NEWS WAVE/LET'S TOUR - It's the Ultravox Day! New "Brilliant" album out, new European tour dates!

Seminal electro pioneers Ultravox have issued the artwork for their first new album in 28 years, ‘Brilliant’ which is released on May 28th through EMI. The legendary quartet of Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann have created an album that not only stands alongside the finest work of their career but firmly places them as both a huge influence upon, and a vital contemporary force within, today’s musical climate.

Recorded in Canada, Los Angeles and the UK, ‘Brilliant’ is a stunning tour de force. “I think this record is probably the best one we’ve ever done,” explains Midge Ure, “because the songs are so much stronger than before. There’s a lovely naivety you have when you start out where you throw things together and think that they’re great and somehow that affects other people, but I think the fact that we’ve been working away separately over the years perfecting our art comes out on this record.”

The writing process for the twelve songs on ‘Brilliant’ started when Billy and Chris joined Midge at his house in Canada. “I have a house in the middle of the woods by a lake in Montreal and we realised if the three of us went to my house out there and sat down with some laptops, keyboards and guitars with no outside distractions at all, we could find out whether we were actually capable of writing something together again. And it was a phenomenal experience, a great bonding thing for the three of us; we just ate, slept and breathed music. It was a very, very instant thing, like getting back onto the horse again. We climbed back onto the saddle again and we were off and running.”

It was this sense of starting again that, according to Midge, really inspired the band. “That’s what we were trying to do when we first started, make something unique, something that came from the four of us. You can hear directly from what we were doing thirty years ago stuff that was coming out of deepest, darkest Germany - bands like Kraftwerk and Neu - but you can also hear the pop of Roxy Music and David Bowie and you put that mixture together and it becomes unique because nobody else sounds like that collective. But over the years we had an awful lot of followers and you can still hear some of that influence running through music today with other bands, the melody and the structure and the atmospherics.”

Yet the fact that the four members of Ultravox have come together again means that ‘Brilliant’ has the singular, unique sound which has inspired so many of today’s artists, but never been bettered.“If it was Ultravox with a slightly different line-up, if one of us wasn’t there it wouldn’t have that link but because the four of us are there together it has that link. Something about the persona of these characters coming together and those emotions turns it into something else.”

Further sessions in Canada and LA to record Warren’s drum parts followed leaving Midge, Billy and Chris to finish the recordings in their home studios. With the album almost complete they decided to bring in an outside producer to bring the whole album together.

“We didn’t want to lose the momentum and dry up after this amazing flurry of activity and great creative bubble,” recalls Midge. “So that’s when [producer] Steve Lipson came into the process at the end and helped us fine-tune everything. He’s very much a musician and became almost a fifth member of the band for a while, and he would challenge and question us on everything. We’d done about a year’s work on our own, very isolated and insular, and nobody else had heard anything. So once he came on board and got involved it just worked incredibly well.”

And the result is astonishing. From the opening, swelling barrage of ‘Live’ with its instantly identifiable piano motifs through the epic rock of ‘Flow’ to first single and title track ‘Brilliant’, there is no mistaking the sound of Ultravox; the huge choruses, the impassioned vocals, the driving rhythms and pulsing electronics.

‘Rise’ is a modern computer-pop classic while the likes of ‘Remembering’, ‘One’ and ‘Change’ evoke the cinematic atmospheres Ultravox do so well. Coupled with the widescreen drama of ‘Lie’, the chiming exoticism of ‘Satellite’, the sinister tension of ‘Hello’ and the chilling heartbreak of ‘Fall’, Ultravox have crafted an album that may well be ranked as their finest work to date.

The final part of the jigsaw puzzle was choosing which record company to release the album through, as the band had a number of offers on the table. But it was EMI, the band’s home for many years that they decided to return to. “We’ve always had the EMI connection through being signed to Chrysalis and EMI did such a fantastic job with the reissues around the ‘Return To Eden’ shows that it felt very natural. EMI got it, and understood what we were doing and understood the standards we have. We spent six weeks rehearsing for a three week tour to make sure it was as good as it could be and EMI are able to work to the same high standards.”

More info on the European tour dates below, with further details to follow on a few of the shows to follow where marked tomorrow.

