At the beginning of their careers, the group name was Ultravox! (with exclamation point), and this remained for the first two albums and then becoming simply Ultravox from their third work. Curiously, in the same years there was an Italian television's Company with the same name. The story of Ultravox is divided into two periods "managed" by two different leaders in the band. John Foxx first and Midge Ure after, who, strangely, played never together. It was purely by chance that Billy Currie and Midge Ure met up in 1979, both of them being involved in the embryonic stages of what was to became Visage. Midge had heard that Ultravox were currently without a singer and guitarist (John Foxx and Robin Simon had both left a few months earlier) and felt that he had something to offer the band. Very quickly it became obvious that these four strong personalities (Billy Currie, Warren Cann, Chris Cross and Midge Ure) worked well together and after a brief self-financed tour of America they had written the majority of their next album. At the time it was only Chrysalis who could see any potential in Ultravox, but instead of the band recording a demo for a whole album, they presented Chrysalis with the finished master for their first chart single,, "Sleepwalk", which respectfully made the UK top 30. Working with the legendary German producer Conny Plank, for the third time in the band's history, Ultravox were able to record the whole of the "Vienna" albumin just three weeks. The band felt that their second single should be the album's title track, but Chrysalis were against the idea because at the time it was unlikely that a single which was almost five minutes long would be successful. They released "Passing strangers" instead. It was only when a representative from Chrysalis attended an Ultravox concert and saw first hand the reaction that the "Vienna" track was getting, that they were willing to release it as the band's third single. Coupled with a highly atmospheric video, "Vienna" became their classic single, forever synonymous with Ultravox, and reached number 2 in the UK charts. One more track would be released as a single, an edited version of "All Stood Still" another big hit which got to No. 8. Late in 1981 the band teamed up with Conny Plank, and locked them-selves away in his farmhouse studio in Cologne for three months to create what some feel is the quintessential Ultravox album, "Rage in Eden". Written entirely in the studio, you can sense the tight claustrophobia within the music. Only two singles were taken from this album, "The Thin Wall" and "The Voice". For their next album "Quartet", produced by George Martin, a whole new marketing strategy came to the fore. The album's cover artwork featured an architectural rendering of the "Monument", an image inspired by an Italian stage play. The first single, "Rap the Wild Wind", bore another clue; three-dimensional pieces of The Monument. The Sleeves for the three subsequent singles "Hymn", "Visions in Blue" and "We came to Dance" (all top 20 hits) continued the theme by featuring a rough rendition of The Monument as a logo. This would all come together when fans attended an Ultravox concert that year; the curtain would fall back to reveal an enormous and visually powerful Monument stage set. Being unable to decide who should produce their fourth album "Lament", Ultravox took on the role themselves. This album featured the singles "One Small Day", "Dancing with Tears in my Eyes" and the haunting title track, "Lament". The Celtic feel the album has is strengthened by the videos to two of the singles being shot in Scotland. In October 1984 Ultravox released their only non-album single, "Love's Great Adventure", which peaked at number 12. Ultravox's routine since 1980, that of writing an album and touring with it every year, was disrupted in 1985 for some time by Midge's involvement with Band Aid and Live Aid. Eighteen months after they had toured with the Lament album, Ultravox found themselves reunited with radically different musical tastes. They could no longer decide unanimously on which direction to take their next project, creating a tension which resulted in Warren Cann leaving the band. Chris, Midge and Billy carried on, once more enlisting the production talents of Conny Plank and released a final album entitled "U-Vox". This album spawned three singles: "Some old Story", "All fall down" and Ultravox's final single "All in one day", an emotive orchestral piece. It was during the tour for this album that Billy, Midge and Chris decided to call it a day. Ultravox was no more... . But, On 6 November 2008, Ultravox announced through their official website, a reunion of the 4 members of "Ultravox 80 years" (Currie, Cann, Ure and Cross).