Hi Everyone!
Very nice to be here. Lets talk about my new album or any other stuff. Please feel entirely free!
B

Hi there Billy,

Really great to see you here...

Rob

Hi Billy, welcome to the Forum!

Hi Billy, welcome, and i look forward to your input and enlightenment on the many threads concerning your good self..

All the best Davy B..

Hello Billy...the samples from Still Movement on your web site have certainly whetted my appetite for the album. Bring it on!

Hi Billy
Welcome to the forum

I have never heard any of your solo music.
Which one of your CD's would you recommend as a good introduction to your music?

Hope to see you here again soon
Best wishes
Adi

I guess somebody had to ask so let me be the first!

Most people in here have read your views on the Live Aid DVD. Given its impending release, what are your opinions on the subject now?

Hi Billy!
Your new album sounds great...I'm really looking forward to it

Hi Billy!

I enjoy what I've heard of your solo work, and look forward to hearing your new album.

Mrs. X

R E S P E C T !

TOUCH DOWN !!!!

The maestro arrives, as Porky Pig said he would.
Very reliable source Billy. Nudge, Nudge

Porkies !! ME.....NEVER !!!!

Let the party begin...............

Hi Billy, thanks for joining us.

Helloo Billy.

Nice to hear from you. Whats your take on the tribute band thing then? There have been others of course, but how do you feel about a tribute band taking the UV stuff out on the road? And, have you bought a copy of Midge's book?

Greetings from Finland Billy.

Been your fan for ages, and itīs unbelievable you showed up. Thatīs the spirit.

Hope to see you often here.

ari

Hello Billy!

Great to see you on this site. I bought the Pieces of the Puzzle in the past and there is some great stuff on it! Have you any plans to make a gig in the not too far future? Would be very interesting to see you playing your fiddle on stage again!

Welcome here, Billy.

Regards, Shadow Man

From Russia with love.

*waves*

Cool,the pig was right !!! Hi Billy ! Nice to have you on board.Thats half the group,wheres the rest
All the best
smiler

Hi!!

Wanna play me viola solos for me Bill?

Ermmm....because i cant play them meself!! & need to cheat by using samples!!!

Hi Billy!

It`s just MEGAGREAT you`re here!!!

And now I will listen to the brandnew tracks on your site!!!

All the best
JesperDK

Thanks for all the greetings!
The responce to my new samples are very positive. I am happy.
I still feel the same about the Live Aid DVD. Typically there are a lot of unanswered questions which makes it very undermining for musicians that gave there talent for nothing. Midge would only meet me if I signed the contract ( he said that in a letter from Berenice his manager at the very last minute) where as I said to him in a letter that I would sign if he answered these few questions I had like "What do you think of the ethics behind a Company ( Warners) making money fot themselves & there shareholders out of this Live Aid Charity GIG & are the production companies making the programmes about the event doing it to make money for themselves or are they giving a percentage to charith". I just wanted a reply in writing. I gave him two weeks to reply. There was no mention from the lawyer John Kennedy that Midge was on holiday.There allways has been a feeling from Midge that because it is for charity he cannot be questioned. A bit of a dangerous area to get in to for self promoting pop musicians. Charity Fascism. I noticed, and felt very aggrieved, that Midge and the Management company had started promoting Midge Ure above Ultravox from 1982. Ultravox performed to help starving people. This seems to escape Midges attention when he does interviews because at the time ( and even now ) Bob & Midge enjoyed the power they had over the famous acts and definately got a kick out of seeing them scurrying and hustling into position, lineing up so to speak, to be a part of Band Aid & Live Aid. Bob had been in the wilderness for two years and Midge mistakenly felt he had Ultravox in his pocket and so it seemed the perfect time, as the world thought the sun shone out of his a--e hole, to put the boot in and drop us like a brick. Ultravox were never thanked for the performance it was more like we were lucky to be invited and what great free promotion you all got! It,s the pop muscians version of human nature. Irish and Scottish style. They wanted to be loved, the most, more than anyone else, by the English establishment.
1984 was a strange year. What a swing to the exreme right, It had a lot to do with the Aids scare. Guilt about all the decadent partying from that time. I first met Bob in that year. It was at Midges party,s. Midge & Annabel Giles, Bob & Paula used to sit in the kitchen all night. Bob loudly rubbished Ultravox in front of me many times, saying we were burnt out and finished. Midge agreed like he was not a member of the group. When the party,s eventually got in to full swing Bob got the knives out on me saying I was a wreck! Bob openly told Midge to quit the band and do something else. Midge was laying him self open so as to be used by Bob, who was pretty powerful in his mouthy way, as Bob new that Midge lacked confidence in his own talent. Bob knew Midge wanted to be successful in his own right, without Ultravox, but because he was,nt a song writer was afraid of making the move. Midge chose to discuss it with Bob and Chris Cross and not with the Band. As well as the fantastic work Band Aid/Live Aid did for charity, and I applaud that, the Band Aid project gave him the confidence to s--t on Ultravox the group that made him.