Please note that Italy is the ONLY show in Europe which will have a presale. This presale will start on Wednesday 30th May for 24 hours only (link in listing below, no password required).

SEPTEMBER 2012 21 Bristol Colston Hall 22 Oxford New Theatre 23 Portsmouth Guildhall 25 Nottingham Royal Centre 26 Birmingham Symphony Hall 27 Hammersmith HMV Apollo 29 Guildford G Live 30 Manchester Palace Theatre

OCTOBER 2012 02 Southend Cliffs Pavilion 03 Ipswich Regent Theatre 04 Sheffield City Hall 06 Blackpool Opera House 07 Glasgow Clyde Auditorium 08 Gateshead Sage

OCTOBER 2012

• 10.10.12 - France, Paris, Trabendo - on sale 30th May
• 11.10.12 - Belgium, Antwerp, Trix Hall - on sale now / 0900 00 600
• 12.10.12 - Holland, Tilburg, Poppodium - on sale 2nd June / 0900 300 12 50
• 14.10.12 - Germany, Hamburg, Docks - on sale now / +49 (0)1805 570000
• 15.10.12 - Denmark, Copenhagen - MORE INFO TOMORROW
• 16.10.12 - Sweden, Malmö - on sale 30th May / +46 771 651 000
• 18.10.12 - Finland, Helsinki - on sale 30th May / 358 (0) 600-1-1616
• 20.10.12 - Sweden, Stockholm - on sale 30th May / +46 771 651 000
• 21.10.12 - Norway, Oslo, Rockefeller - on sale now / 00 815 11211
• 23.10.12 - Sweden, Gothenburg- on sale 30th May / +46 771 651 000
• 25.10.12 - Germany, Berlin, Columbiahalle - on sale now / +49 (0)1805 570000
• 26.10.12 - Germany, Mainz, Phoenixhalle - on sale now / +49 (0)1805 570000
• 27.10.12 - Germany, Leipzig, Haus Auensee - on sale now / +49 (0)1805 570000
• 29.10.12 - Germany, Munich, Kesselhaus - on sale now / +49 (0)1805 570000
• 30.10.12 - Austria, Vienna - MORE INFO TOMORROW

NOVEMBER 2012

• 01.11.12 - Switzerland, Zurich - MORE INFO TOMORROW
• 03.11.12 - Germany, Memmingen, Stadthalle - on sale now / +49 (0)1805 570000
• 05.11.12 - Italy, Milan - PRESALE 30th / general sale 31st May / +39 0253006501
• 07.11.12 - Germany, Köln, E-Werk - on sale now / +49 (0)1805 570000
• 08.11.12 - Germany, Bielefeld, Ringlokschuppen - on sale now / +49 (0)1805 570000

The Brilliant microsite has now launched, and you can either pre-order the album from there or directly from www.ultravox.org.uk/store.shtml. These are the same Amazon (worldwide), Townsend, HMV, Play & iTunes links that appear on the EMI microsite, and there is no difference to ordering from either; your order will be helping EV either from either location (thank you!).
You will still be able to view the video clips and competitions (all worldwide this time) which will appear on the microsite; no purchase is necessary to see them or to take part.

NEWS WAVE - Against all odds, Duran Duran is the perfect band for the Olympics

Article by Paul Morley for "The Observer"

All through the 80s, I hated Duran Duran, when for some they were the kings of pop. I hated them because they acted as though they were minor members of the royal family, but those that loved them did so because they made grand, escapist music reflected in escapist videos celebrating their own playboy riches.

When I interviewed them for the NME in 1982, they were already lording it over the charts and playing ornate pop rooted in the otherness of Bowie and the cool of Roxy Music but somehow also in the scarves of the Bay City Rollers and the barnets of Slik. I was so angry at their self-importance that I could never bring myself to call them by the name they had lifted from Roger Vadim's Barbarella – they seemed more soap than space opera.

I used different names for them, my favourite being Diana Diana. (Writing such a piece now, I would call them, among other things, Seb Seb or Lordy Lordy.) Even then, they resembled the freshly minted Princess of Wales; you could see where her look as a fan derived from, certainly her hair, eyeliner and posing genius. You could see Diana as the female member of Duran Duran as Cilla was the female Beatle.

