![]() ![]() I said to the guys I was keen to do something that sounded like the late-19th-century romantics, like Grieg and Elgar. Ultravox had just hooked up with Midge Ure, who’d replaced John Foxx, and I wanted to use my classical training. Everyone wanted us to write a track called Berlin or Paris. ![]() Then, the moment it became huge, the pressure on us to surpass it with a follow-up was incredible. It was too slow, too long and there was a violin solo – the antithesis of a commercial single. It was about £300, which was a substantial amount of money for someone who normally only bought stuff from Save the Children. The only thing that cost money was the Burberry raincoat, because I’d always wanted one. Everything I wore in the video was from thrift shops. Then you go back to your cold, grey, miserable life in Chiswick. In such a crumbling environment, you could easily fall in love. Why Vienna? There was a decaying elegance about it. You’ve gone to this beautiful place, met someone and vowed it is going to continue – and, of course, it doesn’t. Vienna was a love song to an imaginary girl. Everything I wore in the video was from thrift shops Midge UreĪ lot of what Ultravox did back in the day was soundbites. ![]() I remember going into the studio with just a line in my head: “The feeling is gone, this means nothing to me – oh Vienna!” That was all I had. The cinematic aspect was high on our agenda: every track was for a movie that didn’t exist. And we know that when you start from a great story, joining literature, travel, spy stories, feelings, you always end up with great music.The song had the feel of a haunting mid-European classic, thanks to our keyboard player Billy Currie’s classical training. “Vienna” really became a symbol of the 80s, and absolutely the materpiece of Midge Ure and Ultravox. The cover of the “Vienna” single is actually a funeral monument in Vienna cemetery. So at the end of the day they filmed some scenes in Vienna central cemetery, a place with a particularly intense atmosphere, where also Falco is now buried. I need to say that it’s one of my favourite places overall, a fantastic and intriguing town with really peculiar atmospheres, where I lived very particular moments.įilming in Vienna was not easy for Ultravox, many spots were closed or not accessible, because they were off the touristic season. In any case, Vienna is such an impressive place as few others, for historical, artistic, and cultural reasons. You know, in the 80s you had to do it right, even if flying was not so easy as today. Many scenes were filmed in England, but at the end Midge Ure and his friends took a plane at dawn and flew to Vienna. The director is Russell Mulcahy, who directed a lot of masterpieces of the 80s like “Video killed the radio star”, all the great Duran Duran videos, “ Bette Davis Eyes“, “True”, “Total eclipse of the heart”, he was really the director of the 80s. Ultravox always connected this song to Graham Greene’s novel “The Third Man”, which takes place in Vienna. The video is a masterpiece too, and it contributes to the cold and clandestine atmosphere. The story says that the producers replied “Just mention it in the song!”, which he did, and the rest is history. So when he commented the arrangements, he said “This means nothing to me”. But people do change their minds, even if the legend says that Midge Ure (who was also part of Steve Strange’s Visage) was not completely convinced by the song. And in January 1981 we saw a video, released exactly at the right moment, which summarized all these topics in a wonderful way, and was located in a fantastic place which is really one of the winter capitals.Īctually Ultravox wrote the song “Vienna” one year earlier in fact in October 1980 they decided to give the same title to the entire album, but they were not planning to release the song as a single. If I think of early January, the first word that comes to my mind is chill. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |