Billy Currie

William Lee Currie (born 1 April 1950 ) is a British multi-instrumentalist and songwriter from Huddersfield, England.

In 1961 he picked up the violin at school and also sang in a choir.

A year later he was in the school orchestra, but had to change instrument to viola to get a place at the Huddersfield School of Music, which he joined in 1965.

The education was a preparation to become an orchestral player, learning viola with piano as his second instrument and also studying composition and harmony.

During this time he joined a string quartet, played viola in an orchestra and performed with a viola, clarinet and piano trio.

At this time Currie was excited to discover composers like Béla Bartók, Arnold Schoenberg, Arthur Honegger and Edgar Varese.

By 1967 he became increasingly interested in rock music, excited by the fact that bands created something unique and original together.

In 1969 he had qualified for a place at the Royal Academy of Music in London for further education, but decided not to go.

Currie was interested in breaking into other areas of music and joined a rock band instead, playing viola.

In the early 1970s he was a member of the experimental art group The Ritual Theatre, which included four classically trained musicians and four dancers.

With this group Currie performed in Holland, Edinburgh Festival and various other places.

In 1974, Currie left Ritual Theatre to join the glam rock band Tiger Lily on viola and keyboard.

In 1976, after several name changes, the band ultimately became Ultravox and recorded three albums, Ultravox!, Ha!-Ha!-Ha! and Systems of Romance, before singer John Foxx left to pursue a solo career in March 1979.

During Ultravox's subsequent hiatus, Currie dedicated himself to different projects.

He collaborated with Gary Numan who had admired the Systems of Romance album and asked Currie to record some songs that were included on his first solo album, The Pleasure Principle.

Currie toured with Numan's band during 1979.

During soundchecks for the tour Currie, with Gary Numan band musicians Chris Payne and Cedric Sharpley began to develop a song of their own called "Toot City".

Currie had also joined the studio-based band Visage, fronted by Steve Strange, that also included Midge Ure.

Currie and Ure developed a solid working relationship.

Visage drummer Rusty Egan encouraged Currie to ask Ure to join the defunct Ultravox as lead singer/guitarist.

Whilst composing material for a new Ultravox album and for the debut Visage album, Ure collaborated with Currie on the "Toot City" track which eventually became "Fade to Grey".

He is best known as the keyboard and strings player with new wave band Ultravox, who achieved their greatest commercial success in the 1980s.

Currie was born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire and had an interest in music from an early age.

As a child he sang a lot and at the age of ten he got a guitar.

Both Ultravox and Visage became highly successful recording acts in the early 1980s.

The single became a huge hit for Visage in early 1981.

However, this was surpassed by Ultravox's hit "Vienna", released around the same time.

Ure decided to leave Visage to focus on Ultravox full-time in 1982.

Currie remained with Visage for a while longer, but he too had left by 1984.

From 1980 to 1986, Ultravox released seven top 10 albums, including a live album and a "greatest hits" compilation and featured in Live Aid in Wembley Stadium on 13 July 1985.

During the last days of the band, there were tensions between Currie and Ure.

With an underwhelming response to their 1986 album U-Vox, the band effectively disintegrated.

In 1988, Currie put out an instrumental solo album Transportation, released on the IRS NoSpeak record label.

In 1989 he formed the band Humania.

Steve Howe played guitar on some of the tracks, with Currie later playing keyboards in Howe's 1991 album Turbulence.

In 1992, Currie reformed Ultravox with a new line-up (himself being the only original member involved).

With Tony Fennell on vocals, they recorded the album "Revelation".

At the outset of the subsequent tour, Fennell left to be replaced by Sam Blue.

The tour took in the former USSR and Malta amongst other locations.

An album by them called Sinews of Soul was released in 2005.