Ultravox

While Ultravox will forever be associated with Midge Ure who will forever be associated with the Band Aid single Do They Know It's Christmas, the band was originally the brainchild of John Foxx, who evolved it from his former band Tiger Lily. They were at the vanguard of post-punk bands rejecting raw emotion in favour of the more impersonal synth-dominated approach favoured by German bands like Kraftwerk, whose mastermind Connie Plank produced their 1978 album Systems Of Romance. When Foxx left to launch his solo career, Ultravox appeared to be over until former Slik singer Midge Ure stepped in to replace Foxx and revitalise the band; resulting in the massively successful Vienna album, with the title track not only becoming their biggest hit but the anthem of the new romantic era. Subsequent albums proved less successful, with Ure and Billy Currie maintaining parallel careers with another band, Visage - though Ultravox had another major hit with Dancing With Tears In My Eyes before Ure co-wrote Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas with Bob Geldof and immortality beckoned. Ultravox continued to operate sporadically through the 1990s and 2000s and still record and tour occasionally.