Back in 1981, the second and most successful incarnation of Ultravox released their seminal single Vienna to critical acclaim.   This rather moody and epic electronic ballad was set to provide the band consisting of Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann with the ultimate acclaim of public approval.  Alas it was not to be.



For Australian comedian & singer/songwriter Joe Dolce just happened to release faux Italian singalong Shaddup You Face at just the right moment and a wave of public insanity carried this tune to the top slot, forever banishing Ultravox to the number 2 slot and a lifetime of painful jokes for the Ultravox faithful.  The band never did get the top slot despite coming close on a couple of occasions.



Now, nearly 30 years later, buoyed by the successful Facebook campaign that saw Simon Cowell's dominance over the Xmas number one slot broken in favour of Rage Against The Machine, a group of Ultravox fans have started a new campaign to right a wrong and attempt to give Ultravox the number one they deserved and were so cruelly denied.  With support from the likes of Jonathon Ross who has proclaimed support for the campaign on Twitter, momentum is building with even STV news getting in on the act...



The target date is 4th April 2010, with downloads commencing on 29th March 2010 of the remastered single edit of Vienna from the band's latest and remastered Greatest Hits compilation.

Link for the track on Amazon.co.uk is here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vienna-2009-Digital-Remaster/dp/B001YJFLGY

iTunes link is here: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/vienna-single-version/id308567514?i=308567518

As befits this attempt and in the spirit of providing a proper chart race, a rival group to place the Joe Dolce track back to number one in the same week has also started, with presence from Joe Dolce himself.  This could lead to the biggest chart race since Oasis/Blur back in the mid-90's (tongue firmly in cheek...).  Anyway, forget the novelty track and suck in your cheeks and be pretentious for a week, you know you want to. 

This means nothing to me...



Links:

Official Ultravox website: http://www.ultravox.org.uk/

The two main Facebook groups can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=90410227602

and

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=252019663097

Posted by Si Wooldridge

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It's been a long time since the last blog entry, I didn't realise just how dedicated you need to be in order to keep the level of entries up.  Still, thought I'd try and reboot it in the grand tradition of Hollywood blockbusters and this is my first attempt.  I've decided to try and put up regular pieces that reflect my musical taste so there'll be a mix of things appearing here but I'm also looking to include pieces on not-so-well-known bands that I actually think are quite good and I really couldn't have asked for a better band as a starting point.

I've known Kirlian Blue in a virtual sense for a number of years now and happen to love the musical output of his partnership with Rocky Goode, I'm amazed that they haven't received more mainstream attention so far, particularly last year which turned out to be the year of the synth.

Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, I give you...

The Thought Criminals

Back in 2004 two very different but equally bizarre individuals set off to an Industrial Club in South London. Sadly the night was cancelled but all was not wasted as Rocky Goode and Kirlian Blue bumped into each other by chance and got talking. Kirlian, without any hesitation, asked Rocky if he would be willing to help start a band as a vocalist. After several discussions and months drifting by, The Thought Criminals were born - influenced by alternative dance, dark electronic music from the early 80’s and New Wave. This mesh of influences can be heard on early demos such as Revenge where an Ultravox/John Foxx sound can be detected or on Date Rape Lovers where a Soft Cell/Gary Numan fusion can clearly be heard.

The first gig performed by this fledging electro band was in a backstreet pub near New Cross in South London. For The Thought Criminals this was make or break, and of course in best musical tradition, Rocky and Kirlian hadn’t even rehearsed. The first four songs brought no response from the crowd and things were beginning to look bleak. Then something fused, everyone was suddenly up and dancing and there was a sound in the crowd. As an event, this was more than a little bizarre as very few, if any, two-piece electronic outfits in South London were attempting to play to Metal/Rock crowds, but the attitude of Rocky and Kirlian prevailed.



The Thought Criminals, with their demos of Electricity, Cyberslut (a huge live favourite), Date Rape Lovers and Revenge, started to appear on club compilations and compilation albums in the UK, Japan and North America. There was clear appeal for The Thought Criminals sound, with its mix of rather tongue in cheek sleazy lyrics and alternative dance beats and breaks fused with dark industrial and early 80’s electronic melodies that were ground up and bastardised into something so hook-laden that listeners just could not get the songs out of their heads.

2006 saw the recording of The Thought Criminals debut album and the band were on the prowl for a label to unleash their mainfesto onto an unsuspecting public. Sadly, despite massive effort on the bands part, they met a muted response, got fed up with the whole thing and instead self-released a digital single called I Want To Be A Celebrity. This move brought the band enough interest for The Thought Criminals to be offered a deal by some dubious record label owner. The band was already playing the likes of the Brixton Mass and headlining legendary venues such as The 333 Club, The Hope and Anchor and The Dublin Castle as well as several University Student Unions; this without any manager, press or radio play in the UK.



