Ultravox

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Ultravox
Ultravox at Hammersmith Apollo, London, September 27, 2012
Ultravox at Hammersmith Apollo , London , September 27, 2012
General information
origin London , England
Genre (s) New wave , synth pop
founding 1974, 2008
resolution 1988
Website www.ultravox.org.uk
Current occupation
Vocals, guitar
Midge Ure (1979–1988, since 2008)
bass
Chris Cross (1974–1988, since 2008)
Keyboard
Billy Currie (1974–1995, since 2008)
Drums
Warren Cann (1974–1986, since 2008)
former members
singing
John Foxx (1974-1978)
guitar
Stevie Shears (1974-1977)
guitar
Robin Simon (1977/1989)

Ultravox is a British band that was founded in London in 1974 and is one of the most important and style-defining bands of the New Wave and New Romantic movement. 1979 founding member and singer John Foxx was replaced by Midge Ure and the commercially most successful phase began. From 1980 to 1986 the band recorded several top ten placements in ten European countries, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa with songs such as Vienna , Hymn and Dancing with Tears in My Eyes . At the end of the 1970s, under Foxx, the stylistic concept initially changed from experimental art punk and glam rock to a synthesizer- dominated style and was later supplemented by guitar-heavy rock elements with Ure . Two years after the release of their last album, the band announced their breakup in 1988.

For the 30th anniversary of their hit single Vienna , Ultravox came together again with the cast of the 1980s. As part of a reunion tour, the band played several concerts in Great Britain and other European countries in 2009 and 2010. On May 25, 2012, the studio album Brilliant was released.

Band history

Founded as Tiger Lily (1974 to 1976)

The band, later known as Ultravox , formed in the spring of 1973 when art student and singer Dennis Leigh was looking for musicians by posting. The call was followed by guitarist Stevie Shears and bassist Chris St. John , real name Chris Allen and brother of Jeffrey Allen, then drummer of the band Hello . Warren Cann joined in May 1974 and completed the first line-up on drums. The band gained early experience in front of an audience with a performance in the opening act of the Heavy Metal Kids on August 16, 1974 at the legendary London Marquee Club , before the classically trained music student and violinist Billy Currie joined the group in October 1974. The quintet released in March 1975 under the name Tiger Lily on the record label Gull Records in Great Britain only one single Ain't Misbehavin ' , a cover version of the song of the same name by jazz pianist Fats Waller for the soundtrack to an adult film. The band invested the fee in an electric piano for Currie. The name Tiger Lily was given up after a short time. The band came into contact with Steve Lillywhite in 1975 , who made the Polygram studios available to them when they were not occupied. The quintet put together twelve demo tapes there within a year. After several renaming in The Zips , Fire of London , London Soundtrack and briefly The Damned - not to be confused with the punk band The Damned - the quintet decided in 1976 on the name Ultravox proposed by Leigh ! . The exclamation mark behind the band name was reminiscent of the Düsseldorf Krautrock band Neu! . St. John took the stage name Chris Cross, Leigh called himself John Foxx from then on.

The years at Island Records (1977 to 1979)

Chris Blackwell of Iceland Records signed the band in November 1976 after separating from Roxy Music under contract. The timing of the engagement and the fact that the band rarely performed live led the music press to believe that Ultravox! is a project by studio musicians that Iceland put together as the successor to Roxy Music. In collaboration with producers Brian Eno , ex-member of Roxy Music, and Steve Lillywhite, the first single Dangerous Rhythm was released on February 4, 1977 . The album Ultravox followed on February 25 of the same year ! . The New Musical Express thought the band were busy people and bores, but they could also take something positive out of the music. The press stayed aloof because they couldn't place the band's concept. The second single, Young Savage , was released on May 28 , and is now considered one of the best punk songs by British music journalists. Trouser Press placed it "in the gap between glam rock and punk". The album tour began in the UK and has also taken the band to France, Belgium and the Netherlands. The first significant fees invested Ultravox in new instruments, including a synthesizer type ARP Odyssey .

The second album Ha! -Ha! -Ha! followed on October 14, 1977 and was formative for the sound of the band. Currie's use of the ARP Odyssey, distorted by a guitar amplifier , became a sonic trademark of Ultravox. The single ROckWrok was also released from the album in October . After the promotion tour for Ha! -Ha! -Ha! Iceland released the live EP Retro in February 1978 , followed by appearances in Berlin and Hamburg in March 1978. Shear's guitar skills were seen by the band as a limiting factor. For the next album he was replaced by Robert Simon aka Robin Simon , a former member of the British punk band Neo. The exclamation mark in the band name was dropped. With this line-up, they performed live on BBC's Old Gray Whistle Test in May 1978 and at the Reading Festival in August, promoting their popularity.

Ultravox produced the third album Systems of Romance together with Conny Plank in his studio in Neunkirchen-Seelscheid near Cologne. The album was released on September 11, 1978 after the single Slow Motion . It marks the first collaboration with the German producer, which initiated the increased use of synthesizers in the Ultravox sound. The single Quiet Men , published only in Great Britain in October 1978, and the subsequent tour of Great Britain and other European countries broadened the fan base and increased sales; In Germany, too, the level of awareness increased through a total of 15 appearances. Nevertheless, Iceland decided to dissolve the record deal on January 1, 1979, as the commercial breakthrough did not materialize and the band moved away from glam and punk rock musically.

