16 extreme voice

JohnJJohnohn FoxxFoxx Exploring an Ocean of possibilities E x t r e m e V o i c e 1 6 :

Welcome to EV16! It’s been an exceptionally busy year for us, what with CD re-releases and Internet websites, as you’ll I n t see in the following pages. EV has become an annual event of late, but you’ll be relieved to know that we’re determined r o d to get EV17 out THIS YEAR! We’ll be aiming for a Christmas issue, though of course this depends on news and events. u c t i o EV is now on the Internet! Yes, we now have a complementary website, where you can get the latest news, send email n messages to the band, chat with fellow fans, download previously unseen photographs, listen to messages from Midge (later we hope to have messages from everyone), view the merchandise list, and many other things. Generally nothing from the fanzine is reproduced there, to keep the magazine good value for money. The website has now become the home for the discography that we were planning, since it will be an ever-evolving beastie which, if written in stone (well, in print) would soon become obsolete! It was a problem which was plaguing us – until now. The Internet is the perfect place for it, since it can constantly be updated and amended. We hope you’ll like it!

The other major news (covered in-depth later) is that EMI Gold are re-releasing Ultravox and Midge Ure CDs, with our help – EV has been involved with everything from track selection, to artwork, to running out the film! We also have several new CDs planned. At £6.99 they’re great value for money, so keep your eyes peeled – most record shops should carry them, or at least be able to order them. So far Monument, The Gift and Dancing with Tears in My Eyes have had the treatment. At the time of writing Rage In Eden has just been finished, and should be in the shops in June.

As usual, quite a few subscriptions run out with this issue, in which case your address label will say “subscription expires with EV16”, and a yellow subscription renewal form will be enclosed. Cheques etc payable to Cerise A. Reed, please.

Subscription rates are as follows:

UK £7.00 • EUROPE £8.00 • OUTSIDE EUROPE £11.00

Here’s how to contact us: Cerise Reed and Robin Harris, Extreme Voice, 19 SALISBURY STREET, ST GEORGE, BRISTOL BS5 8EE ENGLAND. 1 TEL / FAX: (0117) 939 7078 URL: http://www.ultravox.org.uk EMAIL (CERISE): [email protected] EMAIL (ROBIN): [email protected]

All the very best! A l l t e x t a n d p i c t u r e s © E x t r e m e R V e o p i c r e o d 1 u 9 c 9 t 7 i o n e x b c y e p p t e w r m h i e s r s e i o s n t a o t n e l d y . . This is not an album that can be listened to in the conventional been updated with the addition of rhythms which seem to be ULTRAVOX

F way in that there isn’t a track that leads you into the album, far more relentless than they ever were in the past. SPINNING A WORLD WIDE WEB E nor can it be appreciated by merely ‘playing it in the I

R background’. This album requires something from the listener, Tracks like Crash and Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible may Extreme Voice now has an Internet presence (see page 13 for

B but if you are prepared to invest the time, you will discover an seem at first listen to be the most radical departure in that the full story), and is far from being the only Ultravox and album of rare beauty. Cathedral Oceans stands up they appear to have more in common with Nation 12 than

N related site on the Web – the strength of support out there is

I exceptionally well to repeated listenings in that new patterns anything else that John has done before. In reality they both and layers will present themselves each time it is played, as share a common ancestor in 20th Century – the repeated just stunning! Come and visit us at: your attention is moved from one sequence to another. one line over an insistent beat. http://www.ultravox.org.uk The form of the music of Cathedral Oceans has been It’s very strange to find an album, which has been created using JOHN FOXX constantly developing through the intervening years, so that this level of technology, to have so much warmth and feeling. MIDGE URE NEWS FROM THE QUIET MAN several albums’ worth of this material has now been written. This is particularly evident on the third track, Here We Go, It’s odd to discover that, despite the final selection of material which seems to be in the same romantic mould as Sitting at NEW RELEASES being recorded over such a long period of time, the quality of the Edge of the World. Lyrically the album doesn’t disappoint The big ‘new release’ news in this issue is that John Foxx has the recording does not vary from track to track. either: “I will not follow you, across the clear blue sky of finally broken his self-imposed musical silence by releasing not evening. And when I’m half asleep, I still feel your shadow on one, but two new albums! The first being the now-legendary It’s difficult to summarise Cathedral Oceans; it’s not an my ceiling” (Through My Sleeping). Another track, Shadow Cathedral Oceans and the second is John’s recent ‘instant’ album in the traditional sense. The music can be Man, seems to continue themes which have already appeared collaboration with Louis Gordon called Shifting City. described as atmospheric, tranquil and even ambient; which in John’s work (in this case from He’s a Liquid and The Man creates impressions of acoustic space of great size. If it helps Who Dies Every Day) fused together by the rhythmic anyone, John’s current favourite tracks are Through Summer elements from Metal Beat. In fact it’s difficult to determine Rooms and Infinite in all Directions. exactly ‘who did what’ on this album, the partnership between John and Louis being a subtle one – there’s plenty of blurring, Catalogue Number: Abstract Division META001CD merging and dissolving... Louis even manages to nudge his way into contributing some of the vocal elements on the track Midge Ure : Breathe Forgotten Years; a song which sees John crooning over a slow, almost melancholy beat. And the best is saved until last; 1. Breathe 4’28” An Ocean We Can Breathe was the last song which was 2. Fields of Fire 4’32” recorded. Originally based around a drone and basic rhythm 3. Fallen Angel 3’53” track created by Louis, the song quickly evolved into one of 4. Free 4’43” John Foxx : Cathedral Oceans the most powerful and ‘accessible’ songs on the whole album. 5. Guns and Arrows 4’44” 6. Lay My Body Down 3’58” 1. Cathedral Oceans 5’19” In much the same way as The Garden is now considered by 7. Sinnerman 3’38” 2 2. City as Memory 5’43” some to be the successor to Ultravox’s Systems of Romance 8. Live Forever 4’21” 3 3. Through Summer Rooms 6’36” album, we’re sure that Shifting City will be viewed as the 9. Trail of Tears 3’38” 4. Geometry and Coincidence 5’26” John Foxx & Louis Gordon : Shifting City true follow-up to Metamatic. 10. May Your Good Lord 4’04” 5. If Only... 3’22” 11. The Maker 4’45” 6. Shifting Perspective 2’35” 1. The Noise 4’17” Catalogue Number: Metamatic META002CD 7. Floating Islands 6’05” 2. Crash 5’24” Well it’s finally out, but since Breathe’s release was 8. Infinite in all Directions 5’49” 3. Here We Go 7’03” Cathedral Oceans and Shifting City are available by mail accompanied by an appalling lack of marketing and publicity, 9. Avenham Collonade 6’17” 4. Shadow Man 7’26” order for £12.99 each from Voiceprint, details as follows: it has sadly sunk with barely a trace, a crime for an album 10. Sunset Rising 2’38” 5. Through My Sleeping 5’03” packed with such warmth and vitality. Having had the luxury 11. Invisible Architecture 3’22” 6. Forgotten Years 5’43” VOICEPRINT, P.O. BOX 50, HOUGHTON-LE-SPRING of hearing the penultimate studio mix of the album, we feel 7. Everyone 5’48” TYNE AND WEAR DH4 5YP, ENGLAND justified in saying that BMG’s influence during the final mix John has been writing Cathedral Oceans for over fifteen 8. Shifting City 3’36” was not necessarily a good thing. Two inter-track “links” and years now. He started after he’d completed The Garden LP 9. Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible 5’42” POSTAGE WITHIN UK: much of the flow has been lost, in order to push the initial back in 1981, in fact the first track on Cathedral Oceans 10. An Ocean We Can Breathe 6’23” Free single, Breathe, to pole position in the running order. starts with the sounds of birdsong, so it could be seen as POSTAGE EUROPE: Nevertheless, it is a worthy successor to Pure, and once more following directly on from the end of The Garden. It’s almost Comparisons between this and John’s first solo album are Add £2.00 p&p for first disk, £1.00 per CD thereafter an ever-evolving and fascinating reflection of its creator’s as if John’s musical career split in two at that point: Cathedral going to be unavoidable and to a certain degree intentional (in POSTAGE OUTSIDE EUROPE: personal life. Oceans on one side, The Golden Section and In fact we’ve already heard it being described as “a Metamatic Add £3.00 p&p for first disk, £1.00 per CD thereafter Mysterious Ways on the other. We first heard about for the Nineties...!”). Although certain elements of that album The hoped-for vinyl edition release did not come about, but Cathedral Oceans from Declan Colgan at Virgin Records have been sampled for Shifting City, John and Louis were VISA/ACCESS/AMERICAN EXPRESS both CDs and cassettes are available. when we were researching the Assembly album back in able to go back to the original equipment, thus recreating the Credit Card Hotline UK (0500) 829262 1991 but, like most people, we thought that this album atmosphere that made Metamatic one of the most influential Fax UK (0191) 512 1104 CD Catalogue Number : BMG/Arista 74321 34629 2 would never be released. albums of the Eighties. However, this time around the mix has Outside UK Tel: 44 (191) 512 1109 Cassette Catalogue Number : BMG/Arista 74321 34629 4 CD Catalogue Number : BMG/Arista 74321 42316 2 MIDGE URE ULTRAVOX Cassette Catalogue Number : BMG/Arista 74321 42316 4 CD RE-RELEASE CD RE-RELEASES Entertainingly enough, both of Midge’s CD singles invariably come with a BMG Interact card, the purpose of which is to complete and return it to BMG who, in return for this free database, will keep you up-to-date on all of Midge’s releases (who, incidentally, was omitted from all of their mailings until recently. Perhaps finally they received enough complaints from all of us to add him in!). Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite Midge Ure : Breathe : the single work like that in practice; instead of hearing about Midge you will be bombarded with junk-mail pertaining to other 1. Breathe (single edit) 4’07” artists on their roster, which is fine if you like Robson & 2. No Regrets (live) 3’45” Jerome, but a pain in the backside if you don’t... Midge Ure : The Gift 3. Cold, Cold Heart (live) 2’43” Ultravox : Monument the Soundtrack 4. Trail of Tears (live) 2’34” 1. If I Was 5’22” (Tracks 2, 3 and 4 recorded ‘Out Alone’ at the Hazlitt 1. Monument 3’15” 2. When the Winds Blow 4’07” Theatre, Maidstone, Kent on May 19th, 1993). 2. Reap the Wild Wind 4’10” 3. Living in the Past 4’35” 3. Visions in Blue 4’38” 4. That Certain Smile 4’08” The first single to be lifted off of Breathe was an edited 4. The Voice 6’51” 5. The Gift 4’59” version its title track, coupled on the CD by three live tracks 5. Vienna 5’23” 6. Antilles 4’08” taken from Midge’s 1993 ‘Out Alone‘ tour. 6. Passing Strangers 5’28” 7. Wastelands 4’40” 7. Mine for Life 4’25” 8. Edo 3’24” The cassette single version features Breathe (single edit) 8. Hymn 5’40” 9. The Chieftain 4’45” and Cold, Cold Heart (live) on both sides. 10. She Cried 4’12” Midge Ure : If I Was The classic Ultravox live (mini) album is back in the racks, this 11. The Gift (reprise) 1’44” CD Catalogue Number : BMG/Arista 74321 37117 2 time with two extra live tracks: Visions in Blue and Passing 12. Mood Music 3’30” Cassette Catalogue Number : BMG/Arista 74321 37117 4 1. If I Was 4’45” Strangers. A lot of people missed out on Monument the 13. Piano 2’28” 2. That Certain Smile 4’17” first time around, because although on vinyl it was intended 14. The Man Who Sold the World 5’37” 3. When the Winds Blow 4’08” as a mid-price release, it curiously became full-price when it 15. The Gift (instrumental) 5’11” 4. Living in the Past 4’35” made the transition onto compact disc and at £14.00 its six 5. Wastelands 4’41” tracks weren’t seen as being particularly good value for This is at least the third time that The Gift has been available 6. Antilles 4’08” money. So people (ourselves included) waited for it to become on CD, but this time around there’s a major difference – four 7. The Gift 4’59” mid-price, only to find that the record company had decided extra tracks! Which means that this new album clocks in at 4 8. Answers to Nothing 3’40” that it should be deleted instead... All that remains to be said 5 just over an hour. 9. Remembrance Day 4’27” is that seven of its eight tracks were recorded at the 10. Sister and Brother 5’55” Hammersmith Odeon in December 1982 during Ultravox’s You can find out the full story of how the new CD version of 11. Hell to Heaven 4’05” tour for the Quartet album. this album, together with Monument – The Soundtrack, 12. Take Me Home 3’05” Dancing with Tears in My Eyes and Rage in Eden, were Midge Ure : Guns and Arrows : the single 13. Homeland 4’41” Catalogue Number: EMI CDGold 1025 put together in the ‘EMI GOLD Mine’ article on pages 8 14. Edo 3’24” through 12. 1. Guns and Arrows (single edit) 3’37” 2. Trail of Tears (demo) 3’29” This has nothing to do with the patchy Ultravox and Midge Catalogue Number: EMI CDGold 1045 3. Tor 4’28” Ure compilation album If I Was : The Very Best of Midge 4. Man of the World (recorded Ure and Ultravox that was foisted upon us a couple of years ‘Out Alone’ at the Hazlitt Theatre, ago. Graphically bright but not uninteresting, this time Maidstone, Kent on May 19th, 1993) 3’12” around it really is just a selection of Midge’s material. All WARREN CANN fourteen tracks are taken from his first two solo outings The UPDATE Guns and Arrows has been savagely edited for its single Gift and Answers to Nothing. version by having more than a minute hacked off its Warren currently has many projects on the go, none of which running time. Despite this, the addition of a new As with Dancing with Tears in My Eyes, this isn’t intended we can talk about yet! But suffice to say he’s keeping very instrumental Tor, an emotive pre-album demo of Trail of as anything other than an introduction to Midge’s work and busy, and was recently excited at landing a cameo in a film as Ultravox : Dancing with Tears in My Eyes Tears and a live version of the Peter Green-penned Man therefore there are no rare B-sides, live tracks or unreleased an FBI agent! Pack your bags, Agent Mulder... of the World makes this single well worth collecting. material, but at £5.99 we don’t think that too many people 1. Sleepwalk 3’12” will complain. Also, we finally have movement on the Helden front – 2. Waiting 3’51” The cassette single version features Guns and Arrows nothing firm to report right now but things are looking 3. Passing Strangers 3’50” (single edit) and Trail of Tears (demo) on both sides. Catalogue Number: Disky DC 868792 hopeful once more. Watch this space. 4. Vienna (single edit) 4’38” 5. Passionate Reply 4’17” line-up released Slow Motion as a single is very sloppy 6. Stranger Within 7’22” GENERAL NEWS 6. The Voice (single edit) 4’23” indeed. But the biggest mistake of all is to say that “before 7. Accent on Youth 4’45” 7. Hymn (single edit) 4’25” settling on the name Ultravox! the band called themselves 8. The Ascent 2’20” 8. Monument 3’16” Dire of London...” (pause for effect)... ‘Dire’ rather than 9. Your Name 9. We Came to Dance (single edit) 4’08” ‘Fire’... too funny to be merely a typographical error, just how (Has Slipped My Mind Again) 4’33” 10. Dancing with Tears (single edit) 4’05” much does the author, Chris White, like Ultravox? One final 10. I Never Wanted to Begin 11. Reap the Wild Wind (single edit) 3’45” question... what’s so ‘classic’ about Dreams? (edited version) 3’32” 12. Love’s Great Adventure 3’07” 11. Paths and Angles 4’22” 13. White China (recorded live at the Catalogue Number: EMI CDBTS 10 12. I Never Wanted to Begin Hammersmith Odeon, June 1984) 3’45” (extended version) 6’15” 14. All Fall Down (single edit) 5’09” 15. Dreams? 2’31” Rage in Eden is the latest album to get the Extreme Voice 16. All in One Day (single edit) 4’17” treatment and judging by how many of you have told us that this was the album you most wanted to see on CD again, it The second incarnation of the Dancing with Tears in My should prove very popular indeed. The extra tracks in this Eyes compilation album came out courtesy of the Dutch instance are the B-sides from both The Thin Wall and The Family additions : Ruby Rose Ure record label Disky, this time with a Collection era photo on Voice together with the much requested extended version of the cover which is much better than the dreadful red and I Never Wanted to Begin. Congratulations to Midge and Sheridan, who have had a black Gift era shot that adorned the front of its predecessor. third daughter recently, Ruby Rose Ure, born on February 2nd This time around there aren’t any sleeve notes to mess up, but Catalogue Number: EMI CDGOLD 1097 1997 at 6.30pm. The proud parents are shown above with despite what it says on the sleeve, Dreams? is still only 2’31” Ultravox : Dancing with Tears in My Eyes their second daughter, Kitty Primrose. Photo: Nick Cornish. long and not 4’18”. The disc comes in a clear CD case which is strangely under-utilised in that there is no picture behind it! We’ve got a lot to thank the original Dancing with Tears in Family additions : Tom Joseph Adam Currie My Eyes compilation for. After all if the original sleeve hadn’t Catalogue Number: Disky DC 864602 upset so many people by only featuring a 1985 solo picture of Congratulations also to Billy and Heidi on their new addition Midge on the cover, then we may never have got into the to the family, Tom Joseph Adam Currie, born on November position of recreating all of Ultravox’s album artwork for EMI 1st 1996, who weighed in at 8lbs 7oz. Gold. This was by far the most difficult of all the albums to date, because not only did we have to create the artwork Ultravox Convention? from scratch (for both CD and cassette), but we didn’t have the luxury of being able to tamper with the running order. The In the last issue of Extreme Voice we asked you all for your main problem was arriving at an identity for the album that Ultravox : Lament thoughts on whether or not there would be enough demand said Ultravox without using images and designs that we’d for an Ultravox convention. Well, as we only received 30 6 already earmarked for other releases. For the full story, turn to 1. White China 3’53” replies (some of which said that they would only be interested 7 the ‘EMI GOLD Mine’ article on pages 8 through 12. 2. One Small Day 4’37” if some of the guys would be there) we thought that maybe 3. Dancing with Tears in My Eyes 4’45” this was going to be a non-starter. However, the idea was put Ultravox : 19 Classic Tracks CD Catalogue Number: EMI CDGold 1078 4. Lament 4’44” on the Internet, this time to get a more immediate response, Cassette Catalogue Number: EMI TCGold 1078 5. Man of Two Worlds 4’30” and the reaction was quite different, so much so that we are 17. One Small Day 4’24” 6. Heart of the Country 5’10” seriously considering arranging one for next year! Although 18. When the Time Comes 4’56” 7. When the Time Comes 5’01” we can’t guarantee that either Midge, Warren, Billy, Chris or 19. The Thin Wall (single edit) 4’26” 8. A Friend I Call Desire 5’13” John would be able to attend, the idea is just a to have a good time. The venue would have to be decided according to cost Third time lucky? This time the Dancing with Tears in My Another surprise was seeing that Lament is once more and convenience. Anyone interested? If so, tick the “Yes, I’m Eyes album has been renamed Ultravox : 19 Classic Tracks available on CD, this time on import through ‘One Way interested, dammit!” box on your Raffle entry slip (entry to and repackaged especially for a series of ‘exclusive’ releases Records’. Unlike the original CD, it only contains the eight the raffle not necessarily required) and return it to us at the available through Boots, the exclusivity being the three extra album tracks without the three bonus remixes, an interesting usual address on page 1. tracks which have been tagged on the end: One Small Day, approach to creating a collectable item. The design is When the Time Comes and The Thin Wall (single edit). As reasonable, emulating the original to an acceptable extent, Thanks to: we’ve said before, it’s difficult to criticise an album of this sort though admittedly the grey cover (as opposed to black) was when it’s only intended as an introduction to the band rather Ultravox : Rage in Eden initially a bit of a shock! The CD is quite nice, an improvement The guys! John Foxx, Warren and Alison, Midge and Sheridan, than for its already established fan-base. However the on the ubiquitous black-on-silver. Chris and Lynne, Billy and Heidi. Major thanks also to Steve undeniably good value it offers with over seventy-five minutes 1. The Voice 6’00” Woof of EMI Gold, Rob Ayling and Anne-Marie Hill of Voiceprint, of music is marred by the highly inaccurate sleeve notes. 2. We Stand Alone 5’38” Be warned that you might have to shop around for this in Berenice Hardman and Dave Claxton of Disaster Area PA, Kate Mistakes like when tracks were originally published are (to a 3. Rage in Eden 4’13” order to get a good price, we’ve seen it for sale for anything Hanson of CMO, Brian Cooke of Visualeyes, and Michael certain degree) excusable, after all, who reads them? But 4. I Remember between £10.99 and £17.00! Putland. Thanks for suggestions, snippets and articles to Rob crediting Warren with co-writing All Fall Down, Dreams? (Death in the Afternoon) 4’59” Kirby, Paul Hitchcock, David Turner, Paul O’Donnell, Richard and All in One Day is careless, and implying that the Eighties 5. The Thin Wall 5’41” Catalogue Number : One Way Records 72438 19058 21 Larcombe, John Barker, Susanne Groll and Michael Lubek. going to have extra material and therefore they aren’t had been mis-labelled and all it included was side two of E e x n t i

