Vienna Trivia Quiz

Answer: Fade to Grey

Visage was founded in 1978 in London by Strange and Egan who were later joined by Ure and Currie from Ultravox as part-time members. Their second single release, and first chart success, was with the song 'Fade to Grey' which reached the number eight spot on the UK Singles Chart, the top spot in both Germany and Switzerland and gained top ten places in France, Denmark and Italy among others. Other songs by Visage include 'Mind of a Toy' which was released in 1981 and peaked at number thirteen and the 1982 dance single 'Night Train' which peaked at the number twelve position both on the UK Singles Chart. The band split in 1985 but has reformed on a number of occasions to perform and record new material, most recently in May 2013 when the album 'Hearts and Knives' was recorded. Tragically, Steve Strange died on the 13th of February 2015 from a heart attack in Sharm-el-Sheik, Egypt at the age of just 55.

Finding a suitable picture to provide a clue to the answer to this question was the most difficult in this quiz; I hope that you found my choice suitable!

The popular song 'Black is Black' was originally recorded by the band Los Bravos in 1966. US rock band Guns 'n Roses included their song 'Mr Brownstone' on their 1987 debut studio album 'Appetite for Destruction'. Recorded and released during 1968, 'The Village Green Preservation Society' is a song written by Ray Davies, founder of The Kinks.

Answer: John Foxx

Lancashire born John Foxx, whose real name is Dennis Leigh was the founder of the band Tiger Lily which was to eventually metamorphose into Ultravox. Foxx remained with Ultravox until shortly after the release of the band's third album, 'Systems of Romance' in 1978 but poor sales and being dropped by their label, Island Records, heightened tensions within the band eventually leading Foxx to announce his departure immediately after the final show in San Francisco on their 1979 US tour. Ultravox! (the band later dropped the exclamation mark) are best known during their Foxx period for the song 'Hiroshima, Mon Amour' but as a solo artist his output met with limited success; the 1981 single 'Underpass' achieving a UK Singles Chart top placing at number thirty-one and his second, 'No-one Driving' reaching the number thirty-two position. Foxx founded his own recording studio, The Garden, during 1982 and has applied his expertise to the output of many bands of the period including The Cure, Souixsie and the Banshees and forerunners to the band Heaven 17, the British Electric Foundation or B.E.F.

Midge Ure was certainly busy during the 1970s and 1980s playing with the band Thin Lizzy as well as fronting Ultravox, taking part in the Visage project as well as pursuing his own solo career!

Answer: The Face

First published in 1980, 'The Face' was an enthusiastic ambassador for the New Romantic movement; barely a month passed by without the cover displaying a picture of a member of any of the bands of that genre. After publishing a story in 1992 which cast doubts over the sexuality of the high profile actor and singer Jason Donovan, the publishers found themselves facing legal proceedings for libel.

The magazine was forced to start a campaign asking its readership for donations to help pay its legal costs and the compensation awarded to Donovan which amounted to some three hundred thousand pounds. Fortunately the entertainer relented and came to an agreement which would allow the publishers of 'The Face' to remain in business.

After diversifying in its content during the 1990s to include features on more artistic and cerebral subjects such as photography in addition to its music, style and fashion core business, the magazine enjoyed a period of great success however with the inexorable advance of the internet, readership numbers and advertising revenues rapidly diminished and despite a campaign to save the magazine led, ironically by Jason Donovan, the title closed in May 2004.

Answer: Low

The album 'Low' is the first in a series of recordings known as the Berlin Trilogy the others being 'Heroes' and 'The Lodger', the last of the trilogy. Immediately following on from his Thin White Duke period, these three seminal albums were recorded in Berlin which was then still a divided city surrounded by the former East Germany. The bleakness of life in Berlin at the time of recording is reflected in both the lyrical content and musical style of all three albums but in 'Low' in particular which was recorded in collaboration with the enigmatic British musician and former member of Roxy Music, Brian Eno. The instrumental track 'A New Career in a New Town' expresses Bowie's desire to leave the United States where he had become the victim of a downward spiral of drug induced self destruction.

I couldn't find an image anywhere that would suggest the word 'Low'... So I made this one myself!

