Ultravox | |
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.jpg) Ultravox at the end of a concert in Berlin in 2012 (l-r): Warren Cann, Chris Cross, Midge Ure, Billy Currie | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as |
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| Origin | London, England |
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| Years active |
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| Labels | |
| Spinoffs | Visage |
| Past members |
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| Website | www |
Ultravox (earlier styled as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was their 1981 hit "Vienna".
From 1974 until 1979, singer John Foxx was frontman and the main driving force behind Ultravox. Foxx left the band in March 1979 to embark on a solo career. Midge Ure officially took over as lead singer, guitarist and frontman on 1 November 1979 (despite writing and rehearsing with the band from April of that year) after he and keyboardist Billy Currie worked on the studio project Visage. Ure revitalised the band and steered it to commercial chart success lasting until 1987, at which time the group disbanded.
A new line-up, led by Currie, was formed in 1992, but achieved limited success with two albums failing to chart and one solitary single reaching 90 in the UK chart. The band's best-known line-up of Currie, Ure, bassist Chris Cross and drummer Warren Cann re-formed in 2008 and performed a series of shows in 2009 and 2010 before releasing a new studio album, Brill!ant, in May 2012 which reached 21 in the British Album Charts. In November 2013, Ultravox performed as special guests on a four-date UK arena tour with Simple Minds. These shows proved to be Ultravox's last, as in 2017 both Currie and Ure indicated that Ultravox had run its course.