Midge Ure & Band Electronica announces Dublin and Belfast dates for The 1980 Tour

This is the very first time in the 40 years since it was made that the Vienna album will be performed in its entirety. It is also the first time that many of the songs from the debut Visage album will be played live. The music will be performed in a stage setting designed to reflect the atmosphere and ambience the albums deserve.

Vienna & Visage

At the end of the 1970s, momentous change was afoot in Britain and the world – in society, politics, fashion and culture – and the musical landscape was also about to change forever. The guitar-driven dominance that had propelled rock and punk throughout the decade was about to end, as synthesizers signalled the sound of the future and video transformed the look of the pop charts. The 1980s were about to explode into life and nothing would be the same again.

Visage’s single ‘Fade To Grey’ from the band’s debut eponymous album and Ultravox’s single ‘Vienna’ from the album of the same name were hits that signalled this change. Both records were co-written, recorded and produced by one of the leading characters in British music, Midge Ure, and not only transformed the charts around the globe but his life in the process.

“Autumn 1979 was a pivotal point in my career trajectory,” Midge Ure explains. “Over the previous two years I had grown from ‘pop band’ (Slik) to ‘post punk band’ (The Rich Kids) to being a stand in guitarist for Thin Lizzy. Over the course of autumn into winter 1979, while working on the Visage project with Billy Currie, I was invited to join Ultravox. The work we did that winter on the ‘Vienna’ album was an exhilarating rush of creativity the likes of which I had never experienced before.

“Forty years later I want to celebrate this period and, as we pass from 2019 into 2020, play the ‘Vienna’ album in its entirety along with highlights from the eponymous ‘Visage’ album."

Midge Ure and Band Electronica will perform at Belfast’s Ulster Hall on the 28 October and Dublin’s Olympia Theatre on the 29 October 2019.

Tickets from £29.50/€34.15 plus booking fee (additional charges may apply) are on sale now from Ticketmaster - (In person: From Ticketmaster Outlets Nationwide, By Telephone (24 Hour): ROI: 0818 719 300, Northern Ireland: 0844 277 4455, Book On Line: www.ticketmaster.ie).