With this exposure, the fan base grew quite rapidly although unfortunately the deal with said dubious record label turned sour just after the band had built up a following big enough to headline the Underworld in Camden and self promote the event. Around this time, The Thought Criminals released Suicide Bomber as their second Digital Single, a highly topical and catchy track if more than a little tongue in cheek lyrically, which to this day is one of the most notorious under-the-radar songs released.

By 2008 The Thought Criminals had put themselves about a bit, playing in Ireland and Sweden amongst other places. During this year Rocky and Kirlian decided to head back to their more electronic roots and said goodbye to their live guitarists at the Brixton Mass. Then things started to look up a little more as WTII Records (formally known as WAX TRAX!) asked if the band would be willing to release Die Young: Stay Pretty through them and by November 2008 it was being distributed across America and getting positive reviews whilst also picking up a lot of airplay.



By this time Rocky and Kirlian decided to enlist another keyboardist as they didn’t want to look like a bastardised version Pet Shop Boys, like they did when they started. And so new member Enigma joined The Thought Criminals in 2009 with the band headlining a sell out gig at London’s Fetish/Industrial Club with a capacity of 1300.

The Thought Criminals are currently working on their second album entitled You’re A Moral Liability.

Read my review of their debut album here: http://www.myreviewer.com/default/a106219/Die_Young_Stay_Pretty_Review

Buy the album here: http://www.wtiirecords.com/releases/release.php?id=wtii051 or as an mp3 album from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Die-Young-Stay-Pretty/dp/B002GGDRB0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1263471418&sr=8-1

Posted by Si Wooldridge

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Well, it’s been a while since I put a blog up and I was wondering when I’d have something of significance to say. Never in my wildest dreams did I suspect I’d be in a position to shout about the following:

Ultravox are reforming to tour the UK in April 2009.



Yes, you heard it correctly. Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann from one of the most underrated and brilliant bands of the 80’s have all decided to bury the hatchets, but not in each other, and set off on tour in assocation with Live Nation. This will be the first time that this lineup have performed on stage together since Live Aid way back in 1985.

There have been a few viral releases on youTube over the last month or so that have sent Ultravox fans into a bit of a frenzy of speculation. Gems such as:



and



Ah, the teasing gits. Just kidding, boys…

Before I go any further, I should mention that the source of all things Ultravox are the Extreme Voice crew who can be found at http://www.ultravox.org.uk There’s an active forum for all like-minded fans as well as a lot of material on the band including fanzines. I should also point out that EV were also instrumental in all of the major Ultravox (both line-ups), Midge Ure and John Foxx re-issued releases, involvement including the graphic design of all these releases.

Cerise Reed, who has been at the hub of Extreme Voice for longer than anyone can remember, is a professional graphic designer and her site can be found here: http://www.aardvark-creative.com

The original press release of the tour info can be found here: http://www.ultravox.org.uk/tour-dates.shtml

The full list of dates is here:
APRIL 2009
10 Edinburgh Playhouse
(0870 228 1155)
18-22 Greenside Place, Edinburgh, Scotland EH1 3AA
11 Glasgow Clyde
(0870 040 4000)
Finnieston Street, Glasgow, Scotland G3 8YW
13 Newcastle City Hall
(0191 261 2606)
Northumberland Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 8SF
14 Manchester Apollo
(0844 477 7677)
Stockport Road, Manchester, Lancashire M12 6AP
15 Sheffield City Hall
(0114 278 9789)
Barkers Pool, Sheffield S1 2JA
17 Birmingham Symphony Hall
(0121 780 3333)
Broad Street, Birmingham B1 2EA
18 Bristol Colston Hall
(0117 922 3686)
Colston Street, Bristol BS1 5AR
20 Cardiff St. David's Hall
(0292 087 8444)
The Hayes, Cardiff, Wales CF10 1AH
21 Nottingham Royal Theatre
(0115 989 5555)
Theatre Square, Nottingham NG1 5ND
23 Brighton Dome
(0127 370 9709)
29 New Road, Brighton, East Sussex BN1 1UG
24 London Hammersmith Apollo
(0844 844 4748)
45 Queen Caroline Street, London W6 9QH
26 Bournemouth International Centre
(0844 576 3000)
Exeter Road, Bournemouth BH2 5BH
27 Plymouth Pavillion
(0845 146 1460)
Millbay Road, Plymouth PL1 3LF
28 Portsmouth Guildhall
(0239 282 4355)
Guildhall Square, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO1 2AB

Tickets will be available from Wednesday 12th November via Live Nation: http://www.livenation.co.uk/ultravox and a ¼ page advert will also appear in The Guardian Guide on that same day.

I personally never believed that this day would come and am frankly stunned and overjoyed, so as a final treat here’s Ultravox in their prime playing arguably their best live track, The Voice, complete with major drumming by all the band at the end:



Posted by Si Wooldridge

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