Visage (band)
Visage | |
|---|---|
| Origin | London, England |
| Years active | 1978–1984 |
Visage was a New Romantic ensemble that began life in 1978 , mainly to provide some danceable music to be played on Steve Strange's and Rusty Egan's Billy's London nightclub.
History
Initially, the ensemble was comprised of Steve Strange, Rusty Egan and Midge Ure. Ure and Egan began working with Steve Strange after the demise of their power pop band "Rich Kids". The trio recorded a demo which included a cover of the Zager and Evans hit "In the Year 2525". Ultravox's multi-instrumentalist Billy Currie, and the core of post-punk band Magazine — bassist Barry Adamson, guitarist John McGeoch, and keyboardist Dave Formula joined the studio-only ensemble later. Visage signed to Radar Records and released their first single, "Tar" in September 1979.
The following year saw the release of their self-titled debut album, which sold extremely well and raised the ensemble's popularity mainly because of the single "Fade to Grey" which quickly became a huge club hit, went to number one in twenty one countries and marked an imminent commercial breakthrough for electronic music and the whole New Romantic movement, for which the first Visage album became as kind of a soundtrack.
After the Top 40 hits, "Mind of a Toy" and "Visage" Strange struggled to reunite the ensemble again to record the second album because of their success with their respective bands (Ure and Currie with Ultravox, Formula and Adamson in Magazine and McGeoch in Siouxsie and the Banshees); but in fall of 1981 all musicians sans McGeoch went to the studio again and recorded "The Anvil". Those album sessions had Strange and Ure debating on which musical direction the album would focus on, which resulted in a excellent, but somewhat fractured album. This album was met with less fanfare than their first outing. Their final album "Beat Boy" was released after Ure, Formula and Currie left the ensemble, and was a very disappointing record both in sales and critics.
A remix of "Fade to Grey" was a UK Top 40 hit during the early 1990s, and Visage performed on the "Here and Now Xmas Tour" —a revival of 1980s musicians — in 2002.
Steve Strange has relaunched the band in a new incarnation for the new millennia. Joining Steve in the band are Steven Young, Sandrine Gouriou and Rosie Harris from Seize and Ross Tregenza from The Radio Stars / Goteki. As well as reworking old material, the new band has working on new demos and remixing for the likes of Kelly Osbourne. A new remix of "Fade to Grey" was released by the Dutch jungle group Noisia.
2006 saw the release of a long-deleted "Best Of DVD" from Universal Records. Visage are currently in the studio working on new material.
Discography
Albums
Singles and EPs
- "Tar" (1980) UK - did not chart
- "Fade To Grey" (Feb 1981) UK#8
- "Mind Of A Toy" (Mar 1981) UK#13
- "Visage" (Jul 1981) UK#21
- "The Damned Don't Cry" (Mar 1982) UK#11
- "Night Train" (Jun 1982) UK#12
- "Pleasure Boys" (1983) UK#44
- "Love Glove" (1984) UK#54
- "Beat Boy" (1984) - did not chart
- "Fade To Grey (remix)" (Aug 1993) UK#39