Track Listing

1. Beat Boy
2. Casualty
3. Questions
4. Only The Good Die Young
5. Can You Hear Me
6. The Promise
7. Love Glove
8. Yesterday's Shadow
9. Beat Boy - Dance Mix [Bonus Tracks]
10. Love Glove - Long Version [Bonus Tracks]
11. She's A Machine [Bonus Tracks]
12. Der Amboss [Bonus Tracks]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17667 in Music
• Released on: 2009-02-16
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

CD Description
Although Visage existed largely in the shadow of their morepopular sister group, Ultravox, they nevertheless became one of the defining groups of the New Romantic movement with their synth pop classic, "Fade to Grey". After weathering several personnel changes, Visage released their final album, BEAT BOY, in 1984, to muted commercial and critical response.While not reaching the mesmerizing heights of their earlierwork, the album shows the band branching out into a more live-rock sound, incorporating guitars and drums along with their more familiar synth washes and electronic pulses.

Customer Reviews

One Album Too Many?
Like the previous reviewer it's hard to believe that I bought this album and it's associated singles a quarter of a century ago.

Visage were a shining light in the early 80s. Their first two albums, the self-titled debut and the superb underrated "Anvil" were both chock full of catchy singles and killer album tracks.

Maybe I'm being a little unfair but "Beat Boy" suffers from the departure of the main creative forces of messrs Ure and Currie. The lead single "Love Glove" was a pale imitation of previous singles such as "The Damned Don't Cry", "Night Train".

This album does have it's moments, but it really just makes the listener hanker for the relative safety of the first album.

Cherry Red do deserve credit here though. Over the last few months they have unearthed some great 80s nuggets and hopefully this is the first of many more released over the next few years.

For those who have never heard "Beat Boy", I would certainly recommend you buy it and give it a listen, but don't expect to hear anything up to the quality of the first two albums.

25 years later!
I can't believe that I first bought this album over 25 years ago...
At the time it marked a distinct shift from the Visage studio electro sound towards a more live rock-based pop approach. This was caused by the departures of Billy Currie, Midge Ure and Dave Formula (although both Dave Formula and Billy Currie may have contributed to early recording sessions for the album). This left the core of Steve Strange and Rusty Egan (drums) with Andy Barnett on guitar, Steve Barnacle on bass and the excellent Gary Barnacle on sax. Smash Hits infamously described Steve and Rusty as "two wafer-thin talents" in the review of the 'Love Glove' single. Was the now defunct famous pop mag right? In my opinion, emphatically no!
Steve and Rusty took the band in a completely new direction and especially let Gary Barnacle free to deliver some great sax work throughout the album. Even the song subjects here are radically different from the previous two albums. For instance, 'Beat Boy' (in it's many versions) is about factory working and 'Casualty' concerns a child leaving home for the first time. 'Only The Good Die Young' was featured on a Radio One session at the time and like 'Casualty', is a guitar dominated track and is a good example of the new rock sound. 'Love Glove' was the first single and only (minor) hit from the album, reaching no 54 in the single chart. Of all the songs here, it most closely resembles the Visage sound of old.
Unfortunately, the failure (in chart terms) of both the album and singles effectively marked the end of Visage. Steve went on to form and front the badly punned 'Strange Cruise' project. This resulted in two singles ('Rebel Blue Rocker' and 'The Beat Goes On') and a self-titled album that were even less succesful than 'Beat Boy'. By then Steve's well documented personal problems led to his, thankfully temporary, disapearance from the music scene.
This first UK release of 'Beat Boy' on CD features the entire album with four excellent bonus tracks. These are 12" versions of 'Beat Boy' and 'Love Glove', together with the latters b-side ('She's A Machine') and 'Der Amboss', Steve's German version of The Anvil's title track that was strangely ommited from Cherry Red's previous reissue of The Anvil.
Unfortunately, the booklet essay is a rehash of the previous one included on 'The Anvil'. However, some great single sleeve photos and a reprint of the album lyrics more than make up for this.
Let's hope these Visage reissues are successful enough for Cherry Red to maybe release the dance version of the 'Fade To Grey' best of LP, or maybe even a rarities collection? Here's hoping!
Until then, I for one wish to say a heartfelt 'thanks!' to Cherry Red for finally re-releasing this long-overlooked gem.

A must buy item...
This album was the third LP released by Visage and despite the outstanding tracks Beat Boy and Love Glove it didn't have the same commercial success as the Visage and The Anvil albums. It was great to see this eventually released on CD and with the bonus tracks it is a must buy item for the completist.