"Love's Great Adventure" | ||||
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Single by Ultravox | ||||
from the album The Collection | ||||
B-side |
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Released | 12 October 1984 | |||
Recorded | 1984 | |||
Genre | Synthpop, pop rock, new wave | |||
Length | 3:04 5:40 (Extended version) | |||
Label | Chrysalis | |||
Songwriter(s) | Warren Cann, Chris Cross, Billy Currie, Midge Ure | |||
Producer(s) | Ultravox | |||
Ultravox singles chronology | ||||
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"Love's Great Adventure" is a single released by Ultravox on 12 October 1984. [1] [2] Having enjoyed massive radio airplay that autumn, the single became Ultravox's thirteenth Top 30 single in Britain, and was their last major hit in the UK, peaking at #12 in the UK Singles Chart. [3] The style of this single is different from any of their preceding Lament singles, aiming for a more lightweight, pop-oriented approach.
The music video was filmed in Kenya and features the band members in a humorous parody of Indiana Jones, with Midge Ure being chased across deserts and forests by a ruthless treasure hunter. Midge Ure stated in his autobiography, If I Was, that the aim of the single and its video was to promote Ultravox as having a sense of humour, away from the seriousness of their previous releases. Also in the video is Ure's future wife Annabel Giles. The music in the video stops halfway through where a seemingly exhausted Midge Ure, tired from minutes of endless running around has to sit down for a moment and take a breather. He rests for a moment then takes a breath before standing up recovered and continuing with the song at which point the music starts up once again.
The song, based on a riff for a Levi's jeans commercial which was not taken up by the company, was not released on a studio album, instead appearing on their 1984 compilation album The Collection .
Billy Currie said 1984: "We wanted to do something different, to get out of the way singles that are taken from an album tend to sound the same as each other. You know, when any band puts out several singles from the same album, they might appear to be very different in some ways, but because they were all recorded at the same time, they have the same feel to them. We wanted to get away from that - do a one-off single totally separate from any album. The recording was a lot more immediate than 'Lament'. We decided not to go into the studio and spend a long time doing it, because things can become really sluggish when you're doing albums. For the single there was plenty of momentum going, and the momentum thing is important: having done the single like that, I'd now like to do an album in the same way - do it with just a couple of days' rehearsals, or none at all, which was what we did for the single." [4]
Warren Cann said 1984: "It's in threes, and it's got a very up, happy melody, which is why we decided to persevere with it in the first place. We'd tried things in that time signature before, but they'd always sounded contrived, but this one doesn't. There's no real technical trickery in making it, it's the strength of the song that carries it through."
An episode of the BBC series Inside No. 9 , also called "Love's Great Adventure", used this song as its closing theme.
Ultravox were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was their 1981 hit "Vienna".
William Lee Currie is a British multi-instrumentalist and songwriter from Huddersfield, England. He is best known as the keyboard and strings player with new wave band Ultravox, who achieved their greatest commercial success in the 1980s.
Chris Cross is an English musician, best known as the bass guitarist in the new wave band Ultravox.
James "Midge" Ure is a Scottish musician, singer-songwriter and record producer. His stage name, Midge, is a phonetic reversal of Jim, the diminutive form of his actual name. Ure enjoyed particular success in the 1970s and 1980s in bands including Slik, Thin Lizzy, Rich Kids and Visage, and as the second frontman of Ultravox. In 1984, he co-wrote and produced the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", which has sold 3.7 million copies in the UK. The song is the second-highest-selling single in UK chart history. Ure co-organised Band Aid, Live Aid and Live 8 with Bob Geldof. He acts as a trustee for the charity and also serves as an ambassador for Save the Children.
"Vienna" is a song by British new wave band Ultravox from their 1980 fourth studio album of the same name. It was released as the album's third single on 9 January 1981 by Chrysalis Records and features Midge Ure singing the lead vocal.
"Hymn" is a 1982 song from Ultravox's sixth studio album Quartet. Released as the album's second single, it reached #11 on the UK Singles Chart and the Top 10 in Germany and Switzerland.
Warren Reginald Cann is a Canadian drummer, drum machine programmer and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the British new wave band Ultravox, for which he was one of the main songwriters.
Systems of Romance, released on 8 September 1978, is the third album by British new wave band Ultravox. It was the final recording for the group with original lead singer, lyricist and co-composer John Foxx, and their first album without guitarist Stevie Shears, who had left the band. Shears was replaced by Robin Simon, making his first and only appearance on an Ultravox album. Though not a commercial success, Systems of Romance had a significant influence on the electropop music that came after it.
Rage in Eden is the fifth studio album by British new wave band Ultravox, released on 11 September 1981 through Chrysalis Records. The album reached #4 in the UK album charts and was certified Gold by the BPI for sales in excess of 100,000 copies.
Quartet is the sixth studio album by the British new wave band Ultravox. The album peaked at no.6 on the UK Albums Chart and was certified Gold by the BPI in December 1982 for 100,000 copies sold. It also peaked at #13 in Germany, and at #61 in the United States.
Lament is the seventh studio album by British new wave band Ultravox, released on 6 April 1984 by Chrysalis Records. It was the last album featuring original drummer Warren Cann until the band's reunion album Brilliant in 2012. The album peaked at number eight on the UK Albums Chart and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) on 8 June 1984 for shipments of 100,000 copies. It also reached number 25 in Germany and number 115 in the United States.
U-Vox is the eighth studio album by British new wave band Ultravox, released on 9 October 1986 by Chrysalis Records. It was the band's fifth album during the Midge Ure era, and the final one featuring the band's 1979 lineup, with the exception of Warren Cann, for nearly 26 years. The Ure-era lineup would eventually reform in 2008. It was also the last Ultravox album to reach the top 10 of the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number nine.
Monument, released in 1983, is a live album by the British band Ultravox. It is the soundtrack to the live video of the same name, recorded at the London Hammersmith Odeon during the band's 1982 "Monument" tour. The album peaked at no.9 on the UK album chart and was certified Gold by the BPI in January 1984 for 100,000 copies sold.
"Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" is the second single from Lament, Ultravox's seventh studio album, released in May 1984.
"Same Old Story" is the first single from Ultravox's album U-Vox. The single was released 26 September 1986.
Extended Ultravox is an Ultravox compilation of 12" extended versions of various Ultravox singles from the years 1980–1986. The album was released in 1998.
Vienna is the fourth studio album by British new wave band Ultravox, first released on 11 July 1980 through Chrysalis Records. Vienna was Ultravox's first album with their best-known line-up, after Midge Ure had taken over as lead vocalist and guitarist following the departures of John Foxx and Robin Simon, as well as the group's first release for Chrysalis.
The Best of Ultravox is the seventh compilation by Ultravox, released on EMI Gold records, in 2003, being one of the more recent compilation albums of the band. The songs of the disc are from the success era of the band, in the 1980s, while Midge Ure was the singer.
Brilliant is the eleventh and final studio album by British synth-pop band Ultravox, released on 25 May 2012 by Chrysalis Records. It is the group's first studio album in 18 years, and the first in 28 years from the "classic" Ultravox line-up of Midge Ure, consisting of Billy Currie, Warren Cann and Chris Cross. The title track was released as its lead single, and premiered on 17 April 2012 on BBC Radio 2.
Messengers were a Scottish new wave duo consisting of Danny Mitchell and Colin King. The duo were originally part of Modern Man, a Glasgow post-punk/new wave band discovered by Midge Ure of Ultravox. Modern Man disbanded after releasing one album produced by Ure, Concrete Scheme (1980), after which Ure stayed as producer with Mitchell and King as Messengers.