Fans love fresh Ultravox reunion

Ultravox

Symphony Hall,

Birmingham

By Ian Harvey

The last time Ultravox's classic line-up played together was in front of 72,000 fans at Live Aid.

Fast forward 24 years and although the songs remain the same there's quite a difference on stage - sharper suits, a lot less hair and a preponderance of shiny Apple Mac laptops that simply weren't around back in 1985.

But for the sell-out crowd at Symphony Hall last night, it was a Return to Eden as Midge Ure, Chris Cross, Billie Currie and Warren Cann took their positions on their reunion tour as if they had just beamed down to bring the mechanical rhythms of new wave synthpop back to the masses.

Songs like Lament and Visions In Blue remain chilling cameos, while Reap the Wild Wind sounded like a warning of some unspecified disaster and Hymn somehow managed to be portentous and uplifting in the same breath.

Much of the time the band were almost motionless like silhouetted monoliths, leaving Ure to throw the occasional rock god guitar shapes.

Of course the biggest cheers were saved for the still magnificent Vienna, along with Dancing With Tears in My Eyes.

But perhaps the most striking moment of the night came as Ure, Cross and Currie joined Cann in drumming out the rhythm of The Voice.nextpagenextpagenextpagenextpage