Chris Cross (born Christopher Thomas Allen, 14 July 1952,
Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...
, London) is an English musician, best known as the
bass guitarist
A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low bra ...
in the
new wave band
Ultravox
Ultravox (earlier styled as 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 ...
.
Biography
Early years
Cross went to Belmont Secondary Modern School, William Forster Comprehensive. He began his music career playing in different bands, in
Tottenham
Tottenham () is a town in North London, England, within the London Borough of Haringey. It is located in the ceremonial county of Greater London. Tottenham is centred north-northeast of Charing Cross, bordering Edmonton to the north, Waltham ...
,
North London
North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire.
The term ''nort ...
, with his major early influences being
Small Faces
Small Faces were an English rock band from London, founded in 1965. The group originally consisted of Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Jimmy Winston, with Ian McLagan replacing Winston as the band's keyboardist in 1966. The ...
,
Desmond Dekker
Desmond Dekker (16 July 1941 – 25 May 2006) was a Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae singer-songwriter and musician. Together with his backing group The Aces (consisting of Wilson James and Easton Barrington Howard), he had one of the earlie ...
,
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown are an English rock band formed by singer Arthur Brown in 1967. The original band included Vincent Crane (Hammond organ and piano), Drachen Theaker (drums), and Nick Greenwood (bass). This early incarnation were ...
.
Later he joined Stoned Rose, in
Preston,
Lancashire
Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly.
The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
, alongside Pete Hughes and Mick Carroll, who later went to form
Ritzi,
but also decided to go to college to study psychology, a longstanding interest.
Tiger Lily and Ultravox
In 1973, he returned to London to go to Art College and began studying Art and Psychology. Meanwhile, he also answered the ad for members to form a new band, put by in
Dennis Leigh, an art student in London, thus forming
Tiger Lily along with guitarist
Stevie Shears
Stevie Shears (born 1954/1955) is an English musician known for playing in the rock bands Tiger Lily and Ultravox! (later Ultravox), as well as being part of the bands Faith Global and Cowboys International.
Biography Tiger Lily and Ultravox ...
, drummer
Warren Cann
Warren Reginald Cann (born 20 May 1950 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) 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 ma ...
joined shortly and violinist/keyboardist
added the next year.
Tiger Lily spent a year constructing/arranging and rehearsing their songs written mostly by Leigh in Modrenos, a mannequin refurb workshop in
Kings Cross,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. After playing gigs from 1974 to 1976, in the latter year the band chose to call themselves Ultravox! and signed to
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...
.
In 1979, after three commercially unsuccessful but influential albums – ''
Ultravox!
Ultravox (earlier styled as 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 ...
'' (1977), ''
Ha!-Ha!-Ha!
''Ha!-Ha!-Ha!'' is the second album by British pop group Ultravox, at that time known as "Ultravox!", with an exclamation mark, as a nod to Neu!. Although the group would later achieve fame and commercial success with lead singer Midge Ure th ...
'' (1977) and ''
Systems of Romance'' (1978) – and a tour through USA and Canada, original vocalist John Foxx and guitarist
Robin Simon
Robin Simon (born 12 July 1956) is a British guitarist who was a member of Ultravox, Magazine and Visage.
Biography
Early career
Robin Simon played guitar in a number of local Halifax based bands in the early to mid-1970s. The bands include ...
, who had replaced Stevie Shears a year before, left Ultravox, so Cross worked on another part-time "Purely for Fun" project with
Pretenders
Pretenders may refer to:
* The Pretenders
Pretenders are an English–American rock band formed in March 1978. The original band consisted of founder and main songwriter Chrissie Hynde (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), James Honeyman-Scott (le ...
' guitarist
James Honeyman-Scott
James Honeyman-Scott (4 November 1956 – 16 June 1982) was an English rock guitarist, songwriter and founding member of the band The Pretenders.
With the band, Honeyman-Scott established a reputation, in the words of AllMusic, as "one of th ...
, one of his favourite guitar players,
Eddie and the Hot Rods' vocalist
Barrie Masters and The Rods drummer Steve Nicholls.
With
Midge Ure
James Ure (born 10 October 1953) 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 ...
added to Ultravox, the band continued working more on their unique synthesiser sounds during the recording of their successful ''
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
'' album. By that time, he and Ure were close friends, together directing music videos such as
Bananarama
Bananarama are an English pop duo from London, formed as a trio in 1980 by friends Sara Dallin, Siobhan Fahey and Keren Woodward. Fahey left the group in 1988 and was replaced by Jacquie O'Sullivan until 1991, when the trio became a duo. Thei ...
