Interesting note on Billy's revamped website. A long way down in the biography there is the note......

2016 - It is the 40th anniversary of the release of Ultravox! the first album by the band.
Ultravox! Ha! Ha! Ha! & Systems of Romance are re released as a boxset.

After 43 loyal years I decide to draw a line under it.
A sad statement to read....

Very sad indeed. I wonder what happened ....

I Think I Heard Midge saying in an interview that "things turned sour", but no details.

Midges latest thoughts on the subject : (published yesterday)
https://parklifedc.com/2016/09/26/interview-midge-ure-bethesda-blues-jazz-supper-club-10416/

That was an interesting article with Midge, thanks for posting

Fingers crossed Ultravox do return again one day, I managed to see them on the Return to eden part 2 and Brilliant tours and I absolutely loved the Brilliant album

I Also managed to find a good number of live recordings from the reunion tours which is great as I feel I have too few live recordings of the "Classic" years

A bit more of a positive note, thanks for sharing

In my opinion , Midge has always been the one wanting to do more and trying to stay positive, and Billy holding back. Whatever he may say I dont think that Billy has got over the feud between the two of them in the 90s.

The statement on the BC website is pretty definitive. I think we have seen the last of any 'vox reunion activity

They had an official Facebook page, but it's gone now...
https://www.facebook.com/ultravox

Was Billy in charge of that?

www.facebook.com/UltravoxUK/

Oh, thank you. The link I posted worked for a long time, and then suddenly it didn't.

Hopefully we will see them together again.

To be honest I think it could be the same situation as it was in 1988, when they (or Midge) decided to put Ultravox on ice and see what happens. But: If one of the members whould not be part of future projects, it would be better to leave Ultravox in the freezer forever. But who knows......

1988 wasn't putting the band on ice - Midge and Chris both left and encouraged Billy to carry on with a new band.

Midge's comments on the current situation are pretty clear that, while they haven't discussed further activity, he's open to it, but he doesn't understand the comment on Billy's website.

Maybe the fact Midge said they haven't spoken for two years is a factor. That might lead Billy to think the others aren't interested. Although there's a suggestion Midge has tried to keep in touch and got nothing back, but I may be reading that the wrong way.

But it's all speculation. We can't know what Billy means unless he chooses to elaborate.

Ultimately Midge is far more media-savvy than Billy, who just seems to "shoot from the hip" whenever he has something on his mind.

Midge may be telling the absolute truth in what he says, or he may be diplomatically dealing with a loaded question. He's hardly going to come out and say "Billy should never have said xyz...".

But they're not getting any younger, Warren still lives in LA I guess - and still working, unless he's retired now? Midge is constantly busy - he seems to be a workaholic as he's already booked through most of next year...and Chris has melted away and keeping a low profile once again.

I doubt we'll see them all on stage together again - and to be honest, from my POV that's ok. The tours and gigs from 2009-2012 weren't expected and were a nice surprise. Not sure I want to see them a few years older still and slower. All good things.... and all that.

I would love to see the band tour again, considering how absolutely fantastic they were when I saw them in 2010 and 2012 it would be a shame to finish it there, but if that is the case I am still happy with what they gave us when they did return

Personally I would like some more of the live shows to get a release or a 2 disc definitive edition of Brilliant

what would you put on the 2nd disc? From memory there is only 1 relevant non-album track - "7/8"

In the build up to the album there were interviews with the band, I think in the videos they played some demo tracks so those could be included with the B side "7/8" and then fill out the disc with live tracks

I rarely voice my opinions but here goes and no doubt I will get some stick...
With the greatest respect for Billy, for 24 of the 43 years Billy talks about the band did not exist.
It is a great shame that he views Ultravox in such a way.
I have seen both Midge and Billy doing their solo tours and whist it’s all good stuff it does not compare to the collective that is Ultravox.
Why draw a line under something that brilliant? If you can still do it then do it! They all seemed to enjoy the last tours. The new album (unlike some reunion stuff) was as excellent as anything they have done before.
Now the unintentionally sounding soppy bit but, speaking as someone who has lost all their family but one (most before I was 19!), you learn life only happens once. Why bicker and hold grudges. Do something fantastic with whatever time you have don’t waste it!
That said if the boys have had a guts full of it then of course we all respect that, just such a massive sadness.

Agree with that, 1 million %. Life's too short for negativity. But perhaps the guys also think life's too short and they have other things they would rather be doing, too.

It's sad that Billy has said he's drawn a line under Ultravox, but very confusing too as I've just seen on Amazon both Revelation and Ingenuity are being released again!

I think the reappearance of those albums has more to do with how the rights seem to be easily available to third party labels, although it is, in a way, a sort of compliment in that the band's reputation still means that labels want to release something on CD... even if it's nothing new. As for new Vox, well, my personal feeling is that its unlikely for many of the reasons others have cited in this thread. If the Brilliant tour is the last, then those marathon two-in-one shows were a heck of a crescendo to go out on! I'm certainly glad I managed to see them on that memorable Hammersmith evening, for which I will always hold fond memories - both of the night and people met there.

This is something I've always been keen for. Those video clips included snippets of some of the tracks "in progress", including Hello, which to me sounded far more instrumentally impressive. Then there are the later studio clips of Billy recording an extended piano section for Remembering, and Midge's awesome guitar part for the end of Rise, which ended up somewhat buried in the mix ... it would have been great just to have this as a coda to the track, as would Billy's ARP Odyssey solo at the end of Flow. To me, all of these were examples of the distinctive Ultravox musicality missing from the album, so I'd certainly love the opportunity to hear as much of this material as possible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSv9u96caQo

The earlier(?) version/mix of Hello is the first 31 seconds of this clip, referred to within my previous posting, above.

