Nick Fisher and Jim la Roche obviously had the foresight to invest and find new clients. Whilst Nick continued to bring in more bands, Jim la Roche had been building a firm relationship with trade shows and conference work producers Caribiner.

Alan no longer had a band to work with and soon found himself working on the trade shows, setting up lights and running special effects.

“It was an interesting period. Gaslight had moved into new premises which needed new electrics and work benches etc and we all pitched in. We were doing lots of corporate work which kind of lived off the back of the Gary Numan exposure so some of the productions were huge and adventurous and we had more equipment, so we needed larger premises.”

Alan had heard that ULTRAVOX were going out on tour and there was a whisper that there was possibly a chance of getting a design presented to the band.

“Ultravox were always a favourite band of mine, from Hiroshima Mon Amour, Slow Motion and the Ha Ha Ha album, I couldn’t have wished for a better band to work for. I made it my mission to work for Ultravox.
I had an idea to work with but it’s tricky designing for a band, without actually speaking to them, discussing ideas.”

Gaslight and Alan did have an ally in the Ultravox camp. A chap called Dave Hulme, keyboard technician and former Gary Numan crew member.
Dave looked after Billy Currie and his gear on the Numan Pleasure Principle UK tour. Dave was able to give Alan vital information for his lighting design, such as playing positions, equipment details etc.

“It was apparent there would be some sort of set pieces or scenery but to be honest I’d already started working on ideas and was committed to seeing them through. My idea was to have a tubular steel octagon above each band member. They would be angled at about 45 degrees and hold 24 Par 64s around the outside edge. Each band member would have their own octagon with their own lights attached. Ideal as there would be lots of solo work or instrumental bits. The ‘separate zones’ would also give some sort of collective individuality. To top it all, a black Roscoe projection screen material would fill in the hollow of each octagon. These could then be coloured from above or have shapes or images projected onto them”

A meeting was quickly arranged between Alan and Midge Ure, with Chris Cross the bass player also present.

“At very short notice, I had a meeting with the band to present my ideas. I was extremely nervous, not about meeting the guys but trying to convince them to go with my idea. I remember Midge and Chris pouring over my drawings, asking all kinds of questions of which I did my best to answer. They looked very interested, keen and enthusiastic about everything. However, I came away from the meeting without a decision as the other band members would also need to see the plans.”

Within a few days Alan received conformation that he’d got the design for the Rage in Eden world tour.

Considerable time was spent working on the details of construction of the octagons and their inter-connecting pieces. Alan and Mike Crisp, a structural engineer from Telestage finalised the design for Telestage to construct.

“I was given cassette tapes of the Vienna and new Rage in Eden albums. I’d bought a Sony Walkman whilst touring with Gary Numan and so I played Ultravox all the time, everywhere, trying to learn every beat, solo, lyric, chord….anything that would break each song down into fragments and familiarise myself with who was playing particular instruments. The music was brilliant and I looked forward to getting things started with the band and my lights.”

Dave Hulme had mentioned once or twice to Alan, that Midge could be quite an ‘awkward’ or difficult person to work with.

 “I never really paid any attention to this information at the time. But it wasn’t long before I found out just how ‘awkward’ he was going to be.”

Rehearsals were at The Kilburn State cinema in London.
The first equipment to go in were the chain hoists to support the lighting grid trusses from which the Octagonal design would suspend. On the first day it was apparent that the lighting rig was too low due to the cinema screen restricting the height of the lighting trusses.
Overnight, radical changes were made to the lighting rig to enable everything to fit properly.

With the lighting rig up and working, next onstage was the painted floor cloth then the scenery, followed by the band gear, then the band.

“I gelled up my lights then focussed everything. Whilst the band rehearsed….I started building ‘looks or scenes’ into the lighting desk. Every now and again I would try out effects I’d just programmed with the band playing. I could see Midge looking up at the lights from time to time, watching what I was doing.
First he said…..”Could you not flash the lights at that bit” so I wouldn’t flash the lights, then it was…”Could you change the colours of those lights” so I’d change the colour of the lights, then he’d say “Can you move those lights” so I’d move the lights.”

Two or three days into rehearsals…..the big guns went off. East v West. Alan from Edinburgh, Midge from Glasgow…..KABOOM!

“Midge wasn’t happy. I wasn’t happy…..I’d be operating the lights; he’d look up and make a tutt…stop the band, then make a comment about the lights to me. I finally took the bait and reacted. I’d had enough. I pulled down the grand master fader and brought up the work lights. The band stopped playing and I walked from my lighting desk in the stalls up to the front of the stage to confront Midge. I could hear crew members whispering to each other in the wings “quick, come and see this.”

The place fell silent…..

I climbed up on to the stage and Midge asked me if there was a problem. After gathering my composure, I made it clear that I was very unhappy.

I explained that due to his demands and the changes made to the lighting design that I was no longer in control of my design and that I felt it just looked like shit.
"Well you designed it" he said.

Hmmm!

"You've made me change the all colours and you don't like anything that I've done so far, it just looks like crap, I'm not prepared to do this".

"What do you mean"?

I told Midge and the band that I would carry on till they found some one else but I wasn't going to do the tour.

"Did you think you could just do what you liked"?

The rehearsals carried on…only this time Midge sat out front with me at the lighting desk and contributed in a constructive and helpful way. He pointed out riffs and chords he could hear onstage but I wasn't hearing them out front. Ultravox live onstage are LOUD.

So we carried on but the atmosphere was quite tense. I was sticking to my guns and so was Midge but he had mellowed slightly towards me.

Rehearsals are always demanding especially when a new recruit comes in….that was always the case with Ultravox.

The rehearsal period finished and it was time to dismantle the set and pack the truck, ready for the first night of the tour in Sheffield City Hall.

My attitude was the same. The rig looked unrecognisable from my initial design. The saturated colours I used were gone and replaced with wishy washy pastel colours and it all looked very bland.
I didn't want to do the tour.

I'd heard that Midge was also in the habit of getting the tour manager to call the lighting designer backstage to the dressing rooms after a show. He would then ask the LD why he missed this cue or that effect. This was something else I wasn't going to put myself through.

Anyway, the atmosphere on the tour bus was pretty odd. My lighting crew were asking me if I was staying or what was happening. I wasn't staying and that was that.

On the morning of the fit up onstage, I made a decision that would either work or backfire on me. If I was going down then it would be on my terms.

During the fit up, with the help of my lighting crew, I put everything back the way I had it been before Midge made me change it all.
I kept onboard his ideas about one or two things but generally changed it all back to the way I wanted. All my saturated colours were back in the rig.

Now when it came to the soundcheck, Midge and the band were slightly pre-occupied with getting the sound right on and off stage, so my plan went un-noticed. As usual with Ultravox, the fit ups and prep work for a show can take all day and this day in particular, Warren Can and the band were consumed with getting their gear working.

First show of the new tour and every one was slightly nervous.
Eddie and Sunshine, the support act played their set and it was now time for the main act.

We had a tremendous audience that night. The show went brilliantly and I had a great time doing the lights.

As I was packing up my lighting desk, the audience were filing past me giving compliments on a great light show.

Then ten minutes after the show I could see Laurie Small, the tour manager heading my way.

"No Way Laurie!"

"Midge wants to see you" he said.

Reluctantly, I followed him backstage to the dressing room.

Midge was there in the dressing room with the rest of the band and a quite a few invited guests and fans.

"You changed it all back again"

"Yip!"

At this point there was another stand-off when a couple of fans leaned in and said "Great show Midge, the lights were fantastic". This was followed by others saying how great the lighting was.

As I left the dressing room, we both acknowledged….we were both right.

From that moment on, I knew that what I was doing was good. I now had to fine tune my way of interpratating Midge's ideas into a way that we were both happy.

From then on, each night was much the same. Rave reviews for the lighting continued to pour in.

I was now staying with Ultravox.

The pre tour nerves were all gone and now we could all get down to the business of fine tuning the show.

We did a world tour of Rage in Eden and everywhere we went was a success.

I learned my lesson from that tour. Midge is a very creative person with a lot of great visual ideas. Maybe we didn't hit it off too well to begin with but we ultimately gained great respect for each other.

I can honestly say with hand on heart that he worked me hard to get what he wanted and it made me a better lighting designer and he knows that.

QUARTET

After any world tour a band usually takes time off to recuperate. Some bands write new material, some split up and pursue solo careers. Living together for the best part of a year can take it's toll. We were no different.

I was lucky. As a lighting designer, I could more or less pick and choose who I wanted to work with.
Except I worked for Gaslight and before I knew it I was back working on trade shows operating smoke machines and dry ice effects.

My days at Gaslight were coming to an end due to a number of reasons and it would be time for me to go free-lance.
I eventually did!

My first free-lance tour was with Dramatis, Gary Numan's backing band. I had unfortunately severed all ties with Gaslight by then and was working out of Brittania Row, a lighting and sound hire company in Islington in London.

My early days with Brit Row were bread and butter survival and it wasn't too long before I had to repay their belief in me with a tour. It would hopefully be the Quartet tour.