's "
Shy Boy
"Shy Boy" is a 1982 song recorded by English girl group Bananarama which was written and produced by the production team of Steve Jolley and Tony Swain and marked the first in a long line of studio collaborations between them and Bananarama. R ...
" and "The Telephone Always Rings" by
Fun Boy Three
Fun Boy Three were an English new wave pop Fun Boy Three Allmusic bio/ref> band, active from 1981 to 1983 and formed by singers Terry Hall, Neville Staple and Lynval Golding after they left the Specials. They released two albums and had seve ...
. Cross took part in the
Band Aid video and wrote the music to "The Bloodied Sword". After another few successful albums – ''
Rage in Eden
''Rage in Eden'' is the fifth album by the British new wave band Ultravox. It was released in 1981 on Chrysalis. The album reached #4 in the UK album charts and was certified Gold by the BPI for sales in excess of 100,000 copies.
Content
The ...
'' (1981), ''
Quartet
In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments.
Classical String quartet
In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...
'' (1982), ''
Monument
A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, his ...
'' (1983) and ''
Lament
A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about somethin ...
'' (1984) – and the last which was less successful, ''
U-Vox
''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 exc ...
'', and a tour in 1987, the band drifted into other projects and he says, "never got round to working on Ultravox".
Ultravox revival
In November 2008, it was announced that Ultravox were to embark on the "Return To Eden" tour in April 2009, plus two festivals and additionally a Best of Ultravox CD/DVD was released by EMI.
The 2012 album release, ''
Brilliant'', included Chris Allen as co-writer with Billy Currie and Midge Ure on all tracks. The album was promoted with a UK theatre tour and a series of European dates.
Equipment
During the time in which Ultravox was led by John Foxx, he used a Guild B-301, a white
Gibson EB-3
The Gibson EB-3 is an electric bass guitar model produced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation.
Origins and history
The Gibson EB-3 is a bass guitar introduced in 1961 and discontinued in 1979. It was produced at Gibson's plant in Kalamazoo, MI. It ...
and fretless
Fender Precision
The Fender Precision Bass (often shortened to "P-Bass") is a model of bass guitar, electric bass guitar manufactured by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. In its standard, post-1957 configuration, the Precision Bass is a solid body, four-stri ...
basses, and an
EMS Synthi AKS
The EMS Synthi A and the EMS Synthi AKS, is a portable modular analog synthesiser made by EMS of England. The Synthi A model debuted in May 1971, and then Sythni AKS model appeared in March 1972 a with a built-in keyboard and sequencer. The EMS ...
and later
Mini Moog
The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popula ...
synthesisers with an
Ampeg
Ampeg is a manufacturer best known for its bass amplifiers. Originally established in 1946 in Linden, New Jersey by Everett Hull and Stanley Michaels as "Michael-Hull Electronic Labs," today Ampeg is part of the Yamaha Guitar Group. Although ...
amplifier with speaker cabinets.
While the recording of ''Vienna'' album, he used a Yamaha bass, a Fender Precision bass, a Mini Moog synthesiser and Yamaha synthesiser
Later he also used Status and
Steinberger basses.
Cross's distinctive grey bass is an
Ibanez
is a Japanese guitar brand owned by Hoshino Gakki. Based in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Hoshino Gakki were one of the first Japanese musical instrument companies to gain a significant foothold in import guitar sales in the United States and Europe, as ...
RoadStar from the early 1980s; this bass has been used on many of Ultravox's albums and was Cross' primary instrument during the first stage of the 'Return to Eden' Tour in 2009.
On the 'Return to Eden' tour in 2010 and the 'Brilliant' tour in 2012, he also used a
Rickenbacker 4003
The Rickenbacker 4001 is an electric bass that was manufactured by Rickenbacker as a two- pickup "deluxe" version of their first production bass, the single-pickup model 4000. This design, created by Roger Rossmeisl, was manufactured between 19 ...
Fireglo finish bass and a standby black
Fender Telecaster Bass
The Fender Telecaster Bass (also referred as the Tele Bass) is an electric bass introduced in 1968 by Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. With few physical changes through the 1970s, it was discontinued in 1979 and reissued in 2007 by Fender ...
.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cross, Chris
1952 births
Living people
English rock bass guitarists
English new wave musicians
People from Tottenham
Musicians from London
Ultravox members
Glam rock musicians
British synth-pop new wave musicians