ULTRAVOX!!
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Synth Rock |
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ULTRAVOX!! is not a tribute act, it is as original as the first Ultravox!, started way back in the 1970s by John Foxx, Warren Cann, and Billy Currie. Here are the original works featured that I, Dejan Djordjevic, with William and Warren as a three-piece ULTRAVOX!! have created including our first recordings we started way back in January 1982 (involving Midge Ure on e-guitar on "Man On The Phone" and "Ride Into The Dawn", and Christopher Thomas Allen on bass guitar on "Spitfire Fly - Reap The Wild Wind" and "Ride Into The Dawn"). Even when people said to me after our first two ULTRAVOX!! showcase concerts, that the three-piece ULTRAVOX!! with me, with William, and with Warren, was the most powerful Ultravox they ever heard and saw live on stage, I personally still left space open for Christopher on bass to join in, as well as for Midge on vocals and guitars, and also for Dennis - John Foxx that is; I went to see Dennis live at the London Astoria, a few months after I had headlined the Shepherds Bush Empire with my project TRON, and Dennis was very strong - his keyboard sounds were quite futuristic and his vocals better than ever; I spoke to William when I went to see him at London's Royal Geographical Society and said that now it would be a great chance to try once more to create the big ULTRAVOX!! dinosaur band we dreamt of since January 1982, but again it did not happen.
Artist & Repertoire promoter and former manager of the Shepherd's Bush Empire Theatre in London, Pete Feenstra, wrote about ULTRAVOX!!: "Sir William Lee Currie and Sir Warren Reginald Cann from "Ultravox!", and Sir Dejan Djordjevic from "ULTRAVOX!!" got secretly together to make music for grown-ups and have fun, but despite the musical chemistry they did not become friends (this means proper friends, not "Myspace friends"), they called it "ULTRAVOX!!" written with two exclamation marks and there's no further mystery about it really. It is Sir William Lee Currie on e-piano, violin, synthesisers, keyboards, e-guitars. Sir Warren Reginald Cann on drums, e-drums, e-percussion, low backing vocals. And it is the trilingual (speaks and sings in English, German and Serbian) Sir Dejan Djordjevic, on vocals, synthesisers, e-piano, acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, and sound engineering." - Thanks to Pete Feenstra for the review, there is no better promoter than Pete. Beware of piracy, i.e. an ULTRAVOX!! page, or Dejan Djordjevic page on 'Discogs.com' doesn't exist, these are thugs who commit crimes by breaking the law of data-protection as well as identity theft and should be locked up in jail for it.
Apart from the E-mail address: ultravoxii@myspace.com
you can also send your E-mails to contact E-mail: dejantron3@yahoo.com
Also check out the other Ultravox!! Internet pages on http://www.myspace.com/Ultravoxii (the solution of the mystery celebrity guest on our ULTRAVOX!! showcase concert is: the beautiful blonde lady with the banana is Mrs Sarah Greene);
- and also check out this Internet page on
http://dejandjordjevic0.tripod.com
Contact (address since 21/11/2011): Sir Dejan Djordjevic, Rear Basement Flat, 189 Sandgate Road, Folkestone, CT20 2HJ, United Kingdom of Great Britain.
Here's the ULTRAVOX!! discography:
01.) ULTRAVOX!! - Intimate Collection (MC, and vinyl album, 8/1982)
02.) ULTRAVOX!! - ViENNA 1989 (limited fanclub edition only Compact Disc digital audio 2-songs single and VHS video, 12/1989)
03.) ULTRAVOX!! - Heart Of The Country (limited edition fanclub only DVD, 2003)
04.) ULTRAVOX!! - ViENNA 1989 (re-released limited edition fanclub only Compact Disc digital audio 4-songs single and DVD, 16/7/2011)
05.) ULTRAVOX!! - The Serenade (retitled re-release of our 1982 'ULTRAVOX!! Intimate Collection' album as limited edition fanclub only Compact Disc digital audio album, 8/8/2011).
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RHINO's interview with ULTRAVOX!! drummer Warren Reginald Cann, 2011.
