(Photo by Brian Griffin) Ultravox member Chris Cross, whose real name is Chris Allen, died on March 25 aged 71. The news was announced last night by former bandmate Midge Ure who described bass player Chris as “the glue that held the band together”.

Midge Ure: “We worked together, we played together, made music and directed videos together. We were instant friends as well as Ultravox comrades. Even after years apart we managed to pick up where we left off like the years in between never existed. You were the glue that held the band together. You were the logic in the madness and the madness in our lives. It was great to know and grow with you. You are loved and missed old friend.”

About Chris Cross

Chris, born on July 14, 1952, in London, established Tiger Lily in 1974, a band that would evolve into the iconic 80s group Ultravox. Alongside him were Dennis Leigh as the frontman and Stevie Shears on guitar, with Warren Cann on drums and William Currie, known as Billy Currie, joining later.

Between 1974 and 1979, John Foxx led Ultravox as its lead singer and primary creative force. In March 1979, Foxx departed to pursue a solo career, and Midge Ure took over as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and frontman from November 1, 1979. Ure, who had been collaborating with the band since April that year after working with Billy Currie on the Visage studio project, rejuvenated Ultravox, guiding them to their commercial peak with the “Vienna” album and sustaining success until their disbandment in 1987.

In 1992, a reformed Ultravox under Currie’s leadership saw limited success, with two albums not charting and only one single barely making it to number 90 in the UK charts. The band’s most celebrated lineup — Currie, Ure, bassist Chris Cross, and drummer Warren Cann — reunited in 2008, leading to live performances in 2009 and 2010, culminating in the release of a new studio album, “Brill!ant,” in May 2012.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Out now via the Luminol Grammofon label is the Ryden (Strasse) single “The Ghost”. The single was produced by Kenneth Magnusson at Pekoralfabriken

Russ Ryden, real name Rustan Rydén, is a Swedish musician, composer and lyricist (born February 11, 1960) who in 1978 started the new wave group Strasse together with Kaj Zack. The song “Den hotfulla kärleken” was one of the first Strasse songs to gain some attention in 1981. With Strasse, Ryden has worked with musicians such as Midge Ure and Mike Garson. In 1985 he released the single “Rock The Night Away”.

Together with guitarist Max Abbey, as the duo Great Guns, they released the single “Walk Me Through The Storm” in 1987. In 1989, the single “Midnight Angel” was released under the pseudonym Bonowa Beat. Ryden and Abbey continued as Strasse in the 2000s with musician Charlie Storm, releasing the albums “Transylvanian Flower” in 2005 and “Half Past Animal” in 2009. In the summer of 2012, Ryden released the EP “Repercutio”, in 2017 the single “The Devil​´​s Work”, and in 2018 the album “Nightshifter”.

You can check the new single below.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Again not so good news from the (dark) Belgian festival scene. The Business Court of Hasselt has allowed Wave to Synth, the company behind the W-festival and Sinner’s Day, a procedure of judicial reorganization according to the Belgian newspaper Het Belang van Limburg. The organizer received a temporary suspension of payments until March 20, 2023. There is an outstanding debt of more than 2.8 million euros.

According to the organizer, the bankruptcy of the British company that arranged their ticket sales is at the root of the financial problem. The chances are slim that the organizer of Sinner’s Day and W-Festival will see some of their money back. They are now trying to reach an agreement with the creditors to allow the next edition of the W-Festival in Ostend to take place.

The 2023 edition of the W-Festival is planned for 25-27 August 2023. Already scheduled for that festival are the following acts: Nena, Bow Wow Wow, Midge Ure, Project Pitchfork, Modern English, When In Rome, Corpus Delicti.

W-Festival attracted over 20.000 people in the Summer of 2022.

As far as Sinner’s Day is concerned, the Winter 2022 edition was already canceled and postponed to next year. In a reaction the organisation then said that it was canceled “in order to keep our company in the game and to guarantee well organized festivals as we did this summer”.

The organizers also said that the reason for all this “is the lack of enthusiasm of the Belgian scene for the scheduled line-up this year, despite our marketing efforts – both in Belgium and abroad – the (ticketing) interest in our program is not at all what we had predicted, it is even far from our worst case scenario.”

Belgium and the darkwave scene, it has always been a complicated situation.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Wayne Hussey, frontman of The Mission, will soon have a new single out in support of key workers dealing with Covid-19 globally. He has remade the classic Mission anthem “Tower Of Strength”, joined by members of The Cure, Siouxsie & The Banshees, Slowdive, Bauhaus / Love and Rockets, The Smiths, The Twilight Sad, Depeche Mode, The Cult, The Wonder Stuff, Gary Numan, Evi Vine, Midge Ure (Ultravox), Spear of Destiny / Theatre Of Hate, Beauty In Chaos, The Soft Cavalry, All About Eve, Guns N’ Roses, Nine Inch Nails and Gene Loves Jezebel.

