! I see that the tour is hitting the same venue where we saw Mott The Hoople in 2019, the Cleveland Masonic; a fine vintage venue with good sound. So what are the tour dates, actually?
HOWARD JONES + ABC★★★ + HAIRCUT 100 NORTH AMERICAN SUMMER TOUR ’24
- AUG. 14 | Marymoor Live | Redmond, WA
- AUG. 16 | Sandy Amphitheater | Sandy City, UT
- AUG. 17 | Sandy Amphitheater | Sandy City, UT
- AUG. 18 | The Theater At Virgin Hotels | Las Vegas, NV
- AUG. 20 | YouTube Theater | Inglewood, CA
- AUG. 21 | The Sound | Del Mar, CA
- AUG. 22 | Celebrity Theater | Mesa, AZ
- AUG. 24 | The Zoo Amphitheatre | Oklahoma City, OK
- AUG. 25 | Uptown Theater | Kansas City, MO
- AUG. 26 | The Factory | St. Louis, MO
- AUG. 28 | TempleLive @ Columbus Athenaeum | Columbus, OH
- AUG. 29 | Windsor – The Colosseum | Windsor, ON
- AUG. 30 | Fallsview Casino Resort | Niagra Falls, ON
- AUG. 31 | TempleLive @ Cleveland Masonic | Cleveland, OH
- SEPT. 1 | The Paramount | Huntington, NY
- SEPT. 4 | The Wellmont | Montclair, NJ
- SEPT. 5 | The Capitol Theatre | Port Chester, NY
- SEPT. 6 | The Paramount | Huntington, NY
That’s an itinerary light…no, absent on the Southeast, as usual. So I’m doubly thankful for the usual family reunion on Labor Day weekend in nearby Akron. The tickets I looked at last week were not stratospheric in price, so I’ll be getting mine tonight. I was really thinking that, by gar, I’ll never see ABC★★★! With them crossed off the list that leaves maybe DEVO and John Foxx left from the high holy Monastic Wish List. Join us in two months for a review in detail, I’m sure!
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Post-Punk Monk 
sigh….so sad they won’t be in southeast. I have moved back to USA in FL. ABC is great-I saw them in London at Palladium. Howard is great, too. Saw him as warm-up to OMD in London at O2. He showed videos of him live when he was young and the sound synced with his live performance on stage. Great, great show. He looked so happy and relaxed and the music was awesome. ABC was amazing. I had second row center seats. Martin sounded great with the backup orchestra-band. He was dressed so dapperly. Just a wonderful experience all around. I also was able to see Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet. He’s gone lounge crooner with a huge backup orchestra-band as well, but he still belted out the Spandau hits very well. You will most probably have a fantastic time.
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Deserat – welcome back to the concert desert that is the US southeast! I’ve a lifetime of experience here! When even Hotlanta gets snubbed… ouch! I just got very lucky with being in Akron that weekend. I still can’t believe that I went to Amsterdam for a concert in April!!
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Great set of blog posts by you about your trip 🙂. Turns out my German friend I would go to OMD concerts to went to the same Nits concert you were at in Amsterdam…I asked her about the band…she’s been a fan for a long time. Small world 🌎….
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Sometimes the Pacific Northwest also feels like a concert desert. So many tours skip the northwest altogether, or they go to Seattle but not Portland. I was thrilled a few weeks ago when the BEAT tour (80s King Crimson repertoire played by Adrian Belew & Tony Levin with Steve Vai and the drummer from Tool) added Portland on their second batch of dates. Usually we’re not so lucky!
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Big Mark – I’ve been so busy I forgot about Beat! I see lots of the shows are sold out. Now that the Crimson mothership has seemingly docked for good this will be an obvious point of interest! Yeah, the northwest/southeast concert desert is a real thing. The west coast seems to stop at San Francisco! The east coast at Washington D.C.
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Ugh, four dates in the NYC metro area and zero in Boston/New England. Boo. I’ve seen all those acts (yup, even Haircut 100, headlining in NYC back in 1982) but would’ve loved to attend. Oh well. Enjoy. At least I have the Tubular thingie next week!
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Taffy – New Wave Pop Stars… please come to Boston!!
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Yes, missing out on the Chameleons was all on me, but I’ve known about this for a good while. No San Francisco show. The same number of shows in Missouri as Cali? Come on Marty!
I’m happy for you Monk, to finally see ABC! I saw them in 2018 and it was fantastic! Not a bad song in the bunch. I saw Howard Jones as well, I think in ’19. A very nice man, enjoys talking to the crowd.
I’d love to see Haircut 100, too bad I don’t live in Missouri!
Thank you.
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As the Monk knows, I finally got to see ABC★★★ (well, Martin) play the Hard Rock Hotel with some mutual friends many years back. He was of course dressed for Vegas and singing in fine voice, but it wasn’t quite the same experience as time-travelling back to the original lineup! OTOH, he sang material from “Skyscraping” so I was pretty pleased, not to mention I could’ve almost touched the hem of his lamé at some points!
I’ve seen DEVO a fair few times, always reliably great. Since I moved to the PNW, I have seen them in Woodinville (wine country) on an outdoor stage (with Blondie!), and the “Early Years” show in Vancouver — the latter being a very memorable deep dive into their own history, narrated in-between songs by Gerald!
I’d absolutely go see the original lineup of H100 if I had the chance. Regrettably, they’re not coming quite near enough. :(
As for John Foxx — I think, O Monk, you and I are going to have to make a Nits-like pilgramage pact should he ever tour his greatest hits and/or latest album (with or without The Maths), wherever he turns up! Neither he nor we are gettin’ any younger! It’s now(ish with an asterisk) or never!
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just got back to our room after the Windsor concert. Amazing! 3 1/2 hours of back-to-back music. Fantastic lighting, great sets – you’ll love it
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Nancy – Welcome to the comments! Well…you were absolutely correct! It was time and money well spent even though I was attending for just Mr. Fry up front.
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Caught them in Niagara Falls. Haircut 100 has amazing musicians but is held back by lack of well written songs. I’d love to see them with better material. ABC ebbed and flowed. Martin Fry’s voice isn’t what it used to be, few singers are at his age. He can’t falsetto any more. Howard Jones is the real deal on stage, but then again, I’m a big fan of synth pop. Know that the drums and some of the synth parts aren’t live in his show. After a while, you don’t really care.
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dcreif – Welcome to the comments! That’s a pretty astute comment you made re: Haircut 100 material. That just might be what’s held me at arms length for so long. I was also surprised that Howard Jones only played one more song than ABC in a set 50% longer at 90 minutes. But the vibe of his performance was miles better than what I was used to from the 80s.
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