straight releases!”. Steve relented, and in fact was so Monument – Grrrrr. One last try, this time we came up r e m pleased with how Monument and The Gift turned out trumps with acceptable mixes of both Visions in Blue m D e L V O that our “photograph behind a clear case with a lyric line and Passing Strangers. All that remained was for the o G i I running up the spine” has been adopted as an EMI Gold boffins at Abbey Road to beef up the sound on these c e M E standard... two to match the quality of the existing tracks, and splice 1 : 6 6 them into the correct places within the running order. : 1

It’s really strange how a casual comment can lead interested in the album and that it should therefore do E M e Initially Steve wanted the CD sleeves to feature “Includes The enormity of the responsibility for these projects c I

i you in a completely unexpected direction... very well. Steve then told us that they planned to G o previously unavailable material” or “for the first time on finally hit us on the day the final verification tape for O V combine Monument with all of Ultravox’s live material L e e first got involved with Ultravox reissues with (from 1980’s Face to Face to 1986’s The Prize) and re- CD” but we were adamant that this would ruin the Monument arrived and we heard, for the first time, D m m e

r covers and cheapen the overall ‘feel’ that we would be how this album would sound with the inclusion of two

W i

t the project which was to become Rare Volume title it Ultravox Live... n x trying to create. We said that the fact that the CDs had extra tracks. We sat in silence... e E One. We were asked what we would like to see available on CD. One of our original suggestions for an Ultravox After we’d stopped laughing, we told Steve how we (as been out of print for such a long time, coupled with a ‘collection’ was a box set of 17 CDs, each one fans) would like to see this material handled. Not only clear spine and the attractive price tag, would be enough While all this was going on, Steve asked us if we’d like representing a separate Ultravox single. Each one in turn did Steve listen to our thoughts, but he took the to make them stand out in the racks. to get involved with the reissue of The Gift. This time would be a picture CD housed in its own sleeve, based exceptionally brave step of actually allowing us to get extra material would be easier to source, so we on the original cover artwork, and featuring all of its involved at every level, from track selection, through to So, first up was Monument. We wondered if there was suggested six tracks: No Regrets, Mood Music, Piano, associated B-sides and extra tracks. In short it would producing the finished artwork and film. We think that any more live material in the vaults at Abbey Road where The Man Who Sold the World, The Gift have been similar to the Themes project which Virgin Steve only saw the extent of what he had done when he all of Ultravox’s material is now stored. We were given a (instrumental) and Call of the Wild. Unbeknownst to Records did for Simple Minds. Another advantage in was holding the finished version of Monument in his full breakdown of the relevant sections of this archive (a us, however, Chrysalis were planning (yet another) full- presenting all the singles in this manner would be that it hands, and we pointed out what a unique step he had whopping 100-page list) and at first glance it appeared price compilation of Ultravox and Midge Ure material wouldn’t have interfered with the albums, most of which taken, considering our lack of experience in this area, it that we might be in luck because there seemed to be a before their back-catalogue publishing rights reverted to were still available on CD at the time. could have all gone terribly wrong! tape of the whole Hammersmith Odeon show. But EMI in April 1997, so we were refused permission to use unfortunately, this turned out to be just a mixing desk No Regrets and Call of the Wild, as both had already It was only after we had presented them with our plans We were very keen to utilise as much of the available tape and therefore the quality would not be good been earmarked for it. Unfortunately plans for this that Chrysalis told us that all their budget would allow space on a compact disc as possible with the inclusion of enough for release. The next tape looked more hopeful compilation were scrapped, but by then The Gift was in for in this instance was a single CD! So, disheartened by extra material. Steve agreed that this could be done as because although it wasn’t the entire show, it did the racks, a victim of bad timing... the lack of enthusiasm for what could have been a long as we didn’t exceed the maximum playing time of actually list the specific tracks, it looked as though we definitive Ultravox collection, we simply said “Start at 76 minutes, and that any extra material would have to may be able to include Visions in Blue, All Stood Still, At this point a question was raised that we didn’t have Waiting and stop when you run out of space!”. have already been mixed; the limited budget couldn’t Passing Strangers and The Song (We Go), but to consider with Monument; should we include live run to the expense of remixing new material. The EMI disaster struck once more when we found that the tape material? The only way to decide this was to work out 8 Nevertheless, the ‘box set’ idea seemed to find a home Gold releases retail at £6.99, a snip when compared to 9 with EMI / Chrysalis America where it was being seriously chart albums which regularly exceed the £15.00 mark. U n r

considered, albeit as a strictly limited edition of e t o

approximately 1,000 copies; what is known as a ‘vanity So how should the CDs be presented? We would have u c h

project’ – something which wouldn’t make any money, the task of recreating the artwork from scratch, since all e d

but which would be a good thing to do. It is still on of the original artwork had been destroyed in a storage p h

hold as a possibility, which we chase up every now and space clear-out some three years before. One of the o t o

again, but we’re not holding our breath. things which attracted us to Ultravox in the first place , s h

was the way that their material was packaged, so we o w i

It was because of the dreadful sleeve that accompanied wanted to continue this tradition. We told Steve what n g

the first of the Dancing with Tears in My Eyes we would like to see, he told us what the budget d a r

compilations that prompted us to speak with EMI allowed, and then more often than not we would arrive k a

(specifically Music for Pleasure) to point out that a solo at a compromise. Originally we wanted picture CDs, but r e a o

e pic of Midge should never have been used on the cover we were told that we could only have two colours. Still, r f U m e of an Ultravox album... “Oh, I suppose you could do that was going to be a lot better than the generic black g d i i s s M better” came the response. “Well, yes we could writing on silver disc which is still prevalent these days. i n d n g a actually!”... Clear CD cases were still the exception to the rule, so we s e s o m r

C asked if we could have them for these releases, to u s i r l s h

Three months later we got a phonecall out of the blue distinguish them from the originals – we would worry i C o f n o

y from Steve Woof from the newly formed EMI Gold about what to put behind the disc later. Initially we were s e t r

u (Music for Pleasure with a facelift), asking for our told that, “clear cases are reserved for compilation o c s

o thoughts on reissuing Monument – The Soundtrack. albums and straight reissues would be put in standard t o h

P We said that we felt sure that the fans were still black cases”. “But...”, we said, “all of these CDs are to put the lyrics. So, with the exception of compilations both different to the original, and that the ‘paper tag’ is E e x n t i

and live albums, all future re-releases will include them. now purple instead of dark blue? r e m There was no point in there being lyrics for the m D e L V O Monument album so instead we decided to utilise some We also wanted to use photos that had never been seen o G i I unseen pics of the band instead. We had to ensure that before rather that churn out the same studio images. c e M E all the pics were from the correct period of time, Therefore the pic we used of Billy on the inside of the 1 : 6 6 preferably taken ‘on the road’, and what we came up Monument CD may be similar to the one which was : 1 E M e used on the inside of the Set Movements tour

c with in the end were five previously-unseen shots of I i G o programme, yet it’s a completely different shot.

Ultravox. A particular favourite of ours is the photo on O V L e the centre spread of the Monument album, we loved it D m m e

r so much that we asked the photographer, Brian Cooke As far as possible we wanted the discs themselves to i t n x resemble picture discs. So with Monument you have a e E of Visualeyes, if we could use it for the homepage on our potential track listings and timings for all of the website. Thankfully he agreed. large section of emulsion, so we thought that we would black CD with the outline of the Monument picked out remaining Ultravox (and related) albums. This way we be unable to use it. But after over four hours of work in in dark green in much the same way as it was on the could also ensure that no ‘extra’ tracks would be The picture to place behind the CD was the next thing to Adobe Photoshop the pic was as just like new. Even in back of the original album’s sleeve. The Gift resembles repeated and that all of the outstanding non-CD tracks cause us problems. Although we had fought to get clear the video the Monument never looked this good! the reverse of the picture disc for That Certain Smile, would be accounted for. Lament was the clincher, in cases, it looked as though we might have shot ourselves Throughout the video you can see the guys building it and Rage in Eden resembles the original album’s label. that after all four of the studio B-sides had been included in the proverbial foot if we couldn’t come up with a and it’s only at the end do you see it completed. Then it’s We were allowed to do pretty much what we wanted (Easterly, Building, Heart of the Country powerful image. We really didn’t want a band pic behind brightly back-lit and all the band are shaking hands with with them, although we still had to include all the (instrumental), Man of Two Worlds (instrumental), the centre ‘spider’ clip because no matter how hard you each other in front of it. But the picture we used was copyright and publishing details, and of course proofs together with a couple of the extended remixes), there try, someone is always going to be obscured by it. So taken at dusk whilst all the crew were putting their final were sent out to the guys and to EMI for approval before would be no space for any live material and besides, instead we decided that a pic that that was associated touches to it. The fact that this shot shows some of the progressing to film stage. mixing studio material with live tracks very rarely works. with the release would be better. We also liked the fact crew still at work adds a bit of interest and makes the So it was decided: NO LIVE MATERIAL. that the main part of the image is going to be obscured connection between the road crew who had to assemble Dancing with Tears in My Eyes was the third album so that it’s only when the disc is removed that you see and disassemble the Monument stage set every night we tackled and this time we had to produce artwork for Incidentally, Lament also threw up another problem; what is hidden. whilst the band were out on tour; the otherwise hidden the cassette version as well. The main problem here was what to do with all of Ultravox’s extended versions? At contribution to Ultravox’s live performance. creating something that immediately said Ultravox the time of writing we’ve just been given the go-ahead The Gift was reasonably easy in that Midge had taken without using images and designs that we’d already to start work on a CD’s worth of this material, some shots of the Charles Rennie Mackintosh chair that The clear box also presented us with an area in which to tagged for future releases. For this it was decided that provisionally entitled Extended Ultravox. This album, was featured in the video for No Regrets, a powerful put a line of text down the left-hand side of the case, we should make a reference to previous album sleeves by which is scheduled for release at the end of this year, image indeed and even without this track being included some CDs leave this this blank, whereas others just using an element from each of them. Right from the very repeat the title of the album. We wanted to do beginning we were keen to use a still from the video for 10 should include remixed versions of All Stood Still, Reap on the album it’s still appropriate to this release. But 11 the Wild Wind, We Came to Dance, Serenade, One Monument wasn’t going to be so straightforward. something different, so it was decided to utilise a line Dancing with Tears in My Eyes as the picture behind Small Day, Dancing with Tears in My Eyes, Heart of Initially we wanted to use a shot of the stage set, but the from the from the album’s title track. So for The Gift we the CD. Originally, this was going to be one of only two the Country, Love’s Great Adventure, Same Old only one we could find had an unidentified man walking decided on “I feel in my heart the gift that you gave” references to the song which gave its title to the album, Story and All Fall Down. in front of Warren's drum kit and in this position it would and with Rage in Eden it had to be “Rage in Eden the other being the lyric line “Weeping for the memory be impossible to make him disappear with a little Adobe jigsaw sequence”. But what should we use for of a life gone by”. For the inside of the booklet we It was about this time that we went through all the Photoshop magic! It was only when we went through Monument? Eventually we settled on a line from one of wanted to use a set of photos that were taken back in photos at our disposal, many of them courtesy of Midge photos kindly lent us by Chris and Midge that we came the most memorable songs from that tour, The Voice 1982 by Michael Putland, some of which are featured on and Chris, to ensure that we wouldn’t use any of them across a series of shots of the huge Monument which (“The shape and the power of the voice”) as we felt that this issue’s back cover by kind permission. Disaster struck twice (incidentally, all of Warren’s pics are currently in was used in the Reap the Wild Wind video. this successfully conveyed the size and power of a live – the budget couldn’t stretch to this, so at the last storage and apparently Billy never took a great deal of Unfortunately water had damaged the slide, removing a performance. minute we had to come up with an alternative selection photos). Photographs featuring all of the guys were invariably taken as part of specific photo sessions and As far as the actual artwork for Monument and The therefore a royalty fee would have to be paid for their Gift (and all subsequent albums) was concerned, we reproduction to the photographer. Therefore we have to were keen to follow the original designs wherever keep these photos to a minimum to stay within the very possible, whilst correcting any ‘mistakes’ along the way. tight budget. By mistakes we mean that any photos we used should be in-keeping with the era to which the album was A lot of people have asked us in the past if Ultravox’s recorded (check out the original CD of Rage in Eden, lyrics have ever been available, so we thought that it which was recorded in 1981, and see the photo on the would be a good idea if we could include them. The inside of the insert which was taken in 1984!) budget dictated that the four inside pages would have to Incidentally, did anyone notice that the two pictures of be in black-and-white and therefore were the best place Midge on the inside of the new version of The Gift are Stood Still and Private Lives), we were a little limited. E e x n t i

