From '' Omaha Beach ''
Label: WEA Records (France) -- 248333-0, 248 333.0
Format: Vinyl, 12\"
Country: France
Released: 1987
Tracklist
A Omaha Beach (Remix) (Mixed By - Steve Prestage)
B1 Ubik (Mission Secréte) (Mixed By - Dominique Blanc-Francard, Written-By - M.A. Kliska)
B2 Fade To Grey (Arranged By - Goûts De Luxe, Mixed By - Steve Prestage, Recorded By - Laurent Gatignol, Written-By - Visage)
Performer - Jacques Le Honsec, Marie-Anna Kliska
Written-By - J. Le Honsec (tracks: A, B1), J.E. Monfort (tracks: A, B1)
Engineer - Didier Weis, Hervé Lecoz, Laurent Gatignol, Steve Prestage
Producer - Dominique Dubois
------------------------
\"Fade to Grey\" is the second single by the British pop group Visage, released on Polydor Records in November 1980.
The song was the band's most successful single.
It became a huge dance floor hit and entered the singles charts in early 1981, peaking at #8 in the UK Singles Chart and reaching #1 in both Germany and Switzerland.
Cover versions
The Datura version
In 1994, the Italian electronic group Datura made a distinctive version of \"Fade to Grey\" with a rerecorded vocal track by Steve Strange singing lyrics specifically for this version.
The single peaked at #5 in the Italian singles chart.
In the official U2 autobiography, Bono claims that Adam Clayton was trying to work out how to play the bassline of Fade to Grey and his inital attempt became New Year's Day, U2's first top 10 single.
The 1992 song I Wanna be a Kennedy by german eurodance project U96 sounds very similar to Fade to Grey.
\"Fade to Grey\" was also recorded by Gregorian for their album Masters of Chant (1999).
\"Fade To Grey\" has been covered by Nouvelle Vague on their album Bande a Part in 2006.
Neon also covered the song in 1987.
Trance To The Sun with Marc Linder also covered the song for the '' New Wave Goes To Hell '' compilation that was released in 1998.
\"Fade to Grey\" was also covered by Mark Oh in 1996.
\"Fade to Grey\" was remixed by Noisia (in an uncredited remix) in 2005.
In 2007 \"Fade to Grey\" was sampled on the Kylie Minogue song \"Like a Drug\" from her album X.
\"Fade To Grey\" was also covered by former Information Society (band) singer Christopher Anton for a maxi single to commemorate the song's 30th anniversary in 2010.
Italian gothic metal band Monumentum covered the song on their album \"In Absentia Christi\"
History
The song's structure was primarily composed by Billy Currie and Christopher John Payne.
While setting the track listing of the Visage album, Midge Ure composed the song's lyrics after Billy Currie suggested the use of the melody for the album. Steve Strange had singing lessons with Ure in order to maintain himself in tune and be recorded.
Gary Numan commented in interview for the Numan Digest: \"As far as I'm concerned Chris and Billy were the driving force behind writing 'Fade to Grey'. They used to work on it during the sound checks on my '79 tour.
Cedric [Sharpley, who was the drummer of the Gary Numan's backing band] was also heavily involved. In those days it was called 'Toot City'\".
On the UK Channel 4 show \"Top Ten New Romantics\" in 1999, Steve Strange claimed to have been the one who came up with the idea for the French vocal in the track (a statement disputed by Midge Ure who claims this idea was his).
However the original recording by Currie and Payne had featured a French vocal well before Ure and Strange were involved, and this was written by Payne who now lives in France.
The French vocal was performed by Brigitte Arendt (Arens?), a young student from Luxembourg who was Rusty Egan's girlfriend at the time.
A remix by Bassheads/Andy Stevenson was released in 1993 to promote the compilation album with the same title, becoming a modest Top 40 hit.
Several other artists have made their own versions of this song.
In 2008, Strange appeared on the BBC series Ashes to Ashes performing the song in the Blitz nightclub.
