Visage

The Blitz

Visage formed in London in 1978, when Midge Ure and Rusty Egan began a project to make music for the club nights Egan deejayed, including Billy's and then the Blitz Club in Covent Garden. In 1979 Egan and Steve Strange took over Tuesday nights at the Blitz wine bar, with a strict door policy that admitted only the weird and wonderful, and Strange fronted the band throughout. The members drew from Magazine, Ultravox and Rich Kids: Billy Currie and Dave Formula on keyboards, John McGeoch on guitar and saxophone and Barry Adamson on bass. The debut single "Tar" (November 2, 1979, Radar) was not a hit, and Radar's distribution deal collapsed soon after. David Bowie recruited Strange and three other Blitz regulars for his "Ashes to Ashes" video in 1980.

Visage (November 14, 1980, Polydor) was produced by the band with Martin Rushent at Genetic Sound Studios in Reading, and reached 13 in the UK and one in Germany; "Mind of a Toy" (March 6, 1981) reached 13 and "Visage" (July 3, 1981) 21. The Anvil (March 26, 1982), recorded at Mayfair Studios without McGeoch, who had joined Siouxsie and the Banshees, reached six, their highest; it has a Helmut Newton cover photograph. Ure left shortly after, citing creative differences with Strange. "Pleasure Boys" followed in October 1982, the compilation Fade to Grey: The Singles Collection on November 11, 1983 (UK 38), and Beat Boy on October 26, 1984 (UK 79); the band split in 1985.

Mark II

Strange revived the name in 2002 and appeared at a recreated Blitz in the BBC's Ashes to Ashes in 2008. A new line-up was announced on January 8, 2013, and Hearts and Knives (Blitz Club, May 20, 2013) was the first new album in 29 years. In 2014 they played a ten-song set at the World Ski Jumping Championships in Prague with the Czech Synthosymphonica Orchestra, which led to the live album Orchestral (December 8, 2014). Steve Strange died on February 12, 2015, aged 55, and Demons to Diamonds (November 6, 2015), the final album, was finished by the band, with cover art by Boy George. John McGeoch died on March 4, 2004, aged 48. Strange's autobiography Blitzed! appeared in 2002.