In the end it was decided to include BOTH versions of I r e m Never Wanted to Begin as well as Paths and Angles m D e L V O which means that this new version of Rage in Eden is o G i I going to be almost 60 minutes long. c e M E 1 : 6 6 There are already plans for Quartet, Lament, : 1 C a e u

c U-Vox, Answers to Nothing and even The Bloodied i g o Sword to be re-released (all coupled with an appropriate h V t i e selection of extra tracks) over the next couple of years. n m t h e r Vienna is a little different in that it has not yet been e t N x E deleted since it still sells quite well, but as and when it is, e we should be able to repackage it. t

The new back for the Rage in Eden CD, minus the We suffered a big disappointment recently when we legally problematic face but emulating the overall feel of received the verification tape for what we thought were the original going to be eleven tracks from a Set Movements 1984 live show, specially mixed for a French radio programme. We had fabulous photos, we even had the design all of photos. The most relevant were associated with the mapped out. But when the tape arrived, it turned out to Dancing with Tears in My Eyes single, taken on the include FIVE tracks from 1984, intercut with six video shoot by Chris and Midge. Monument tracks... Not being ones to be daunted, we’re This was also the only album for which we wrote any still trying to figure out how and where we can use them! sleeve notes, a brain-taxing and delicate job to say the least! The wording had to not only please all of the band Still, there are potentially two albums’-worth of Midge’s but ourselves as well, and several changes were made as material that has yet to make its way onto compact disc the artwork progressed. The colour of the strip and CD (extended mixes and live tracks), and although it would were also originally closer to the classic Rage in Eden be unwise of us to promise anything specific, there could burgundy; Warren requested that it be changed “to a also be some unreleased material from Ultravox. The lighter and less depressing colour!”. vaults at Abbey Road claim to have live material from 1980, 1981, 1984 and 1986 that has yet to see the light 12 Rage in Eden was to present us with a problem of a of day, together with enough odds and ends to make up 13 different sort, in that the original sleeve design had run volume three of the Rare series. But we must stress that earn how to write a and published on the web. That Warren, Chris or Billy; a popular into legal difficulties at the time which resulted in the before any ‘unreleased’ material can even be considered “L website”, they said. “It’ll be obscure little piece of software real-time chat room where you cover artwork having to be altered for all subsequent it’s first got to be approved by Ultravox... as ever, watch fun!”, they said. What nobody you’ve always been after is out can talk to other fans around the issues. It transpires that the images on the front and back this space. mentioned was how addictive there somewhere. And once world (Midge has dropped in a of the sleeve (the two facial profiles) were the cause of the darn thing can be... you’ve got your Internet few times now, and Warren plans connection, it’s all for free. the problems and as such couldn’t be used. This meant he Internet. You’ve heard all to when he has his new Apple What’s not to like? that a design which was similar to the Japanese New T the blurb – the Information Macintosh); links to other Ultravox-related websites and Europeans compilation album was used when the CD The new back for the Monument CD Superhighway, free speech, and he EV website sprang into T resources, and much more besides. was originally released back in 1985, basically a rehashed ‘isn’t it dreadful about all this being on August 6th, 1996, freely-available porn?’. But the kindly sponsored by Easynet and reproduction of The Voice single sleeve. Now while this he great advantage, of fact is, the Internet – an EMI Gold, and has since had over T course, is that news can be artwork was very good, it seemed to lack the impact enormous web of computer 11,000 visitors – currently almost updated or altered by the needed for the album. Fortunately the ‘three horses’ servers around the world, linked 100 ‘hits’ a day. Intended as a minute, if necessary – great for logo would be OK for us to use, so we came up with a by your common-or-garden complement to the fanzine, it getting those ever-changing tour cover that was similar in design to the poster that came phone line and modem – can be houses different information dates out. Just try doing that a serious business tool. And than the mag – ‘previously with the initial run of the vinyl album. The picture for with a printed mailer! damned good fun at that. unseen’ photos; sound files from behind the CD was probably the easiest for us to decide Imagine it – any band you care to the guys; the ever-evolving o come and pay us a visit! The on, being a still from the video shoot for The Voice. As shake a stick at has at least one beastie that goes by the name of S doors are open all day and all we’ve said before, extra tracks are something we are very website. Any subject you care to discography; the opportunity to night; the address is below. We’ll keen to include wherever possible, but because only two name is exhaustively researched email messages to John, Midge, see you there! singles were taken from Rage in Eden, and we had already ruled out the inclusion of any live material (which in this case meant the Crystal Palace versions of All http://www.ultravox.org.ukhttp://www.ultravox.org.uk E e x l f t f r a e R m : e 6 V 1 o e i c c i e o 1 V 6 e EV15 winners: EV15 answers: : m Welcome to EV16’s raffle! We have to say a big thankyou to the band, for giving This issue’s competition is an exceptional one. In a tie-in with the website, you C e o r

can either enter by answering the question in this issue (below) and sending m t us some fabulous prizes for both the raffle and the competition on the next First Prize A lonely man sits cheek to cheek, with x p

E Justine Griffin it in on a separate piece of paper including your name and address, or by page. Thanks, guys! All items given to us by the band come with a signed unique designs in chrome. e t i

answering the different question on the website and submitting your answer New Europeans (Vienna) t Second Prize i certificate of authenticity. Here we go... o

in the form provided there. The only catch is, you must be a member to enter n Susan Atkinson Deny the life you’re living, just a fleeting – of course! As with the raffle, all items given to us by the band come with a love that you only half recall, it’s just like Third Prize signed certificate of authenticity where appropriate. you to make a passion turn to hate. First Prize: Craig Nicholls Since EV readers have such a cross-section of tastes, this time around you get When the Time Comes (Lament) • A baseball cap given to us by Midge Ure (he hasn’t decided which a choice of prizes. Three winners will be chosen (first, second and third), and The negatives have all been fogged and one yet!). each of them can choose one item from the list of first, second or third prizes blurred, reduced a thousand times. below (depending on their win). Please indicate preferences! Any prizes not I Never Wanted to Begin • Grey Ultravox Monument logo tie given to us by Warren Cann chosen will feature in future issues’ competitions. Here is the choice of prizes: (B-side of The Thin Wall) from his own collection (one of two, see competition). I found the bones of all your ghosts, First Prize – your choice of either: locked in the wishing well. • Autographed Compact Discs – we will do out utmost to get all of I Want to be a Machine (Ultravox!) the following 10 CDs fully autographed, but in the case of Future • Black Junior Gaultier jacket given to us by Midge Ure. Or: You give me exaltation, like a rush from Picture, it will only be signed by Billy. • Jacket given to us by Chris Cross, as worn by him in the We Came to the morning air. Dance video. Or: CD singles: Unified (Revelation) Midge Ure – Breathe, Guns and Arrows • Acetate test pressing of Miles Away, given to us and autographed by Your propaganda touched my soul, John Foxx (see photo of label on opposite page), and the Shifting City those thin and cherished words, a willing CD albums: and Cathedral Oceans CDs, also signed by John Foxx. Or: victim for the kill again. John Foxx – Shifting City, Cathedral Oceans • Grey Ultravox Monument logo tie given to us by Warren Cann from his We Stand Alone (Rage in Eden) Midge Ure – The Gift (EMI Gold version), Breathe own collection (one of two, see raffle) and 16 Ultravox enamel and Walk through polaroids of the past, Ultravox – Monument, Dancing with Tears in my Eyes (EMI Gold) button badges through the years, also given to us by Warren Cann features fused like shattered glass, the Ultravox – Future Picture live from his own collection. sun’s so low. Hiroshima Mon Amour (Ha! Ha! Ha!) Cassette album: Second Prize – your choice of either: The river of fear runs suddenly clear, Ultravox – Dancing with Tears in my Eyes (EMI Gold version) over the darkest days. 14 • Two personal Ultravox Christmas cards from Midge's own collection, that A Way Out. A Way Through (Ingenuity) 15 the band used to give only to friends and business associates. Rage In Driving down the road in a flip-top motor Eden era card, autographed at the time by Midge and Chris. Monument Second Prize: car, smiling at my strange reflection. era card, autographed at the time by Warren, Billy, Chris and Midge. Or: Time to Kill (U-Vox) • Flat print of the entire EMI Gold artwork for Monument (we should • Print of the Riga Festival poster (not cut down – shows printer's A spark leapt from a fingertip, and I be able to get this signed by Midge, Chris, Warren and Billy by the marks) in which Midge appeared in 1996. We should be able to get this knew it must be you. time the raffle is drawn). Great for framing. autographed by him personally to the winner. Or: The Man Who Dies Every Day (Ha! Ha! Ha!) • Autographed Compact Discs – complete list of 10 plus one • Flat print of the entire EMI Gold artwork for Monument (we should be able to get this signed by Midge, Chris, Warren and Billy by the time the cassette, as per the first prize details above. Compose their different words, competition is drawn). Great for framing. orchestrate their moves. • 12 Ultravox enamel and button badges through the years, given to us Serenade (Quartet) by Warren Cann from his own collection. Third Prize – your choice of either: The odd one out was I Never Wanted to Begin, being a B-side, but we actually • Ultravox Scrapbook, signed on the first page in thick gold marker by • Ultravox Scrapbook, signed on the first page in thick gold marker by made a mistake and printed two lyrics Midge and Chris. Midge and Chris. Or: from Ha! Ha! Ha!, and missed out • Ultravox Live 1981 CD sleeve signed in silver by Midge and Chris. Systems of Romance... sorry!

All you need to do to enter the raffle is return the enclosed raffle form The Question! EV15 winners: with your payment, to the EV address on page one. You can have a To answer this you will need either the original release of Rage in Eden, or First Prize maximum of ten tickets, at £1.00 each. Just fill in the form, tick how an EMI Gold re-release CD which should be in the shops around mid-June. Ulrich Stronczek many tickets you would like, and we’ll do the rest (don’t forget to indicate The question is: Second Prize if you would be interested in an Ultravox convention next year – see What year and in what city was Rage in Eden written and recorded, and Susanne Carlsson the news section for details). The closing date is the 31st of August who was the co-producer? For an extra point in the event of a tie-break, Third Prize 1997. Cheques etc payable to Cerise A. Reed please. which member of the band broke his arm during that time, and how? Justin Dimmock E x w t e i r e v r m e t e n i V x o x i o c F e n 1 h 6 o J : T e h h e T : J o 6 h 1 n e F c o i x o x V i n e t e m r e v r i t e w x E

JOHN FOXX The Quiet Man

16 17 n i r b a G s i r h C : o t o h P t It was always going to be difficult for us to arrange a E x w t e i mutually convenient time with John in order to find out r e v r m

e what he’s been doing recently, so it was decided that this t e n i initial interview should take place over the phone instead. V x o x i o Hopefully we’ll be able to get together with John at a later c F e n date in order to discuss his back-catalogue in detail and ask 1 h 6 o J any questions that you might have for him... : T e h h e T : J o 6 h 1 n e F c EV: With the exception of two singles from Nation 12, JF: ... and also, in a strange way, it’s like Metamatic o i x o x

V why hasn’t there been any new material from you in the too. It’s a mixture of both things. All the tracks are very i n e t

last eleven years? hard and sparse, but some are more melodic and in that e m r v e r i e

t Endlessly vein and the others are almost spoken vocals w x

E JF: I simply wanted to live a private life and to re- coupled with a very relentless beat. But they seem to assess everything I’d done. Also to travel and to do some work very well together, it’s very interesting what’s been new things such as the visual side of my work. I haven’t happening there. stopped recording. I’ve always written and recorded music as part of everyday life really. It’s just a matter of EV: So it’s more like Metamatic material than Nation what gets released and what gets used by various people 12 stuff? including myself. JF: Yes. Since Nation 12 I continued work on the Cathedral Oceans material which has been ongoing for a long EV: What happened with Nation 12 in the end, we time now, since about 1983, and I also started doing heard the two singles, and then nothing else. some work with Louis Gordon from Manchester. We did quite a lot of work together. He’s part of that JF: It was always a very temporary arrangement Manchester dance scene which makes guitar-based anyway. It was simply that I enjoyed working with Tim music as well as synth music. Simenon of Bomb the Bass. We recorded a lot of stuff, but it wasn’t the direction he or I really wanted to go in, Manchester’s very interesting in that respect because the he wanted to do things that were more jazzy and bands are often sampling freaks as well as guitar freaks. oblique than that and I had begun to work with another 18 Louis Gordon and John Foxx, 1997 19 They mix the two things up in a very interesting way I guy called Kurt Rogers from Manchester as well. We did think. Whereas much of the London stuff at that time some tracks together and they worked out pretty well. really, I never expected it would even be released. I thought Swimmer, Lumen De Lumine. Even Glimmer and tended to be mainly samplers and synths, not guitar at Electrofear was one. it might be just possible, but it was such odd stuff that it several parts of Twilight's Last Gleaming and The all. I’ve always liked a mixture of the two, wherever wouldn’t fit into any category, certainly in 1983 it wouldn’t. Garden, all pre 1983. possible although it is mixing genres a bit and therefore Then the record company, an independent outfit called rather risky, but it’s kind of interesting to see what Rhythm King Records, changed tack and became more I remember in about 1987 I played some of it to people Then there were the actual Cathedral Oceans concerts happens. So we got on well together ‘cos Louis liked the interested in doing computer games. So the whole thing at Virgin to find out if it was releasable and they said around 1987 in England and Italy, which many people early stuff that I did around the time of Metamatic. then got skewed. Bomb the Bass bailed out and moved to Island Records and I went off and did the work with “No, there isn’t a category for it and the potential saw. Harold Budd and Brian Eno came to some of those So we did some things in that vein and also some things Louis and continued the work on Cathedral Oceans audience for it would be so small, it wouldn’t be too. All of which happened several years before any hint tending toward that psychedelic thread that's been in my which I always do anyway. feasible”. It was a shame because lots of music like that of a wider public taste for this area, which only work since When You Walk Through Me on Systems has since become very popular. Plus, the whole ambient happened after about 1992 or so. About five years later. of Romance. There’s always a thread of that kind of EV: What sort of thing can we expect from Cathedral field has opened up now. In the early-to-mid 1980’s this x x

o was strictly an art music minority field. But this sort of music is still not very high profile. I think

F material. Someone, Sitting at the Edge of the World, Oceans? n h

o because you have to listen to it in a slightly different way.

