The band formed in 1974 in London and originally went under the name Tiger Lily. The band’s founder was a guy called Dennis Leigh who later changed his name to John Foxx. As Tiger Lily, they recorded a cover of Fats Waller’s ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ in 1975 and the song was used in a soft porn film but failed to make a mark otherwise. The band then went through a number of name changes, even calling themselves The Damned for a few weeks until they discovered that there was already another band by that name. However, their live act was being notice and in 1976 they were signed by Island records and this was when they became Ultravox! with an exclamation mark at the end of the name. They released 3 albums for Island, but with little success and in 1978 they were dropped by the label. They self-financed a tour of the US in 1979, but tensions in the band were high and they all but broke up with John Foxx leaving to forge a solo career and Billy Currie working with Gary Numan and Tubeway Army. But, as the 70’s drew to a close, they recruited Midge Ure as a new lead vocalist. Ure had been in the band Slik who had a number 7 hit in SA in 1976 with ‘Forever And Ever’. He had also spent a little bit of time in Thin Lizzy. Currie had met Ure when the two had been working together in the studio band Visage (remember ‘Fade To Grey?’). With Ure on board, they signed to the Chrysalis record label and recorded the album ‘Vienna’. The first 2 singles, ‘Sleepwalk’ and ‘Passing Strangers’ immediately gave them UK chart success, albeit only going to 29 and 57 respectively. Then came their first major hit with the title track of the album. ‘Vienna’ would go to number 2 on the UK singles charts and was kept off the top spot by Joe Dolce’s ‘Shaddap you Face’. For their follow up album, ‘Rage In Eden’, they teamed up with Conny Planck who had been in the German Band Neu! and had worked with Kraftwerk. This produced the hits ‘The Voice’ and ‘The Thin Wall’. Their 3rd album in the Midge Ure era was called ‘Quartet’ and was produced by none other than George Martin, the man who had produced The Beatles. By the end of 1984 they had clocked up 10 top 20 singles in the UK, but things would change for them then as Midge Ure got involved in the Band Aid single, ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’. He co-wrote the song with The Boomtown Rats’ Bob Geldof and then left Ultravox after their 1985 appearance at the Live Aid concert. He released a solo album called ‘The Gift’ which included his number 1 hit, ‘If I Was’. Without Ure the band limped on, recruiting the drummer from Big Country for a short while, but they failed to re-create their glory days. In 2009 they reformed for a tour and have subsequently played a number of shows and released a couple of albums.
Date of entry
Song
Peak (weeks at 1)
Weeks
15-May-1981
Vienna
8
8
Total hits
1
Total weeks
8
Biggest climber awards
0
Star rater climbs
0
Biggest fallers
1
Weeks with oldest in the charts
0
Longest run in the charts (weeks)
8
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts
0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)
0
Top 30 points ranking
=912
Top 20 points ranking
=878
Top 30 points
136
Top 20 points
56
Midge Ure wrote the Band Aid charity single which was an SA chart hit:
Date of entry
Song
Peak (weeks at 1)
Weeks
18-Jan-1985
Do They Know It’s Christmas
13
10
Total hits
1
Total weeks
10
Total chart involvement by the band and its members:
SA Singles Charts 