That's one reason why it's apt that they have been selected to be the English pop act marking the opening of the Olympic Games, a decision that provoked so much hand-wringing last week. Duran Duran created a soundtrack to the Diana years and carry with them the glory and burden of those years in much the same way Vera Lynn does for the war years. And, of course, they are mates of James Bond, if merely the plastic Roger Moore model, sealing the "international-symbol-of-Britain-whether-we-like-it-or-not" deal when two Beatles are dead and Adele and Coldplay are too extreme, and when most of the world has no knowledge of PJ Harvey and Arctic Monkeys, let alone Siouxsie and the Fall.

But I hated them, in the 80s. I hated them from the point of view of a rock critic taking pop seriously, even when it was just for fun. They fancied themselves as not so much the made-up boy band they clearly were – the pretty one, the chubby one, the moody one, possibly the talented one, etc – but as Peel-listening pop conceptualists mixing the Sex Pistols with Chic. (Wanton English energy and brazen processed disco, an interesting formula I may have stolen when working with Frankie Goes to Hollywood, my personal chart retort to Dreary Dreary.) Duran Duran, though, sounded forced, lacking the subversive swagger of the Pistols and the transcendent swing of Chic and leaving behind an embellished melodic sludge. They were perhaps more Sweet crossed with Abba – a classically cheering formula for the flashy, revivalist entertainment required by an Olympic Games opening ceremony.

To understand them you need to understand the times. Duran Duran arrived only a few years after punk transformed the idea of what rock could be, in a Britain dragging itself out of the bruising, disorientating 70s. Things were intellectually and spiritually tightening up inside the iron grip of Thatcherism, and at the same time loosening up economically and socially.

Music magazines turned glossy, gossipy and colourful, requiring new sorts of decorated fairytale cover stars, a backlash against the hifalutin' weekly inkies containing thousands of intense words about Cabaret Voltaire.

All new pop then made by those interested in being the latest thing had to be influenced by punk, if just the look, the clothes and the expression. One consequence was an experimental sonic elaboration of punk's ideological spirit and aesthetic vision but a rejection of the safety-pinned visual cliche; this became known as post-punk. Another consequence was more theatrical, with dandy tabloid-labelled New Romantics looking back longingly over the spiky heads of the harsher, angrier punk to the showy costumes and window-dressing camp of glam, where pop stars looked like pop stars.

Some groups could float, sometimes self-consciously, sometimes serenely, between those two camps – Human League, Japan, Depeche Mode, ABC – and others occupied a more purist, thoughtful zone, advocating mental glamour – Gang of Four, New Order, Associates, Magazine, the Smiths. The hardcore New Romantics were definitely all about the clothes, cosmetics, travel and showing off; as a response to grievous, turbulent times, Steve Strange, Spandau Ballet, Wham! and Duran Duran preferred the dolled-up posing in pampered cliques inside VIP sections of exclusive nightclubs. They weren't privileged, but pretended they were, which could be annoying if you didn't get the joke, and especially annoying and complacent when it isn't a joke.

New Romance wasn't all about the fancy dress, shaky pretension and cocktails. There were those displaying convincing signs of resistance to the mediocre, to the restrictive and ordinary – the presence on Top of the Pops of daring Boy George blurring the sexes and positively confusing the mainstream mind, Soft Cell's northern sauce, and something deviant dripping from Adam Ant's painted brow was a sign of intact subversive punk spirit filtered through a kinky dream of Bowie.

Those moaning about Duran Duran singing for the Olympics are being as nostalgic for something as the thing they criticise is – nostalgic for a time when it was clearer what the meaning and purpose of pop was and why it was worth fighting for. They are inheriting 30-year-old critical standards that do not apply now. It's the same with Eurovision. Something perhaps representing a deeper, richer and more inspiring sense of the restless, radically creative British spirit would be crushed by the essentially fraudulent and kitsch nature of the event. I worry about the Specials, Blur and New Order show closing the Olympics and any remaining transformative energy being squashed by routine, committee-organised ceremony.

