Superb and educated response there MonsX.Monsieur_X wrote:Mr. Ure IS a bloody good guitarist, indeed. However, Foxx-era Ultravox was VERY different from Urevox. As someone said, it was a totally different New Wave influcenced pretty uncommercial group without future, strictly speaking. Mr. Foxx may have had a decent streak of albums, but he had never enjoyed a commercial success (even though Europe After The Rain was a smallish hit all over Europe back... long ago). Actually, his singing voice never won me over. Too much nervous sheep there, but that's my taste. Pardon me if someone's raging (in Eden) right now.Manc Chris wrote:Just back from seeing the reformation gig at the Manc Apollo. Me and a synth buff mate were expecting to see some nice old kit on stage, but instead were faced with f*****g Apple Macs and VSTi's. Even the FOH console was running bloody Pro tools!
To top it all the only real keyboard onstage was Billy Currie's piano. His main workhorse for the night. So, Mini Moog? J8? Pro 5? No. A bloody Yamaha CP piano, with quite the worst sound I have ever heard. 'Vienna' was ruined with its' honky tonk jangly tone.
Midge is a bloody great guitar player though.To me, Foxx-era Ultravox! was not the Ultravox I was into as a teenager. Though I own all the albums and have given a good listening-to to all of them, I cannot recall any of the Foxxvox songs. No catchy melodies. No hits. Again, my taste.
Sorry to say this, but you've gotten the instrument line-up pretty wrong. Ultravox actually never got into using too much Roland/Moog (the latter used as a bass instrument mainly) gear, instead their studio and stage setup was quite different back then:
Billy Currie had a violin plus fx and an Arp Odyssey, Yamaha CP-70, Yamaha SS-30, Yamaha CS-80, PPG Wave 2.2 and at the latter days there were also Prophet T8 (pads, mostly) and Yamaha GS-1 and DX-7 (god knows why) as well. After Oscar came out, Currie ditched his trusty Arp for that. In fact, I think Ultravox bought three Oscars altogether. His main solo instrument has always been an Arp, subsituted by an Oscar later. Never a Moog there, I'm afraid.
Midge Ure was using PPG and Yamaha SS-30 in addition to his Yamaha guitars (yes, the whole group was probably sponsored by Yamaha in the Lament era). Ure even added an early Roland Midi Guitar setup to his stage set (GR-700, presumably). His PPG was triggered/synced by Warren Cann's drum boxes via a custom built trigger controller.
Chris Cross had a bass and a battered MiniMoog (which was triggered by Cann's drum boxes as well), Oscar, PPG and Sequential Circuits DrumTraks. By the way, I remember seeing Mr. Cross using an old Roland SH-1000/2000/whatever during Sleepwalk in the early eighties? Hmm, one Roland after all.
Finally, Mr. Warren Cann had a drumset (probably Yamaha), in earlier days his huge drum rack had a mixer with CR-78, LinnDrum, an early Simmons SDS-1 and SDSV drum brains, latter days his drum machine setup consisted of two LinnDrums and a DrumTraks. He even had a footswitch controlled Simmons ClapTrap controlled by his left foot heel back then. Quite a busy guy back then, pressing buttons and drumming and everything.
So, no wonder they wanted to do their Return To Eden tour with somewhat lesser amount of gear.
BTW, they had two extra guys during the Monument era, Danny Mitchell and Colin King (backing vocals, Emulator (triggered by the aforementioned trigger box), Yamaha CS-40, Yamaha SS-30, guitar, DX-7, Roland Vocoder)
I've done "quite a few gigs" myself and wouldn't like to have a laptop as an instrument, because of the nerdy looks mainly. Apple Mainstage is a nice tool, but I wouldn't call it a pro app (Nine Inch Nails is, by the way, also into using Mainstage off stage, check out the keyboardmag.tv, and yet no-one's bitchslapping them for that. Funny, isn't it?). I do, however, understand Ultravox's decision to NOT include aforementioned huge setup on stage - and considering the sizes of the venues it would be overkill, soundcheck hell so to say. When it comes to using ProTools-based FOH desks, I'd call that a personal choice. There are great analog and digital mixing desks available, but after all it really doesn't matter if a FOH guy is a pro. A pro is a pro, no matter what his/her tools are.
I'll assume you aren't the 'JesperDK' snake in the grass lunatic - that resides on here, has nothing to say about this thread, but goes over to the Ultravox forum moaning to his clueless mates. You obviously know yer stuff.
And I agree with it in the main. I've already stated that the Foxx/Ure 'vox's were two different bands. Foxx being a rather avant garde musician, whilst Midge is - and always has been - a pop artist. He was recruited into the band for commercial success, and that's what he gave them.
Appreciate your input on the original gear btw, but my comment was more a generalisation about the lack of any flagship analogue synths as opposed to a rallying cry for the pedant - which it seems to have become over on the official forum.