Systems of Romance became a milestone for Ultravox and cliché for an entire genre through the combination of lyric and synthesizer sound. Later, the term Synthiepop for the "synthesizer-controlled soundscape" of Ultravox was formative. The musicians were referred to as “the fathers of today's synthesizer bands”. Simon Reynolds says in his book Rip It Up And Start Again : “What made Ultravox the forerunners of the synth pop wave of the 1980s was its European aura and the chilled imagery of dehumanization and decadence that singer and lyricist John Foxx created. "

Transitional phase and entry of Midge Ure (1979)

Partly financed by the band itself, the tour through the United States began in February 1979 in New York and ended in March in Los Angeles with the exit of Foxx, who aspired to a solo career and left the name to the band. After leaving, Simon stayed in the US and initially joined Magazine and later John Foxx, whose album The Garden he accompanied on guitar. The remaining trio was facing financial failure without a record deal, singers and guitarists. Billy Currie hired himself as a keyboardist with Gary Numan for his album The Pleasure Principle and made contacts with the London nightclub Billy’s , a forerunner of the legendary Blitz by Steve Strange . Its house DJ and drummer Rusty Egan introduced Currie to the Scot Midge Ure , with whom he had played with Rich Kids . Ure had worked with reasonable success as a guitarist and singer in the teen pop band Slik and later as a singer, guitarist and keyboard player in the power pop formation Rich Kids. Strange, Egan and Ure started a joint project called Visage at this point , which Currie also joined. Currie introduced Ure to his bandmates, who then joined Ultravox in April 1979. Ultravox rehearsed the existing songs with Ure and began writing new songs as a quartet.

Up to a new record deal, the band members of other musicians held in the summer of 1979 by participating in concerts over water: Ure jumped in the US tour of Thin Lizzy guitarist for the stepped out Gary Moore one, Currie at the Touring Principles tour of Gary Numan and Cann at Zaine Griff . On this occasion, Cann met the German film composer Hans Zimmer . Then Cann appeared in the English TV show Top of the Pops as the drummer of the Buggles for the song Video Killed the Radio Star , as the Buggles were a pure studio project. Cross helped out with James Honeyman-Scott ( The Pretenders ) and Barry Masters ( Eddie & the Hot Rods ). In November and December 1979 Ultravox continued the tour through the United States with a new singer and mostly old songs. The connection with Visage often brought Ultravox closer to the New Romantic movement among the media and fans , as Ure and Currie were playing in both bands at that time and Visage was mainly assigned to this fashion wave. Ure and Currie were involved in the first two Visage albums Visage and The Anvil and then left the project. Ultravox invested the proceeds from the Visage single Fade to Gray , composed by Currie and Chris Payne and written by Ure , in new instruments.

The years at Chrysalis Records (1980 to 1986)

After the tour, the band attracted attention to Chrysalis Records in February 1980 and received a recording deal in April. Ultravox hired Chris Morrison and Chris O'Donnell, the management team from Thin Lizzy and Phil Lynott , to manage the band. The band recorded their first Chrysalis album Vienna at RAK Records in London. Plank did the mixing in his studio. The album was released on July 11, 1980. A total of four singles were released from the album: Sleepwalk , Passing Strangers , the title track Vienna ( audio sample ? / I ) and All Stood Still . Three singles were able to place in the British single charts , Vienna was in second place for four weeks. The album achieved platinum status for more than 300,000 and the single of the same name gold status for more than 400,000 records sold. The onset of commercial success prompted Island Records to release a best-of album with songs from the Icelandic era on June 6, 1980 under the title Three into One . At the beginning of 1981 the single Slow Motion was re-released and reached number 33. Outside of Great Britain, too, commercial success was inevitable: Vienna topped the charts in Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium and number 11 in Australia, number 2 in New Zealand and number 8 in South Africa The British press did not leave “the slightest doubt about their musical mastery” for the “atmospheric electronics”. The Ultravox sound achieved a high recognition value thanks to Ure's concise voice and precise guitar riffs . Audio file / audio sample

Ultravox with Midge Ure at Chateau Neuf in Oslo, November 4, 1981

In June 1981 the band gathered again at Plank's studio to record the album Rage in Eden . At that time Ultravox only had a few new song fragments, but they had no finished pieces ready. Much of the material was first composed in the studio. The first single The Thin Wall was released on August 14, 1981, the album itself on September 11. On October 29, 1981, the second single was released with The Voice . Both singles reached the UK Top 20, the album the UK Top 10 and gold status. In the German-speaking area, only the album was able to place in the German Top 50. Sometimes unusual arrangements were created that the listener does not immediately understand. For example, the title line from I Remember (Death in the Afternoon) ( audio sample ? / I ) was played backwards in the background of the title track Rage in Eden . The B-sides of the singles comprised - as with Vienna - songs that were not included on the albums and were only re-released ten years later on the two rare albums. The band used the technical possibilities of the time in a creative way and consolidated their own style. The press response was divided: While Melody Maker recognized “confirmation, consistency and style”, Creem found the work “sterile, inhuman and fascist”. Following the release, the band embarked on a six month world tour with mediocre feedback in the United States. Audio file / audio sample