RHINO: In the ULTRAVOX!! "ViENNA 1989" music video, probably the best music video created ever, your name and date of birth are mentioned, 20th May 1952, although you appear in the video only in ULTRAVOX!! posters. WRC: The story of "ViENNA 1989" is that it is the name of a code name for a space mission, where two composers/musicians/artists, Dejan Djordjevic and Billy Currie, try to escape a mad assassin. They have to travel through time to do so, while I have just programmed a robot and so only appear in posters on walls as an additional decoy for the assassin. The assassin hunts for ULTRAVOX!! in all dimensions, including Cyberspace. The women seen in the video walking in a circle clockwise resemble a time machine, which was Dejan's idea. Dejan is the youngest of us three, he achieved a lot with his solo projects, i.e. TRON, and he just thought that our ULTRAVOX!! "ViENNA 1989" had to be a complete new version leaving behind all the "mould" of our old version with Conny Plank. Dejan is full of great ideas and it seems there is no end in sight, he is a creator and defender type of character. Dejan sung "ViENNA 1989" slightly different than Midge sung "Vienna", although the very first line is almost identical. Dejan absolutely lives for music, he is the self-made composer and one of the purest artists one can think of. One thing I don't understand is why he keeps going to Germany whenever things don't go as planned at home in the UK. RHINO: How many formations of ULTRAVOX! were you part of? WRC: ULTRAVOX!, written with one exclamation mark, was the first one with John Foxx on vocals, and there was Ultravox the quartet with Billy, Midge, and Chris, and ULTRAVOX!! the trio with Dejan Djordjevic on vocals and instruments, William Lee Currie on instruments, and myself on drums and e-percussion. RHINO: I met John Foxx at the London Astoria after his concert on 11th October 1997 and asked him about his views on ULTRAVOX!! - here is what he said. JF: What I'd like to say about ULTRAVOX!! fronted by Dejan Djordjevic is firstly, that I have a great regard for the other two, Warren and Billy, and I was glad we worked together when we did in the 1970s. We made a life that was our own from absolutely nothing and that was our aim at the outset. An adventure. But there comes a time when you know you must move on in order to develop very firmly that I no longer wanted to be part of a band. I had too many other avenues to explore. I can tell that for Dejan ULTRAVOX!! must be a great challenge, especially after he had so much input and it was sort of snatched away from him back in 1982 when he must have suddenly felt "someone elses" elbow in his ribs. I know exactly how Dejan must have felt as I have been through it myself just like it, and I had the same "destroyers" sent to my garden studio like Dejan had, and probably will have for the unforeseen future, for as long as he carries on with ULTRAVOX!!, and I hope he will carry on going strong. The sky is the limit. RHINO: John, did you ever see the Billy Currie Ultravox with dancer/actor Tony Fenelle? JF: No. RHINO: John, did you ever see Ultravox with 'Midge'? JF: Yes, when they played in the theatre at the bottom of Tottenham Court Road in 1979, not far from Centre Point. It was very nice ... I spoke to Billy ... we just had a brief chat, but I've always got on well with Chris and Bill ... I think ... we were in "different places", so it wasn't easy ... I missed my trench coat, but that's what I've done right afterwards, going back into my trench and keeping my head down during "Wolfgang Keuner's" ordeal. WRC: Our Midge period started with so many rumours about why John Foxx was made to leave the band and that is why it helped us to stick our heads out and even get "Vienna" into the charts in 1980. I was made to leave the Midge Ultravox in 1985, so I know what John must have been through. I also heard many rumours about what John Foxx was doing or thinking, but the last time I met John was in a club in London back in the early 1980s. RHINO: Having spoken to John Foxx as well as to Dejan Djordjevic, I realized that they both don't see themselves as a personification of being ULTARVOX! or ULTRAVOX!!, but serving ULTRAVOX!!, while with Midge Ure Midge sees himself as Ultravox. WRC: Well, it's bigotry and that exactly was why Midge and I fell out back in the 1980s, because the Midge Ure Ultravox was a farce, not as much as the "inflatable Tony" Ultravox, but a farce never the less. RHINO: Were you born and bred in Britain? WRC: No, I was born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. And my eyes are not brown, they are blue/green. Billy's are green, and Dejan's are blue. RHINO: Are you married? WRC: Yes, I think so. RHINO: Do you have an early life musical memory? WRC: Yes I do actually, waiting for the dog to bark in "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window" (laughs). RHINO: What was your proudest school moment? WRC: Playing at a lunchtime concert. The band was "Peak Freen", with my closest school friends. RHINO: What was the first record you bougt? WRC: "Not Fade Away" by the Rolling Stones. RHINO: What was your worst job? WRC: Ultravox! bass guitarist Chris Allen and I used to be part-time cleaners at a big industrial plant in North London. We'd avoid doing anything wherever possible, but, ever so often we couldn't manage to evade having to clean out the toilets. That actually inspired Dejan to have an ULTRAVOX!! related