A Stroll Down Memory Lane with Ultravox
It is 27 years give or take a month or two since I saw Ultravox at Hammersmith Odeon, then I was a fresh faced sixth former heading towards her A levels and now I'm a forty something Mum heading towards middle age. But for a short time on Friday, the years just slipped away, for me, for Ultravox and for the audience. Yes they too had aged, they were all sporting grey, receding hair well except for Warren Cann whose hair looked just like it did on that day in the summer of 1985, the last time they played together at Wembley Stadium, Live Aid. But they all looked amazingly well and seemed genuinely pleased to be back.
The approaches to Hammersmith Odeon have changed, a new shopping centre nearby and for some reason we had to take our lives in our hands to get over two major roads (we had missed the underpass!). But once inside, the place hadn't changed, not since Riverdance about 14 years ago, or Japan there in 1983, can that really be 25 years ago? The memories came flooding back.Unusually, there was no support band and Ultravox came on at about 8.30pm. They opened with Astradyne from Vienna, which particularly pleased Mike and early in the set Warren got his chance with Mr X. Sadly the sound was a little distorted and it was a bit difficult to hear Warren Cann on that one. The lighting was also very subtle and almost subdued, they were aiming for an arty atmosphere to suit their music, although that does make photography more difficult. I did manage to get a handful of cracking shots though, which pleased me, especially as this appeared to be of the few places now policing people taking photos.
The set list was, in no particular order, Astradyne, Mr X, Reap the Wild Wind, We Stand Alone, All Stood Still, Dancing with Tears in My Eyes, Lament, Passing Strangers, The Thin Wall, Hymn, Rage in Eden, Vienna, Visions in Blue, I Remember Death in the Afternoon, One Small Day, Your Name Has Slipped My Mind Again, and for the encore Sleepwalk and The Voice. If I have missed anything or you know the order please let me know. I was pretty satisfied early on they played We Stand Alone and One Small Day, two of my personal favourites and there were all the other hits too, not really much more one could have asked for.
Hammersmith Odeon was packed and the crowd welcomed every song with a big cheer and sang happily away and each song ended to rapturous applause. Midge Ure was in excellent voice. I've seen Midge in his solo shows several times, but have rarely heard him sound better. And Billy Currie brought the memories back with his jaunts to the front of the stage with his violin. I had forgotten he did that! Warren looked and sounded as suave as ever and Chris looked a bit like your mate's Dad dancing at a wedding, sorry Chris!
The encore was Sleepwalk where there was the only hitch of the night, Billy Currie had some problems with his computer and/or keyboards but that was quickly overcome and they finished with The Voice and the crowd pleasing beating the living daylights out of the drums at the end.
Overall the show was an amazing success and flew past, the crowd had a brilliant time, that was evident from the rapturous singing along. The band really looked as if they were enjoying themselves and burying the ghosts of the bad feeling that has surrounded them for some of the past years. Is that a good way to end it, well yes maybe it is. Can they go into the studio and produce an album of the same quality as the songs they sang tonight, on the performance tonight, I think they probably could.
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