In 1982 the band's next big project was initiated. After two studio albums and commercial success in Europe and Asia, the Beatles' successful producer George Martin was hired for the third Chrysalis album Quartet in order to achieve a breakthrough in the USA. The album was recorded in about four weeks at AIR Studios in London and completed on the Caribbean island of Montserrat . The band first released the single Reap the Wild Wind on September 16, 1982 , and the album a month later. Then three more singles were released with Hymn , Visions in Blue and We Came to Dance . All titles achieved placements in the British Top 20, Hymn 9th in Germany and 6th in Switzerland. With Quartet , Ultravox reached number 63 on the Billboard 200 . With the single Reap the Wild Wind and number 71 on the Billboard Hot 100 , the band had the only chart placement of a single in the USA. The Süddeutsche Zeitung called Ultravox “the leading representatives of electronically processed rock music”. In November 1982 the band started the second world tour, which ended in May 1983 in Japan and was also called the Monument Tour because of the set design . In the background of the stage was a building facade, the lighting technology was attached to classic-looking pillars. The concerts in December 1982 at the Hammersmith Odeon in London deserve special mention because they were recorded for the live album Monument - The Soundtrack and a 31-minute VHS video . The synthesizer and stage technology necessary for the stage performances took on the features of a material battle, which later led the band to rethink: Chris Cross confessed in the tour book for the later U-Vox world tour 1986/87: "No more gothic monstrosities!" "No more gruesome monstrosities").

Ultravox with Midge Ure at the Bristol Hippodrome, May 24, 1984

In 1984 the band released the fourth studio album with Lament on Chrysalis. By using their own recording studios, the musicians had more freedom in composing work. The album was recorded and self-produced in Ures Musicfest Studio in London. Four singles were released, of which Dancing with Tears in My Eyes ( audio sample ? / I ) was also a commercial success outside of the UK. The press spoke of the well-known “English cathedral sound” and “well-known empty phrases”, although the album was stylistically a further development thanks to female backing vocals and pre-programmed vocal samples. Up until 1984 Ultravox was one of the most successful bands of the New Wave era and was mentioned in the same breath as bands like Depeche Mode and The Cure . In addition to their own albums, Ure and Cross also contributed the music for Levi's commercial Rivets and composed the title music for the feature film Max Headroom , which was the start of a subsequent series of the same name. Audio file / audio sample

Midge Ure wrote Do They Know It's Christmas? In November 1984 with Bob Geldof . for the Band Aid project to raise money against the famine in Ethiopia . In 1985 Ultravox took a creative break as Ure was busy preparing for Live Aid and his first solo album. The creative break was bridged with the best-of album The Collection and the video of the same name on VHS. Ultravox appeared on July 13, 1985 in the legendary Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium for the last time before the reunion in 2009 in the line-up of Ure, Currie, Cross and Cann. Cann left the band after musical differences while preparing the next album. Ures engagement for other projects as well as Cann's departure put the band to a stress test and formed the decisive trigger for the later rift.

In 1986 the album U-Vox, co-produced by Plank and recorded in Cologne and Curries Hot Food Studios in London, was released in an effort to further develop the band musically in the face of the fading New Wave movement. In addition to Plank, George Martin was hired again as a producer. The drummer Mark Brzezicki of Big Country replaced Warren Cann. The attempts to break new ground came in particular with the use of brass for Same Old Story and The Prize , the collaboration with the Irish folk group The Chieftains for the single All Fall Down and the single All in arranged by George Martin and recorded with orchestra One day expressed. However, the commercial success for U-Vox did not materialize. In retrospect, Ure and Currie described the band's musical legacy in the form of their last joint studio album from the 1980s as bad. After the subsequent world tour, the band members went their separate ways in 1987 and announced the dissolution of Ultravox in November 1988.

New edition of the band around Billy Currie (1988 to 1995)

In November 1988, Billy Currie started another collaboration with Robin Simon. Due to legal disputes with Midge Ure for the rights to the earlier works, Currie was initially unable to use the band name Ultravox . A musically short-lived follow-up project called Humania came about with Ray Weston on drums, who later switched to Wishbone Ash . The band played together for about a year and limited themselves to live performances. It wasn't until 2006 that Currie released an album under the name Sinews of the Soul . It also contains two newly recorded versions of the Ultravox songs Can't Stay Long (originally I Can't Stay Long ) and Lament .

After solving the legal problems, Currie reactivated the name Ultravox in 1992 with changing band members and a revised version of the hit Vienna . In 1993 the album Revelation , recorded in collaboration with Tony Fenelle, followed , which fell through with fans and critics. The album Ingenuity was released in 1994 with a new line-up around singer Sam Blue and guitarist Vinny Burns . In 1995 the live production Future Picture with material from a tour of Italy in the summer of 1993 was brought out. Reviewers sometimes found Blue's singing style to be similar to Midge Ure's voice. The sound of some songs like Ingenuity , Ideals or Majestic also showed parallels to the musical style of the earlier tracks due to the Currie-typical synthesizer sounds. Nevertheless, this album could not build on the commercial success of the 1980s.

Comeback tour and eleventh studio album (2008 to 2013)

Midge Ure Duisburg 2009 (2) .jpg
Billy Currie Duisburg 2009.jpg


Ultravox with Midge Ure and Billy Currie in the Duisburg Theater am Marientor , August 7, 2009
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Ultravox with Chris Cross and Warren Cann at the London Roundhouse , April 30th 2009
Ultravox in Berlin's C-Halle , October 25, 2012
Ultravox at The O₂ in London , November 30, 2013

Contact between the band members was almost completely broken shortly after the dissolution of Ultravox in 1988. Midge Ure and Billy Currie embarked on solo paths as musicians and producers, Chris Cross and Warren Cann were no longer musically effective. Cross practiced as a psychotherapist in Scotland for many years , Cann settled in Los Angeles and sought to get close to the film industry as an arranger .

