| Ultravox Presentation - Ultravox:
No Error in the Era
September 2008
Introduction
I’ve been asked to talk about
the band Ultravox. Since this is a paper on the Social History of
Popular Music I thought I’d look at things from that perspective,
in view of the generation, the feelings of the time, rather than
strictly the band itself. I’ll dig into the song Vienna’s
actual lyrics and see what can be made of it.
While the band didn’t release
their debut (self titled) album until 1977, after signing with Island
Records, they had been around, in one form or another since 1973
– where they were originally known as Tiger Lily. Like most
bands, band members came and went formed new bands or otherwise
went solo, or where never to be heard from again.
The All Music Guide to Electronica
tells us the band formed in London, England, 1974. (2001: 533) To
emphasis its break from the punk style…
“Rejecting the abrasive guitars
of their punk-era contemporaries in favor of lushly romantic synthesizers,
Ultravox emerged as one of the primary influences on the British
electro-pop movement of the early ‘80s.”
Difficulty in the early days is spelled
out in the Guide:
“Their obvious affection for
the glam rock sound of David Bowie and Roxy Music brought them little
respect from audiences caught up in the growing fervor of punk.”
The Band
* lead by vocalist /keyboardist John
Foxx (born Dennis Leigh)
* bassist Chris Cross
* keyboardist / violinist Billy Currie
* guitarist Steve Shears
* drummer Warren Cann
Shears left the group after minimal
initial success. He was replaced by guitarist Robin Simon.
Ure and Currie had been part of the
band Visage, which was did a cover of Zager & Evans’ “In
the Year 2525”. In 1980, the band’s self-titled album
featured the hit “Fade to Grey”. (2001: 547)
Foxx left the band after three albums, in 1979. John Bush records
that he read the manifesto’s of the Futurist at age 9. He
had no interest in the 1980s music scene and more or less disappeared
into obscurity. (2001: 190)
An ongoing lack of success lead to
Island dropping the band, and Foxx and Simon left as well.
Singer / Guitarist Midge Ure joined the band, upon where they signed
to Chrysalis and things started to take off…
Ure co-wrote the Band Aid charity single
“Do They Know It’s Christmas”
Evidently they don’t because
the UN is currently looking into declaring another crisis of similar
proportions in Ethiopia – some twenty years later.
John Bush on the album Systems
of Romance (1978)
“[was] truly influential on the
host of new romantic bands that followed in its wake. […]
the album divides into a rock-heavy first side and a snyth-heavy
second.”
Vienna came out two years
later.
Despite “All Stood Still”,
“Passing Strangers” and “Sleepwalk” all
being UK hits, the band continued to struggle breaking into the
US market.
Success is similarly up and down but
the group’s influence on the genre can’t be denied.
No one from the era can fail to recognise the single Vienna to this
day.
Released by Chrysalis Records on 15
January 1981 [from Ultravox – The Collection] CD Cover.
Was in the singles charts for 14 weeks
[Ultravox – The Story Warren Cann interviewed by Jonas Wårstad
– downloaded from the official site in .pdf format 14 August
2008] Was kept from the No. 1 spot by a re-release of a John Lennon
single after his recent death.
Received the “Best British Single
of the Year” award.
Vienna single: “Vienna”
was in the singles charts for fourteen weeks. It hung at
the number two position for longer than I care to remember, being
kept from the
number one position primarily due to the re-release of a John Lennon
song after his
recent death. It was incredibly frustrating. Then, during that last
week, we heard from
an industry insider that John’s record had finally slipped.
We thought, “At last, we have
a chance!” And, out of bloody nowhere, comes one-hit wonder
Joe bloody Dolce.
Months later, we were in Australia
touring when we were told that we’d won the
“Best British Single of the Year” award for “Vienna.”
We were very proud of that, and it
went some considerable way towards making up for never having gotten
to Number
One.
p.45 [Ultravox – The Story Warren
Cann interviewed by Jonas Wårstad – downloaded from
the official site in .pdf format 14 August 2008]
While it hit #2 on the charts here
in New Zealand and the UK, it got to #1 in The Netherlands, Belgium
and Ireland. In Australia it only managed to reach #11 so that has
to say something about the differences in taste regarding the trans-Tasman
rivals.
Vienna Life
http://www.vienna-life.com/vienna/ultravox
“Vienna was one of the biggest
global hits of the 1980’s - cruelly kept from the UK top-spot
by dastardly Joe Dolce and his one-hit wonder ‘Shaddap you
Face’ (a painful blow to bear for Midge and his musketeers).
But posterity has favoured Ultravox, and even as early as 1981,
‘Vienna’ was voted British single of the year. Then
there was the video, with it’s fantastically weird ballroom
shenanigans - the vampiric femmes fatales, the mischievous tarantulas,
and Monsieur Midge wandering about with his tuxedo and flaming side-burns,
every inch the fin-de-siecle poet.”
Desire to prove that the era was not
just a bunch of crazies jumping around on stage, with very little
to say of an worth.
