Wonderland Burlesque's Down The Rabbit Hole: Visage

Wonderland Burlesque's

Down The Rabbit Hole:

Visage

Down The Rabbit Hole merely places a spotlight on something slightly unusual that's caught my interest. With the help of Wikipedia, YouTube, and other sites, I gather information and learn something new.

Today, we take a look at the music and history of Visage.

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From Wikipedia:

Visage was a British synth-pop band formed in London in 1978. The band became closely linked to the burgeoning New Romantic fashion movement of the early 1980s, and are best known for their hit Fade to Grey which was released in late 1980. In the UK, the band achieved two Top 20 albums and five Top 30 singles before the commercial failure of their third album, which led to their breakup in 1985.

Founding members Midge Ure and Rusty Egan started working on Visage to produce music to play at the clubs Egan was DJing at. Egan alongside Steve Strange was hosting David Bowie and Roxy Music club nights at Billy's nightclub in London's Soho district at the time and Egan was eager to find new music to play, ultimately opting to create music himself with Ure.

Strange was then brought into the band to provide the face and voice of Visage with the line-up being completed with the addition of Ultravox keyboardist Billy Currie and three-fifths of the post-punk band Magazine – guitarist John McGeoch, keyboardist Dave Formula and bassist Barry Adamson.

By this time, however, Strange and Egan had relocated their themed club nights to the Blitz club in Covent Garden and the New Romantic movement had begun in earnest. In mid-1980, David Bowie visited the club and asked Strange and three other Blitz regulars to appear in the video for his single Ashes to Ashes, which helped to propel the New Romantic movement into the mainstream.

Although Visage's self-titled debut album had been completed for several months, it was not released until November 1980 when the band was now signed to the major label Polydor Records. The band's second single, Fade to Grey, was released at the same time. The single became a hit in early 1981, making the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart and several other countries, and reaching #1 in Germany and Switzerland.

After further hits with the singles Mind of a Toy and the title track Visage, Strange struggled to reunite the band's members again to record a second album due to their commitments with their respective bands; Ure had now joined Currie in Ultravox, Formula and Adamson with Magazine and McGeoch had joined Siouxsie and the Banshees. In late 1981, Visage went into the studio and recorded The Anvil as a five-piece band. The album, which was named after a gay nightclub in New York City, was released in March 1982 and became the band's only Top 10 hit in the UK Albums Chart, producing two Top 20 singles with The Damned Don't Cry and Night Train.

Following this, Ure left Visage to concentrate on his work with Ultravox, who were now even more successful than Visage. Creative & personal differences with Strange and Egan were also cited as reasons for his departure at the time. Ure was also very tired of Strange, his over-demanding diva behavior, his outrageous gay boyfriends, and their ridiculous acts of gay sexual debauchery. The remaining lineup recorded the stand-alone single Pleasure Boys, which was released in October 1982. The single failed to prolong their string of hits and peaked just outside the UK Top 40.

Visage then took a two-year hiatus from releasing any new material due to contractual difficulties with their management company. A 'best of' compilation album was released to fill the void. In 1984, with their contractual problems resolved, Visage returned with their third album, Beat Boy. Released in October 1984, the album was a critical and commercial failure, peaking at #79 in the UK. Two singles from the album, Love Glove and Beat Boy, also failed to make the UK Top 40.

With only Strange and Egan from the original line-up, an attempt to make Visage a live band instead of a strictly studio-based project also failed to meet with success and the band officially dissolved in 1985.

Since that time, the band went through various line-up changes over the years, all fronted by vocalist Steve Strange, who resurrected the band name in the 2000s. In 2013, the final line-up of the band released Hearts and Knives, the first new Visage album in 29 years. The band's fifth and final album, Demons to Diamonds, was released in 2015, nine months after the death of Steve Strange due  a heart attack.

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Fade To Grey - Visage

Mind Of A Toy - Visage

The Damned Don't Cry - Visage

Night Train - Visage

Pleasure Boys - Visage

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