Ure and Currie came together on the occasion of the new edition of the five Chrysalis albums a few days after the release of the Remastered Definitive Edition of Vienna to play an acoustic version of the title track for promotional purposes. The song was recorded on October 2nd, 2008 at Abbey Road Studios and broadcast live on UK radio station Absolute Radio on the Geoff Lloyd's Hometime Show . In the fan base, which was still active in 2008, the joint public appearance of the two musicians exactly 20 years after the band broke up and almost 30 years after the production of the album Vienna caused a sensation. Previously, Chris O'Donnell - former band manager and currently concert promoter at Live Nation - had contacted all four former members of the formation from the 1980s and explored the chances of a comeback.

At the beginning of November 2008 the reunion tour named after the 1981 album Return to Eden was announced. More than 23 years after their last joint appearance on Live Aid , Ure, Currie, Cross and Cann gave a total of 17 concerts in Great Britain and Ireland from mid-April to early May 2009. The recording in the London Roundhouse on April 30, 2009 served as the basis for the live album Return to Eden - Live at the Roundhouse , released a year later . Sold out halls testified to a very good audience response, which prompted the band to take part in the Isle of Wight Festival and Lokerse Feesten in Belgium as well as to an additional event in Duisburg. A continuation of the concert series in Great Britain and other European countries including Germany and Switzerland took place in spring 2010 under the title Return to Eden Part II . In August 2010 the band made six appearances at the Forever Young Festival in Sweden together with other representatives of the New Wave era such as Alphaville and The Human League . At the end of March 2011 the EP Moments from Eden was released with live recordings of the second Return to Eden concert series, initially on online music services and in early May in the form of a limited and artistically enhanced Ultimate Deluxe Edition as a combined CD and 10 "vinyl version.

After almost two years of preparation, Ultravox released the eleventh studio album Brilliant on May 25, 2012 . It was released after a temporary change of record label at EMI Records and was produced by Stephen Lipson , who had already worked with bands and artists such as Frankie Goes to Hollywood , Propaganda , Grace Jones and Annie Lennox . From September to November 2012, the band went on a concert tour through Europe with old and new material. At the start of the Brilliant tour, another EP was released with the single Live and three additional titles 7/8 (Studio Instrumental) , We Stand Alone and Astradyne (both Live Return to Eden Part II 2010 ). In addition, a live recording from September 27, 2012 with 24 of the 27 tracks played in London's Hammersmith Apollo is available as a double CD or MP3 download from Live Here Now .

James "Midge" Ure 2012 in Cologne's E-Werk

At the end of November 2013 Ultravox played four one-hour concerts in Great Britain as special guests of the Scottish band Simple Minds as part of their Greatest Hits Tour .

Concept and style

Dennis Leigh was passionate about technology even as a child. At the art school he came into contact with futurism and the idea that the art of noise would replace music. Russolo's manifesto L'arte dei rumori (The Art of Noise) also inspired Leigh to develop the band name, a portmanteau word from the Latin terms for otherworldly (ultra) and voice (vox). The title of the manifesto was also used in 1983 for the British band The Art of Noise, and the music press occasionally called the early synth-pop movement “Futurists”.

"The name was mine, it means in Latin - 'ultra' means 'beyond all reasonable expectations' and 'vox' means voice, of course."

“The name came from me; it means in Latin - 'ultra' means 'beyond all reasonable expectation' and 'vox' of course means voice. "

- John Foxx in an interview

John Cage and The Velvet Underground reinforced Foxx's desire to make music alongside his art studies. He first came into contact with synthesizers at the Royal College of Art and was fascinated by the sonic possibilities. Influenced by Glam Rock ( New York Dolls ) and Psychedelic Rock (The Velvet Underground) from the United States, Leigh intended to create a British counterbalance with musical experimentation and psychedelic poetry.

“We admired Roxy, had noticed Kraftwerk, loved Tomorrow Never Knows and the New York Dolls and the Velvets and Iggy and the early Shadows (perfect name, music and concept - Frightened City - what a title). Loved the Futurists and Fritz Lang and Film Noir and wanted to make a strange mating between Britain and Germany. "

“We admired Roxy, had noticed Kraftwerk, loved Tomorrow Never Knows and the New York Dolls and the Velvets and Iggy and the early Shadows (perfect name, music and concept - Frightened City - what a title). Loved the futurists and Fritz Lang and the film noir and wanted a strange fusion between Great Britain and Germany. "

- John Foxx in the liner notes for the digitally remastered debut album Ultravox!

These different musical and literary influences irritated the press as well as the listeners. The first live performance under the name Ultravox! at The Nashville in London in November 1976, shortly after Iceland signed her, the music press commented in unison on the hype launched by the record company :

“An arrogant 'hello, love me' entrance with no live gig goodwill to act as a safety net ... I don't believe Ultravox! and I don′t like them - but I like their album. "

“An arrogant 'hello, love us' introduction with a lack of will to appear live as a safety net ... I think Ultravox! not and I don't like her - but I like her album. "

- Phil Mc Neill in the New Musical Express, liner notes for the digitally remastered debut album

Although there was a similar hype about the Sex Pistols, the band adhered to this stigma of incredulity despite good record reviews for the debut single Dangerous Rhythm and the debut album Ultravox! undisputed and thus possibly also influenced the sales figures. Often referred to as late glam at the time, the band around John Foxx was often assigned to post-punk in retrospectives , although many songs by the studio debut Ultravox! were already created between 1974 and 1976 and thus at the same time as punk , the British starting shot of which is considered the publication of Anarchy in the UK by the Sex Pistols in November 1976.