Answer: Musclebound

"We're building fires that will burn until morning,
The smell of books and hot stone surrounds us,
Tough is the leather that strapped to my skin,
Strong are the bonds that we make"

The combination of this lyric, the imagery in the design of the single's sleeve and in the song's supporting video quickly led to Spandau Ballet being accused of having supporting Nazi ideology; ironically much of the symbolism in the video features the hammer and sickle, both symbols of the old Soviet Union.

Spandau Ballet, a quintet from Islington, North London, began as The Cut in 1976 formed by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Gary Kemp and school friend Steve Norman. The band, which by 1980 consisted of Kemp on guitar, his brother Martin on bass, Norman on saxophone and percussion, John Keeble on drums and Tony Hadley on vocals, finally settled on the macabre name Spandau Ballet suggested to the band after journalist Robert Elms had seen the phrase scrawled on the wall of a Berlin nightclub lavatory whilst working in the city. Following their first two single releases 'To Cut a Long Story Short' and 'The Freeze', the song 'Musclebound' was the last of the three lifted from Spandau Ballet's debut album 'Journeys to Glory' and was released on the 23rd of March 1981 reaching a chart peak position at number ten on the UK Singles Chart.

The picture clue here is self-explanatory... Isn't it?

Answer: Blitz

The Blitz, originally a wine bar on London's Great Queen Street in Covent Garden, was opened in February 1979 and ran until October 1980. DJ and drummer Rusty Egan and his friend Steve Strange became aware of a vacant Tuesday night spot and negotiated a deal with the club's manager enabling the pair to transfer their Bowie themed dance nights from a club named Billy's in London's Soho district to its new home at The Blitz. Initially labelled as futurists, peacock punks and the Cult with No Name, the movement quickly became known as the New Romantics. Drawing inspiration for their looks from history; it would not be uncommon to see individuals dressed as kings or queens, as sheiks or monks or in fact as anything that one can imagine with both males and females, decorated with copious amounts of make-up. Many of the club's patrons were fashion students and many of their looks, often crafted by hand were spectacular to say the least.

The Blitz Club entry policy, enforced by future Visage front man Strange, was strict and ruthlessly applied. Bands that had their genesis at The Blitz include Spandau Ballet and Visage and then later, the singer Sade and the strangely named Blue Rondo à la Turk. The Blitz also inspired the publication of style magazines 'The Face' and' i-D'. Incidentally, George O'Dowd who was to find later fame, or infamy, as Boy George the singer for the group Culture Club was employed as the cloakroom attendant at The Blitz!

I considered that an image of a city taken after an raid might be in poor taste, so I opted for this; an image of a bolt of lightning which is 'blitz' in German.

Answer: Blancmange

Blancmange, consisting of Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe, had seven top forty hit singles and two top forty albums between 1982 and 1985. The pair had met in 1974 when they were both studying at the Harrow School of Art and began collaborating musically in 1978.

In 1980 the band released their debut EP, 'Irene and Mavis', on Blaah Records with further public exposure coming their way after their song 'Sad Day' appeared on the compilation 'Some Bizarre' album with contemporary acts such as Depeche Mode, The The, B-Movie and Soft Cell, all of whom went on to enjoy mainstream or cult success to varying degrees. This inclusion attracted major record label interest and Blancmange were signed by the record label, London Records in 1982. In October 1982 the band's best known single, 'Living on the Ceiling' reached the number seven spot on the UK Singles Chart and remained there for a total of fourteen weeks. Blancmange enjoyed further success with the hits 'Waves' which achieved a number nineteen placing on the UK Singles Chart in February 1983, 'Blind Vision' peaking at number ten in May 1983, 'That's Love, That Is' reaching number thirty-three in November 1983 and 'Don't Tell Me', the number eight spot in April 1984. Blancmange had their last top forty hit in September 1985 with the single 'What's Your Problem?' and in May the following year they entered the top 75 for the last time with the single 'I Can See It'.

Since splitting in June 1986, Arthur has composed music for television and has been involved with the bands Delirious and The Bhutan Philharmonic as well as recording his solo album, 'Suitcase'. Luscombe has also composed music for film and television which includes advertising campaigns, music for the Royal National Theatre, the television series 'Lonely Planet' for British television company Channel 4 and much more; the use of 'Living On The Ceiling' in a recent television advertising campaign has brought the music of Blancmange to a new, and surprisingly enthusiastic, younger audience.