The actual collaborators include: Andy Rourke, Billy Duffy, Budgie, Evi Vine, Gary Numan, James Alexander Graham, Jay Aston, Julianne Regan, Kevin Haskins, Kirk Brandon, Lol Tolhurst, Martin Gore, Michael Aston, Michael Ciravolo, Midge Ure, Miles Hunt, Rachel Goswell, Richard Fortus, Robin Finck, Steve Clarke, Tim Palmer, Trentemøller

Produced by Wayne Hussey, this release features mixes by Tim Palmer and Trentemöller. This is also the first time brothers Jay and Michael Aston (of Gene Loves Jezebel) have recorded anything together since parting ways many years ago.

Here’s a preview of the song featuring for instance Martin Gore.

The single itself will be out on August 28 on all digital platforms followed by a 12” vinyl and CD on October 2.

Wayne Hussey: “When Covid-19 hit I started receiving messages asking ‘why don’t you re-issue Tower Of Strength for the front line workers?’ The song had apparently been adopted as an anthem by some NHS workers, and it got me thinking that I would like to contribute something to the greater cause at this unprecedented time and the only thing I could really contribute is music. So in conjunction with my good friend Michael Ciravolo, I came up with the idea of recording a new version of Tower Of Strength for charity by enlisting the help of musician friends and acquaintances. Tower Of Strength was first released by The Mission as single in 1988 and then again in 1994. It charted twice in the UK top 40 and has proved to be probably our biggest song and the one we generally close our shows with. It is anthemic. I wondered if recording a more well known song might have a greater reach but neither Michael or I could come up with any suggestions that seemed to fit lyrically without getting too corny. So Tower Of Strength it was then.

Usually I detest things that are done for charity that are also self-serving, but I came up with a plan that satisfied my conscience. I spoke with my fellow Mission band members who co-wrote the song – Craig Adams, Mick Brown and Simon Hinkler – and we agreed to give up any publishing income generated by the new version to nominated charities, including mechanical and performance royalties and 100% of any revenue raised by sales. TOS2020 has been renamed to divert funds from the original version, and the charities will all be personally nominated by the people involved in its recording and release. Because the musical contributions are global our idea is that the proceeds will be divided and distributed equally among all the beneficiaries.”

Tracklist for the vinyl:

Vinyl Side A

1. TOS2020 (Beholden To The Front Line Workers Of The World mix)
2. TOS2020 (single)

Vinyl Side B

1. TOS2020 (Trentemøller remix)*
2. TOS2020 (Albie Mischenzingerzen remix)**

Tracklist for the CD:

1. TOS2020 (Beholden To The Front Line Workers Of The World mix)
2. TOS2020 (Trentemøller remix)*
3. TOS2020 (Albie Mischenzingerzen remix)**
4. TOS2020 (single)

Tracklist for the digital bundle:

1. TOS2020 (single)
2. TOS2020 (Beholden To The Front Line Workers Of The World mix)
3. TOS2020 (Trentemøller remix)*
4. TOS2020 (Albie Mischenzingerzen remix)**
5. Tower Of Strength (original new remaster) – The Mission (free bonus track with bundle only)

Side-Line also covered Depeche Mode’s ‘s Martin Gore launches new solo track ’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Electropop act Cyber Monday has its first cover version out namely a cover of the track “To have and have not” by the 80s act Ronny. The track has just been released and is free to download for a short period of time via the band’s label right here.

You can check the video below.

With Ronny, Cyber Monday has picked up an artist which many had forgotten as her career was extremely short-lived. She used to be a top French model who after meeting entrepreneur Rusty Egan in the Paris club Privelege co-produced several songs with Midge Ure, Vangelis, Georg Kajanus and Peter Godwin. You might also remember her as the model who appeared on the Ultravox “Station” record sleeve and can be seen in Visage‘s “Visage” video. Ronny also did a duet with Steve Strange called “The Lady Is A Tramp”. Neither the single nor the video was ever released.

If you wan’t to check out the original by Ronny, you can check that one below.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

From 15th until 19th August 2018 the third edition of the W-Festival takes place at the festival-area in the Rue Couture d’Orroir in Amougies, Belgium. More than 60 new wave, EBM, industrial, post-punk, synth-pop and eighties bands are featured on 3 stages.

This year some of the confirmed artists are: Bauhaus (Peter Murphy 40 years of Bauhaus celebration feat. David J.), Anne Clark, DAF, Clan Of Xymox, DIE KRUPPS, Dive, Front Line Assembly, Suicide Commando, Covenant, Lords Of Acid, Vive La Fête, A Split Second, Project Pitchfork, Trisomie21, She Past Away, Chameleons Vox, Red Zebra, Kim Wilde, Paul Young, Marc Almond, Midge Ure, A Flock Of Seagulls, Heaven 17, ABC, …

Besides watching concerts you can also visit markets and merchandise shops, signing-sessions, afterparties and other exclusivities like the daily screening of “Industrial Accident – The story of Wax Trax ! Records” documentary (94 min.) from the 16th till the 19th of August at 10:30am.

Side-Line gives away 10 free tickets (for 4 days)! Just enter the contest below. We will choose the winners on June 18.

Information and tickets can be found here