The cynical title of the follow-up album Ha! Ha! Ha! was influenced by the antipathy of the then influential music press, as the band announced in interviews after the release:

“We hadn't got our own way and so with Ha! Ha! Ha! we were out to piss off as many people as possible. We knew it was going to do jack shit in terms of sales so we just left stuff in there like all the feedback at the end of Fear in the Western World. ”

“We couldn't get our heads through and wanted to with Ha! Ha! Ha! alienate as many people as possible. We knew it was going to sell like shit, so we left stuff like all the feedback in the end of Fear in the Western World . "

- Billy Currie in the liner notes for the digitally remastered second album

This deliberate alienation of the music press again resulted in negative reviews, including authors who initially viewed the band positively, such as Pete Silverton from Sounds. The change was underlined by a change from Foxx's stage outfit from the transparent plastic coat to uniform-like, fascist black clothing, which also contradicted the punk rule book. The alienation of the music press and the black stage outfit was later picked up by bands like Joy Division .

The move away from rockist “Americanisms” and the experimental in the band's sound was made possible by the use of electronic instruments on the Ha! Ha! Ha! and even more so on Systems Of Romance, an influential template for a number of musical genres in the 1980s.

“We feel European. The kind of accompaniment and the melodies that we come up with seem somehow German. That was the case before we came here. "

- John Foxx in an interview with the New Musical Express when asked why the third album was recorded with Conny Plank

It was only in the retrospective that the then very influential music press recognized this importance:

“There must be a lot of people around scratching their heads wondering why they didn't get into Ultravox ... The most plausible reason for the band never having more than a cult following and hence not devastating the album charts is they were unfashionable at the time when the music press was at its most influential ... "

“There must be a whole lot of people scratching their heads and wondering why they didn't bother with Ultravox ... The most believable reason the band never had more than a cult following and therefore didn't devastate the album charts is because they were out of date at a time when the music press was most influential ... "

- Mike Nicholls in the Record Mirror, liner notes for the digitally remastered album Systems of Romance

Contemporary artists recognized the band's potential early on. Gary Numan named Systems of Romance third album the single biggest influence for his Electro Wave :

“Back in '78 Systems of Romance was probably the most important album to me in terms of how I wanted to approach electronic music. It was exactly where I wanted to go with my own music. "

“Back in '78, Systems of Romance was probably the most important album to me in terms of how I wanted to approach electronic music. That's exactly where I wanted to go with my own music. "

- Gary Numan in the liner notes for the digitally remastered version of Systems of Romance

The members of the band influenced the genres Minimal Electro (Foxx solo), New Romantic (Currie and Ure with Visage) and Synthiepop (Ultravox without Foxx). Mick Mercer also attested that the early Ultravox had an influence on Gothic Rock . Ultravox had a significant impact on the European music scene and the New Wave .

Nick Rhodes from the later founded Duran Duran was also convinced of the band early on:

"Ultravox were the link between punk and what came next."

"Ultravox were the link between punk and what came after."

- Nick Rhodes in the sleeve notes for the digitally remastered debut album Ultravox!

For Rusty Egan , drummer with the band The Rich Kids and DJ in the nightclub Billy’s and Blitz , which later became the nucleus of the New Romantic movement and produced bands like Spandau Ballet and Visage, Quiet Men and Slow Motion were part of the standard repertoire.

With the departure of Foxx and the arrival of Ure, the concept was finally also commercially exploited. Most of the songs on the 1980 published and commercially very successful album Vienna were written in the spring of 1979. Foxx's psychedelic lyrics were abandoned by catchy lyrics by Ure, but the continued experimentation with electronic sounds brought the concept on the road to success from 1980 onwards.

Texts

The lyrics of the creative period at Island Records, all of which are from John Foxx, are based on what he saw on the streets of London in the second half of the 1970s. The opening title of the first album already makes this clear: Saturday Night in the City of the Dead (" Saturday Night in the City of the Dead ").

“Stands in the dole queue, face like a statue / Laugh like a maniac, walk like a king, too / Spiked hair, don't care. Oxfam outlaw / Rap band rips it out, you're buzzing like a chainsaw ”

“Standing in the queue for unemployment benefits, face like a statue / laughs like a madman, also walks like a king / spiky hair, doesn't matter. Oxfam - Outcast / thug buddies rip it out, you growl like a chainsaw "

- Second verse of Saturday Night in the City of the Dead

He took the topic of man-machine (for example in I Want To Be a Machine ) from WS Burroughs' Electronic Revolution ("The Electronic Revolution") . The dystopian scenarios in which he describes the collapse of society, the isolation of the individual and the dissolution of time and space are borrowed from the novels of JG Ballard . Motifs from Ballard's Crash (made into a film by David Cronenberg in 1996) were also reflected in some of the texts, especially in My Sex from the second album:

"My sex is a spark of electro flesh / A neon outline on a high-rise overspill / Skyscraper shadows on a car-crash overpass / It wears no future faces, owns just random gender"

"My sex is a spark of electric meat / A neon profile on the abundance of skyscrapers / Skyscraper shadows on a car accident on an overpass / He doesn't have the grimaces of the future, he just has a random role"

- Refrain from My Sex

For Hiroshima Mon Amour , he borrowed directly from Marguerite Duras and Alain Resnais . In addition to these writers, he also processed cinematic sources in the lyrics. These include Carol Reed's The Third Man based on Graham Greene's book , Wolf Rilla's The Village of the Damned and Jules Dassin's The Rat of Soho . Foxx's language is rich in images and often uses different colors or the play of light and shadow as well as terms from cinematography. His vocal accentuation ranges from staccato in Saturday Night in the City of the Dead to legato in Just for a Moment :

"Listening to the music the machines make / I let my heart break / Just for a moment"

"While listening to the machine music / I let my heart break / Just for a moment"

- Refrain from Just For a Moment

After Foxx left and before Ure joined the band, songs were created for the first time without lyrics ( Astradyne ) or without vocals ( Mr. X , voiced by Warren Cann). In the 1980s line-up, all band members agreed to be equally involved in text and composition. For the album Vienna , Cann contributed about half of the lyrics. Although the division of labor is no longer comprehensible in detail, Billy Currie explained in an interview that Midge Ure was mainly responsible for the later texts.

