Ultravox - Brilliant album

[Bobinblack]

Possibly open to abuse here but Ultravox with Midge on vocals were one of my favourite synth bands for a while. Like Human League of old, they managed to write great pop songs but make them synth-heavy. 'Sleepwalk' was always one of my faves, even though it does come off the Vienna album. Vienna is, shock horror, not to everyone's liking It's a really good album, even if it is banal lyrics etc

And there's nothing wrong with Band Aid either

[dan-electro]

Possibly open to abuse here but Ultravox with Midge on vocals were one of my favourite synth bands for a while. Like Human League of old, they managed to write great pop songs but make them synth-heavy. 'Sleepwalk' was always one of my faves, even though it does come off the Vienna album. Vienna is, shock horror, not to everyone's liking It's a really good album, even if it is banal lyrics etc

And there's nothing wrong with Band Aid either

The 'Vienna' album (for me) is there best by some way and actually is a 'Brilliant' album!!

[parasiteinblack]

Possibly open to abuse here but Ultravox with Midge on vocals were one of my favourite synth bands for a while. Like Human League of old, they managed to write great pop songs but make them synth-heavy. 'Sleepwalk' was always one of my faves, even though it does come off the Vienna album. Vienna is, shock horror, not to everyone's liking It's a really good album, even if it is banal lyrics etc

And there's nothing wrong with Band Aid either

The 'Vienna' album (for me) is there best by some way and actually is a 'Brilliant' album!!

I like Rage In Eden best but Vienna and Systems of Romance are good too.
Ha! Ha! Ha! and Lament if I'm in the right mood.
I thought Brilliant was alright, but I haven't listened to it for months which probably says something...

[Toiler On The Sea]

there's nothing wrong with Band Aid either

All that 'talent' available and that was the best they could come up with??

Do they know it's Christmas time at all????
As the vast majority of the indigenous populations of Africa are Muslims and don't celebrate this date, I'd hazard a guess at NO.

[dan-electro]

there's nothing wrong with Band Aid either

All that 'talent' available and that was the best they could come up with??

Do they know it's Christmas time at all????
As the vast majority of the indigenous populations of Africa are Muslims and don't celebrate this date, I'd hazard a guess at NO.

To be fair, the song was referring to Ethiopia and only around 35% of the population in that country are muslim, the vast majority are christians and would celebrate the birth of Jesus. It's by and large the north african countries such as Tunisa and Egypt that are muslim. I'm sure Midge knew that when he wrote the song

[Toiler On The Sea]

To be fair, the song was referring to Ethiopia and only around 35% of the population in that country are muslim, the vast majority are christians and would celebrate the birth of Jesus. It's by and large the north african countries such as Tunisa and Egypt that are muslim. I'm sure Midge knew that when he wrote the song

And there won't be snow in Africa this christmas time

No mention of it just being Ethiopia per see!!!!!

[MiB81]

To be fair, the song was referring to Ethiopia and only around 35% of the population in that country are muslim, the vast majority are christians and would celebrate the birth of Jesus. It's by and large the north african countries such as Tunisa and Egypt that are muslim. I'm sure Midge knew that when he wrote the song

And there won't be snow in Africa this christmas time

No mention of it just being Ethiopia per see!!!!!

Now I'm confused, which one is Percy?

[Bobinblack]

It's a good tune and as far as I remember it was written to attract UK record buyers, I don't think it even charted in Ethiopia

[Jake]

Feed the world, starve the rich by Chumbawamba was a better take on it IMO; 'Paul McCartney come on down with crocodile tears to irrigate this town, making Ethiopia a fertile paradise where everyone buys Beatles songs and buys shares in EMI, charity, starvation and rock'n'roll let it be eh Paulie' or something like that as I recall, classic!

Can't stand Midge Ure to be honest, any political commentary I have ever seen the guy make is embarrassing at best and downright useless at worst. His comments about the miners’ strike were incredibly naive, as for the way he lined up against G20 protestors in Glenn Eagles whilst sucking off Tony Blair, shameful absolutely shameful.

As far as I was aware, the biggest effect of Live Aid was to actually prolong civil war, nice idea, but unfortunately that's the problem with aid much of the time, it is usually badly distributed and ends up causing more problems than it alleviates. Food aid ends up in the hands of war lords who then use it as weapon. I don’t think Live Aid was ever all it was cracked up to be, it helped the careers of a few rock stars, it didn’t address the real issue in Ethiopia, i.e. an East/West funded civil war, that’s my take on it anyway.

[Bobinblack]

It was Band Aid, and to be fair to Geldof, Ure etc etc, it was the BBC News which first brought yet another famine to prominence in this country's eyes. I couldnt give a toss about Ure's politics or those less than perfect lyrics, they bloody tried to do something which no one else had tried on such a large scale) and the money raised did help a lot of people who would have remained help-less otherwise. It's a shitty world you're right, that warmongers, politicians & crooks take advantage of relief efforts such as Band Aid, but no cynic on this planet will convince me that doing nothing (because of such threats to the success) is better than at least trying something new.

[Jake]

It was Band Aid, and to be fair to Geldof, Ure etc etc, it was the BBC News which first brought yet another famine to prominence in this country's eyes. I couldnt give a toss about Ure's politics or those less than perfect lyrics, they bloody tried to do something which no one else had tried on such a large scale) and the money raised did help a lot of people who would have remained help-less otherwise. It's a shitty world you're right, that warmongers, politicians & crooks take advantage of relief efforts such as Band Aid, but no cynic on this planet will convince me that doing nothing (because of such threats to the success) is better than at least trying something new.

Band Aid/Live Aid one in the same thing really, let's not be too technical about it eh.
I never said doing nothing was a better option Bob, let's be clear about that. Bono was part of that, and if he stopped shifting his finances to dodgy offshore accountants he could do a hell of a lot more than he professes to do right?


What was the reason the stranglers weren't interested in live aid, anyone remember? I seem to recall they turned down the opportunity to play, I may be imagining that, but I am fairly sure JJ had quite strong views about not wanting to be a part of it.

A quick google search concerning ‘the truth about live aid’ yields all kinds of interesting results. I am not for a minute saying that it was all a load of crap or whatever, and I do believe in foreign aid, I do think the West need to do more to prevent famine and poverty overseas. It might help if they focussed less on exploitation of third world resources however. I am just basically not naive enough to believe everything done in the name of charity is benevolent; I have enough experience with charities to suggest otherwise, and on the other hand I am a great believer in supporting many charitable causes (despite my apparent cynicism).

Old, but this should be a good article to be getting on with, in order to articulate a few of the points I was saying:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/co ... 33624.html

[Bobinblack]

Jake, Band Aid is what I was on about, the record - and that's what the Midge Ure reference here is all about too, it's not being technical at all mate, Live Aid happened after and I don't really have an opinion on it other than I enjoyed watching it all, in the pub. And I wasn't even inferring you thought doing nothing was the best option (I should have made that bit clearer, I realise now ) .