Contents
- 1 History
- 1.1 First
incarnation (1978-1984)
- 1.2 Second
incarnation (2004-)
- 2 Discography
- 3 Website
- 4 Media
- 5 External
links and references
History
First incarnation (1978-1984)
Initially, the band was comprised of Steve
Strange, Rusty Egan and Midge Ure. Ure and Egan
began working with Strange after the demise of power pop
band "Rich
Kids" and Steve being at a loose end after the demise of new wave band
'The Photons' (managed by punk legend Andy Czezowski creator of the
Roxy Club and owner of the The Fridge) . 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 band later. Visage signed to Radar
Records and released their first single, "Tar" (which
was originally composed whilst Steve was in 'The Photons') in September
1979. The following year saw the release of their self-titled
debut album,
which sold extremely well and raised the band's popularity mainly
because of the single "Fade to Grey." The single quickly
became a huge club hit, went to number one in 21 countries and marked
an imminent commercial breakthrough for electronic
music and the whole New Romantic movement, for which the
first Visage album became a kind of soundtrack.
Members of Visage at the time of their second album recording. From
left:
Midge
Ure, Rusty
Egan, Steve Strange, Dave
Formula, Billy Currie.
After the Top
40 hits, "Mind Of A Toy" another track
originally written whilst Steve was in 'The Photons' and "Visage" Strange
struggled to reunite the band 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 the autumn 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 an excellent, but somewhat fractured album. This
album was released in March, 1982 and was met with little less fanfare
than their first outing, though its singles fared well in the charts. Midge Ure
left the band after the recording of this album because of his
differences with Strange regarding the music style and
the growing compromises with his main band, Ultravox.
The band, without Ure and Adamson
and with the addition of bassist Steve Barnacle recorded the single "Pleasure
Boys", which was released in October of that year. Their final album "Beat Boy" was
released almost two years later, in September, 1984 due to some
problems with the music publishers,
and Steve
Strange's decision to make Visage a live band instead an albums-only
project,
decision that left him working only with drummer Rusty Egan and a trio
of unproven musicians. Dave Formula and Billy
Currie, the last two members of the band lineup left due to differences
in musical style between them and drummer Rusty
Egan; the musician changes and the inability of new musicians
to create better music than the first two albums made this third one, "Beat Boy" a
very disappointing record both in sales and critics. Beat Boy's two
singles ("Love Glove" and "Beat
Boy") were the band's biggest failures in the charts.
Steve Strange formed the short-lived band Strange Cruise, that released one
eponymous album in 1986. A "Bassheads" remix of "Fade to Grey" was a UK
Top 40
hit during the early 1990s.
Second incarnation (2004-)
Steve Strange reappeared in the music scene in 2002, after
several years fighting with his heroin addiction. Strange performed
several Visage songs on the "Here and Now Xmas Tour" — a revival of
1980s musicians. Some time after the performance; and noting he still
had a fanbase, Steve decided to relaunch what he calls a "mark
II" of the band with people from several electronic bands and
projects: Steven Young, Sandrine Gouriou and Rosie Harris from Seize
and Ross Tregenza from Jetstream Lovers/Goteki. After the
announcement of the formation of the new lineup, the plans of reworking
old material, releasing a new record and remixing songs for the likes
of Kelly Osbourne have yet to
be realised (as of Summer 2007). The long-deleted "Visage Videos" VHS
have been re-released in DVD in Summer, 2006. Steve Strange recorded the first Visage's
"mark II" original composition, named "In the Dark" as part of
electronic music duo Punx Soundcheck's debut double album
"When Machines Ruled
the World". The album was released in Europe in Summer 2006.
Discography
For a complete list of albums, EPs, singles and
videos see Visage discography.
Website
Media
This section includes music samples of several of Visage's B-sides:
