Ultravox – Set Movements Tour 1984

June 7th 1984 – Hammersmith Odeon

My first travelling gig! So far, concerts had been in Leicester, either De Montfort Hall (the main gig venue in town) or Leicester University. So to be considering travelling was a real look in to the big wide world.

Having seen Ultravox once already on the Quartet Tour in 1982, it was equally exciting to be seeing them again and starting a journey which would take me to a number of venues with the Vox boys.

Three of us from college had worked out as we had free periods in the afternoon, we could get to Leicester station and get down to London for 5ish, so it was doable to get to Hammersmith Odeon for 6:30 to 7pm. Support bands are usually on around 7 to 7:30 with the main act on at 9pm, so this was really exciting. Mick sorted the concert tickets out for us, which was great, so from college to the train station was a short 15 minute walk.

The beauty growing up in Leicester was that, by train, nowhere was too far away. It would take an hour and a half to get to London in those days and you could get a train back as late as 1am and a milk train after that if things went wrong!

When we got to London, we realised Hammersmith Odeon was quite a bit further away by tube than we had realised, so it became a bit of a rush to get there for the support act.

The support was once again, The Messengers, so we were very keen to see them. When we got off the tube, we rushed out of the station and found we were there! Just across the road and in time to grab a bite to eat and look at the bootleg T-shirts outside.

Bootleg T-shirt weren’t exactly legal, but for years, a blind eye was turned to them, so for under a fiver, you could get a pretty good T-shirt. Fruit of the Loom was a widely recognised brand 🙂

I had already bought “Quartet” and “Rage in Eden” before I saw the band in 1982 and before this concert, a new album had come out called “Lament” – it had a fantastic black cover sscreen printed with a black square pattern, really eye catching.

Some great new singles were on this album, “One Small Day”, “White China”Dancing with tears in my eyes” and “Lament”.

The songs were quite different from previous albums, but Ultravox were getting a reputation for sounding the same, which was pretty unfair at the time. As a synth band, the sound was of a style and you eitther loved it or you didn’t……we loved it.

The Set Movements set was totally grey and white, which was stunning with the dry ice blowing over it. The Hammersmith Odeon, was a superb venue, which I would return to. Still in our early years of concerts we were starting to realise good acoustics in building and the sound here was superb.

It wasn’t lost on us that the heritage of the venue meant we were also in the place where David Bowie killed off Ziggy Stardust in 1973. Well before our time, but we were all reading up and finding music from the past. David Bowie, T-Rex and Iggy Pop were things Mick, Dave and I were into at the time…..Mick was also into Lou Reed. I wasn’t quite ready for that, but caught up later.

Reap the Wild Wind was a massive favourite of mine at the time, I just loved the intro and how the synth was sounding.

We had seen it happen on the Quartet tour, but when Ultravox play The Voice live, Midge Use, Chris Cross and Billy Currie come to the front an play synth drums, while Warren Cann continues on the main drums, really great watch. This is a video mix with footage from 1982 Monument Tour at Hammersmith Odeon, 1982, but you get the idea…….we didn’t have great video or phones in the early 80s!!

I remember how sweaty we got at this gig and then it was a bit of a rush back to the train as Hammersmith Odeon was about 45 minutes away from St Pancras where Leicester trains come in. I remember we caught the last train, but it was close……..a great day out for kids newly fascinated in music.

I managed to pick up a bootleg tape of the concert which I still have, although I’m not sure if we still have a cassette player anywhere!

Set List

• Man of Two Worlds
• Passing Strangers
• We Stand Alone
• New Europeans
• I Remember (Death in the Afternoon)
• Visions in Blue
• Heart of the Country
• Western Promise
• Vienna
• Reap the Wild Wind
• We Came to Dance
• White China
• One Small Day
• Hymn
• The Voice
• Encore: Lament, Dancing With Tears in My Eyes, All Stood Still