“The Lebanon” (1984)
This track from the Human League
is no less relevant today than it was over twenty years ago when
it was recorded. The mid-year 2006 conflict between Israeli Defence
Forces and the Hezbollah make this very clear.But if you want a
timeless example of what was happening in the minds of young people,
you couldn’t possibly go past Nik Kershaw’s:
“The Riddle” This track
is known by most, if not by name, by the sound, and is still frequently
played over Mall PA systems. A lesser known track, but more blatent
in the title, by the same artist is:
“Don Quixote.”
A Spanish novel from the 1600s, it
follows the goings on of a man who believes himself a knight, in
order to escape a monotonous life, who attacks windmills believing
them to be giants, and mobs of sheep, which he things are armies.
The sort of pushes that went on for
this new form of music as entertainment can be exemplified by Simon
Garfield’s comments on Bob Grace, the publisher who worked
for Chrysalis Music (Ultravox), who “signed David Bowie,
Supertramp, Joan Armatrading, Nik Kershaw and even Squeeze and Dire
Straits on the same night.” (1986: 67)
If you want a classic Kiwi example
of the music and the themes, it can be got from the aptly titled
‘79 – ‘85 album from Mi-Sex which features tunes
like “People” - talking of “carbon copy people”
and a crowded world, lying, a machine, and “genetic engineering”,
statements well ahead of the fear of the technology in the 90s and
2ks.
“Computer Games”. The theme
of the music is most blatant, and even vocals press home the growing
influence of technology on society – the computer screen filled
with vibrant colours, like the hear and clothes of the New Romantics.
The Era
We saw in last week’s video screening
how the late 70s, post Vietnam War, early 80s was looking for something
new. Generations want identity, the peace and love was fading quickly.
The depressing atmosphere of war was receding.
“Because of the changes
in print technology, colour pictures were now appearing in daily
newspapers. While punk had been the perfect imagery for the days
of black & white, editors were now looking for colour.”
(Napier-Bell 2002: 255)
“When Margaret Thatcher had
become Prime Minister, she’d promised we would ‘escape
from the drab seventies and enter a vibrant new decade’.”
(Napier-Bell 2002: 255) The author cites the marriage of Prince
Charles and Lady Diana as an example of Hollywood romance, and the
Walkman as a form of escapism, the iPod does the same thing today…
but Napier-Bell declares that New Romantics and the appearance of
glaring fashion was the most influential. (2002: 256)
There were, of course, things to buck
this new trend, like the Falklands War, where, New Zealand’s
own Split Enz song, “Six Months in a Leaky Boat” was
banded on UK radio, after the sinking of the HMS Sheffield.
Vienna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_(Ultravox_song)
[Accessed 12 August 2008]
“The song takes inspiration from the 1948 film The Third Man,
which is based around the Austrian capital Vienna.
The single was re-released by Chrysalis
in 1993 in the UK to promote a Midge Ure/Ultravox greatest hits
compilation and peaked at #13 in the UK charts. It remains to this
date Ultravox’s signature song, being their most commercially
successful release and is often performed live by Midge Ure on solo
performances.”According to Wikipedia (that oh so reliable
academic source) Vienna has been covered by no less than five bands
– the only one I am familiar with is Clawfinger.
The song was inspired by Carol Reed’s
film The Third Man.
The song was produced by Conny Plank,
a “German Electro wizard” according to songfacts.com
[Accessed: 12 August 2008] One of the cited reasons it was kept
from the UK charts No.1 spot was Joe Dolce’s one hit wonder
“Shaddap You Face” which still gives me nightmares.
Lyrics
Vienna
We walked in the cold air -
Freezing breath on the window pain
Lying waiting
A man in the dark in the picture frame
So mystic and soulful.
A voice reaching out and a piercing
cry
It stays with you until
The feeling is gone
only you and I
This means nothing to me
This means nothing to me
Oh Vienna -
The music is weaving -
Haunting notes pizzicato strings
The rhythm is calling
Alone in the night as the daylight brings a cool empty silence
The warmth of your hand and a cold grey sky
It fades to the distance.
The image is gone
only you and I
This means nothing to me
This means nothing to me
Oh Vienna -
This means nothing to me
This means nothing to me
Oh Vienna.
>>> PLAY “VIENNA” VIDEO
Conclusion
If we take the time to journey back
every now and then, and make the effort, even those bands which
have faded into relative obscurity can tell us something of a certain
time and place. And, as I’ve shown, can teach us a lot about
our present and possible future. The New Romantics, harnessing new
technology, created a new sound, but also told of a confusing time,
the Cold War and a lack of clarity in the world.
By Leon T. Harrison for MDIA 305, Victoria
University, Wellington
Bibliography
Bogdanov, V. (ed. et al.) (2001) All
Music Guide to Electronica: The Definitive Guide to Electronic Music
San Francisco: Backbeat Books
Garfield, S. (1986) Expensive Habits:
The Dark Side of the Music Industry London: Faber & Faber
Napier-Bell, S. (2002) Black Vinyl
White Powder London: Ebury Press
Overbury, S. (2007) Guns, Cash
and Rock ‘N’ Roll: The Managers Edinburgh: Mainstream
Publishing Company
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