I think it is probably tantamount to completely unmixed at that point and is a playback from whatever recording package they were using rather than a bounced/exported file.

I do wonder whether they had the discipline to keep all their earlier versions or whether they did exactly the same as the rest of us often do & saved an updated version over the top!

But, overall I agree with you: it would be great to hear a pre-Lipson version of at least some tracks and a CD copy that has not been brickwalled to within an inch of its life in the mastering process.

And a vinyl version that doesn't have bubbles in the wax.......

Thanks very much for your comments.

For me, it was more that it appears to be a completely different piano melody, which doesn't seem to appear within the album version/mix (although, I may be wrong). The album version/mix just seems to plod along and Warren's drum track is quite uninteresting as well (and I never thought I'd admit to something like that!).

But, there are other instrumental moments that may have been edited ... Billy's Odyssey solo at the end of Flow, for example, and it would've been nice to hear an extension to Rise of just Midge's guitar with the electronic rhythm tracks ... quite sensational. Then there are the various versions of Remembering as well. So, it would be nice to hear a bonus disc of this material, but I doubt it will ever happen now.

With the greated respect for Mr. Lipson, in my opinion he was the wrong person to produce "Brilliant". Ultravox should have done it on their own. Although eagerly awaited, "Brilliant" is the one album which I hardly play, despite owning several copies.
The production does not feel like Ultravox, there was so much more potential in these songs ...

LOL...
Have to write the things down here running immediately through my old brain when I read your lines Tom.
Back to the roots...
There was a genius living near Cologne...

RIP Conny.

BTW: Search on AMAZON for the documentary movie: Conny Plank - The Potential of Noise

I can only agree with you guys that getting an extended version of Brilliant with early versions would be great. Had Conny Plank lived, yes surely the right man to co-produce.
Wasn't it the case that they wanted to do it themselves, but the record company insisted they bring in an outside producer? I seem to remember Midge saying that somewhere.

Today I was getting back to this thread and in parallel revisted an interview on electricityclub.co.uk.
Mr. Lipson was quoted in regards to why "Brilliant" did not do so well:

"Not a clue. Maybe it was a lack of money to promote it? Maybe a lack of interest in the band? It’s hard to say."

While I am usually trying not to say negative things, my take on this is simple: If Ultravox had produced the album by themselves they would have sounded much better.

Mr. Lipson produced "Man On The Rocks" with Mike Oldfield and that´s one of the albums which received various bad ratings. The next album (produced by Oldfield himself) was much better received. It is a simple fact that not every producer is made for every genre and with the utmost respect, Mr. Lipson was not the ideal choice for producing our beloved Ultravox.

The Return to Ommadawn album from Mike Oldfield also went back to the structure of the first few albums, long tracks round an album theme rather than regular structured songs, I love Mike Oldfield and I consider the latest album a real return to form after alot of middling to lower quality albums in my opinion.

I really love the Brilliant album but I just don't think it was ever going to appeal to the masses, it was always more of a fan album in my eyes

Agree with Tom27: it wasn't produced as a UV album and I suspect some of the work prior to Steve joining have a harder edge with, probably, a lot more Billy, Warren & Chris present.

Haven't been on for a while as all things Ultravox have gone quiet but read with interest some of the comments re the Brilliant Album. To be honest I wasn't a great lover of the album although there are some good tracks on it and it's certainly not a bad album and far better than U-Vox for instance. However it just to me didn't sound like Ultravox, the power wasn't there with Midges whispering vocals and, a bit like U-Vox, in some ways it sounded like an album with a bit of Midge, bit of Billy, bit of Chris with Warren filling in the gaps "rather" than an album as a collective between the four. Possibly a bit too experimental in some ways for certain ears a bit like when Midge moved away from the light stuff from The Gift to the experiment that was Answers.

Not sure about the 'experimental' bit but otherwise agree.

Yeah, it’s gone all so quiet in here - really sad

I did read the biography a few years back but never noticed he also mentions it in the News section of January 2017:

January 4th 2017
The 40th anniversary of Ultravox! The bands first album.
I, after 43 years, decide to do what all the other members have done over the years. Dump it!

To me that really sounds like he's very disappointed in the other band members and he would have wanted to continue if the others had put more effort into it.

I had a similar feeling. It sounded bitter and maybe one of the issues is that Midge is still seen by the press as kind of being Ultravox alone. It is easy to understand that - after all the years - it is something you cannot always swallow.

Having re-watched the Return To Eden DVD, I was hoping so much that the members had found a way to circumvent all their previous disagreements and could start over with good feelings. Sadly, it seems that old wounds have emerged again. Given the age of everyone, I wished they could have coped better with it and have fun together again.

If there was one wish left, it would be for a final real Ultravox album produced by themselves.

Friends of mine overseas swapped emails with Warren 3 years ago or so and he admitted he was very much of the opinion that he wouldn't want to do the band thing again and that he felt that time had now gone. Given his age and how physical his job in the band was, I can't say I blame him.

If it had ever been going to happen, it would have been touring Vienna for it's anniversary. But that's Midge's solo band doing that with him.

It's over and done. Listen to the records, the live recordings, and enjoy them.

It's not for a lack of the people around them trying.

What I would say is hope but expect the worst & don't hold your breath.