J Endlessly, even No-One Driving and This City are f o

y EV: Aren’t you going to be seen when this comes out It also covers a different emotional spectrum. More

s tracks like that. So basically we recorded things in those JF: There aren’t any beats in it at all, there are no drums. e t r

u as having just jumped onto this band-wagon when in contemplative and tranquil.

o two veins just to see if they would work and they all did, It’s very vapourous, mainly choral. It is music for a c d

e fact you did it five years before them. c so we made an album called Shifting City. submerged cathedral. I’ve always liked church music and I u d o r was interested in the idea of a lost secular church, to be I suppose the starting point for it all was the emergence p e r s

o EV: So Shifting City is going to be very much like used for contemplation. So the music was what I wanted to JF: I don’t really think so. There’s plenty of this sort of of that image of the submerged cathedral in The Quiet t o h

P Endlessly... hear at the time. I began work on this for my own pleasure thing in the music I made in the past, Pater Noster, Man book. I was very interested in sensations of dispersal and called Piano Studios. Some pieces of it were recorded in up and wanted to make an album there before they had JF: It will be through three labels in fact. There will be E x w t e i merging which came from swimming in the sea and body churches, and worked on later in studios, so they’ve their own studio. I was really miffed that I couldn’t let Archive which will be the back-catalogue material which r e v r m e

t surfing. After a while you begin to lose a sense of your gone through lots of generations. Some things were them in. I think they’re wonderful I really like their music goes back to 1979. Then there will be Abstract Division e n i own boundaries and instinctively move with the ocean. recorded at home just on a DAT without any mixing at a lot. There were other people who I wanted to use it, which will be to handle music that isn’t usual, abstract V x o x i o c

F all, just straight down. But they all sound consistent, Gavin Briers was interested in doing some recording music really. Then there will be Metamatic itself, which is e n 1 h Oddly enough, I often got the same kind of sensations which is interesting. Shifting City was recorded in a there at one point but it wasn’t feasible. I like his stuff to do with songs and things that are more conventional 6 o J :

singing in a church choir when I was young. So the two new, very portable digital / analogue studio which I can too. The studio became far too popular, even I couldn’t (in my way). I wanted to make a connection with the T e h h e T came together in that image. take anywhere, and some of it was made in C.Y.H. get into my own facility any more, so it had to go. past and that’s what Metamatic is. I didn’t want to call it : J o 6 Manchester. A great place lost in industrial ruins in Metal Beat, because Metal Music has become something h 1 n e There is a piece called The Engulfed Cathedral which Central Manchester. I felt right at home there F

c EV: So why has it taken so long for this material to be else now. I simply want to make a fresh start. So there o i x o I think is by Debussey, but that music really wasn’t x

V released? are three labels basically. There are lots of things that I i n e t

an influence, though EV: So where is The still want to do and one of these is to start a small e m r v e r i

remembering that title Garden Studio these days? JF: I wanted to make another sort of life. I chose not ‘machine’ like Metamatic that will enable me to do the e t w x

E confirmed what I felt to release anything, so that I could make my own way. things that I have in mind. I have a lot of ideas and a lot about voices and oceans. JF: The Garden is still When I had a record company like Virgin or Island we of music is being made and is to be made yet. where it was and someone had schedules for releases and so on. That was all part of I began to work on the else owns it. I think Matt the kind of life where you recorded in the summer and EV: What do you think about the possibility that some music for Cathedral Johnson (The The) bought toured in winter. The concert halls and the universities of your material that’s been sat in the BBC archives may Oceans in 1983, and it, he moved into the were busy in winter and people go out more then and in finally see the light of day? there is a lot of material building in Shoreditch, summer people are on holiday most of the time so that’s recorded now, enough for which I co-owned with when you record. So that’s how the whole life is worked JF: I haven’t listened to it yet although I’ve heard several albums. I must a sculptor and two out, but I don’t work like that at all anymore. about it, as far as I remember some of it was interesting. stress too, that its not photographers, when I So there’s a chance that some of that may come out, but religious music at all. I’m moved out of London. EV: So after these albums are released what will there are a lot of things like that that are in the archives, really concerned with long I think it’s still owned by happen then, will we have another long wait or will not just in the BBC archives, but also in my archives. rhythms and echoes in Matt, he still lives there, there be a steady stream of material from you? time, and the emotional but I think it’s run by EV: Was there a video done for Cathedral Oceans? resonance of all this. another studio in Hoxton JF: No, I’m going to release things more consistently and he uses it when he now. There’s so much of it and I’ve got a lot of new ideas JF: Yes, I did a video a long time ago for that, again EV: Was anyone else wants to. and lots of new things I want to do. Essentially I want to about 1987 or so. 20 involved with Cathedral clear the table and this is a way to bring out the things 21 Oceans? “I SUPPOSE THE STARTING EV: But it still exists as that I’ve done up until now. This is just the tip of an EV: Would that be released at anytime? The Garden. POINT FOR IT ALL WAS THE iceberg really and I’ll review all the rest of the material JF: I worked with an old and release whatever I choose to. It’s not self-indulgent. JF: It may be, I’ve been looking at it and I think that it friend of mine called Peter EMERGENCE OF THAT JF: I think so. I’ve been I simply want to release things that are good and that I works pretty well. I did a fifty minute video for it which I Griffiths who was an IMAGE OF THE to the building ‘cos I still like and feel confident with... In short, things I want made from various photographs and I still like them, I still engineer at The Garden SUBMERGED CATHEDRAL see Dennis the sculptor other people to hear. I can choose when and how I do think it works, so it may well be released at some point. Studio, who’s also a good occasionally, but I haven’t IN THE QUIET MAN BOOK” that now. I can also travel with the studio when as I’m musician, and he co-wrote visited the studio myself working. EV: Since you’ve just put the finishing touches to two of the pieces and I for over ten years now. Cathedral Oceans, would the version which appears on also worked with Louis Matt Johnson recorded Also I was waiting for some contractual things to be the video be different to the version which is about to be Gordon, he co-wrote one of the other pieces. And an there, it was a sort of musician’s studio, it wasn’t a cleared. Virgin still has my material, but there’s a clause released? excellent engineer, Mark Williams, who was important as commercial studio as such and people used to go in that in my contract which allows me to have my recordings he instinctively understood the ideas about long echoes I knew and they always enjoyed it. back, which I’m about to do. I’m about to remaster and JF: Yes, it is. There’s a lot of new material that isn’t on and large architectural spaces etc. re-release Metamatic and The Garden and so on. So the video. There are about four albums worth of tracks EV: Was there anyone who you wanted to get into The there will be a more comprehensive back catalogue. for Cathedral Oceans so far, I recorded masses of it and EV: Where were Cathedral Oceans and The Shifting Garden, but couldn’t? There are many things that haven’t been released yet or it’ll all slowly filter out. This lot that’s coming out now City recorded? may have been released in a very low-key or low-profile works together very well I think. I chose the tracks JF: Oh quite a few people, but The Cocteau Twins way or in other media that I can now put out properly. carefully so that they fitted together well. JF: Oh, all over the place. I started recording were the ones I really regretted not being able to use The Cathedral Oceans in The Garden Studio and then I Garden. Siouxsie and the Banshees had the studio for EV: So how is all this material going to be released EV: How is your long-awaited book, The Quiet Man, recorded some tracks in a small private studio in Rome about three months at one point and The Cocteaus rang through Voiceprint? progressing? JF: Well, it’s ongoing, as usual. There’s a lot of material JF: No, I never liked any of those videos, I didn’t do churches that I believed would sound good. I visited finished now. But the other one I’ve got to finish some E x w t e i written and it will come out at some point, although I’m them with any grace either. They were just done to them and had a listen to them inside, by singing quietly of my parts off and that album should be released shortly r e v r m e

t not sure in what form or when. I’ll always carry on satisfy the company. I never felt really involved in that and sometimes not so quietly just to see how they felt. after that. e n i writing it though, because its very useful – it feeds ideas aspect of that. The only one I thought was reasonable V x o x i o c

F into the music. The ideas for The Garden, Cathedral was No-One Driving. EV: How did the Harold Budd collaboration come EV: So the working title for the first of these albums is e n 1 h Oceans and Metamatic came from it. about? Translucence. 6 o J :

EV: Is there any chance that you’ll be touring with this T e h h e T EV: We read a long time ago that a film was going to new material? JF: I’ve always liked Harold’s music a lot. I think he’s an JF: At the moment it’s called Translucence, but I : J o 6 be made based on The Quiet Man, did this project ever original and there aren’t many around. He came to the haven’t had Harold’s approval for that yet. He may well h 1 n e get off the ground? JF: I quite honestly don’t know. I’ve done some F

c Cathedral Oceans concert with Eno back in 1986 or ‘87 have other ideas and if he does then it will be called o i x o concerts of Cathedral Oceans in the past in Rome and x

V and he liked it very much and we began to correspond something else. i n e t

JF: There was a script in few locations in and talked about working together when he began to e m r v e r i

for that and there are churches that I liked, just work with Andy Partridge (XTC). In fact I was invited to A lot of the music was made with two things in mind, e t w x

E some pieces of film that for my own pleasure really participate on that project, but I thought that three one of which being Howard Hodgkins’ paintings which might be used. I’m now in and I thought they were people might be too much, so I didn’t do it. But I still said we both like a lot. They’re very gestural, colourful a position where I’m able very successful. Unless I that I very definitely and really passionately wanted to do paintings, very modern. Well they feel like they’re the to do these things myself, can stage it in a way that I something with Harold, but maybe if it was just the two sort of thing you want to see this year (laughs) and for so I’m reviewing all the want to and unless there of us it would be good... the foreseeable future as well, they’re not that transient. things that were started seems a point in doing it They feel fresh, they feel like they belong to a new era, and many of them are at all then I won’t. There EV: Nothing against Andy Partridge then? where a lot of baggage has been thrown away, they give going to be finished off is a possibility that me that feeling, very refreshing. now. I don’t want to make some concerts might JF: Oh gosh no, I Love Andy’s work. I like him promises which won’t be materialise. That’s all I can personally as well, so absolutely not. It’s just that if you The other thing we wanted it to sound like was like fulfiled, that’s foolish say, that’s quite honest, put all of your favourite dinners together it doesn’t dropping stones into a pool, so that you get ripples of and disappointing for there are no plans at the necessarily make a good meal. I think things have to be sound coming out of a very still centre... if that doesn’t everybody, but I have got moment. It’s just a separated out sometimes and there’s only a certain sound too pretentious (laughs). It’s very contemplative plans to do some very possibility that’s all. But it amount of room to manoeuvre. The more people you music. short films that will be put is one we are discussing as have in there, the more the really interesting bits can get together with music. Louis is keen to do ironed out or left out. So I think two people is fine on EV: How do you work on your music? Shifting City live. He’s an projects like that, but three is maybe too much. There are 22 Now whether these things excellent live musician too. certain things I learned a long time ago and I don’t want JF: In lots of different ways. I do keep lists and lists of 23 are of any interest to “I’VE ALWAYS LIKED to repeat those situations again, so I thought that it lots of titles. Coincidentally, Harold works in the same EV: How did you people I don’t know. They HAROLD’S MUSIC A LOT. would be much more elegant to wait and do it when we way when he does his pieces. He keeps a notebook and certainly interest me. I choose the venues for the were both free to be able to do it together. he writes a lot of titles down which are not related to the don’t want to put things I THINK HE’S AN Cathedral Oceans gigs? music at all, they’re just collections of words which work out that are half realised ORIGINAL AND THERE EV: That wouldn’t be a reference to Ultravox would it? together. So when he has made a piece of music, he or that I’m not happy AREN’T MANY AROUND” JF: One of them was by titles it with something that feels appropriate from the with. So what I will do is invitation which was the JF: Oh no, bands are a different thing. When you book. I do that too. finish them and then take one in the Botanical think how pared down bands are compared to things a look at them and be Gardens in Rome. That like orchestras or units of musicians that used to be When I was working with Louis we would just set things objective and if I think that they are good and there is was a series of concerts with Terry Reilly and Harold around before bands. A band is already a minimal going at random and make songs out of whatever enough of the material to make something interesting Budd, and Eno did an installation in the grounds. version of that. You have drums, bass, rhythm guitar, happened in the studio. Sometimes he would put down and it’s viable to release it, then it will be put out. Andrew Logan did some of his mirror sculptures in the vocals and a lead instrument and that’s about as basic as a guitar part or some drums and a synthesiser and I then I think that there are numerous problems in putting grounds as well, so it was a sort of cultural event in you can get I think. Well, before synthesisers came along would go in and work around that. Then we would cut images together with music, I like the idea of music Rome which lasted two or three weeks which was great (laughs) it down until it turned into something that was existing for itself. I don’t always like it to be accompanied fun to do. That was the kind of thing that I like to do. I interesting. It’s a very quick and very exciting way of by visuals, it only works occasionally. I actually prefer was invited to perform in the caves in the Canary Islands EV: When can we expect the Harold Budd album? working, not laborious at all. Songs breed from other music just as an abstract, invisible thing, rather than and Lanzarotte which would have been nice as well, but songs. Sometimes these things could happen in a few something that’s being illustrated. I couldn’t do it for some scheduling reasons. JF: That’s mostly done now, in fact we did two albums minutes, then we would work on them for a few hours. worth of material. So one of them should be released in EV: So you weren’t happy with the Virgin compilation I selected the churches by looking in Pevsners guide to about a couple of months time I think. It’ll probably take EV: For those of us who are not familiar with Harold of your videos? architecture in Britain to find out good examples of about three months to get out, but it’s pretty much Budd’s music... JF: A good album is probably... well there are several. EV: And Warren? know you must move on in order to develop. In my case I work on music wherever I can, pick up ideas for it in all E x w t e i I think Harold likes an album called The White Arcades I decided very firmly that I no longer wanted to be part sorts of odd places just by listening to ambiences. For r e v r m e

t [All Saints Records ASCD03] best and I like all his stuff JF: And Warren likewise, the last time I spoke with of a band. I had too many other avenues to explore. example, in Milan cathedral once when I walked in there e n i really, but there’s one called The Pearl which he did with Warren must have been in Los Angeles, probably about and the sound of a choir that was just walking out was still V x o x i o c

F Eno that I think is very good. His new one Luxa [All 1979. Oh no, that’s not true, we met up in club in London EV: You also seemed to take such a left-turn at that rotating around the dome. I thought that was fantastic. It e n 1 h Saints Records ASCD30] is a pearl, too. once in the early Eighties. I haven’t spoken to Robin now point with Metamatic. was one of the most formative moments that I’ve had and 6 o J :

for a couple of months but I will. I’ve worked a lot with that was by being there at a random moment. So the T e h h e T EV: So for anyone who’s not heard any of Harold’s Robin and will do again in the future. Robin purely and JF: I could see all the possibilities that were around things that I get a lot from are often accidental, but you : J o 6 music you’d recommend those as starting points. instinctively lives for music (laughs). He’s the nearest to a working with synthesisers and I wanted to pursue that have to make your own accidents and randomness, you h 1 n e complete artist I’ve ever met, he doesn’t really care about F

c no matter where it took me. A band is a very different have to move around a bit and be open to things. Be o i x o JF: Yeah, I think they’re anything else. He doesn’t x

V thing because of the mutual responsibility you have and available to chance and coincidence. They are real and vital i n e t

good starting points. care about money, he that was something I didn’t want to have anymore, elements of life which must not be neglected. e m r v e r i

doesn’t care about where although I knew that the band had a strong identity and e t w x

