14 Facts About Billy Currie

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

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

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

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

Billy Currie 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.

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

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

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

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

In 1992, Billy Currie reformed Ultravox with a new line-up.

Many of the synthesisers for which Billy Currie was famous, apart from the often-volatile OSCar and Minimoog, were abandoned for this tour, replaced with Korg Wavestations and T-series keyboards.

Since 2001 Billy Currie has released several solo albums on his own label.

Billy Currie is noted for his use of analogue synthesisers, such as the Elka Rhapsody, and in particular his trademark soloing sound, which typically consisted of soaring fluid lines on an ARP Odyssey, making use of oscillator sync, later re-created with the Oxford Synthesiser Company OSCar synth.

Billy Currie is married to Heidi and has a son named Tom and a daughter named Lucy.