![]() ![]() ![]() Influenced by the 1949 movie The Third Man (which takes place in Vienna), it was mostly shot in London, primarily at Covent Garden. I don't recall seeing the video on my favorite video music channel, but it is quite strong, especially for an early clip. However, they made barely a ripple in the U.S., where only one album broke the top 100, and no singles reached the top 40. The revitalized Ultravox would go on the have significant success in the 1980s in the UK, with 5 top 10 LPs and 16 top 40 singles, led by "Vienna," which hit #2 on the UK charts. Foxx left in '79 to start a solo career, and was replaced by Midge Ure, who pushed the band's sound in a lush, artistic direction. From the early days until 1979, Ultravox was led by John Foxx, and had an artsy synth-rock sound (to my ear, the sound is in the same genre as Devo). The name was changed to Ultravox! when the act signed with Island Records in 1976, and the ! was dropped a few years later.įor all practical purposes, there were two versions of the band. The group formed in London in 1973, and was originally called Tiger Lilly. Billy Currie’s album, Doppel, is out now.Huge in the UK and Europe and relatively unknown in the U.S., Ultravox were an influential band that helped lay the foundation for synth pop. ![]() We were denied the top spot by the novelty hit Shaddap You Face. It went straight from the chorus to the violin solo. I was surprised it was a hit because it was long – when we went on Top of the Pops, we had to cut it. I was proud of it and couldn’t bear the thought of it being passed over. Others seemed just as likely to chart, such as Mr X.īut I wanted to release it. But when we heard the final mix, we didn’t think we had a hit. This was the start of a new decade and people were receptive – though, obviously, there were a few punks shouting at us. The crowd thought we were on to something new. And Conny Plank, our producer, replied: “Well, sing that then.”Įven though there was no middle section at that point, we performed it at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. Midge felt a little uncomfortable, because he’d only just joined and thought we were being arty-farty. That was why I did a violin solo that was overly vibrato and romantic. He’d tried too hard to be successful and deliberately overdid it. We’d been listening to music by this old German composer called Max Reger. Midge stood at the mic and came up with the lyrics almost straightaway: “Walked in the cold air, freezing breath on the window pane …” We were denied the No 1 spot by the novelty hit Shaddup You Face Billy Currie We were extremely arrogant back then and probably too prog-rocky. I said to the guys I was keen to do something that sounded like the late-19th-century romantics, like Grieg and Elgar. Ultravox had just hooked up with Midge Ure, who’d replaced John Foxx, and I wanted to use my classical training. Everyone wanted us to write a track called Berlin or Paris. Then, the moment it became huge, the pressure on us to surpass it with a follow-up was incredible. It was too slow, too long and there was a violin solo – the antithesis of a commercial single. It was about £300, which was a substantial amount of money for someone who normally only bought stuff from Save the Children. The only thing that cost money was the Burberry raincoat, because I’d always wanted one. Everything I wore in the video was from thrift shops. Then you go back to your cold, grey, miserable life in Chiswick. In such a crumbling environment, you could easily fall in love. Why Vienna? There was a decaying elegance about it. You’ve gone to this beautiful place, met someone and vowed it is going to continue – and, of course, it doesn’t. Vienna was a love song to an imaginary girl. Everything I wore in the video was from thrift shops Midge UreĪ lot of what Ultravox did back in the day was soundbites. I remember going into the studio with just a line in my head: “The feeling is gone, this means nothing to me – oh Vienna!” That was all I had. The cinematic aspect was high on our agenda: every track was for a movie that didn’t exist. The song had the feel of a haunting mid-European classic, thanks to our keyboard player Billy Currie’s classical training.
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