E EV: When did you last he lives, as long as he can wanted to continue. EV: Who is Jairazbhoy? He’s mentioned in the credits speak with the other guys play. He’s a very pure spirit for the Systems of Romance album. from Ultravox? in that way. EV: How did you feel when you saw them play live and it wasn’t you up there on stage with them? JF: Yes, I’ll have to investigate that, it’s completely JF: Chris came over for I think he’s one of the wrong, someone pointed it out to me. I don’t know dinner about the time he seminal guitarists and he’s JF: Fine, I thought it was interesting... I never actually what it is because there was no-one of that name was due to leave London never been acknowledged thought of it like that before. I just thought that it was involved in any of that stuff (laughs) It’s complete fiction for Scotland and that as being that. He created good that they’d re-assembled and were off again. By and it’s either a mistake or it’s an attempt to insert would have been about that style of guitar that’s then I was detached from it and busy with my own someone’s name to receive royalties or something 1989 or 1988. I regret that been used by The Edge things. (laughs), but I expect it’s just some bizarre mistake. I haven’t stayed in touch and by Simple Minds and more, but I’ve moved lots of other bands after EV: There was an article written about you back in EV: We’ve also heard a rumour that you were going to around a bit and so’s he. that by using echoes and 1981, and the interviewer was saying that he should be be doing some work with Bill Nelson. We lived quite near each effects in a way that they careful not to mention Vienna and the comparative other at one point in became an intrinsic part success Ultravox were then enjoying... JF: Well I have to say that that’s just a rumour. I Oxfordshire. We saw each of the music and an respect his work, he was someone else who used The other on occasion around intrinsic part of the JF: (laughs) It’s odd really, ‘cos I always thought that Garden Studio, but there aren’t any plans at the 24 that period and it was very contemporary guitar style. any success I should have was a sort of by-product. As moment, but it’s the kind of thing that wouldn’t surprise 25 nice to see him again “OH, I NEVER WANTED He shifted guitars away long as people were interested in what I was doing, I me if something like that did happen. But quite honestly because I hadn’t really TO TOUR… I WAS NEVER from just being rhythm never expected any it to go into the charts and being on there are no plans and nothing has been discussed, yet. seen much of him since instruments or ways of ‘Top of the Pops’ always felt like a fluke to me. It was about 1979, although INTERESTED IN THE playing lead solos in a way never that important to me. EV: Another thing we heard was that you were going we’d spoken occasionally, ROCK AND ROLL that was remarkable in to do a remixed version of Metamatic. but we hadn’t met much LIFESTYLE, IT WASN’T ME” the mid-to-late Seventies. EV: So was that why it took you so long to get out and and I went up to one of Either consciously or tour? JF: Again, that’s probably just a rumour. There have their concerts... unconsciously, everyone been lots of plans to remix Metamatic because that sort adopted that attitude. He JF: Oh I never wanted to tour, I enjoyed it when I did, of very stripped down music became the language of EV: You actually saw Ultravox with Midge? almost single-handedly moved guitar playing into a I thought it was tremendous, I had a great time. I was music since about 1987 with acid and dance and various different frame. It’s never really been understood how never that interested in the rock and roll lifestyle, it kinds of techno and so on. JF: Yes, when they played in the theatre at the big his role was in that. I don’t think people really wasn’t me. In fact doing Metamatic was my way of bottom of Tottenham Court Road, not far from Centre noticed, they just took it for granted that that was the walking away from it, I wanted to do things on my own EV: Does it worry that Metamatic was sampled so Point. It was very nice to see them play, I can’t way you play guitar and so it was but only after Robin terms no matter what the consequences were. The way much? remember if I went up to see them after the show, invented it. I chose was to do things very simply, just to work with a maybe I didn’t. I spoke to Billy a long, long time ago. few machines and a few people that I liked. To travel JF: No, I think it’s a great compliment. I’ve always We just had a very brief chat, but I’ve always got on What I’d like to say about Ultravox is firstly, that I have a around a lot and work in different places and go to been, right from the very beginning, keen on creative well with Chris and Bill so it was always nice to hear great regard for the others and I was glad we worked different cities and re-invent a sort of life which I hadn’t thieving and I think all artists that I know are magpies from them again. I think it was simply that we were together when we did. We made a life that was our own had when we were locked into the rock and roll rota and they pinch anything that’s any good from each other always doing different things, we were in different from absolutely nothing and that was our aim at the which I described earlier. I like to travel. It’s something I and so they ought to, that’s how things move on. It’s places, so it wasn’t easy. outset. An adventure. But there comes a time when you have to do. I’m a migratory animal. putting things into a new context and changing the angle that it’s looked at that makes things different and function of painting and now it has been put back into who became art directors and started working for believe it when you said that when you signed to Virgin E x w t e i new. There’s a great myth about originality I think. the hands of artists via computer which is kind of publishers. They asked me if they could use some of my Records, your contract was drawn up so that all of your r e v r m e

t interesting. This should yield some interesting results images for some of their things and I said fine. I didn’t material would eventually return to you. We always e n i EV: Assuming you use an Apple Macintosh computer, from now on I think. have any particular idea of what to do with these things, thought that a record contract was such that you literally V x o x i o c

F what spec machine do you use to create your images? I just did them for my own pleasure and information. sold your soul to the company and they forever owned e n 1 h EV: Who is the statue that seems to keep appearing up your material and that they could do whatever they 6 o J :

JF: Yes I do, it’s a Quadra 650 with... if I can remember in your work? It’s quite nice when things have a life of their own and wanted with it. T e h h e T (laughs), I’ve got this attitude with computers in that I they take off in an unexpected direction and they did : J o 6 just use them and I don’t always know much about the JF: There are a lot of them really, people tend to take off and they created a new angle on doing book JF: That’s usually the case. h 1 n e specifications, I just find out what I need to get for my assume that it’s one or two statues. Actually they’re F

c covers. But it wasn’t my doing, it was the people who o i x o purpose and then forget about it when I’ve got it. But I almost all different, I’ve only ever used a couple of the x

V chose to use them, notably Peter Dyer who is probably EV: So how did you manage it? i n e t

can remember the basic images more than once the most imaginative art director in that area and he’s e m r v e r i

things, it’s a Quadra 650 and then they’re usually done the same with many other people’s work. He used JF: Well they wanted me at that time and I had e t w x

E with 68 Meg RAM and a taken from different it in that context for the first time. Book covers were a bit already had a little bit of experience before. So it was a 1.5 Gigabyte Hard Drive... angles anyway, but the dull until Peter came along. He revolutionised the whole like a second shot at doing something. I decided to do it extra. This will seem very reason they look similar is thing and of course it was so successful and so new, in how I wanted to do it. It wasn’t plain sailing at all but quaint in a couple of years because they’re classical its small way, that lots of other people began to use Virgin were great, I’ve got no reservations about Virgin time, very primitive. idealised images. They similar things. A whole new style evolved because of at all, they were a great company. I enjoyed working with conform to the same set what Peter did. them and being part of that. It was exciting. The guy EV: What graphics of proportions even who ran it, Simon Draper, was the most imaginative package do you use to though they’re all slightly EV: Do you still lecture in graphic design? person running a record company in that period by a create the images? different and they can long, long way. He’s a wonderful guy and I’ve got look similar when they’re JF: Occasionally, I still give talks when I’m asked to. I endless respect for him and always will have. I am very JF: I quite often use treated in the way that I like to do it occasionally because it galvanises me and glad that they were the company that took what I Adobe Photoshop on the tend to treat them. I you often get some interesting work going on in those offered at the time, and they took Metal Beat and the Mac, but most of remember in one review places and it’s good to talk to the people who are doing whole thing, it was my label through Virgin. They did it the images I’ve created of some of the images it it. So I learn as much as the students do when I go there. with unparalleled grace and I will always be grateful to were actually done was assumed that I had It’s good fun. them for that. photographically and not very cleverly used one through a computer. statue and done variations EV: What other areas has this taken you in? 26 Initially. I started doing on that one theme, but in 27 these things before “I DID A SERIES OF IMAGES fact they were all JF: I did a poster for Lyndsey Kemp when he was different, everything was computers were able to do FOR ARDEN SHAKESPEARE, touring, I enjoyed that. I did some for work in New York that sort of work and then different. and work for TV which was used here and there. I rarely I used what was almost a A GREAT COMPLIMENT do things specially for anything, they’re just things I’ve mainframe computer, a BECAUSE THEY ARE EV: How did you get done in the course of my work. People come and have a Barco, which was a ONLY RE-DONE EVERY into the niche you seemed look at them and choose something that’s appropriate to to have created for book Belgium company and this TWENTY YEARS OR SO” what they require. I’m doing some work in Italy and for was in the early-to-mid cover design? America at the moment. And I did a series of images Eighties. They were which were used for Arden Shakespeare, a great surprised by the results JF: (laughs) It was just compliment because they are only re-done every twenty because they’d envisaged using this thing just to clean an accident, I’d been doing these visuals for a long time, years or so, and the last artists to do them were The up photographs and take warts out and that sort of combining photographs together. I always thought of it Ruralists and Peter Blake. thing. They used a lot of my images to promote what just like music where you get elements that you like, and they were doing. you find them or sample them, or take them from EV: You actually keep the copyright on each of the somewhere, I mean a photograph is just a sample really images. Since then Apple Macintosh came out from underneath like a musical sample or a few notes and you put them all of that and made that kind of technology much more together in slightly unexpected ways. It’s just like writing JF: Yes, they’re my images and then you literally let accessible. The future of all that is that now you can a song really. them have it for that one use, but I’m free to use them combine any image with any image, so photographs in any way I want to myself. have become the province of artists again. When it came The way it started was that I’d been doing these things out, photography seemed to take away much of the for a long time and there were a few friends of mine EV: That must be a fairly unique position. We couldn’t Spirals of dust on the street corner, glittering in the Rainy stars reflected in the speckled mirrors down E x n t a

afternoon sun. the hallways, under the ivy leaves. The taste of rust r e M m

t and rain and there is a cinema I can always step e e i

The cathedral nave leads off into streets, canals, inside and see you moving, turning slowly in old V u o Q

restaurants, corridors, avenues, parks and arcades. sunlight and I can melt through on the Saturday i c e e h morning tides of light and I know that time is a 1 T 6

m A part of it is underwater now, a city beneath the great, shambling, many roomed, ramshackle : o

I have just returned. Sometimes it seems as if only changed by walking down this street... The angle of J r o f ocean. He was looking at a picture in a travel guide structure. Tall, flaking, endlessly fragmenting. h t

part of me is still here. A feeling of dispersal. coincidence, of memory will alter other memories, n c

a from 1954. The picture had the quality of an old Myriad avenues. Waterways deeper than I can F r t

Glimpses from other angles. Other locations. The make other connections... This street will become o x

technicolour film still. swim. Warm, revolving and lost. x e city is always shifting, realigning itself. It is memory. other streets in time. It will lead to other streets in x n : S A time. Some streets lead to other times... You almost h : As he examined it, the picture began to change. Its The stairway leads on to bridges soaring across the i f y t t I constantly feel a distant kind of longing. The expect to see your father and mother aged 21 i i

surface slowly fragmented, dissolved until he could river. Smoke on the horizon, blue and gold among n C longest song, the song of longing. I walk the same walking arm in arm towards you. Some are streets g g see through it... the fog of trees. C n i i t

t streets like a fading ghost. Flickering grey suit. The from your own life which you have not walked yet. y f i : h same avenues, squares, parks, collonades, like a A S Swift transition of time and place... Everything is quiet and the dust on the streets and : ghost. Over the years I find places I can go through, They will seem different when the time comes you n x

the stars are slowly flowing through each other. e x x o some process of recognition. Remnants of other will not remember. Endless. Revolving... You can not t r F My hands are open... I am only eyes travelling over a c n almost forgotten places. Always returning. return. You will never walk down that street again. t

h the overgrown streets... through the buildings... f o r J Another time is another place. Turn and wave. o

: down stairways, arcades, squares, alleys, m

6 I can detect tiny edges of time leaking through. I Someone almost there. Walking away now.

waterways... foggy, sunlit... T 1 h

e feel nothing is completely separate. At some point e c i Q

o everything leaks into everything else. The trick is in The streets lead into other streets where a glimpse u V i

finding the places. They are slowly moving. Drifting. of someone who is young will remind you that they e e t m

You can only do this accidentally. If you set out to must be many years older now... How did you miss M e r a t

do it deliberately you will always fail. them... How did you pass them by for so long... n x E Where did all the time go... It is only when you remember, only then will you realise that you caught a glimpse. While you were Some places seem still, quiet. Islands. A few leaves talking to someone, or thinking of something else. fallen on the stone pavement. A trace of sunlit moss When your attention was diverted. Just a hint, a in a stone corner, an eroded line of memory, a glimmer, a shade. bench, evergreen leaves.

28 Much later, you will remember. Without really You can place your hand on the stone wall softly, 29 knowing why. Vague peripheral sensations gather. feel the humming beneath. This is simply the Some fraction of a long rhythm is beginning to be surface of things, it is shifting slowly all the time, its recognised. The hidden frequencies and tides of the molecules are moving, it is a liquid. city. Geometry of coincidence. You will certainly find yourself passing that way again. Perhaps not for a You can push your hand through the surface, you long, long time. Over the years you gradually can flow into it dispersing out, you can breathe the become aware of some slight differences in the ocean. It is composed of music, echoes that take light, the temperature, the way things feel, like a many years to return, to reflect, to reverberate. subtle change in the texture of a film... faintly aware They never disappear. They fade, mingle, make a that time moves in a slightly different way there. finer and finer web of refractions. The movement gently, imperceptibly spins your skin away like The city is a place of tides. Tides move down every candyfloss, spinning skeins of you combine with the street. Time does not not move at a uniform rate ocean over years, over miles, over tides and times. here. The relative speeds of various time pockets Until you become part of the hidden frequency of throughout the city, all moving and forming subtle the rooms, the streets. currents around each other, resembling an ocean, which looks uniform but is really composed of great It is a long slow waltz we are dancing down the currents, contraflows, minor eddies, undercurrents, cathedral. Turning into reverberation and roses and warm and cool streams of different densities and shimmering light. Just wait here for a little while. I temperatures, swirling slowly or quickly, affecting will be back soon. Soft winds across the lake, rain each other at every boundary. falling on leaves a thousand miles away, years and years away, slow cascade of those empty places. The The shifting city, the drifting city... You will be lakes move in time to the sea. Ultravox – Visions in Blue E s x c t s Visions in Blue (single edit) b/w i r e D

Break Your Back m e r e

u Cat No: Chrysalis CHSP 2676 t V c i o

P (Left: Side A. Right: Side B) i c : e n 1 e 6

d It’s surprising that Reap the Wild E :

In this edition of Extreme Voice we take a look at picture discs. A highly successful marketing ploy on the part R

n Wind wasn’t the first Ultravox i a r e

of the record companies, picture discs – every fan’s dream collector’s item – were phased out alongside still- single to receive a picture disc e r a i n R cherished vinyl records (CDs, despite their superior sound quality, just don’t instill the same amount of pride!). version when so much effort was : E d

6 None of the featured discs are particularly difficult to find, the rarest being Ultravox’s first picture disc, Hymn, attached to the marketing of the e 1 Quartet album. But still, these n e which should set you back approximately £8.00, and the Lament album which should cost in the region of : c i three singles are very nice items to P o £15.00. All the other singles should be around £5.00 each and the Quartet album should set you back about i c V t £10.00 (£12.00 with the special plastic sleeve). Happy hunting! collect. u e r e m D e r i s t c x s

E John Foxx – Burning Car Ultravox – We Came to Dance Burning Car b/w We Came to Dance (single edit) 20th Century b/w Overlook Cat No: Virgin/Metal Beat VS 360 Cat No: Chrysalis VOXP 1 (Left: Side A. Right: Side B) (Left: Side A. Right: Side B)

This was the first Ultravox related Perhaps the most successful of picture disc. A unique photo of the single picture discs in design John was used on the A-side, whilst terms – the image translates well the B-side featured a picture of a from the single cover to the vinyl burning car which also appeared itself. One of our favourites. on the reverse of the single’s picture sleeve!

John Foxx – Endlessly Ultravox – Quartet album Endlessly (original single Cat No: Chrysalis P CDL 1394 version) b/w Young Man (Left: Side A. Right: Side B) 30 Cat No: Virgin/Metal Beat VSY 513 31 (Left: Side A. Right: Side B) This is by far the most beautiful of all the featured picture discs. It The second picture disc from John resembles a green marble slab was for the first single to be taken with the writing in metallic gold, from his 1983 album The Golden and monument icon in gold and Section. The black. It comes in a clear plastic A-side features a unique photo of sleeve which has the words John, whilst the flip repeats the ‘Ultravox’ and ‘Quartet’ picked front of the original single’s out in white. picture sleeve.

