WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It was the early 1980s, and on the wild streets of London, a war was waging - "It was like being in a gang," recalls Martin Fry, one of the leaders of the scene.
Of course, Fry and his band of compatriots were among the best-dressed, finely coiffed and deliciously particular gangs in history. That's because they were actually bands, of the New Romantic variety, waging a battle fought with keyboards, sharp pop lyrics and sharp suits.
Their songs weren't always deep. But they always looked darned good.
"There was a massive outburst of music, and everyone wanted to look different," says Fry, well-dressed lead singer of ABC, and a featured player in the "'80s Regeneration Tour," bringing the sounds and styles of the original MTV era to the Kravis Center on Sunday.
"There was a competition there, back in the day, about who was gonna get to No. 1," he says. "We still have intensity. We should have all mellowed by now."
In addition to ABC, best known for "The Look of Love," "Shoot That Poison Arrow," "When Smokey Sings" and "Be Near Me," there's also Missing Persons ("Words"), Tommy Tutone "867-5309, Jenny"), 10,000 Maniacs (minus original lead singer Natalie Merchant) and Naked Eyes ("Always Something There To Remind Me").
Nostalgia for the days of large hair and synth-pop has been the norm for a while now, as Fry, who's done similar tours for the past few years, can confirm - "The audience is out there. There's a yearning for the hair, the big shoulder pads, the suits," he says.
The '80s regeneration has been good for ABC - Fry and longtime drummer David Palmer reformed to make a new ABC album called "Traffic,"which, like its predecessors, "is cosmopolitan and shiny and uplifting."
And they were a highlight of VH1's "Bands Reunited" series, where Fry was ambushed "by a 30-man film crew sitting in a restaurant in London" and asked to get the band back together. (Only he and Palmer agreed, but they played nonetheless with good friend and former Kajagoogoo member Nick Beggs.)
Their current audience, Fry has found, isn't only made up of people old enough to have actual memories of the '80s.
"Guys in new bands are inspired by the time when I started making music. We've got a YouTube kind of fame now. (That time) was really photographed, wasn't it? It was filmed, with MTV and the video clips, and people could follow you through the successes and the failures and the fashions," he said. "It was a carefree time as well, sort of an innocent time. You can sort of look back, with all the young kids who got married to "Look of Love" and got divorced to "When Smokey Sings." And now there's a whole new generation."
Because ABC and their tour mates had their hits two decades ago, they're constantly hearing stories of fans who can chart their lives through the bands' music. There's a YouTube clip from British talk show showing host and actor John Barrowman gushing over Fry, and talking about choreographing a high school pom-pom routine to "The Look of Love" for a friend.
And then there's a woman "who introduced me to her son, who was 20 years old. And when she was in hospital having him, she had a very difficult birth, but she heard "When Smokey Sings" and was very uplifted by it. And to see her boy standing there in good health, she felt she had to tell me about it. You can't buy that feeling."
Of course, all fan memories aren't quite so wholesome: "Some people tell you some very lurid stories, stuff they've done listening to our music," Fry says. "That's all I have to say on that subject."
'80s REGENERATION TOUR: ABC, 10,000 Maniacs, Naked Eyes, Missing Persons and Tommy Tutone, 7:30 p.m., Sunday, Kravis Center. Tickets: $20-$75, and available at (561) 832-7469, or at Kravis.org
- Leslie Gray Streeter writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: lstreeter AT pbpost.com