Ultravox
City HallNewcastle
Upon Tyne, England
04/13/2009,
By Ian Routledge
Setlist : Astrodyne, Reap The Wild Wind, Passing Strangers, We
Stand Alone, Mr X, Visions In Blue, Thin Wall, I Remember, Rage
In Eden, Lament, One Small Day, All Stood Still,
Your Name Has Slipped My Mind Again, Vienna, Dancing With Tears
In My Eyes.
Encores: Sleepwalk, The Voice
It was while working with Ultravox on their third studio album
Quartet, in 1982, that former Beatles producer, Sir George
Martin described Ultravox as one of the "most musical bands I
have ever worked with". Praise indeed.
Ultravox are a British New Wave band originally formed in1973.
However, they only came to real prominence in the early to mid
80's with the line-up of Midge Ure (vocals/lead
guitar/keyboards), Billy Currie (keyboards/violins), Chris Cross
(bass guitar/keyboards) and Warren Cann (drums).
With Ure as the frontman, the band was directed to a more pop
and electronic sound and commercial success followed, having 4
top ten albums in as many years. That was of course until
certain events of late 1984 and into 1985 intervened. Ultravox
where due to play a live TV show in Newcastle by coincidence.
During rehearsals Ure was handed a telephone by the late Paula
Yates, then wife of (Sir) Bob Geldorf. Geldof, who proceeded,
recalls Ure, "to rant on about the Michael Buerk news report on
the Ethiopian famine," and so began the Band Aid/Live Aid
bandwagon. By his own admission, Ure has stated that this had a
detrimental effect on the band, so much so it was never to
recover. Although they recorded one more studio album, they
never played together live on stage again after their Live Aid
performance in 1985, eventually splitting in 1988.
So, we leap ahead 20 years. After discussing the possibility of
a re-union (we are told via email and Skype), all four members
of the most successful incarnation of the band decided to give
it one more go.
The set opened with the haunting Astrodyne, an instrumental from
the 1980 album Vienna, then Reap The Wild Wind and Passing
Strangers. The set was turning out to be a greatest hits
ensemble, which of course had to be the case, as there is no new
album to promote this time around! I was glad to see the
inclusion of One Small Day, a track which allows Ure to show his
virtuosity on guitar, which of course is no surprise, as he once
replaced Gary Moore in Thin Lizzy in 1979. The band has the
ability to change from a 4 man synth setup, to a brilliant
electric rock setup. Saving their biggest hits until last, the
band and audience were now on fire. The brilliant Vienna, Hymn,
and to close the main set, Dancing with Tears in Their Eyes.
Obviously not having done this for some time, they forgot you
have to keep the audience waiting a short while before
reappearing to do your encore, swiftly back on stage for
Sleepwalk and The Voice (with the 4 man drum solo) to finish.
Speaking to a national newspaper, Midge Ure revealed that the
reunion is only a one-off, and during the set he stated that
when they got together the band weren't sure it would work. I
think all that attended would agree, despite the shirt Mr Ure,
it worked very well, and rather than just a one-off, long may it
continue.
