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Visage
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Visage was a British new wave band, started in 1978 in London by Midge Ure and Rusty Egan. Egan, together with Steve Strange, played records at club nights featuring music by David Bowie and Roxy Music, and was looking for new music to play. So Ure and Egan decided to make it themselves. Strange became the face and voice of the group. Keyboard player Billy Currie of Ultravox and three members of Magazine, guitarist John McGeoch, keyboard player Dave Formula and bassist Barry Adamson, completed the line-up. Visage was thus above all a studio project of musicians who also played in other bands.
Music and breakthrough
Meanwhile Strange and Egan had moved their club nights to the Blitz Club in Covent Garden, the place where the New Romantics emerged. At the end of 1980 the album Visage and the single Fade to Grey were released. At the beginning of 1981 that song became a hit in England and reached number 1 in Germany and Switzerland. Mind of a Toy and the album The Anvil (1982) followed. Because the members were busy with their own bands, the group slowly fell apart. After the unsuccessful Beat Boy (1984), Visage came to an end. Strange later returned with new line-ups; he died in 2015.
Influence
Visage belongs to the core of the New Romantics: a movement of dressed-up clubgoers, striking clothing and make-up, and danceable electronic pop. The music leaned on synthesizers and electronic rhythms, with Strange's cool, detached voice. In this way Visage linked the London club scene directly with the hit parade.
Listening
Fade to Grey · Visage, 1980Apple Music ↗
Discography
Studio albums
- 1980Visage
- 1982The Anvil
- 1984Beat Boy
- 2013Hearts and Knives
- 2015Demons to Diamonds
- 2016Demons to Diamonds
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 7: The 1980sNL Reader