interview filmed in the toilet last year in his former basement flat in London, when new rumours were spread that he was Sam Blue, this right after he had performed live alone on acoustic guitar and vocals in Kensington and Chelsea's Holland Park. RHINO: Apart from ULTRAVOX!, ULTRAVOX!!, and Ultravox, what were your previous bands? WRC: In Vancouver: "The Lost World", "Push", "The Trees", "Segment 41", "Python". In London: "Thumper", and "Tiger Lily". After having left Midge Ultravox in 1985/'86 I did a lot of telly appearances in Kim Wilde's band and played with "The Sons Of Valentino", and "The Huw Lloyd-Langton Band". I haven't mentioned the worst band I have ever played with, "5 Man Cargo", but to be fair, it was a good/bad experience, but it just wasn't cool. RHINO: What is your most hated record? WRC: Silly question! "Shaddup Your Face" that kept "Vienna" from becoming a Number One single back in 1980. RHINO: Was having been made to leave Midge Ultravox in 1985/'86 your lowest point in career? WRC: Actually, no. In 1979 Island Records had dumped ULTRAVOX!, John Foxx was sacked (it's still a moot point), Robin Simon quit to stay in New York, we had no manager, and there was just myself, Chris, and Bill, trying to keep the band together. I recall having to sneak into Island Record's warehouse to pinch our equipment back. We were totally on our own. RHINO: What was your proudest point in career? WRC: Playing at the "Live Aid Concert" in 1985 in London's Wembley Stadium. RHINO: What was the most hurtful thing ever said or written about you? WRC: That was after our show case concert in 1982 as a trio, with a then 16-year-old Dejan Djordjevic on vocals, e-guitar, keyboards, and additional percussion, Billy Currie on keyboards and violin, and myself on drums, e-drums, e-percussion, and drumcomputer ... it seems Bill Wyman from the Rolling Stones who was amongst other celebrities on our guest list and was in the audience that night, reportedly, he walked out and was quoted having said, "I hate it when bands use tapes! Can't they play?", or words to that destructive effect. We NEVER used tapes, Mr Wyman. It was just us, the three blokes on stage that night performing better than "RUSH". We did use a drumcomputer, sampler and sequencers, that was before MIDI was invented, but it was all performed live on stage with some sampled e-guitar played by Billy, no tape. What seemed to sound like an e-guitar while Dejan and Billy were on synthesisers was the sampled e-guitar and Dejan's Moog Prodigy plugged into a distortion-footpedal and then into a guitar amplifier. We started out with "When The Scream Subsides", and Dejan came up with a great intro where he actually talks with and without a Vocoder he switched on and off via footswitch, and I played Moogdrum e-percussion and Billy added more synths, but no tape was used for the concert whatsoever. RHINO: What is your favourite fantasy? WRC: Having my own plane and flying around the world. RHINO: Is the plane your favourite transport? WRC: Nobody walks in L.A. My Daily transport is a 1969 Cadillac Coupe deVille. I have a 1971 Dodge Challenger in the midst of being rebuilt. I am not too keen on new cars ... too much plastic. RHINO: Do you have a favourite book? WRC: An all-time favourite is "Starship Troopers" by Robert Heinlein. RHINO: Do you watch tv? WRC: Yes. I like "The X-Files", "Fawlty Towers" with John Cleese, "The Young Ones" with Rick Mayall, "The Dangerous Brothers", "Twin Peaks", "Red Dwarf", "One Foot In The Grave", "Absolutely Fabulous", "Inspector Morse" (cult - I think we all like that one), "Star Trek", "Only Fools And Horses", "Blackadder Goes Forth" (absolute top comedy in ULTRAVOX!!), "Outer Limits", and maybe "The Simpsons". RHINO: I see you're wearing jeans, leather and Cowboy boots in London. WRC: Why not? It could be worse for your eyes though, because living actually in L.A., where the weather is so famously agreeable, means I've also started quite a collection of serious Hawaiian shirts. RHINO: Dejan can't give an interview without mentioning his dog Nero. In an E-mail he even mentioned Nero's 12th birthday on 16th July 2011. Do you have pets? WRC: Two dogs and a cat. RHINO: What is your favourite food? WRC: Japanese. RHINO: I had a quick chat with Sir William Lee Currie when he and Sir Dejan Djordjevic met for violin recordings in a room of the Royal Geographical Society in London a few years ago, and he said that you were still quite pissed off with Midge. WRC: The one-word answer is: idiot. It brings out the "Basil Fawlty / Victor Meldrew" in me. RHINO: What is your greatest fear? WRC: Sleeping on a park bench must still be one of my greatest fears. RHINO: How do you see ULTRAVOX!! at the moment, as we can't call it a band, can we? WRC: There are certain things I learned a long time ago and I don't want disappointments to repeatedly return again, so I think that the way it goes at the moment is much more elegant, while bands are a different thing - mouldy cellar stuff, awful. All those pseudo bands are terribly pared down compared to the rather futuristic trio ULTRAVOX!!, me with Dejan and Billy, what is more like an orchestra or units of creative musicians/composers that used to be around long before bands. RHINO: What is the most beautiful thing for you personally? WRC: I like tinkering with the car, driving to car shows, reading, watching some telly, going to movies, but the main thing is being happy. Yucky answer, but true.