At first, the group stayed true to the subject of society's decline and loneliness (for example in Passing Strangers and Mr. X ), but switched from the observer's perspective under Foxx to that of the person concerned. During press interviews about Vienna , a connection was established with the Vienna Secession (“The time its art, the art its freedom”) and Gustav Klimt , which Ure later withdrew. The lyrics to Rage in Eden ("Aufruhr im Paradies") stayed in the narrative perspective and dealt with fears ( The Thin Wall , Stranger Within ) and authority ( The Voice , Accent on Youth ). The first religiously tinged texts ( Rage in Eden ) already pointed the way for the following album Quartet with its numerous allusions. These were found in some titles ( Reap the Wild Wind , Serenade and Hymn ) or in the vocabulary of some texts (“Passion Play” in We Came to Dance and “Oaths in Silence” in Visions in Blue ). At times the formulations were ambiguous. Although the hymn looks like a creed in terms of its style , attempts at interpretation tend to aim at a cynical view of religion. The story told in the music video also supports in some analyzes the thesis of a devil's pact that will end in ruin.

"Give us this day all that you showed me / The power and the glory, till my kingdom comes / Give me all the storybook told me / The faith and the glory, till my kingdom comes"

"Give us these days what you showed me / The power and the glory until my kingdom come / Give what the story book tells me about / The faith and the glory until my kingdom come"

- Refrain from hymn

On the album Lament the religious imprint changed into the mystical ( Man of Two Worlds ). In addition, political issues came to the fore ( White China , Dancing With Tears in My Eyes and Heart of the Country ). According to interpretations, White China anticipated the possible effects of the then-future handover of Hong Kong (called "White China") to China in 1997:

"When white turns to red / In the not too distant days / Will force and misery / Be the life you have to lead?"

"When white turns into red / In the not too distant time / Will violence and misery / determine the life that you have to lead?"

- Second stanza from White China

After Dancing With Tears in My Eyes , Ultravox again addressed the dangers of the civil and military use of nuclear energy with the single All Fall Down from the album U-Vox . This time, the background was the fear of the future that arose in the mid-1980s as a result of the arms race in the Cold War . The song took its place in the then popular contributions of other artists such as Russians von Sting to the global peace movement :

“Well look in the mirror and what do you see / An American, Russian, a soldier or me? / When you've all pressed the buttons just where will you be / When we all fall down? "

“Look in the mirror and say what you see / An American, a Russian, a soldier or me? / If you've pushed the buttons, where will you be / When we've all fallen? "

- Fifth stanza of All Fall Down

instrumentation

Billy Currie performing one of his violin solos at the Roundhouse in London, April 30, 2009
The Voice drum
solo at The O₂ in London, November 30, 2013

In 1973 the band started with the classic rock line-up of guitar, bass and drums, but had a more experimental sound in mind from the start. With Currie, a classically trained musician was added early on, who expanded the band's repertoire to include a violin with an electromagnetic pickup and a Crumar electric piano. The band worked on the sound with the existing instruments for a year and experimented with the studio technology. Due to the record deal, the band's financial situation improved; at the same time, synthesizers became affordable. With Currie on the ARP Odyssey, Ultravox developed a sound trademark on their second album and gained live experience with this instrument. Currie also operated an ELKA Rhapsody 610 for string sounds. Both instruments were used at Hiroshima Mon Amour - the ELKA in the first chords and the ARP in the second half. On the third album, Cann initiated support with rhythm machines and made Ultravox one of the first British bands with electronic percussion . Further studio experiments such as tape loops recorded with the ARP Odyssey were the first fruits of the collaboration with the German sound engineer Conny Plank during the phase near Iceland .

After Foxx and Shears left, Ure was not just a replacement for vocals and guitar. Ure had his first experience with synthesizers at Rich Kids . For the album Vienna , all band members used electronic instruments for the first time. The commercial success of Vienna opened up new possibilities for instrumentation and studio use for the band. For the album Rage in Eden , the band was no longer limited in time in the studio and also had a mentor in Conny Plank who advised the musicians on developing the sounds. If the album Vienna was recorded within ten days and mixed after 14 days, the band went to the studio for Rage in Eden for several weeks without any prepared compositions. The synthesizer technology was expanded to include additional devices. The polyphonic Yamaha CS-80 was initially not used at live concerts - in contrast to Simmon's hexagonal syndrums . These played Ure, Currie and cross at the Monument tour almost one and a half minutes of Cann to wind down from the drums accompanied solo The Voice , with the concerts of the later comeback tours Return to Eden ended.