Ultravox – Lament album Ultravox – Hymn Cat No: Chrysalis P CDL 1459 Hymn (single edit) b/w (Left: Side A. Right: Side B) Monument Cat No: Chrysalis CHSP 2657 Effectively just a square picture of (Left: Side A. Right: Side B) the Callanish Standing Stones (which was used on the cover of The artwork for all three single the standard album), mounted picture discs taken from Ultravox’s within clear vinyl. After the Quartet album mirror the standard flurry of picture discs which single’s picture sleeve, with the accompanied the Quartet album, track details and publishing blurb it’s surprising to find that this is the consigned to the B-side. only one from this period. Ultravox – Love’s Great E s x c t s Adventure i r e D

Love’s Great Adventure b/w m e r e

u White China (recorded live at t V c i o

P the Hammersmith Odeon, i c : June 1984) e n 1 e 6

d Cat No: Chrysalis UVP 3 E Name John Foxx : P

n (Left: Side A. Right: Side B) i e r

e Date of birth --- s r o a n

R All on its lonesome as a non- Place of birth Chorley, Lancashire, England a : l

Height 6’1” F

6 album single, the Love’s Great i l 1 Adventure’s single sleeve Colour of eyes Grey / Green e e : c J i

artwork translates very well to the Colour of hair Manchester Sunshine o o h V picture disc format. Married? --- n e F o

m Present home London, with various extended excursions x e x r

t Parents’ occupations Mother – Millworker. Father – Coal miner. : x A

E Ultravox – Same Old Story

School begin in tears? No p r i Same Old Story (single edit) Earliest musical memory Latin Mass (live) / ‘Trouble’ – Elvis l 1

b/w “3” ‘Wakey Wakey’ – Billy Cotton Band Show 9 9

Cat No: Chrysalis UVP 4 Schools St Mary’s Primary, St Augustine’s Secondary 6 (Left: Side A. Right: Side B) Proudest school moment Beating a bully First crush Kia Ora Following in the bright, brash style First record bought ‘Revolver’ – The Beatles of the U-VOX album. Its ‘venetian Worst job Iron foundry from Heironymous Bosch blinds’ style background misses Previous bands Wooly Fish the mark without a special plastic Worst band Wooly Fish sleeve to view it through. It’s also Most hated record ‘Wakey Wakey’ – Billy Cotton Band the only Ultravox picture disc to Lowest point in career Someone pointed at my shoes once feature a pic of the guys. Proudest point in career Getting ‘Cathedral Oceans’ CD The most hurtful thing ever written about you “Copied” – unfounded comment on school essay Favourite fantasy Flying. Travelling back in time to introduce Billy Cotton’s father to practical prophylactics. Midge Ure – That Certain Smile Favourite transport Bicycle That Certain Smile b/w Musical hero / heroine Nero The Gift (instrumental) Other hero / heroine Wendy Carlos Cat No: Chrysalis URE P2 32 Book Ragtime – E.L. Doctorow. New York Trilogy – Paul Auster. English Music – Peter Ackroyd. 33 (Left: Side A. Right: Side B) The Time Machine – H.G. Wells. Angels and Insects – A.S. Byatt. Nothing if not critical – Robert Hughes. The Immigrants – Howard Fast. A unique picture of Midge on the Film Bridges Of Madison County. Independence Day. Cinema Paradiso. Let’s Get Lost. A-side and a plain colour with Secrets and Lies. Wings of Desire. purple tag on the flip which Television programme Late Review. X-Files. Newsnight. Face to Face. emulates The Gift album’s sticker- Record ‘Luxa’ – Harold Budd. Oasis. ‘There She Goes’ – The Las. seal. A limited quantity of these ‘A Walk on the Wild Side’ – Jimmy Smith. discs were sold autographed in Clothing New Grey Suit silver marker. Newspaper Alternate between Telegraph, Guardian and Independent Domestic pets Dishwasher Most nostalgic record for you and why? ‘Across the Universe’ – The Beatles (my youth). ‘Wakey Wakey’ – Billy Cotton’s Band (trying to sleep through measles, age three. Bastard). John Foxx – Like a Miracle Spent last Christmas More than I intended Like a Miracle b/w Likes Travelling. Walking in a strange city Wings and a Wind Dislikes All species of inebriate. Not finding time to reply to Sharon Stone’s letters. Candiru. P h

Greatest fear Nude at Paddington o

Cat No: Virgin/Metal Beat VSS 645 t o r

Favourite advertisement Milk – i’nt it great?. Power is nothing without control – Pirelli. Phonebox series – Kings Cross. e

(Left: Side A. Right: Side B) p r o

Best holiday you’ve ever had Swimming, sand and sun. South of France, 1985 d u c e This is the most unusual of all the Best present you’ve ever been given Love Love Love d c o

How good a cook are you? Improving enthusiast u featured picture disc designs, in r t e s that it is shaped with the picture How do you relax? Easily y o f J

of John’s profile on each side! A Most beautiful thing? Family Sunday lunch in Italy – al fresco. Swimming in a warm blue ocean. o h n

really nice item to collect. Favourite music paper Delsea Turbo F o x x

Where are you going after completing this? Out! The Sun is shining. It’s a beautiful Spring morning and I hate computers! . E 7 x 9 t r 9 e 1 m y r e a V u o n i a c J e : 1 e r 6 U Real name James Ure Real name Warren Cann : e P g e r d Date of birth 20th May 1952 i Date of birth 10th October 1953 s o M Place of birth Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. n :

Place of birth Cambuslang, Glasgow, Scotland a l e l

Height 6’0” F i

Height 5’8” i F l e l Colour of eyes Blue / Green a Colour of eyes Blue : n Colour of hair Dark brown W o s Colour of hair Brown with ever increasing grey bits! a r r

e Married? Yes. To Alison, in L.A. on August 19th, 1995. r e P

Married? Not any more! n : Present home Los Angeles, CA. C 6 Present home Bath a 1 Parents’ occupations Father – Retail manager. Mother – Housewife n e n

c Parents’ occupations Both are now retired School begin in tears? Yes, I think so. i : o Earliest musical memory Waiting for the dog to bark in ‘How Much is that Doggie in the Window’. A V School begin in tears? Absolutely! p r e

Schools Sir William Gladstone Senior Secondary, Sir Richard McBride Elementary i Earliest musical memory None l m 1 e

Proudest school moment Playing at a lunchtime concert. The band was ‘Peak Freen’, with my closest school friends. 9 r Schools Cambuslang Primary. Rutherglen Academy. 9 t 7 x First crush I can’t remember the first one, but there were many after that!

E Proudest school moment Leaving and never going back First record bought ‘Not Fade Away’ by the Rolling Stones. First crush Miss Gebbie (primary school teacher) Worst job Chris Cross & I used to be part-time cleaners at a big industrial plant in North First record bought ‘My Mind’s Eye’ by The Small Faces London. We’d avoid doing anything wherever possible but, every so often, we Worst job I only ever had one and that wasn’t too bad… engineer couldn’t manage to evade having to clean out the toilets. Previous bands Stumble / Salvation / Slik / Rich Kids / Visage / Ultravox... that’s it I think! Previous bands In Vancouver; The Lost World / Push / The Trees / Seqment 41 / Python. In London; Thumper / Tiger Lily. After Ultravox I did a lot of telly appearances in Kim Wilde’s band Worst band Rich Kids... only for being a target for spit! and played with the Sons of Valentino and the Huw Lloyd-Langton band. Most hated record All the Slik stuff Worst band 5 Man Cargo. To be fair, this was a good/bad experience. But it just wasn’t cool... Lowest point in career The murder of ‘Breathe’ Most hated record Silly question. ‘Shaddup Your Face’ Proudest point in career Finishing any new work Lowest point in career In 1979 Island Records had dumped us, John Foxx had quit / was sacked (it’s still a moot point), Robin Simon quit to stay in New York, we had no manager, and there was The most hurtful thing ever written about you Blocked everything bad out! just myself, Chris, and Bill trying to keep the band together. I recall having to sneak into Favourite fantasy Censored Island’s warehouse to pinch our equipment back. We were totally on our own. Favourite transport The back of a limo with a little glass of something Proudest point in career There were quite a few... Accepting our first gold record. Being awarded ‘Single of the Year’ for ‘Vienna’. Playing at Live Aid. Musical hero / heroine Too many to list The most hurtful thing ever written about you I recall something said in a review of one of our live shows... It seems Bill Wyman 34 Other hero / heroine --- from the Rolling Stones was in the audience that night, reportedly, he walked out and 35 Book Perfume – Patrick Süskind was quoted as having said, “I hate it when bands use tapes! Can’t they play?” or words to that effect. We NEVER used tapes, Mr. Wyman. It was just us. Film It’s a Wonderful Life (Frank Capra) U

Favourite fantasy Having my own plane and flying around the world. n f Television programme Shooting stars o r o t

Favourite transport Nobody walks in L.A. My daily transportation is a 1969 Cadillac Coupe deVille. I have a u n n t a

Record Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie h 1971 Dodge Challenger in the midst of being rebuilt. I hate new cars.... too much plastic. t e e l y w , e Clothing Jeans Book An all-time favourite is Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein. W b a s i r t r e Newspaper The Independent Television programme The X-Files, Fawlty Towers, The Young Ones, The Dangerous Brothers, Twin Peaks, e n a ’ t Red Dwarf, One Foot In The Grave, Absolutely Fabulous, Inspector Morse, StarTrek s h a t Domestic pets Morrigan – Weimaraner dog. Spliff and Tequila – cats. Pickle and Purdy – rabbits. n t s TNG, Only Fools and Horses, Blackadder, Outer Limits, and The Simpsons. p w : / / Gaston – goldfish. Hamish – Shetland pony! e w r s

Record The last time I bought a record to just play a song over and over again until I drove w w Most nostalgic record for you and why? ‘Do They Know its Christmas?’, for all the obvious reasons w e

everyone mad was ‘The Wasteland’ by Warrior Soul. . r u e l t r t a Spent last Christmas With nearly all the family Clothing Casual, generally. Cowboy boots, jeans, leather... Living in L.A., where the weather is o v o o e x . x so famously agreeable, means I’ve started quite a collection of serious Hawaiian shirts. . o y Likes Honesty and good humour t e e r g n K . s

Domestic pets Two dogs and a cat; Boris, an Alsatian / Retriever mix, Vegas, a Chow / Spaniel mix. u r i v k o Dislikes The reverse of the above e / v e

e And Ollie, a black & white maniac cat. t v r o i T n r f Greatest fear Failure f e o o Spent last Christmas At home with my wife and the animals. Then we threw a big party the day after p w r y o r c d o Favourite advertisement The nodding dog in the car insurance ad... oh yes! Boxing Day when everyone would actually be desperate for something to do. . h u m t c m e e

Likes Sunny days & warm nights. Italian, German, and Japanese food. l m ,

Best holiday you’ve ever had Driving around Florida in a huge campervan c o o e m r h t

Dislikes The one-word answer is: idiots. It brings out the Basil Fawlty / Victor Meldrew in me! s p

Best present you’ve ever been given --- e o l n e t t d e d Greatest fear Sleeping on a park bench. l a e y t n

How good a cook are you? Brilliant!... well pretty good . a H c S i

Favourite advertisement Recently, Nissan’s adverts – Ken & Barbie in a toy sports car. i A s d E e How do you relax? Being a couch potato... but not that often f u d f l How good a cook are you? Pretty good, if I may say so. o l d r a n n Most beautiful thing? My girls a a s p

How do you relax? Tinkering with the car, going to car shows, reading, watching telly, going to movies. w y r b e i n r s Favourite music paper Q t s o Most beautiful thing? Being happy. Yucky answer, but true. o t a u o r t e h Where are you going after completing this? Driving to london to pick up Molly. . P Where are you going after completing this? To have some dinner with friends, then maybe for drinks at the Lava Lounge. E 6 x 9 t r 9 e 1 m r e e b V m o e i c v e o N 1 : 6 s : s Real name Christopher Allen Real name William Lee Currie P o r e r

C Date of birth 1st April 1950

Date of birth 14th July 1952 s o s i n r Place of birth London Place of birth Huddersfield a h

1 l C 2

Height 5’11 ⁄ ” F

: Height 179cm approx. i l e

e Colour of eyes Greeny colour l i Colour of eyes Blue Green : F B

l Colour of hair Grey i a Colour of hair Brown l l y n Married? Yup o C

s Married? Sort of r Present home Woodside Park, North London u e r r P Present home Berkshire i e

: Parents’ occupations Father – bricklayer. Mum did office work. : 6 Parents’ occupations Lorry Driver, Tea Lady

School begin in tears? A bit! Five years was a long time to be with Mum before school J 1 u l e School begin in tears? Of course y

c Earliest musical memory Being taught by my cousin to play ‘Catch a Falling Star’ on guitar. Big revelation to see i 1 o Earliest musical memory Family Parties that the note changed when you moved frets. Wow!! 9 V 9

Schools Netherton Infants. Netherton Juniors (4 yards from my front door). Mount Pleasant 6 e Schools Sec Mod / Comprehensives, last one William Forster Comprehensive, Tottenham

m Secondary School. Huddersfield Music College. Royal Academy of Music, London

e Proudest school moment Can’t remember any r

t Proudest school moment Reciting T.S.Elliot’s The Naming of the Cats at the Town Hall for school

x First crush My neighbours daughter Maureen (we were about 3) E First crush Judith Sykes First record bought ‘5 by 5’ – The Rolling Stones First record bought Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos (brill) Worst job Dunhills, Picadilly (a bunch of shits) Worst job Crane driver when I had just blown out college Previous bands None Previous bands Company Roadshow at 19 years old. Ritual Theatre at 21. A band in Bristol, I can’t Worst band ELO remember the name, with the guitarist from The Only Ones. Tiger Lily at 22. Most hated record 90% of those released Worst band Tiger Lily Most hated record ‘Born in the USA’ – Bruce Springsteen Lowest point in career I can’t remember any real low points, disappointing maybe but not low Lowest point in career Supporting The Jam at Reading Festival 1978 to find that my piano was making Proudest point in career Live Aid dreadful sounds caused by the lights and power on stage, and having to do the gig The most hurtful thing ever written about you I’ve got no idea like that. Suicide or what!! Favourite fantasy None really (sorry to be dull) Proudest point in career The second Hammersmith Odeon (as it was called then) gig with Gary Numan when it was being recorded – a good gig and a bit of a buzz! Favourite transport Sailing The most hurtful thing ever written about you The first Ultravox review in NME, “Ultrahype” ha ha ha Musical hero / heroine I don’t have any that I could call a hero. I go for songs really. Favourite fantasy Too erotic to describe! Other hero / heroine Hundreds 36 Favourite transport Spaceship (Ingenuity “Right Now”) 37 Book Archimedes to Zola (so many I can’t possibly think of one to pick out) Musical hero / heroine Frederick Delius Film Being There is a nice film Other hero / heroine Kate Bush Television programme Video Nation, Michael Moore TV something or the other Book Tibetan Book of the Dead Record Banco de Giai today. Try the album ‘The Last Train to Lhasa’” on Planet Dog Records Film Chariots of Fire (what an old romantic!) Clothing Armani at Millets Television programme Sportsnight. Football or boxing. Coronation Street Newspaper Connections Record Paris by Delius Domestic pets Nasti (Anastasia) – A female brown Burmese cat. There’s a gang of Moorhens on the Clothing Middle-aged clothes like corduroy trousers (joking) pond but they are self sufficient Newspaper Daily Mail Most nostalgic record for you and why? Heroes – David Bowie. It reminds me of Berlin before the wall was removed Domestic pets A cat called Record, he’s about 15 years old Spent last Christmas Watching Midge on TV Most nostalgic record for you and why? The first Spirit album. Memories of drifting off in the early hours with my friends in Huddersfield. Likes The spirit of Mankind Spent last Christmas Cosy cosy at home with my wife Heidi and my daughter Lucy Dislikes Showjumping on TV Likes People who live in the present time Greatest fear Piles of Filing Dislikes Mean-spirited people Favourite advertisement Courts... I don’t think Greatest fear Drowning Best holiday you’ve ever had Many... but I always feel at home in Greece or Italy or Australia Favourite advertisement The last Levis ad [the cab] – all my best friends are transvestites I’d like to visit the pyramids on Mars Best holiday you’ve ever had It’s got to be the Caribbean Best present you’ve ever been given I don’t know Best present you’ve ever been given My wife surprised me, last birthday, with a brilliant trip to Ireland How good a cook are you? Very good How good a cook are you? Not bad on simple veggie food. I’ve been a vegetarian since 1990 How do you relax? I just do, it comes naturally How do you relax? I don’t... Playing live!! Most beautiful thing? My cat “Nasti” says she is Most beautiful thing? Spring time!!!!! Favourite music paper I haven’t read one for a few years now Favourite music paper Music section of “The Oldies” Where are you going after completing this? Probably Tesco’s, but I might get my bread from Waitrose, they have good organic flour too Where are you going after completing this? To write some music at home... Correction!! Playing in the garden with Lucy, the weather turned out fabulous!! column to dissect Ultravox using all E y x b t

r the usual blunt criticisms: r i e K m b e o

R “Future po-faced synthesiser V o y i b manipulators with a large dash of c 2 e

k trashy glam... the albums with Foxx 1 o 6 o

l are quite good, especially the Eno- r : e

y previous article ended on a supplies, 1995 almost was cancelled simply because of their brilliant O

v produced debut Ultravox! [Island v O M promising note with the as far as items of interest to Extreme performances... I didn’t see any e : IMCD 146] Ure joined and then they r l o 6 intriguing, and possibly only, music Voice go. However, Mojo 19 Ultravox stuff come back in.” o

