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Steve Barnacle

Visage
Origin London, England
Genres
Years active 1978 (1978)–1985 (1985), 2004 (2004)–2010 (2010),
2012 (2012)–2015
Labels
Associated acts
Website www.visage.cc
Past members Steve Strange
Rusty Egan
Midge Ure
Billy Currie
Dave Formula
John McGeoch
Barry Adamson
Steve Barnacle
Gary Barnacle
Andy Barnett
Sandrine Gouriou
Rosie Harris
Ross Tregenza
Steven Young
Lauren Duvall
Robin Simon

Visage were a British synthpop band, formed in London in 1978. The band became closely linked to the burgeoning New Romantic fashion movement of the early 1980s, and are best known for their hit "Fade to Grey" which was released in late 1980. In the UK, the band achieved two Top 20 albums (Visage and The Anvil) and five Top 30 singles before the commercial failure of their third album (Beat Boy) led to their break-up in 1985.

The band has seen various line-up changes over the years, all fronted by vocalist Steve Strange, who resurrected the band name in the 2000s. In 2013, the most recent line-up of the band released Hearts and Knives, the first new Visage album in 29 years. The band's fifth and final album, Demons to Diamonds, was released in 2015, nine months after Strange had died following a heart attack.

Founding members Steve Strange and Rusty Egan were hosting David Bowie and Roxy Music club nights at Billy's nightclub in London's Soho district at the time and were eager to find new music to play, ultimately opting to create music themselves. Strange had briefly been in the punk/new wave bands The Moors Murderers and The Photons, and Egan was working with Midge Ure in the band The Rich Kids. The trio recorded a demo which included a cover of the Zager and Evans hit "In the Year 2525". The Visage line-up was completed with the addition of Ultravox keyboardist Billy Currie and three-fifths of the post-punk band Magazine – guitarist John McGeoch, keyboardist Dave Formula and bassist Barry Adamson (who left the band early on after the band's debut single, but returned as a session musician). Producer Martin Rushent had heard some of the band's material at Billy's nightclub and financed further recordings with a view to signing the band to his new Genetic Records label. Visage recorded their first album at Rushent's home studio in Berkshire, but Rushent's label collapsed before it had gotten off the ground and the band instead signed to Radar Records, a new independent label run by Rushent's former colleague Martin Davis (the pair had worked together at United Artists Records). Visage released their first single "Tar" on Radar in September 1979, though the single failed to chart. By this time, however, Strange and Egan had relocated their themed club nights to the Blitz club in Covent Garden and the New Romantic movement had begun in earnest. In mid-1980, David Bowie himself visited the club and asked Strange and three other regulars to appear in the video for his single "Ashes to Ashes", which helped to propel the New Romantic movement into the mainstream.


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