FB campaign to make Ultravox's Vienna number 1 by 04/04/2010...
Back in 1981, the second and most successful incarnation of Ultravox released their seminal single Vienna to critical acclaim. This rather moody and epic electronic ballad was set to provide the band consisting of Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann with the ultimate acclaim of public approval. Alas it was not to be.
For Australian comedian & singer/songwriter Joe Dolce just happened to release faux Italian singalong Shaddup You Face at just the right moment and a wave of public insanity carried this tune to the top slot, forever banishing Ultravox to the number 2 slot and a lifetime of painful jokes for the Ultravox faithful. The band never did get the top slot despite coming close on a couple of occasions.
Now, nearly 30 years later, buoyed by the successful Facebook campaign that saw Simon Cowell's dominance over the Xmas number one slot broken in favour of Rage Against The Machine, a group of Ultravox fans have started a new campaign to right a wrong and attempt to give Ultravox the number one they deserved and were so cruelly denied. With support from the likes of Jonathon Ross who has proclaimed support for the campaign on Twitter, momentum is building with even STV news getting in on the act...
The target date is 4th April 2010, with downloads commencing on 29th March 2010 of the remastered single edit of Vienna from the band's latest and remastered Greatest Hits compilation.
Link for the track on Amazon.co.uk is here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vienna-2009-Digital-Remaster/dp/B001YJFLGY?tag=myrev09-21
iTunes link is here: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/vienna-single-version/id308567514?i=308567518
As befits this attempt and in the spirit of providing a proper chart race, a rival group to place the Joe Dolce track back to number one in the same week has also started, with presence from Joe Dolce himself. This could lead to the biggest chart race since Oasis/Blur back in the mid-90's (tongue firmly in cheek...). Anyway, forget the novelty track and suck in your cheeks and be pretentious for a week, you know you want to.
This means nothing to me...
Links:
Official Ultravox website: http://www.ultravox.org.uk/
The two main Facebook groups can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=90410227602
and
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=252019663097
Your Opinions and Comments
I agree that there would be some pleasure in keeping some of the more inane tracks from the top of the charts but then the charts was always intended for the young. This creaking old track sounds impossibly dated now and should be confined to yesteryear where it can take its place with some dignity. A good track for the time, but let's not let a cynical stunt like this put more coffers in bandwagon hopping Midge Ure's pockets? What next - Slik on the X-Factor?