Live Review

Ultravox – Hammersmith Apollo, London

• 12th Apr 2010

There’s something a bit iffy about reunion gigs. If you loved the band in their day you run the very real risk of seeing your heroes past their prime, hearing your favourite tunes tortured, having your illusions shattered. Why would you put yourself through that?

Luckily, fans heading along to see Ultravox at the Hammersmith Apollo last night had no such trepidations. Ultravox’s reunion tour – Return to Eden – went down such a treat last year the band decided to do it again. So the audience of pot-bellied bespectacled older men with their considerably better-looking wives knew what to expect.

And they weren’t disappointed. Ultravox’s music, like the band themselves, ages gracefully.

After opening with New Europeans, the four members of the 1980s line-up – Warren Cann, Chris Cross, Billy Currie and Midge Ure – settled into a mellow string of songs performed with their usual elegance, only this time understated to the point of sombreness.

Midge’s voice has deepened, which gives the songs a gravitas that works. Visions in Blue was a particularly successful tune, delivered quietly and gently, allowing the keyboards take the song to its soaring crescendo. That’s the joy of electronic music – that big sound isn’t going to diminish with the years, and a man standing behind a synthesiser looks cool at any age.

The band plays it a bit safer with the attire these days, dressed all in black, with Midge looking bit like an older, whiter version of Morpheus from the Matrix. Not a pair of leather pants in sight, fortunately.

The set, too, was simple and understated. No theatricals needed here, this was simply about a band and its fans taking a sedate stroll down memory lane…

Or so I thought. But it’s a reunion gig after all, and the hits must be played, regardless of how well they can be delivered. So after an enormously successful first half, out came the anthems, which didn’t work quite so well. But at this point the crowd had been lulled back 25 years and were entering into the nostalgic spirit with enthusiasm. Any failings in Midge’s voice or his slightly dad-like rocking guitar moves were going to be forgiven – the entire audience was his sentimental friend. Hymn was bounced along to with an exuberance usually reserved for football games. The band and their fans were having damn good time.

And Vienna, ah Vienna. That was just majestic.

With so many fantastic new bands out there doing properly interesting stuff, you’ve got to wonder about the value of these comeback tours. But if a band really feels they MUST have a reunion, well, this is how it should be done.