1 did Vienna, after which everything Dancing... #1, released 1995 Dancing... #2, released 1996 k e press news item about an up-and- shattered the drought in a series of 2

c was cack. They re-invented the pop b i EMI Music for Pleasure Disky Communications y o coming Ultravox CD single box set. articles on record producers, ’m not sure that Midge is correct

V video in 1980 (sic) when they made R

I o

e Sadly this has come to be speaking to Brian Eno in June 1995 here, as I’m certain the massively

Vienna. A huge success of style- b m reconsidered in the years that have about his thoughts on the bands that popular Collection [Chrysalis CCD K e i

r over-content in the cinematic style of r t b

x followed. This installment starts from he had worked with, alongside 1490] album was still active in the The Third Man, MTV had to be y E there, the latter months of 1994, individual paragraphs concerning charts at the time. created in order to show with two anniversaries rapidly various key albums and Ultravox’s it all day long, every day. Greatest approaching. debut album in particular: success? Vienna, alright? Bur-loody Vibluddyenna. But it never got to the “Feed the World : The Band Aid “Quite an enjoyable experience. top of the charts. Ultravox never had Story” was previewed on the radio They were wide open to trying new a number one. It stalled at number pages of the (05.11.94) Radio Times, things out, and as such they were the two, and Dancing with Tears in My accompanied by a small photo of new beginning of a new breath in Eyes only managed number three.” Dancing... #3, released 1996 Dancing... #4, released 1997 Midge Ure. This hour-long Radio One pop music at the time. Of course, Boots Exclusive EMI Gold documentary drew on interviews they stood on the shoulders of punk, ery cruel, but revealing – the later used on television for the tenth but they certainly weren’t part of V ‘only’ criticism being the most Boys compilations. If you managed an accurate illustration of Ultravox anniversary of Live Aid, along with that. That was one of the first staggeringly mean spirited. I’m sure to avert your gaze from the highly from their 1980 / 81 period, some brief snatches of music and records to feature both drums and n total contrast to the poignant if I asked for a show of hands we inappropriate garish red and black alongside a brief column that conversations. Perhaps the most drum machines. Sly Stone was the I memories of Ultravox’s breezy set could all name several bands each, cover (utilising a Gift era photo to mistakenly attempts to place all of fascinating aspect of the first to use drum machines in pop during Live Aid, marred only by the past and present, who never had a match the selected Ultravox Midge’s Visage work prior to his programme, at least for me, was music, on Family Affair, though I was TV coverage missing the start of the number one in their careers, but material!) the compilation was involvement with Ultravox. Whoops, Midge’s ‘track-by-track’ guide to the first to use them in England, I first number due to an over-running crucially had the support of the actually quite a reasonable indeed. I wonder how Craig Moore Feed the World, exposing the think – a lot of my first record was satellite slot (and the later realisation music press. In the critic’s minds the representation of the range of styles from Blacknell felt about that various layers buried and mixed out done with drum machines.” that this also marked Warren Cann’s mere mention of Ultravox seems to the band explored over their blooper having suggested that ‘Pop 38 of one of the most well-known last performance with the group), induce some form of hysteria, a type seventeen Chrysalis singles. Culture’ should feature the group. 39 multi-track recordings in recent ncongruously, the article was Receiver Records launched their own of persona non grata syndrome. The It’s a shame that the Daily Mail didn’t musical history. A fascinating slice of I accompanied by a Systems of live souvenir, this time from a 1991 group just had the knack of always or reasons known only to the also take up an option on the strip a moment in Pop. Romance-era photo by Adrian Boot, concert by the Billy Currie-led doing the wrong thing at the wrong F compiler of Dancing..., the when they brought Bogart over from from the chequered floor photo Ultravox. Of Future Picture [Receiver time, at least in the view of their chronological order of the selected the deceased Today newspaper, but eanwhile, Billy Currie’s Ultravox session featured on the back of that RRCD 199] I can say no more, detractors, who years later then single A-sides, sometimes paired 50% is better than nothing at all, M received the briefest of album, depicting entirely the wrong because I came across no reviews in about-turn and heap praise on the with their own B-sides, is broken by I guess. mentions in the now-departed Today band line-up of course! Does anyone either the music or general press. original John Foxx Era Ultravox the strange placement of Reap the newspaper, courtesy of James Bennet’s research photo material anymore? albums, and that was one of the Wild Wind after Dancing with ‘Sounds like Friday’ column (25.11.94): riday First’ in the Daily Mail strongest things about them – the Tears in My Eyes. Whatever else he tenth anniversary of Live Aid ‘F (21.06.95) featured a large courage of their convictions. That’s you might feel about this album, it “Cancel 1995. Next year will be more T was celebrated within the Bob photo of Midge to publicise the last the kind of musicianship I’ve always does indeed deserve some praise for like 1985... The Human League are Geldof covered Radio Times ever Heineken Music Festival, often admired. utilising one of the two single edits coming back... Adam Ant is staging a (15.07.95) as BBC2 presented a 61⁄2 claimed to have been Europe’s then unavailable on CD in the shape big comeback, and Ultravox will be hour compilation of highlights. largest free music event. Midge eptember saw the release of the of All in One Day. Hopefully an releasing a new album, Ingenuity Buried within the eight interior pages performed on the following Sunday, S original version of the Dancing updated complete singles album will [Resurgence RES109CD]. All that and devoted to the celebrations lurked a alongside Kirsty MacColl, Tom with Tears in My Eyes compilation surface in the near future, mopping Gary Numan too.” brief quotation from Midge: Robinson and Aswad. However, it is [Music For Pleasure CDMFP 6175] for up the stray non-CD Same Old Ultravox that once again gains the EMI’s long running Music For Story edit. Hard to get that dreadful he same month, in Q Magazine, n terms of press coverage, except “Queen were brilliant, they just most column inches as the next few Pleasure sub-label – which makes cover out of your head once you’ve T David Quantick sped through a I for a small piece in the Daily Mail shone. You saw it reflected in the paragraphs aptly demonstrates. Ultravox about the first eighties seen it, though. quick history of Ultravox (up to (13.12.94) concerning the legal costs charts a week or so later. You saw all group to appear on the label, sitting 1995’s Revelation) in his review of awarded to Band Aid after being those old Queen albums going back elody maker used its now rather awkwardly next to Frank teve McGarry’s ‘Pop Culture’ Ingenuity from Billy Currie’s second overcharged for shipping relief in and obviously they won the day M currently missing ‘A.W.O.L.’ Sinatra, Nat ‘King’ Cole and Beach S strip (Today, 09.10.95) featured and final line-up: “Now there is another Ultravox with order on the packaging, making Ha! the world’s first rock-video art gallery Who can truly say for sure that the the Ultravoxers and the Magaziners that so much of this album sounds E y x b t

r this new album. It’s dominated by Ha! Ha! [Island IMCD 147] the first in London’s West End: most creative and enduring music inevitably fled back to their proper like reconstructed versions of his old r i e K Currie’s highly agreeable synthesiser album out of the box, before produced in the last forty years of this bands as soon as the hits dried up.” songs rather than a progression. m b e o

R sound, the inessential guitar solos of Ultravox! and Systems of “What (rock video) didn’t have, and century is not set to become some Despite it all, however, there is no V o y i b Vinny Burns... and the thoughtful Romance [Island IMCD 148]. Danny what they really needed to be future generation’s classical music? ’m sure Visage did lose portions doubting his deep sincerity.” c 2 I e k vocals of aptly named Sam Blue. Eccleston evidently failed to spot this accepted as a true form of art, was Scoff if you must, but I doubt even of its audience later on as first 1 o 6 o

l Sometimes this works, the wistful major faux-pas, alongside the sloppy their own gallery. Now, 20 years after Mozart and Beethoven ever dreamt Midge and then Billy left the band, r : e O

v title track is as good as anything the typography on the rear of the box, Bohemian Rhapsody, the world’s that their work would achieve the but it is still a shame that Visage is so v O e : band have done, but The Silent commenting in Q Magazine that: first video art gallery has opened... prestige and longevity it has, and I easily dismissed when their debut r l o 6 o

1 Cries and Distance revisit the mime- no longer will teenagers have to would like to imagine that future album and subsequent instrumental k e 2

c is-money territory of bad synthesiser “The exclamation suffixed John Foxx traipse around the Tate when such generations will be able to more B-sides continue to hold up well in b i y o

V pop. Should be huge in Germany.” version of the band are revered visual masterpieces as Ultravox’s objectively examine Ultravox’s musical comparisons with other new albums R o e

among snobbish old romantics... Vienna (you know, the one with the legacy within the context of the of the time, such as Duran Duran b m K e

gnoring the woeful sarcasm, in 1977’s Ha! Ha! Ha! works best, as moody Midge Ure and the swinging musical climate it existed alongside, and Dare for example. It’s worth i r r t b x I comparison with Ultravox’s classic shouty in parts as its punctuation lightbulbs) and Wuthering Heights... unswayed by the banalities of noting (with much relief) that despite y E albums, I feel that three stars is a fair surfeit might suggest... although are permanently on display.” ‘popular’ music press that we have the best efforts of Melody Maker comparison here. While this album (Distant Smile’s desolate, Erik Satie- had to endure in our lifetime. itself, no new ‘romo’ band has Magazine obviously got so is a vast improvement on its like introduction apart) Billy Currie’s think that Cosmo may have consistently cracked the top 40, if at Q excited about Breathe predecessor, two questions spring to keyboards are generally swamped by I viewed quiet a few videos before all – a case of “original is best” I [BMG/Arista 21346] that the album mind – why wasn’t Majestic allowed the powerfully cheesy guitars and writing this, because the ‘moody think – as for applying the ‘romo’ was reviewed for two months more time to develop itself (as it does only Hiroshima Mon Amour gets Midge’ and ‘swinging lightbulbs’ term to a fictional album of material running by different critics. Steve near to the fade out)? and whatever the balance right. The eponymous sound a lot more like a description of by groups that were mostly not New Malins landed the first blows: happened to the tune in between second effort pairs the band with No Regrets to me. Ian Hamilton, the Romantics, such as Ultravox the introduction and the choruses on Brian Eno, which adds an apt degree galleries founder, has no doubts that (obviously), that is just piling on the “Midge Ure’s passion for a stripped The Silent Cries? If you find it, of Roxyness, but by the time the “the rock video is already a vital part insults unnecessarily, but sadly it’s back, folkish style has been tugging please mail it to... listless Systems of Romance has of the 20th century”, and Cosmo what we’ve come to expect. at the Glaswegian’s sideburns since run its listless course, the Midge Ure goes on to make a case for the loss the Euro-dramas of Ultravox, who era of chart suss beckons almost of true creativity that the medium collaborated with The Chieftains on seductively.” has suffered since the year of its he next few months passed their final album with Ure, U-Vox... influence around 1985. It’s hard to T without press activity. John Breathe’s inhalation of Irish espite rating the box set at fault his supposition that too much Foxx’s The Garden [Virgin CDV mysticism is pumped up with D just two stars (although I of our booming entertainment 2194] joined the Virgin Vaults members of Mary Black’s band on suppose the poor packaging culture aspires to be high art and budget price catalogue in February, accordion and fiddle, some Gaelic deserves such a score, even if the allows this goal to interfere with its while March found the flawed Fade wails from Liam O’Maonlai of the 40 music doesn’t), I won’t give Danny primary aim of simply entertaining to Grey : The Best of Visage missing-in-action Hothouse Flowers 41 Eccleston too hard a time because I the public. Concluding his piece, (barely updated) compilation and, once more, The Chieftain’s get the distinct impression that this Cosmo states that: repositioned as a mid-price CD. By Paddy Moloney on Uilleann pipes. hile I’m throwing questions may have been his first exposure to now the recently revamped Melody he long-delayed Midge Ure Although Ure replaces plastique W out at you – who let that art the original incarnation of Ultravox, “It has become a cliche of cultural Maker had expanded the amount of T album Breathe was finally electronica with pastoral moods in department trainee loose on the and some of the material does criticism to say that we no longer space allotted to its ‘A.W.O.L.’ primed for release in May, proceeded his quest or a more intimate sound, Ultravox Island 3 CD Box Set require a degree of repeated have a clear line between high and column. By the time they had found by a week earlier by the edit of ‘the voice’ retains its irritating [Island PY 801] that also surfaced in listening to fully appreciate the low culture – but we do. The their way to discussing Visage Breathe [BMG/Arista 37117 2] on tonsorial bombast. Ure’s typically November 1995? Perhaps the staff subtleties that are there – at least problem is that the traditional roles (11.05.96), you almost wish they CD single (13.05.96), including a vague but grand lyrics also lack any were so busy that they let one of that worked for me, when I first have been reversed: today it is the hadn’t bothered: generous helping of live material private detail, resulting in the strange their children finish it off. The whole explored their Island back-catalogue low stuff that aspires to be the taken from 1993’s ‘Out Alone’ spectacle of an acoustic based record tacky package pales in comparison after several years of only admiring serious art, while the serious art of “A new romantic super group concerts. Personal favourites from which boasts a lavish Ultravoxian with the neat little fold-out boxes the Midge Ure material from our time doesn’t want to be taken so formed in the late seventies by Steve the album itself include: Breathe sweep, especially on the uplifting used for EMI’s ‘Originals’ 3 CD Chrysalis. seriously.” Strange... Visage’s entire catalogue (impossible to dislike and nifty intro pop of Free and Live forever.” collections, even if the artwork in can be dismissed after hearing their hook), Guns and Arrows (for the those packages was filmed from he biggest selling Ultravox think the truth is that there is big breakthrough single Fade to dreamy guitar / synth frippery mixing n a rare moment of solidarity both ACTUAL album sleeves, rather than T album by far, The Collection, I always good and bad art within Grey, the sort of track which is still... with Midge's own licks) and Trail of I Steve Malins and Nick Duerden from original designs themselves. I’ll finally slipped down to mid-price in any cultural medium, however your regularly turning up on compilation Tears (the ‘Ultravox’ song on this rated the album a mere two stars out refrain from getting carried away January 1996. In the Sunday Times’ personal taste defines those albums with names like ‘The Best album, an ideal for this song) The of five, and while Malins at least with a tirade on the lamentable state ‘culture’ section (28.01.96) Cosmo extremes, and what in the past was Romo Album in the World Ever’ – Daily Mail’s ‘Friday First’ music page provided well-reasoned arguments of record company archiving. Landesman posed the age-old regarded as a low form of expression which would also doubtlessly feature (17.05.96) rated the album and for his assessment of Midge Ure’s question “But is it art?” as the (jazz, for example) can undoubtedly Vienna by Ultravox and something amazingly high four stars out of five: recent career direction, Nick Duerden orse still, the Island set headline to a full-page feature on develop into something much more by The Human League too... Despite sticks faithfully to the standard line W manages to switch the album rock videos, inspired by the launch of meaningful with the passage of time. claims that they were a pukka band, “The trouble with Ure’s material is on Ure / Ultravox critiques: “Try as he might (and he has), Midge his two daughters Molly and Kitty (he mediocrity that was early-to-mid 80’s let such an ill-considered remark pass CD to hit the racks, but unless you sending Extreme Voice your SAEs / E y x b t

r Ure has never shaken off the shackles has since had a third). In the brief text pop will be delighted by the return of without some comment in the were visiting one particular high IRCs and hopefully we’ll all receive r i e K of the lumpen Ultravox, the memory that accompanied the piece, Midge this 1985 album by the ex-Ultravox interest of balance. street store you would have missed details of this album’s release soon. m b e o

R of whom has, with the passing of expounded on raising children: man”, explains self-confessed early out entirely! Visiting the music V o y i b years, begun to resemble more of a 80’s hater Mark Paytress (as hile I’m still in personal department of a larger Boots should c 2 W e k pungent cheese than a fine wine. For “Every part of your life changes demonstrated in a later Soft Cell commentary mode, a few reveal this compilation amidst a mass 1 o 6 o

l his fourth solo album, then, he has when you have children... review in the same issue). “Good old personal thoughts on Monument of other specially-compiled (by EMI r : e O

v returned to his Celtic roots, stripping fatherhood puts things into Midge. Rick Astley could never have [EMI CDGOLD 1025], followed by for Boots) CDs. While the initial track v O e : down the pomp of yore in favour perspective. I was recording in L.A. happened without him, and... if any The Gift [EMI CDGOLD 1045]. I have listing for this album matches that of r l o 6 o

1 of a collection of largely acoustic last year and I’d come back late from Tull or Bowie fan has upset you never made any secret of my both previous issues of Dancing k e 2

c songs... it starts winningly with the the studio and Kitty would wake up recently, this would in fact make a disappointment with Monument, a with Tears in My Eyes, the b i y o

V thoroughly enchanting title track, a and that would be it, but you have to rather appropriate ‘gift’... quite wasted opportunity that ended up difference here is the addition of R o e

gentle thing in which Ure achieves an get on with it. I made a conscious frightening really.” being little more than a live EP of three tracks at the end of the album: b m K e

impressive falsetto, but thereafter, its decision give up touring when Molly greatest hits. The recently recovered One Small Day, When the Time i r r t b x attempts to appear ‘worthy’ and was born. I stopped all that to stay at uch. Where did that Rick additional tracks, in less polished Comes and The Thin Wall (single uns and Arrows [BMG/ y E ‘real’ renders it rather dull as it falls home. Now with Kitty I have the O Astley jibe come from? There (and pleasantly warmer) mixes, edit). It is worth mentioning that the G Arista 42316 2] became the between Clannad and Big Country’s luxury of having a studio at the is no way that Midge and Ultravox certainly improve this upgraded sleeve, the best of the three discussed second single to be lifted off quieter moments.” bottom of the garden. You tend to led to him, when their influence was reissue, even if both of the songs so far, actually uses a photo of Midge Breathe (04.11.96) and featured an find yourself working at night with more evidently noticeable on early were also originally singles. The identical to that from the group shot intriguing mixture of studio, live, t is left to Vox (July 1996) to the baby alarm on. Children have this Tears for Fears tracks, for example. careful restoration perfectly segues snapped for The Collection, instrumental and demo material. I provide the most concise, and amazing ability to bring out the child Ultravox and Midge had all newcomer Passing Strangers into however this isolated image of Midge Following an unusually abrupt fade- positively venomous, um... in you. It’s the best feeling... when individually worked themselves up Mine for Life, exactly as it was (on the front of an Ultravox CD, tut out to the single edit of Guns and viewpoint? Brevity is the only you hear them saying to their dolls through less successful bands and originally performed, while Visions tut) has been spliced out of the Arrows comes the demo version of comfort that we can take any what you said to them. Children are group line-ups, until they garnered in Blue alone is reason enough to original photo before it was hand- Trail of Tears, making its second pleasure from here: well worth the problems involved.” success from the fruits of their own justify the existence of this revamped tinted for the final The Collection appearance in some form as a B- hard work, and with hardly any CD, capturing the best performance I sleeve. Curious. Readers of The Times side, and this early reading of the “‘Midge Ure’s fourth solo album has promotional support and certainly no have so far heard from this period. might have glimpsed The Collection song provides an interesting behind- a simplicity that belies the long, hype. This must have really hurt the I’m certain that I will find myself sleeve inside a jukebox behind the-scenes view of how the song winding and often tortuous road that critics eager to crush the new listening to this CD a lot more than I Chrysalis co-founder Chris Wright, in later developed. Tor drifts along, led to it’, gushes the press release. Ultravox in 1980 and maybe that is ever did in the past with the original a photo attached to an article on the convincingly summoning up the Exactly? Midge’s latest album is where all this pent-up frustration 1980’s CD. front cover of section 2’s business appropriate landscapes, presumably Everest-sized arse; whimsical celt- comes from. The music press likes to pages (21.10.96). originating from that large batch of rock with fewer redeeming features mould public opinion and promote unreleased instrumentals mentioned than an all-out nuclear war.” its own winners, and Ultravox simply n a less than serious piece on in an earlier edition of EV. Another 42 succeeded without their ‘help’ – it I Midge Ure’s former band The Rich live ‘Out Alone’ tour song, Man of 43 ’ve often wondered how Midge must have been galling for the critics, Kids, Record Collector’s news section the World, closes the single as I copes with that kind of childish elaxed? Refreshed? Well don’t but delicious for us. (Issue 206, October) declared that: Midge revisits the work of spleen-venting. Perhaps he just R get too comfortable just yet, ex-Fleetwood Mac songwriter Peter ignores the press entirely... which because Melody Maker will bring you s for Rick Astley, he is “‘For the record’ scoffs at the notion Green, a performer whom he wouldn’t be a bad idea, judging by back to earth with a nasty jolt A just another victim of the that ineffective post-Pistols power- seems to have some interest in, the material we have covered in both courtesy (?) of this little gem from Stock / Aitken / Waterman indentikit poppers The Rich Kids have a secret having previously recorded The this and the previous column. their ‘Forthcoming Releases’ column production line mentality that has led history worth investigating.” Rev-ola Supernatural as an earlier B-side Anyway, while Breathe was (20.07.96): us to the current crowded top 40 lthough I have always found boss Joe Foster retorted that “You (the second on the 12” and CD to captivating the critics, EMI quietly charts of sound-alike acts. After all, if A The Gift a less balanced mix of might be surprised”, as he works on Cold, Cold Heart). slipped out both volumes of “Ultravox: Monument... a re-issued you don’t like so-called ‘Brit-pop’, material than the follow-up album a rarities compilation alongside Ultravox Rare [Chrysalis CDCHR Ultravox live album. Oh joy.” jungle or indie bands, what is left in Answers to Nothing, my list of former Rich Kid Steve New, which he day after Midge’s Autumn 6053 & 6078 respectively] again as the mainstream for you? With so favourites has risen by four courtesy should include out-takes remixed T tour passed through my part of their mid-price range, and ne to savour, particularly as many long established bands and of the extra tracks. Cerise and Robin from original 8-track tapes and neighbouring town, Stevenage Disky gained the rights to O that is the only press item I artists failing to chart in the top forty certainly deserve all the kudos they previously unissued live cuts. “The (Saturday, 16th November) – concurrently issue their own could find for this rather unique singles chart these days, is it really receive for the tastefully handled original concept for the group was providing a fleeting opportunity to (differently packaged) version of the reissue, and Midge’s The Gift reissue that surprising that the adult music repackaging of these albums for EMI considerably more avant-garde than finally meet up with Cerise and Robin Dancing with Tears in My Eyes fared no better until the following buyer has all but abandoned the Gold, and the fact that this effort can what you hear on their records”, – Midge featured, of all places, on [Disky DC 864602] compilation. belated piece appeared in issue 206 morass that is the singles chart for be applied to £6.99 CDs is even more explained Joe. “it’s more punk rock the careers page in the Mail on of Record Collector (October 1996): albums, hence the rapid growth of amazing, putting many full-priced with nods in the direction of Frank Sunday’s business supplement. The feature on rock fathers in the reissued back-catalogue albums and reissue campaigns to shame. Zappa and Ornette Coleman.” interview gets off to a decidedly poor A Mail on Sunday’s ‘You “Certainly not the kind of gift I’d compilations. I’ve no problem with start when author Gaynor Pengelly Magazine’ (16.06.96) contained a welcome, but anyone still harbouring Mark Paytress hating the early ltravox : 19 Classic Tracks his potentially fascinating release betrays a distinctive lack of charming picture of Midge doting on a bizarre passion for the triumph of Eighties music scene, but I couldn’t U [EMI CDBTS 10] was the next T has yet to surface so keep elementary research: “Next month sees the release of his “Scotland’s versatile workaholic was Katrina and the Waves song, E y x b t

r new album, Guns and Arrows. Ure, assured success in 1985 with this, his originally commissioned for a charity, r i e K 42, says: first solo project... the album offered which was easily the most accessible m b e o

R a glut of smoothly produced, of the four potential Eurovision V o y i b ‘I found school so boring that I inoffensive but heartfelt pop and representatives. We should all be c 2 e

k couldn’t wait to leave at 16. My two hits... not to mention a strange grateful that the ‘yodelling’ song 1 o 6 o

l father... sat me down with my reworking of Jethro Tull’s Living in wasn’t picked. r : e N

v brother and lectured us both on the the Past.” e O w

: importance of having a skill. He or now that’s all I have for you. s 6 F m 1 knew it was a tough world and he rom the same issue of Q 1997 holds the seeds of promise a e i

F l c didn’t want us to struggle the same magazine, many pages earlier, with the continuing EMI Gold reissue e i r o e

V way he did... I used to crawl out of the current activities of the former programme, Rage in Eden (poorly n v

e Want to hear the news

my bed at the crack of dawn and members of Magazine are mastered onto CD the first time e l m o e cycle to work (as an apprentice at the investigated in the regular ‘Where around) being the next in line there, p r e t s x National Engineering Laboratory in are they Now’ slot. Of the three with the outside possibility of some E East Kilbride) with a heavy heart. Magazine members who performed full-price releases making it onto CD as we get it? on the debut Visage album, bassist as part of the ‘EMI 100’ celebrations ‘Music was the love of my life and Barry Adamson, guitarist John before the year is out. No doubt we I played the guitar at every McGeoch and keyboard player Dave are due for some other untold opportunity, but my first job taught Formula, only John McGeoch briefly surprises too, but as to what they Then send us Stamped self–Addressed Envelopes (SAEs), or, if outside the United Kingdom, International Reply Coupons (IRCs, available from post offices) and we’ll post news updates to you, as me discipline. I soon learned that you mentions his time with Visage, in a could be...? soon as there’s something to report. As you’ve probably noticed, EV’s schedule is a little erratic due to can’t swan through life doing exactly less than glowing tribute to a our work commitments, the website and the EMI CD re-releases, so the mailers allow us to keep you as you please – there are rules and stunning early Eighties debut album: ave a good year, and all being up-to-date in the meantime. Many of you already use this free service, but we’d like to get everyone regulations... I found the work quite H well I shall provide you with involved so that you don’t miss out on any exciting developments! creative – spending my days “Did the Visage album – bit of a the next installment of the Overlook moulding pieces of metal into joke, but we all made a lot of archives in a few issues’ time. Listen Send as many SAEs or IRCs as you like, and we’ll number your envelopes (no.2 of 5, etc) so that you something useful was rather money.” and enjoy. know when they run out. Don’t forget – send them NOW! satisfying. But one day I suddenly realised there were people who had ith Ultravox no longer a Rob Kirby been working in the factory for 30 W going concern once more, CERISE AND ROBIN, EXTREME VOICE years and they still had to put in singer Sam Blue re-emerged as a All texts and sources remain the 19 SALISBURY STREET, ST GEORGE, BRISTOL BS5 8EE, ENGLAND overtime to make ends meet. I Eurovision hopeful in March 1997, copyright of the original authors wanted something better.’” reaching the final four in the Great and publications involved. British Song Contest with the n (IRC) Coupo 44 aynor goes on to explain lacklustre For the Life You Don’t Reply 45 tional G how Midge’s parents were Yet Know – haven’t I seen that Interna surprisingly supportive when he somewhere in a TV advert?! – which decided to join a band, and she goes could have done with Billy Currie to on to list some of the bands he sparkle up and develop the song’s found fame with: rather too basic arrangement. In the end the British public went with the “After twenty years in the music business Ure is keen to offer advice to other young people:

‘I would repeat (my father’s) advice – get a skill. The problem with some A. Reader musicians is that they want to be stars without doing an Some Street apprenticeship first, but if things don’t work out... they will find it Anytown difficult to go back.’” Elsewhere ome seven months later on from S The Gift being reissued, Simon BS5 8EE Barnett belatedly tackles the album in issue 125 of Q Magazine (February 1997): E d x r t o r e w m S e d e V i o d o i c o e l B 1 e n our first ‘request spot’ article (thanks to David Turner for the suggestion) we take a brief look at The Bloodied Sword, one 6 h : T

I of the most elusive Ultravox-related albums ever released. T : h 6 e 1 he album featured words written and spoken by Maxwell Langdown over a largely electronic backdrop which was B l e o c i T composed and performed by Midge and Chris. The only other musician present was Kenny Hyslop, who provided percussion o d o i V for a couple of the tracks. e d e S m w e r o t r x The Sword’s Theme d E

Sword Speaks One with Man

Gun Damnation

Propaganda Machine Threats

Seer Propaganda

The Haunting The Jester’s Theme

Warnings The Pageant

Confrontation Soliloquy

Mercy The Sword’s Theme (Part II) Alliance

Oceana’s Theme

46 nformation regarding this album is unfortunately a bit thin a play of it and get it put on in the theatre first. That’s what 47 I on the ground. However, in an interview which appeared we’d like to do anyway. in the first issue of the Ultravox Information Service (UIS), Pete UIS: Do you think it will appeal to Ultravox fans? . Gilbert and Frank Drake asked Chris Cross about his e r U

e involvement with The Bloodied Sword... g

d CC: I don’t think it’s going to appeal to anyone (laughs). i M f

o UIS: With Midge and Billy involved in Visage and Warren in No, I think the people who like Ultravox will probably find it y s e t r Helden, you seem to be the only member of Ultravox who isn’t interesting, it’s not a commercial project as such but it could u o c involved in an outside musical project? d

e become immensely popular, but it won’t be on Top of the c u d o r CC: Well, me and Midge have done that Bloodied Sword Pops. It could easily be on Arena or something like that p e R

. thing, that is completed in fact... though, on BBC2. e r U e g d i UIS: What is The Bloodied Sword exactly? he album was recorded at three London Studios: M d

n T a CC: It’s incredibly difficult to describe, the nearest thing Rockstar (1979-1980), Trident (1980-1981) and finally n w

o Mayfair (1981-1983) where it was mixed by John Hudson. d you can compare it to, is ‘Modern Shakespeare’ with g n a

L electronic backing. l l

e he Bloodied Sword received a limited release back in w x a UIS: Is it verbal? T M 1983 but only on vinyl and cassette, and as yet hasn’t , s s o r made the transition onto compact disc. However, as we C CC: Yes it’s spoken and the speaker is a bloke called Max s i r

h mentioned in the Gold Mine article (pages 8 through 12)

C Langdown, he does all the narration and there must be a y b

s dozen parts. There’s like midget clowns in it, there’s a juggler, we’re hoping that EMI Gold will consider making it available o t o h

P a fire-eater, a sword that speaks, a gun... we’ll probably make once again. As ever, watch this space... m u b l a t u b e d K U : n o r T : 6 1 e c i o V e m e r t x

E syndicate

48

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