Answer: Heaven 17

Heaven 17 arose from the ashes of the original Human League and was the brainchild of Martyn Ware. Ian Craig Marsh would shortly follow along with vocalist Glenn Gregory; it had been the pair's intention that Gregory would join the original Human League as singer but he had been unavailable at that time.

The band's first single, '(We Don't Need) This Fascist Groove Thang' which had been taken from their first album 'Penthouse and Pavement', was immediately banned from being played by the BBC as the corporation was concerned that the newly elected US President Ronald Reagan might take offence over its lyrical content, the songs controversial of which read 'Reagan's President Elect, Fascist god in motion'. The band's second album, 'The Luxury Gap', contained two of Heaven 17's biggest selling single releases, the anthemic 'Temptation' with superb vocal contribution by singer Carole Kenyon which reached the number two spot on the UK Singles Chart in May 1983 - a song that still has the power to fill dance floors everywhere it is played and its follow-up 'Come Live With Me' which reached the number five position in June 1983; this single was to be the last from the band to enter the top ten on the UK Singles Chart.

By the middle years of the 1980s Heaven 17 as a project had been shelved principally due to collaborations with other artists and by the late 'noughties' the band were reduced to a duo after Ian Craig Marsh had left to study for a degree. In more recent years the band has been cited as prime influences by a wide range of artists. As of 2016 the band are still recording and performing regularly.

The picture clue to this question is an image of the artwork 'The Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness' by the fifteenth century artist known as Juan de Flandes or John of Flanders, and which appeared as a panel on the altarpiece known as the Polyptych of Isabella the Catholic.

Answer: Norman Bates

Landscape was originally a jazz/rock fusion band that was formed in London in 1974 by Richard James Burgess who was joined by Christopher Heaton, John Walters, Andy Pask and Peter Thoms. The band could be seen on the touring circuit at regular intervals during the 1970s and it was towards the end of that decade that Landscape began experimenting with synthesizers and writing more accessible pop tunes. The band's most memorable song is the quirky 'Einstein a Go-Go' which achieved its peak position on the UK Singles Chart at number five in February 1981. Also included on the band's second album entitled 'From the Tea-Rooms of Mars to the Hell-Holes of Uranus' which was released in February 1981 and which reached the number thirteen position on the UK Album Chart was the second of the Landscape's two successful singles, 'Norman Bates'; this reached the number forty position on the UK Singles chart in May of the same year and fortuitously, prevented the band from joining the unenviable list of acts known as one-hit wonders.

Landscape split in 1983 with band members going on to enjoy further success with other contemporary acts; Burgess produced the first two albums by Spandau Ballet and worked closely on recordings by both Kim Wilde and the hugely popular Adam Ant with Pask contributing to the writing of the theme music to the British ITV network police drama, 'The Bill'.

The somewhat macabre subject in the picture is the model head that was used to represent the mother of killer Norman Bates in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film production of 'Psycho'.

Answer: Propaganda

Propaganda was formed in the city of Düsseldorf, West Germany in 1982 by Ralf Dörper, formerly of the industrial metal band Die Krupps. The band line-up was completed by vocalist Claudia Brücken, percussionist Michael Mertens and keyboard player Susanne Freytag.

The band moved to England during 1983 and was signed to the newly formed ZTT record label which had been founded by producer Trevor Horn. Propaganda's first single 'Dr Mabuse' entered the UK Singles Chart in early 1984 and peaked at the number twenty-seven spot; this single, also released in West Germany, achieved a placing at position number seven on the German Singles Chart. Their second release, 'Duel' appeared over a year later in May 1985 and reached a highest placing at number twenty-one on the UK chart but a disappointing number thirty on the German chart. 'Duel' fared far better in the Netherlands and Italy where it was placed at the number five and number two singles chart positions respectively. Toward the end of 1985 Dörper left Propaganda and the band split soon afterwards chiefly due the stresses that they had endured during a long running legal battle in an attempt to leave their recording company. Propaganda reappeared in 1988 fronted by original member Mertens with former Simple Minds members bassist Derek Forbes and drummer Brian McGee and American vocalist Betsi Miller and, after being signed to the Virgin label, the band released the album '1234' in 1990.

Charismatic singer Claudia Brücken had remained with ZTT records and later formed the electro-pop outfit Act with Scottish recording pioneer Thomas Leer. Propaganda has reunited on two occasions in order to record and perform but tensions between Brücken and Mertens left these endeavours with no chance of success.