I orderd it from Amazon. I have to have it though, don,t I!!

The one to get started on my music:- PUSH then STILL MOVEMENT and then go right back to Transportation and up to present time.
I have allso ordered Midge,s book. I,ll get it on the 11th.
B

Very candid Billy. The stuff about Bob Geldof is kind of shocking. I've had views on that guy for a long time but I won't express them on here. I might get accused of something myself. All I will say is I thought his wedding guest list was interesting... As you say though, you can't knock what Live Aid was all about.

Your website is great by the way. I really appreciate the amount of detail on there. It makes a refreshing change to read about an artist's ideas and thought processes in putting a piece of music together. It makes a real difference to the enjoyment of music for me to have an insight into this stuff. Not with lyrics mind you, I don't like being told what they're all about because I make up my own meanings!

The Ultravox 'stuff' is a real shame for people like me who grew up loving the music and continued to love it in adult life. There are only two bands from the late 70s and early 80s that I would love to see back together (at least once) and there's about zero probability of that happening with either of them (one of them is Ultravox of course). However, the music is still there and will never go away and for that I'm grateful. It was and will always be extremely important music for me.

Anyway, thanks again for dropping by.

Gosh.

In some respects its refreshing to read honest opinions from someone in the band (just as we've had with Warren over the years). It makes a change from the sanitised versions the public generally here when bands are no longer together.

Ironic that Geldof could accuse Ultravox of being washed up when Boomtown Rats were well past their sell by date and had been for years at that point.

2 things are certain:-

Midge did get his high profile from being in Ultravox, and

Ultravox left a great legacy of music and musicianship that all members of the band should be proud of.

You can also add this:

Midge's solo career has never scaled the heights of Ultravox (unless you compare it to U-Vox...).

I find it fantastic that Midge took career advice in 1984 from someone who hadn't had a hit single since 1982, and is not considered either a good solo artist or even a good songwriter. Mind, Sir Bob is/was an opinionated tw*t, so would do you expect?

You don't know the power of the darkside of the Force. I must obey my Master...

Just Kidding! I won't bash anyone here in this forum, especially not when he's absent.

Not much time at the moment, I'll post something more convenient later .

Hi Billy

It's so great to have you join in here. I think Flip summed it up well - "refreshing", so do share more perspectives on the good + not so good of your times with the band.

For you it must have been quite a journey - coming from a new wave band through the heady days of 81 / 82 / 83 + then through the change in direction + the demise of the band.

Your contribution to Gary Numan's "On Broadway" live is till one of the most moving pieces of music I've heard so a big thank you.

AK

Hi Billy
Nice to "see" you here. Loved the sound of your electric viola, for me it's what gave Ultravox their distintive sound. I agree with your comments about Live aid. At the time in my opinion it made a lot of bands very rich especially Queen. It will be nice to hear some more revelations about certain going's on behind the scenes. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Cool]" src="cool.gif" />

Hi Billy.
Just like to say because of Ultravox and your contribution in particular, I took up the hobby! of playing synths. It's cost me loads of money over the years but who cares I love me toys.
On the Bob Geldof/Midge issue nothing suprises me, I reckon most people could relate to this type of situation in their own workplace. Sometimes I wonder how the Media works it seems if Bob farts it is seen as a saintly act.
Finally 'Spongebobsquarepants,' great or what.

Well Billy id like to say Thanks for the years of good music you and ultravox gave us all not only the live aid performance!
What was your personal favourite ultravox track and why?
Cheers
Smiler

Hi Billy!
That's very interesting. How did You manage to go on with Ultravox after all this? And what do You think of U-Vox now? Most of us here do not like the album at all. When Geldof said Ultravox was burnt out, did he mean that You have done everything that could be done by releasing four (or seven) great albums with different styles, or did he want to say that "Lament" was not good?
If he meant that You have done everything that could be done and we now compare U-Vox with all the other, previous stuff I think there's a bit of truth in there. I hope You understand what I want to say, it's not so easy to express myself in this case.
Do You still have contact to the musicians of "Revelation" and "Ingenuity"?
And may I ask what Synths You used on "Majestic"?
You write that Midge wasn't a songwriter. I think he has written some very good songs, e.g. "Guns and Arrows". Maybe there was some time to grow... .

Maybe he told him how he should NOT do it .

Wasn't he quite popular from Slik (well, I just mean popular) and Visage (and here I also mean respected)?
When they were on TOTP with "Sleepwalk", the tv-presenter mentions "Midge Ure" ("a very clever young man from Scotland") at least as often as the name "Ultravox".
Well, I exactly know what You mean! I wrote this on my homepage:
With seventeen I stopped learning the guitar and started playing keyboard. The influences for this decision were bands like 'The Human League' (mainly their first albums), 'Depeche Mode' and the world's best band, 'Ultravox'. (I was seventeen in 1995 by the way).