Much to my disbelief, especially due to my uncharacteristic behaviour on tour, Ultravox gave me a second chance.
Somehow, the band had enough confidence in me at the time to involve me with the planning and design of the Monument tour.

A was a meeting called. It was at Parks & Fisher's design studio in Notting Hill.
Jonathon Parks and Mark Fisher were famous for their designs and innovation primarily with the Pink Floyd shows.

There was a model on the table from an idea by Pete Saville based on an Italian War memorial I believe. It was a very contemporary idea, especially to transform to the stage.

My RIE tour had prepared me for the sort of ideas and influences that Midge and Chris were into at the time. Shadows and geometry….reminiscent of the artist Giorgio D' Chirico.

The Ultravox music was embedded in me now and with my understanding of the band's style and character I found the initial meeting a breeze and so I was immediately able to comprehend the concept and how I wanted to light it.
That meeting was extremely exciting and by the end of the day we were onto a winner.
I remember cycling back, after the meeting, to my flat in Bedford Hill, with my Walkman headphones on, listening to Quartet,…thinking "life is great".

Although I was confident that I was 'still in the Ultravox camp'…the lighting hire company had to be confirmed.
Of course I wanted to repay Brit Row for their 'faith' in me and make sure they got the contract.

Okay, there was some wheeling and dealing involved for it to happen, which I won't bore you with, but it did! Brittania Row got the contract to supply the lighting and I was going to be the lighting designer and operator again.

So…..the set was built.

The large set piece, 'The Monument' was initially ground supported and tied into the drum riser but my genius rigger friend John Ebrill, found a way to support it off the main lighting rig. This made the fit up much quicker and easier. It saved us valuable time.
A grey translucent projection screen stretched across the main overhead lighting truss and down the back of the 'Monument'. The screen was one piece and curved down to the floor. I would later project moving clouds onto the screen.
Six scenic flats in three different sizes stood upright onstage and each were clad in corrugated metal sheeting. There were three different types of corrugation used and Omni photo flood lights were discretely hidden to colour the flats.
Every day, for focussing, I would carry a bag of coloured gels and a bag of wooden clothes pegs and clip the gels onto the barn doors of the lights. I learned how to say 'clothes pegs' in quite a few languages.

The drum risers and keyboard risers were all painted grey and covered in grey carpet along with the stage floor.
There were two huge columns, one either side of stage and these housed the onstage follow spots and operators.

All the guitars, keyboards and drums were painted grey and so were the PA speaker cabinets and monitors.
The neutral grey took on any colour I focussed colour onto it.
I hid all the lights from the audience sight lines.
I'd learned from  the previous tour….don't see the lights, see what the lights do.

We rehearsed it and then prepared to tour the world.

'The Quartet' tour blew everyone away, everywhere we went! Nobody had seen a neutral battleship grey set before.

Again, we….everyone involved was very, very proud of what we were showing off to the world.

Anyone who saw that show will undoubtedly remember that grey smoked stage filled with white and coloured light.


SET MOVEMENTS

I'd been living in the USA due to work commitments with rock band Asia and I had been toying with the idea of permanently staying out there but due to an economic recession and poor ticket sales the Asia tour was cut short and I eventually decided to head back to the UK.

I once again took up with Brittania Row and on my return and they offered me a choice of designs. One was with Roger Waters and the other was with David Gilmour, both musicians with Pink Floyd, who were planning their individual solo tours.
I chose David Gilmour.

Whilst designing and preparing for David Gilmour's show I'd heard that Ultravox were  planning another tour.
It was no secret that I was committed to Gilmour but I still wanted to submit an Ultravox design.

I think my days with Ultravox were finally numbered due to various reasons but I did know Ultravox inside out and I did have some ideas regarding a set design.

It was my intention to submit a proposal but not under my name. One of my lighting crew on 'Monument', Richard Gallup, would present the design on behalf of Brittania Row.

I'd made a model for Richard to present to the band.
The design combined a pretty basic stage layout but there was no presence of large scenery or set pieces. It was more or less an idea consisting of 'black and shadows'.
The main overhead lighting rig would be quite abstract in shape and almost over-hanging out into the audience. There were also vertical sections of lighting trusses coming down from the main rig at various heights from the stage. In addition there would be large netting draped and pulled in different directions, hanging from the vertical trusses.

Richard Gallup was very nervous taking the model to the band. He had experience in graphic design but wasn't too confident in talking up the lighting ideas. However, he presented it to the band and they loved it and I think they also loved the idea of Richard being their LD.

Richard's nerves eventually got the better of him and he sadly declined the opportunity to take up the band's offer.

I was in rehearsals in Brixton Academy with David Gilmour when I was told that Ultravox had tried to entice me to do their show. I was unaware of any approach at the time and only found out much later.