Engelbert is finger-on-the-pulse correct for Eurovision, where the English pop 60s might as well never have happened, let alone glam, punk and rave, in the way Duran Duran are finger-on-the-pulse correct for an Olympics event, which has nothing to do with music, art, innovation and fashion, but is to do with publicity, marketing, fabricated history and the celebration of success.

In a mainstream pop world so thoroughly emptied, mostly by constant, degrading replication, of pop art, punk militancy, artistic surprise and disruptive, maverick gaiety, Duran Duran as representatives of English talent are an incredible, inspired choice. Theirs is not necessarily musical talent, but just a brilliant ability to take themselves seriously in the middle of general superficial commercial mayhem, to manifest a sense of occasion, however preposterous, and parade their own self-appointed greatness – self-promotional skills that make the group as contemporary as anything. Equally of the moment is their unashamed conclusion first broadcast while Thatcher cruelly reigned that tough times call for nothing more and nothing less than a party; 30 years later, tough times, unsympathetic, cutting Tory government, and the wrinkled New Romantic superheroes are still available to those that need saving through sheer hammy, self-loving spectacle.

So, yes, I've hated Duran Duran since the 80s, but now, in a world where they are attacked for being too old and dated, for obviously accepting a prominent showbusiness invitation, I find myself drifting toward a sympathetic position. I don't love them or anything – that's impossible, especially after their version of Elvis Costello's Watching the Detectives, which is Rolf Harris meets David Sylvian. I may, though, have developed a grudging respect for the way as enduring light entertainers they're perfectly poised in a very modern fashion between being prized national treasures and grotesque figures of fun. The marginalised, even mocked, New Romantic movement they stolidly represent has, for better or worse, turned out to be a big influence on the current ostentatious, synthetic pop landscape filled with bragging, stunts and fancy dress.

Perhaps stubborn Duran Duran were right all along; being a pop star is all about being sure of yourself, whatever anyone else says.

The Old Romantics

FLOCK OF SEAGULLS

Known for singer Mike Score's hairstyle as much as singles like I Ran (So Far Away), they had a series of international hits in the early 80s.

DEPECHE MODE

Now one of the biggest goth-pop acts in the world, but started life as New Romantics - 1981's Just Can't Get Enough was the first of many top ten singles.

VISAGE

Formed by Steve Strange, right, and Rusty Egan, released three albums in the early 80s and had their biggest success with Fade To Grey, a worldwide hit.

SPANDAU BALLET

With hits like True and Gold, Spandau Ballet were one of the biggest acts of the 80s. They split in 1990, but reformed for a world tour in 2009.

JAPAN

Unsurprisingly big in the Far East, the avant-garde five-piece had their biggest UK hit with Ghosts, which reached number five in the singles chart in 1982.

VIDEOKILLER - "Stand and Deliver" by Adam&The Ants

VIDEOKILLER - "Who's that girl?" by Eurythmics

LET'S TOUR - Paul Young (forever) in concerto a Gorizia

(ANSA) - ROMA, 3 MAG - Ha fatto ballare le discoteche italiane dei primi anni Ottanta con 'Love of The Common People'; ha rivaleggiato con Mick Hucknall dei Simply Red per conquistare il cuore delle teenager di quegli anni. Paul Young, vera e propria icona pop rock degli anni Ottanta, si esibisce a Gorizia nell'unica tappa italiana del suo tour europeo, il 4 maggio al Teatro comunale G. Verdi. La voce inconfondibile del grande interprete britannico e' entrata nei cuori di molti italiani anche per il celebre duetto realizzato con Zucchero in 'Senza Una Donna (Without A Woman)'. La sua lunga carriera lo vede esordire con il singolo 'Iron Out The Rough Spots' alla fine del 1982, ma e' con il successivo pezzo, la cover reggae-pop di 'Love of The Common People' di Nicky Thomas che Paul Young si guadagna un posto nel firmamento degli anni Ottanta cui segue un tour mondiale. Tra i suoi successi piu' amati, 'I'am gonna tear your playhouse down', 'Everything must change', 'Wonderland', 'Come back and stay' e le notissime 'Every time you go away' e 'Lovin' you'.