The Anvil (2020

Well Being An 80"s " Fan " When " Visage" And "The Anvil" Came Out In 81/82 Originally, On Vinyl Of Course!! ...............AND Being A HUGE Ultravox Fan, The Hallmarks Of Midge Ure And Billy Currie Were Apparrent From The Outset. Almost Like A "Funky" Ultravox In a Way!!!!Obviously Back Then, I Had Both Albums On Vinyl, And Loved Both Of Them, For Whatever Reason That I Dont Know, I Got Rid of Them, Eventually.............After ALOT Of Searching And Waiting, I Finally Found "Visage" ( The Album Title !! ) On CD.............Then I Went To Record Fairs Etc Looking For "The Anvil"...............But To No Avail......And I Was Getting Fustrated By Now!!!!!FINALLY A Few Years Back ---I Found It Via "No-way Records" and I Was Made Up!!!!...........NOW In 2009.............. With The Old B-sides " Motivation" and "Im Still Searching" Im REALLY Made Up!!!!!For Me..............This WAS The Best Visage Album............ For Me.........The Strongest Tracks Have Always Been "The Horseman" "Look What Theyve Done To me" and Again We Love" Personally I Wasnt a Huge Fan Of "Nightrain" But I Can Understand Why It was Picked as a Single back Then, And I Love The Ambience Of "Whispers".And The Inlay Cover Is Excellent, "No Way" Werent Bothered to Do That , But "Cherry Pop" Have Made an Excellent Inlay Notes Cover...Well Done!!If You are A Visage/Midge Ure/ Rusty Egan/Steve Strange Fan.........This Is a MUST!!!...........Steve Strange Was On Good Form On The Record Thankfully!!!!!.......Downhill From Then Though!!!!This is a GREAT CD, Well Worth Investing In and At The Price..............Its a No Brainer!!!!............GET IT While you Can!!!!

"The Anvil" picked up where "Visage" left off in that it was another super stylish album, both musically and in its glossy, embossed (rare at the time) sleeve with photography by the great Helmut Newton. Equally stylish it may have been, with pretty much the same line-up as its predecessor (the lack of John McGeoch being the main difference) but it was a distinctly different album than Visage's debut. It was smoother, and had a soundscape feel to it, with those swooshing synths in tracks such as "Look What They've Done" and "The Damned Don't Cry" (a nod to "Fade to Grey" yes, but still very much its own song)."The Anvil" works best when played loud - essential for the closing track "Whispers" if you want to hear any of the hushed vocals, but amazing too on the title track, with its thunderous call to the dance floor. The only slightly disappointing track is "Wild Life" which feels like a bit of a filler, but even this works in its own way."The Anvil" saw a slightly more grown-up Visage, visually represented by Mr Strange, who had ditched the new romantic pancake and clothes made by his mates for top of the range Antony Price. With most band members with fingers in other (often more lucrative) pies, it's a shame they couldn't make at least one more album with the core line-up.

The reason why Visage weren't as successful as many of the similar New Wave/Romantic bands was that they were quickly dismissed as a one-hit-wonder.They didn't have good enough singles to follow up the success of "Fade to Grey" back in 1980. And when they returned 1,5 years later with The Anvil they had already been pushed off the train.The charts were occupied by Human League, Duran Duran, etc at the time. Plus electronic pop was beginning to lose its appeal (at least to the mainstream), and many artists had moved on.That's unfortunate because this album is really, great. "The Damned Don't Cry" is easily one of the best dark synthpop tracks from the 80's. It's in the same style as Fade To Grey". Those haunting and whispered female vocals that continue to be the band's strengthVery moody, melancholic collection of songs. The Anvil is much more diverse and experimental that Visage's debut and the tracks are more dance/club oriented.Strange struggled to reunite the band's members to record a second album due to their commitments with their respective bands.Ure had now joined Currie in Ultravox,Formula and Adamson with Magazine and McGeoch had joined Siouxsie and the BansheesBlitz club kings Strange and Egan. were out in clubland having fun. Thanks to the success of A Club For Heroes at The Blitz and Barracuda on Baker Street, Strange and Egan were about to embark on their biggest venture yet with Mornington Cresent’s cavernous Camden Palace.Never the less, in the autumn of 1981, Visage went into the studio and recorded the Anvil as a five-piece band without McGeoch and only limited guest work from Adamson.The album, which was named after an infamous gay nightclub in New York City, was released in March 1982Following this, Ure quit from Visage to concentrate on his work with Ultravox, who were now even more successful than Visage.The trouble with Visage was that there were too many chiefs, six characters all wanting an equal say without putting in an equal amount of work.