Visage biography
Visage are a British New Wave rock band. Formed in 1978, the band became closely linked to the burgeoning New Romantic fashion movement of the early 1980s, and are best known for their 1980 hit "Fade to Grey".
New Wave years (1978-1985)
Founder members Steve Strange and Rusty Egan were hosting club nights at Blitz nightclub in Great Queen Street, London at the time and were eager to find new music to play, ultimately opting to create music themselves. Initially, the band was composed of Strange, Egan and Midge Ure. Ure and Egan began working with Strange during their last days with the band The Rich Kids, with Strange himself being at a loose end after leaving the new wave band The Photons. The trio recorded a demo which included a cover of the Zager and Evans hit "In the Year 2525". The band's line-up was completed with the addition of Ultravox keyboardist Billy Currie and three quarters of the post-punk band Magazine - guitarist John McGeoch, keyboardist Dave Formula and bassist Barry Adamson (who left the band early on after the band's debut single, but returned as a session musician). Producer Martin Rushent had heard some of the band's material at Billy's nightclub and financed further recordings with a view to signing the band to his then-new Genetic Records label. Visage recorded their first album at Rushent's home studio in Berkshire, but Rushent's label collapsed before it had gotten off the ground and the band instead signed to Radar Records, a new independent label run by Rushent's former colleague Martin Davis (the pair had worked together at United Artists Records). Visage released their first single, "Tar", on Radar in September 1979, though the single failed to chart.
Although the band's self-titled debut album had been completed for several months, it was not released until November 1980 when the band was now signed to the major label, Polydor Records. The band's second single, "Fade to Grey", was released at the same time. The single became a huge hit in early 1981, making the top ten in the UK and several other countries, and reaching no.1 in Germany and Switzerland. The album also became a Top 20 hit in the UK and was certified Silver by the British Phonographic Industry.
After further hits with the singles "Mind of a Toy" and the title track "Visage", Strange struggled to reunite the band's members again to record a second album because of their commitments with their respective bands (Ure had now joined Currie in Ultravox, Formula and Adamson with Magazine, and McGeoch with Siouxsie and the Banshees). In the autumn of 1981 Visage went into the studio again and recorded The Anvil as a five-piece band without McGeoch and only limited guest work from Adamson. The album was released in March 1982 and became Visage's only UK top-ten album, producing two top-twenty singles with "The Damned Don't Cry" and "Night Train". Like their first album, The Anvil earned a Silver disc in the UK.
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