Visage

Visage

A little something about Visage
It was in 1978, in the wake of punk, that Steve Strange and Rusty Egan began hosting 'Bowie' nights at Soho clubs, playing the music of David Bowie and Roxy Music as well as such new electronic acts as Gary Numan and Ultravox. Egan spun disks while Strange took care of a much more important task: manning the door and denying entry to those who did not have the right look. As their popularity grew, the venues got bigger until Strange and Egan opened their own club, the Camden Palace, in 1982. Apart from playing host to London's beautiful people, Strange and Egan had a strong interest in creating music of their own. Strange had worked breifly as a roadie for Billy Idol's Generation X, and had played even more breifly with Moors Murderers featuring Chrissie Hynde. Egan had been a member of the Rich Kids, featuring former Sex Pistol Glen Matlock. With a captive audience in their clubs, the pair formed a band of their own along with friends Billy Currie of Ultravox, Midge Ure (not yet a member of Ultravox), and Magazine musicians John McGeoch, Barry Adamson and Dave Formula. Heavily influenced by the music and look of Bowie and his glam-rock peers, Visage was one of the earliest bands to capture the look and the sound that was to become popularized as 'new romantic.' The music was sometimes somber and moody, sometimes light and delicate, but always worthy of being played in the clubs. Visage had a flair for the dramatic, singing in French and German as well as English. Even the band's name - French for 'face' - lent them an international flavor while giving a nod to their preoccupation with image. And in a period when electronic musicians such as Gary Numan were still trying to eek louder, more driving sounds from their synthesizers, Visage - like Ultravox under Ure - could be considered new wave minimalists. The band's crowning musical achievement was their new romantic anthem, the mysterious and possibly even shady "Fade to Grey." Visage recorded a pair of albums and had a few hits, but they were quickly washed aside by the flood of new romantic bands that swept through London. Midge Ure's involvement with Ultravox took precedence over his Visage duties, and Visage's emphasis on image and the mood of their music rather than quality destined them to be a short lived, though important experiment in futurist music.

Fade to Grey

One man on a lonely platformOne case sitting by his sideTwo eyes staring cold and silentShow fear as he turns to hide We fade to grey (fade to grey)We fade to grey (fade to grey)Un homme dans une gare isoléeUne valise à ses côtésDeux yeux fixes et froidsMontrent de la peur lorsqu'il se tourne pour se cacherSens la pluie comme un été anglaisEntends les notes d'une chanson lointaineSortant de derrière un posterEspérant que la vie ne fût si longueFeel the rain like an English summerHear the notes from a distant songStepping out from a back drop posterWishing life wouldn't be so longWe fade to grey (fade to grey)We fade to grey (fade to grey)