Other electronic instruments were added for the album Quartet , especially samplers . Specifically, it was the PPG Wave 2.2 manufactured in Germany by Palm Productions GmbH, as well as an E-mu emulator and a Yamaha GS1 , the forerunner of the later DX series. Since the simultaneous operation of all synthesizers became problematic, Ultravox got support from Colin King and Danny Mitchell, who from the Monument Tour also contributed the supporting voices at live concerts. For the album Lament , some of the existing instruments were replaced by those with a MIDI interface that were triggered by two Linn 9000s during live performances . The band programmed the digital synthesizer with vocal samples. Such samples can be heard on White China (Yamaha's GS-1) or on the title track Lament (Palm PPG Wave 2.2). Mae McKenna, sister of the drummer Ted McKenna ( Rory Gallagher , Michael Schenker Group ), contributed passages in Gaelic for Man of Two Worlds . Besides Shirley Roden, Debi Doss, previously a singer with the Buggles in Video Killed the Radio Star , was one of the two supporting voices in A Friend I Call Desire . During the Set Movements tour to Lament , a total of 26 individual input signals were passed to the PA system . Since the sound check for all the equipment took about five hours, Ultravox did not perform at festivals. A different, predominantly digital instrumentation was used especially for the performance at the Live Aid concert with four songs: Ure next to the guitar on the E-mu Emulator II , Currie next to the violin on the Yamaha DX7 and Kurzweil K250 , Cross on the Minimoog and on Bass and PPG Wave 2.2 as well as Cann on the drums and a drum machine of the Oberheim DX type .

On the Return to Eden tours in 2009 and 2010, Ultravox only used digital keyboard sounds. The synthesizer sounds were generated as virtual instruments using software emulation running on laptops . Compared to previous concerts, the hardware required has been reduced considerably. In addition, the use of in-ear monitoring allowed individual and reproducible mixing of each individual song. The time required for the sound checks, especially in the public area of the different venues, was limited to a few minutes.

design

Sound carrier

As an art and graphic design student, Foxx also worked on the visual presentation of the band. In addition to unusual stage clothing, this interest extended to the design of the record covers . Under his real name Dennis Leigh, he was responsible for the design of the record sleeve for the debut album. The photo on the front is from Gered Mankowitz, who had already worked with Jimi Hendrix , and shows the band in front of a brick wall under the neon "Ultravox!" Which was also used in the promotional videos of Island Records. The back shows Foxx kneeling with folded hands in the middle of monitors with his likeness. The album Ha! -Ha! -Ha! shows stereoscopic black and white photos of the individual band members on the front and back. On the front of Systems of Romance there are color photos in the form of proofs , on the back the five band members at the time.

The photos on Vienna are by Brian Griffin, the design was done by Glenn Travis. The cover of the single of the same name depicts the grave of the Austrian piano maker Carl Schweighofer , which is located in Vienna's central cemetery . Rage in Eden marked his first collaboration with Peter Saville , who had worked at Factory Records for Joy Division and New Order . The record cover, known as Rage Face , is based on the works of Claus Hansmann and Hervé Morvan. Due to legal problems with the use of Morvan's original Cinémonde , Chrysalis replaced the cover shortly after the album was first published with alternative illustrations based on three horse heads (Three-horse logo) . In 2008, the new owners granted the license to use the original cover for a limited number of copies of the Remastered Definitive Editions by Rage in Eden , which also extended to the Return to Eden tour in the following two years and the live album of the same name.

For Quartet , Peter Saville took on the design of the entire graphic concept, which in addition to the design of the record cover also included the design of the stage design for the band's live performances on the Monument tour. Elements of the monument were also used for some music videos. The idea of Monument - a building in the style of old Italian architecture with allusions to Freemasonry - was continued graphically on the covers of some singles. Often only fragments of the monument could be seen, at the latest on the cover of Quartet , the monument appeared complete and matching the album title in four perspectives: floor plan , cross plan , elevation and axonometric . On the cover of Monument - The Soundtrack , the live album for the tour, the monument was photographed as a set. The design for Lament was also penned by Saville and shows the Neolithic stone circle The Standing Stones of Callanish on the Isle of Lewis , which also served as the setting for the music video for One Small Day . Michael Nash did the design for the album U-Vox .

Music videos

From 1980 the new medium of music video was consistently used to market the songs. While the video for the single Sleepwalk was accompanied by pictures of a live performance in St Albans , the video for Passing Strangers, which was shot mainly in black and white, already used outdoor shots and special effects such as pyrotechnics and dry ice fog. Although the video looks like a short movie, it was not shot on 35mm film . Director David Mallet achieved the cinemascope impression by blackening the upper and lower edges of the picture and by a quick sequence of cuts. For the single Vienna , director Russell Mulcahy - similar to John Foxx before with the lyrics - borrowed from the film noir era and also used the cinemascope effect. The video for Vienna is partly shot in black and white and thus underscores Ultravox's efforts to be distinguishable from other groups of a similar style. The video was only partially shot in Vienna itself, as many tourist attractions were closed in winter during filming. The opening sequence on cobblestones with the white horse was created at St Paul's Church in the London borough of Covent Garden and was cut to match the rhythm. All interior photos were also taken in London. Only the scene in front of St. Stephen's Cathedral , a few sequences in the central cemetery and the final scene in front of the Karl Borromäus Church were filmed on a single day of shooting in Vienna and used in the video. Production costs were around £ 6,000 and were pre-financed by the band. In contrast, All Stood Still is a so-called stage video, i.e. a stage recording of the band playing in front of an audience.

