Rage In 40th Anniversary

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I didn’t know if it was special, or if it’s special now. It’s special to me, but I don’t know if it is to anyone else. It’s got a reputation as a real fans’ favourite. It was a bit like that on Brilliant too, when everyone came to my house in Canada. We all lived there making that album, where there was a mini studio for everyone to work together or individually. It’s a modern way to do it, but we were doing it in a farmyard in 1981. How soon was it before the album took shape?

People are spending big money on something they probably already own, so it has to be an object of desire Midge Ure on box setsSteven Wilson Mixes [24/96 5.1 Surround Mix * / DTS 96/24 5.1 Surround Mix / DOLBY AC3 5.1 Surround Mix / 9624 LPCM Stereo Mix] Midge Ure discusses the Ultravox Rage In Eden reissue, his initially conflicted thoughts on Steven Wilson’s new mix, the joys of hearing long-forgotten demos, his two new solo albums and the possibility of another Ultravox reunion. John Earls asks the questions for SDE… I heard that Bryan Ferry takes so long that he ended up ditching everything and starting again Midge Ure The studio was so remote that there were no distractions. There were no video games, no satellite TV. It was a big day if we received a parcel from the UK containing Fawlty Towers cassettes. It meant there was nothing whatsoever to do except work on the record, and that was no bad thing. You’d see Warren writing lyrics on a typewriter, Chris playing bass in the sunshine; there was always something going on.

The 1980 St. Albans live CD proved to be an unexpected highlight of the Vienna set for me – it’s among the best-sounding vintage live recordings I’ve heard in recent years – so I was definitely looking forward to the 1981 Hammersmith Odeon set included here on CDs 4 & 5. While the performance itself is great, the sound quality definitely isn’t as good as St. Albans. Midge Ure’s vocals sound quite sibilant much of the time, to the point where I’m surprised they weren’t able to clean this up more with de-essing software. The remastered definitive edition, released on 22 September 2008, features a second disc containing rare and previously unreleased material. In addition to this, the original front cover artwork has been reinstated. The licensing of the original artwork currently only extends as far as the initial run of the physical release of the album (set at ten thousand copies worldwide). Future editions feature the same artwork as used on the previous CD re-issue.Touring a hot follow-up album is easy. Once you’ve got the nuts and bolts in place – the design, the setlist, rehearsals – and you step on stage, it’s easy. Rehearsal was the hardest part, as we never used tapes or pre-programmed anything. That was a good tour, an easy time. What do you remember of the Hammersmith Odeon show that’s been newly added to the reissue? As you may recall from my enthusiastic June 2021 review, Ultravox’s Vienna was easily my favorite reissue of 2020 (edging out Tears For Fears’ The Seeds Of Love) and has since become one of my favorite 5.1 remixes ever – a crown jewel atop Steven Wilson’s frankly ridiculous resume of surround highlights that continues to grow with every successive year.

Getting the artwork and stage sets good was so important to us. We wanted people to come away excited, to be left with indelible images of us, in the same way I had images of Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust concerts in my head without needing to see them again. Whether we’re fit enough to do a reunion, or whether the desire is there to do it, I don’t know. Billy has stated in the past that Ultravox is finished and he’s not doing it anymore. Whether that’s definitely the case, I don’t know. So the answer to your question is: Who knows? Fair enough! What about a new solo album? It’s been five years since Orchestrated. Of course, for most of the band, Rage In Eden was their fifth album, but it was only my second in Ultravox, so it could have easily been my difficult second album. Most people expected Vienna part two, but we didn’t want that. To my ears, the biggest difference between the two mixes would have to be the overall tonality. Conny Plank’s 1981 stereo mix was quite dark sounding, with a lot of the high frequency content in the drums and guitars filtered out for a ‘warmer’ aesthetic. Wilson’s remix restores those recessed highs and upper-mids, giving the album a more aggressive and immediate tone. Midge Ure’s choppy rhythm guitar work is one of my favorite aspects of the album, and it really drives this new mix. Oh, absolutely. It gave us an extra spark, because something that wasn’t obvious had become so hugely commercially successful.Does it? That’s interesting, and I’d like to think that’s the case. Very soon after Rage In Eden, although we didn’t intend it, we started slipping down a slightly poppier slide. Working with George Martin on Quartet, things got a bit more polished. The rough edges were no longer there, whereas Rage In Eden is full of rough edges. I haven’t got into the zone of turning those ideas into completed songs. It’s easy to fall into a dangerous trap of never having a cut-off point and it goes on for so long that you go off the songs because they’ve been around for such a long time. I heard that Bryan Ferry takes so long that he ended up ditching everything and starting again, and it was maybe the same for Scott Walker. I have to be careful I don’t scrap it all and start again. I can say that we videoed a lot of things at the time, and there’s tons of stuff that I sent to Chrysalis last year. We carried Super-8 and Super-16 cameras, and the footage needs cleaning and digitising, but hopefully something can come out of it. It’s probably a great project for an up-and-coming film editor, to go through those hundreds of tapes and make something from it: a quasi-documentary, or footage for a regular documentary that could go on top. As you’re all involved in the reissues, how much do you talk to each other about them? You can guess what I’m going to ask: is there a chance Ultravox could do something together again? We flew by the seat of our pants and creating that atmosphere was fantastic. I can’t remember that actual Odeon concert itself, because I was on stage, in the zone and doing my thing. I was in the vortex, trying to keep the cyclone going. It’s only now that I’m outside of it that I can see what it was. The band were always good, but I’d forgotten just how good they were. Hearing those recordings reminds me of just how powerful we were. How closely do you get involved with the reissues?