Ultravox – Still Raging in Eden

Last Thursday Mrs H3 and I went to the Roundhouse at Camden along with thousands of others to see the Rage in Eden reunion concert by the mighty Ultravox. This was a new venue for us, but a good one – the sound was pretty excellent for the most part – although deteriorated a bit once out of the domed area. The view left a little to be desired, although this of course was due as ever to my height and my desire to breathe rather than force my way to the front of the room.

The audience had an interesting demographic. Something like ninety five percent was male and aged between thirty five and fifty and most of those were pretty tall. I don’t think I spotted more than about three people under the age of twenty all evening - and they were with their parents.

Ultravox emerged amid billowing dry ice playing the hugely atmospheric instrumental track Astradyne, which they then followed up with a run through of their greatest hits across all their albums including a blistering version of Visions in Blue and other such classics as One Small Day, Dancing With Tears In My Eyes, The Voice, The Thin Wall, Hymn, All Stood Still and of course the eternally breathtaking Vienna.

The twenty three years since they had last performed live disappeared within seconds as the band, clearly thoroughly enjoying what they were doing, got the crowd dancing and singing along to their songs and Billy Currie’s violin solos were, as they had always been, major crowd pleasers.
At the end of the encore Midge, Billy and Chris joined Warren on drums and created a rousing anthem to end the show with flair.

For me, the band sounded as good as they did twenty three years ago, with Midge’s vocals still as strong as they’d ever been and I will admit that several times during the concert I was transported back to the last time I’d seen them during the Set Movements tour back in 1984. However, in complete contrast to just about every other eighties band to have reformed, Ultravox haven’t tried to emulate their original look. Although Warren still has dark hair (I wasn’t close enough to establish whether it was a syrup or if he dyes it), both Billy and Chris have hair that is completely white and Midge is bald. Dressed in suits and smart shirts I have to admit that from a distance (not being close enough to see their faces properly) they looked rather like the sort of middle-aged band one could imagine playing at a wedding and I commented to Mrs H3 (who of course was a bit young to remember their original look and so had no preconceptions) that to me they seemed rather like an Ultravox tribute band.

Now that sounds like a criticism, but I didn’t mean it to be. Ultravox were, and still are, if the concert at the Roundhouse was anything to go by a fantastically innovative and accomplished band and I would happily pay to go and see them at any time. And to be honest I applaud them for not feeling the pressure to return to the look they created back in the eighties.

Mrs H3 videoed Vienna and you can see it on my Youtube channel. I have also begun uploading the videos from our other concerts, with the footage from Elbow’s Brighton Dome concert now on there too.



And now, as Monty Python once said, for something completely different. Tomorrow night Mrs H3 and I are off to see the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. Now obviously this is partially because of my interest in learning to play the ukulele (still looking for a teacher if anyone wants to volunteer) and partially because they just look bloody awesome.

If they are anywhere near as good as this tomorrow night I’ll be a fan forever!