I toured with David Gilmour!


MIDGE URE - ANSWERS TO NOTHING -PURE.

I had given up the music business in 1988 and had returned to my home city, Edinburgh.
To make ends meet I'd gone back to my trade as electrician and I was working on the building sites. After about six months of 'hard labour' I'd got a call from Laurie Small. Midge was going out on a solo tour and needed someone to operate lights.
I downed tools and headed to London to meet Midge and his band in rehearsals.
I had a few ideas and eventually presented Midge with a model of the stage set which included low voltage lights.

The whole package would fit into one flight case, a stage set and lighting rig specially designed to tour the small venues.and with it we would tour the clubs of America, eventually supporting Howard Jones on a tour of outdoor amphitheatres and arenas.

Midge's band and crew all travelled on one tour bus and we all had a superb time. Any spare time was spent in ten pin bowling alleys with Jack Daniels. Enough said!


Midge's second 'solo' tour was called 'The Pure Tour', to coincide with the new album release.
'The Midge Ure Pure Tour'…..try saying that with after a few drinks.

 Again I was operating the lights which by this time had gone 'intelligent'.

I had booked some moving lights and this gave me a number of options when trying to squeeze the show into the various sized UK & European venues. We played some small venues and a number of larger venues including the Albert Hall in London.

This was my last ever tour. I'd had enough of life on the road and decided to call it a day.

RETURN TO EDEN

I cannot express the doubt I felt when I first heard the rumour that Ultravox were thinking of reforming. To be honest, I never thought it would ever happen but when the dates were confirmed I was gobsmacked.

Sure enough, dates were published and tickets were on sale. I got phone calls and emails from people wondering if I was involved and could I get them tickets.

Occasionally I would work at the Edinburgh Playhouse on big touring shows, helping with the fit ups or operating a follow spot. So it was quite exciting to realise that the first gig of the Ultravox 'Return to Eden' tour would be at the Playhouse.

One way or another I would be there.

As the weeks slowly passed by and the first show drew nearer I found myself getting all excited. I was like a fan.
Hang on, I am a fan!

I decided I would travel down from Perthshire and say hello to the guys and wish them all the best.
However, I received a call from the Playhouse asking if I was available to work as local crew on the 'fit up and get out' for the Ultravox show. Sweet I thought…see the guys again and get paid.

I arrived early morning in Edinburgh on the day of the gig. By this time I was really buzzing, wondering what the show would be like and if I was going to bump into any old crew friends.

At 9.00am, as part of the local stage crew, I awaited the arrival of the Ultravox crew onstage.

The crew had travelled overnight on the tour bus straight from rehearsals and were a wee bit bleary eyed. As the first of the lighting crew arrived I recognised one of them. Not from days gone by but the person who told me of the re-union rumour all those months ago. Somehow he'd managed to get on the Ultravox crew.

I was completely surprised to see him and he introduced me to the rest of the lighting crew.

During the fit up I assisted with the lighting and setting up of the graphic video screens.
It felt great. Here I was working on the first gig of the new Ultravox tour.

With everything set up and in place, the band arrived for soundcheck.
They each took turn in getting their sound check sorted out and I was eventually taken down to the dressing room where we were all in one room.
Wow! That was strange. Strange, but great to see them all back together again, laughing and joking like it was yesterday. It was like a scene from the TV show 'Life on Mars'.

Eventually we all headed back up to the stage for a band sound check and so I sat in the front stalls to watch and listen. It was a special experience for me to be able to hear my favourite band actually playing together after all these years.

The guys were onstage playing old familiar songs and I could remember all the old lighting cues, symbol crashes and solos. I wished I was involved.

Midge got me sorted with a guest ticket so that I could watch the show. Now I was really excited, with only a few hours to go I would finally get to see my favourite band and I wouldn't have to operate the lighting desk.

I stood outside the front of the Playhouse as the doors opened and watched the fans arriving. Clutching my ticket, I nervously entered the building through the front doors.
I found my seat and the house lights went down and the band kicked off with Astradyne. Fantastic!
I sat / stood up and cheered every song….with goose bumps all over me.
If you were there then I think you'll agree it was a tremendous gig.

It was a day of mixed emotions for me but what was important was to see these four guys all back onstage together making music and seeing the fans enjoying the moment.

Ultravox were a very important and influential part of my life and I'll always have fond memories of the times I worked with them.

I owe a huge debt to Midge and Ultravox for sticking with me. Not only through Rage in Eden but throughout The Monument world tour and beyond.
Once again, many thanks Midge and a huge thanks to Ultravox…..a truly great band.

Alan Wild