Russel Mulcahy also realized the two videos The Voice and The Thin Wall for the album Rage in Eden . The Voice created a visual relationship between the “voice” or “say” of the people and the authority represented by radio, press, television, military and justice. The Thin Wall visually played with anxiety disorders such as claustrophobia or the fear of drowning. Mulcahy said of his videos:

“I never take a song literally, I always try to put another layer on top of it so that people can take it how they want. This also corresponds to the ideas that most musicians have of their music. So a pop video is, in a sense, 'visual music'. "

- Russel Mulcahy

Between 1982 and 1984 Midge Ure and Chris Cross made all of Ultravox's videos themselves. They often used motifs that matched the song title. In Reap the Wild Wind ("Harvesting the Storm", based on the Bible verse from Hosea 8.7), documentary recordings of airmen from the First and Second World Wars were integrated into the storyline. The following single release Hymn ("Loblied") took up the final sequence of Reap the Wild Wind at the beginning and used Faustian motifs with the participation of the British-Swiss actor Oliver Tobias . The video for Visions in Blue was only broadcast in a shortened version by the BBC due to the revealing content. The original uncensored version is included on the first VHS release of The Collection from 1984 and on the DVD The Very Best of from 2009.

The world's most popular video is one Dancing With Tears in My Eyes , in which an accident in a nuclear power plant to nuclear meltdown leads and from the perspective of a couple is emotionally portrayed. In 1984 the GAU was a fiction, but it was to become reality two years later in the Chernobyl nuclear disaster . The video for Lament ("Lamentation") was shot on the Isle of Skye . Love's Great Adventure is stylistically based on the then popular Indiana Jones film series . The movie poster for Raiders of the Lost Ark also appears briefly in the hymn video.

Ultravox has had its own channel on YouTube since the end of January 2009 . In addition, a Vevo channel was made available at the beginning of September 2010 .

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1977 Ultravox! - - - - -
Ha! -Ha! -Ha! - - - - -
1978 Systems of Romance - - - - -
1980 Vienna DE22 (19 weeks)
DE
- - UK3
platinum
platinum

(72 weeks)UK
US164 (9 weeks)
US
Sales: + 300,000
1981 Rage in Eden DE48 (6 weeks)
DE
- - UK4th
gold
gold

(23 weeks)UK
US144 (6 weeks)
US
Sales: + 100,000
1982 Quartet DE13 (18 weeks)
DE
- - UK6th
gold
gold

(30 weeks)UK
US61 (17 weeks)
US
Sales: + 100,000
1984 Lament DE25 (21 weeks)
DE
- - UK8th
gold
gold

(26 weeks)UK
US115 (9 weeks)
US
Sales: + 100,000
1986 U-Vox DE49 (3 weeks)
DE
- CH29 (1 week)
CH
UK9
gold
gold

(6 weeks)UK
-
Sales: + 100,000
1993 Revelation - - - - -
1994 Ingenuity - - - - -
1996 Dancing with Tears in my Eyes - - - - -
2012 Brilliant DE27 (2 weeks)
DE
AT59 (1 week)
AT
CH67 (1 week)
CH
UK21 (1 week)
UK
-

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Live albums

<onlyinclude>

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1983 Monument - The Soundtrack - - - UK9
gold
gold

(15 weeks)UK
-
Sales: + 100,000
1991 BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert - - - - -
Live recording of the concert at the Paris Theater in London on January 14, 1981
1995 Future picture - - - - -
Live recording of a concert in Italy from 1993
2001 Live in Italy - - - - -
Live recording of a concert in Italy from 1993; Re-issue of Future Picture
2010 Return to Eden - Live at the Roundhouse - - - UK75 (1 week)
UK
-
Live recording of the concert at The Roundhouse in London on April 30, 2009
2012 2012 tour - - - - -
Live recording of the concert at Hammersmith Apollo in London on September 27, 2012

Compilations

<onlyinclude>

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)
Remarks
DE DE AT AT CH CH UK UK US US
1980 Three into One - - - - -
1984 The Collection DE37 (8 weeks)
DE
- - UK2
Triple platinum
× 3
Triple platinum

(53 weeks)UK
-
Sales: + 900,000
1993 If I Was - The Very Best of Midge Ure and Ultravox - - - UK10
silver
silver

(6 weeks)UK
-
Sales: + 60,000
Rare Vol. 1 - - - - -
B-sides of the singles (1980 to 1982)
1994 Rare Vol. 2 - - - - -
B-sides of the singles (1984 to 1986)
1998 The Voice - The Best Of Ultravox - - - UK-
silver
silver
UK
-
Sales: + 60,000
1998 Extended Ultravox - - - - -
12 ″ remixes (1980 to 1986)
2009 The Very Best of Ultravox - - - UK35 (4 weeks)
UK
-
Including DVD with the music videos (1980 to 1986)
2013 The Albums 1980–2012 - - - - -
CD box with the albums Vienna, Rage in Eden, Quartet, Monument, Lament, U-Vox, Return to Eden and Brilliant in paper sleeves

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

literature

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  • Christian Graf and Burghard Rausch: Rock Music Lexicon . Europe / Vol. 2, Lake Zombies. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-596-12388-7 , pp. 751-1515 .
  • Ultravox: In Their Own Words . Omnibus Press, London 1984, ISBN 0-7119-0553-3 , pp. 32 .
  • Francis Drake and Peter Gilbert: Ultravox - Past, Present and Future . Fanzine. 1978.
  • Simon Reynolds: Rip It Up And Start Again . Hannibal Verlag, Höfen 2007, ISBN 978-3-85445-270-6 , Chapter 17 Electric Dreams: Synthiepop .
  • Robin Eggar: Midge Ure, If I Was… The Autobiography . Virgin Books, 2005, ISBN 0-7535-1077-4 , pp. 288 (British English).

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  50. a b c Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US

Web links

Commons : Ultravox  - album with pictures, videos and audio files