Fan from the very beginning: Theo de Kok
Can you tell me why you find Vienna such a beautiful song? Could you describe it in a few words? Oh, I’d be happy to do that, just give me a moment…
Well, I had to take that moment…
Why did that song grab me immediately when I first heard it, probably on Toppop, accompanied by the images? Mysterious, in black and white, with wisps of mist, a beautiful woman on a staircase. A man with a small moustache, Midge, was that you?
Do I even remember the video clip correctly? And why am I now telling so much more – actually only – about the video clip and not about the music itself? Is the song, on closer inspection, actually less good than the combination? And why so many sentences with question marks? Here’s another one…
Research has been done into what makes good music. Into what is easy on the ear and therefore appeals to children, and into what is much more complex, with tempo changes and layered (whatever that may mean) and thus only accessible to a smaller audience. Up to music that almost no one understands anymore*. You can completely analyse how to write the perfect hit, if you wanted to. Would it then be as beautiful as the music of Ultravox? I dare to doubt it. If you were to place those sensors on my head to measure my brain activity, what would your device detect when I listen to Vienna? Should you want to analyse it like that, should I do that? Or should I just surrender to the melancholy that still overwhelms me and has done so since the very first time I heard the intro. No question mark at the end of this sentence, which is phrased as a question, so I’ve made up my mind! Vienna is and remains simply one of the most beautiful songs from the early eighties!
Why exactly? Who cares! Quick, listen again, and watch. Hey, a horse! Colour after all? Oh yes, that bird spider. Is it a dream, it must be. Am I actually awake or forever stuck in the musings of my long-gone youth, somewhere at a hazy party in Vienna, in black and white and yet also in colour, apparently…
* Sunn O))) provides great examples of this, listen!
Ultravox
Ultravox was founded in 1974 by singer John Foxx under the original band name Tiger Lily. The English group, besides John Foxx, consisted of Billy Currie (keyboards/violin), Chris Cross (bass), Warren Cann (drums) and Stevie Shears (guitar). In 1976 the name was changed to Ultravox! The electronic music, rooted in punk, initially sounded a bit strange to the English audience, but was exactly what they were waiting for.
The punk with screeching guitars – popular in the mid-70s – was combined by Ultravox! with synthesizers, creating a new sound. This would herald a new era, namely the so-called New Romantics or Blitz movement, which reached its peak in 1980. Other groups from the period with that sound include Soft Cell, Human League and Duran Duran.
In 1980 a new contract was signed with Chrysalis. A new singer was recruited: Midge Ure. Midge had already been in several bands and was briefly the singer of Thin Lizzy in 1979. From this time things went uphill as the first album with Midge Ure was Vienna, with the eponymous single 'Vienna' that made the group world-famous.
Ultravox started a "reunion tour" in 2009, of which the concert on 30 April 2009 at the London Roundhouse was recorded for DVD. This was released in early April 2010, ahead of the "second leg" of the reunion tour. On Saturday 8 August 2009 the reunion tour brought them to the Lokerse Feesten in the lineup with which the album Vienna was recorded; on Monday 26 April 2010 Ultravox played at Paradiso (Amsterdam).
On 28 May 2012 the most recent album by Ultravox was released, called "Brilliant".
Top 2000
Ultravox is of course in the Top 2000 with two songs in 2019:
· 419 - Vienna
· 1681 - Dancing With Tears In My Eyes
Sunday Morning Classic: Vienna
On 1 November 2020 Ultravox was a guest as Sunday Morning Classic at De Platenbar with their album Vienna.
Vienna was the fourth studio album by the British band Ultravox and marked a complete turnaround for them. Vienna, released in 1980, was the first LP they recorded after their former frontman, John Foxx, left the band to pursue a solo career and was replaced by Midge Ure.
Vienna is an album of great beauty that manages to be both cold-blooded and fierce at the same time. It is dominated by synthesizer and bass, and the music works together with the lyrics to create an overall feeling of paranoia.
The atmosphere continues and builds up to the dramatic climax of the penultimate track, the brilliant title track "Vienna". Ure has said that the band wanted to make a song that was quiet and "sparse", with a middle that was "incredibly pompous", and then give it an "over-the-top classical ending". Could be. He originally claimed the song was inspired by the British murder mystery The Third Man from 1949, and later said he had completely made that up, so who knows? In any case, the song became a number 2 single in the UK and New Zealand, reached number 1 in Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands, and is widely regarded as one of the defining songs of the British synthpop era of the 1980s.
Vienna dominates the LP, but there is also a track like Mr. X in which traditional synthpop is perfectly combined with the Kraftwerk sound. The song evokes strange, even anxious feelings. Mr. X was recorded in German (Herr X) as the B-side for the German release of the single Vienna.
Western Promise has paranoid electronic sounds, until Vienna begins. You may have heard the song a thousand times, but it is still brilliant. Vienna was a worldwide hit and the LP was a bestseller. However, this album became a phenomenal milestone because of the unforgettable (innovative) synthpop tracks like Passionate Reply or Private Lives.
I love Vienna because of its pervasive unsettling atmosphere and because of the consistently high quality of its songs.
Vienna is a timeless classic that belongs in every record collection, and it is without doubt one of the best synthpop records ever made.
source: Jan Liebregts, NPO and Wikipedia photo: LP cover Vienna and Grace Kelly for Wikimedia
