Ultravox’s ‘U-Vox’ turns 40 on 13 October
British new wave band Ultravox released their eighth studio album, “U-Vox,” on 13 October 1986 through Chrysalis Records. The record turns 40 this year.
Ultravox and Conny Plank co-produced “U-Vox,” recording it across several studios in 1986: Plank’s own studio near Cologne, Hot Food, Music Fest, West Side and AIR in London, and Windmill Lane in Dublin. Drummer Warren Cann had left the band, dismissed over “musical differences” before sessions began, and Big Country’s Mark Brzezicki played drums on the album instead. Chris Cross, Billy Currie and Midge Ure wrote all nine tracks, which run:
- “Same Old Story”
- “Sweet Surrender”
- “Dream On”
- “The Prize”
- “All Fall Down”
- “Time to Kill”
- “Moon Madness”
- “Follow Your Heart”
- “All in One Day”
The Chieftains featured on “All Fall Down,” Beggar & Co’s horn section played on lead single “Same Old Story,” and George Martin arranged and conducted the closing track, “All in One Day,” written about the previous year’s Live Aid concert. “U-Vox” peaked at number 9 on the UK Albums Chart, the last Ultravox studio album to reach the UK top 10, and was certified Gold by the BPI.
About Ultravox
Ultravox trace back to Tiger Lily, formed in London in 1974 around Dennis Leigh (later John Foxx), Chris Cross on bass, Warren Cann on drums and Billy Currie on keyboards and violin. Signed to Island Records in 1976, the band shortened its name to Ultravox! and released three albums, including 1978’s “Systems of Romance,” before Island dropped the group and Foxx departed in 1979. Midge Ure, a veteran of Slik, the Rich Kids and Thin Lizzy’s touring band, joined as vocalist and guitarist, and the retooled line-up signed to Chrysalis Records. “Vienna” (1980) gave Ultravox its commercial breakthrough, and “Rage in Eden” (1981), “Quartet” (1982, produced by George Martin) and “Lament” (1984) kept the band in the UK top 10 through the first half of the decade. Ure co-wrote and produced Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” in November 1984, and Ultravox performed at Live Aid the following July.
Cann’s exit before the “U-Vox” sessions left Cross, Currie and Ure to finish the album as a trio augmented by session and guest musicians, and the record’s reduced chart return compared with its three predecessors preceded the band’s split in 1987 once the European U-Vox tour, which opened in Gdansk that October, had run its course. Currie carried the Ultravox name through two further studio albums, “Revelation” (1993) and “Ingenuity” (1994), before dissolving the project in 1996. Cann, Cross, Currie and Ure reunited in 2008 for the “Return to Eden” tour and released a further studio album, “Brilliant,” in 2012, later touring UK arenas alongside Simple Minds. Chris Cross died in March 2024 at the age of 71, as Side-Line reported at the time, and Chrysalis marked the catalogue’s ongoing reissue campaign in October 2025 with “The Collection (Deluxe Edition).” “U-Vox,” the last Ultravox studio album to carry the 1980s Ure-era line-up’s name before that long hiatus, turns 40 this October.
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