The Anvil (album)

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The Anvil
The Anvil cover
Studio album by Visage
Released March, 1982
Recorded Mayfair Studios, London, 1981
Genre New Romantic
Length 40:33
Label Polygram Records
Producer(s) Midge Ure, Visage
Professional reviews
Visage chronology
Visage
(1980)		 The Anvil
(1982)		 Beat Boy
(1984)


The Anvil is the second album from UK-based New Romantic ensemble Visage, recorded at Mayfair Studios in London during a six-week long recording session and released by Polygram Records on March 8, 1982 after their highly successful first album.

Contents

[edit] History

This album sparked a brief controversy after being named after New York's infamous gay club and was the last of Visage's albums to feature the all-star lineup that helped Steve Strange make outstanding music. Several tracks in The Anvil are considered by fans as some of Visage's best work (The Horseman, Look What They've Done, Again We Love) as they have a surreal quality and beautiful arrangements and instrumentation that make them seem timeless. The album's highest position in UK charts was #6.

The only musician of the first album lineup that didn't participate in this album's recordings was John McGeoch. McGeoch commented in an interview [1]: "One time I was in Spain [touring with Siouxsie and the Banshees] at the same time as Visage were recording the second album in London. Rusty wanted me to put a guitar solo on something or other but I only had one day off and there was no way that I could fly home on my one day off. Rusty is not a man to be put off by such things and he was actually trying to put together a satellite linkup from Madrid to London for this one guitar part. Not surprisingly it didn't come off but I was sorry not to have been as involved on The Anvil as I had been on the first album".

[edit] Personnel

Visage members at the time of the album's recording were:

Guest musicians included

The album was produced by Midge Ure and Visage.

[edit] Track listing

Original album

All songs written by Steve Strange, Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Rusty Egan and Dave Formula.

  1. "The Damned Don't Cry" – 4:43
  2. "The Anvil (Night Club School)" – 4:39
  3. "Move Up" – 4:25
  4. "Night Train" – 4:29
  5. "The Horseman" – 4:41
  6. "Look What They've Done" – 4:49
  7. "Again We Love" – 4:44
  8. "Wild Life" – 4:24
  9. "Whispers" – 5:39

Extra tracks added for 1997 re-release by One Way Records (U.S.)

  1. "We Move (Dance Mix)" – 6:28 (S. Strange/M. Ure/B. Currie/J. McGeoch/R. Egan/D. Formula).
  2. "Frequency 7 (Dance Mix)" – 5:02 (S. Strange/M. Ure/B. Currie/J. McGeoch/R. Egan/D. Formula/B. Adamson)

Both tracks were originally released as a B-sides for the 7" and 12" versions of the the "Mind Of A Toy" single.

[edit] Singles: UK chart positions

  1. "The Damned Don't Cry" – 3:55 (Jan. 1982) #11
  2. "Night Train" – 4:02 (Jun. 1982) #12

[edit] References

[edit] Media

This section includes music samples of B-sides composed by Visage during this album period:

  • Motivation (file info) — play in browser (beta)
    • This song is the B-side of single "The Damned Don't Cry" of January, 1982. This song has not been available on any digital format. It was supposed to be part of the compilation "Master Series", but another track by an unknown band was put in its place by mistake.
  • I'm Still Searching (file info) — play in browser (beta)
    • This song is the B-side of single "Night Train" of June, 1982. This song has not been available on any digital format and is one of Visage's most rare compositions.
  • Problems playing the files? See media help.
Visage
Steve Strange | Midge Ure | Rusty Egan
Billy Currie | Dave Formula | Barry Adamson | Steven Young | Sandrine Gouriou | Rosie Harris | Ross Tregenza
Visage discography
Studio albums and extended plays: Visage | The Anvil | Beat Boy
Compilations: The Best of Visage | Master Series | The Damned Don't Cry
Singles: Tar | Fade to Grey | Mind Of A Toy | Visage | The Damned Don't Cry | Night Train | Pleasure Boys | Love Glove | Beat Boy
Related articles
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