By Eirian Jane Prosser, Daily Mail | Chris Cross was an English musician, best known as the bass guitarist in the new wave band Ultravox. Christopher Thomas Allen was born in Tottenham, London, England on July 14, 1952. He began his music career playing in different bands, in Tottenham, North London, with his major early influences being Small Faces, Desmond Dekker, and The Crazy World of Arthur Brown.
Later he joined Stoned Rose, in Preston, Lancashire, alongside Pete Hughes and Mick Carroll, who later went on to form Ritzi, but then decided to go to college to study psychology, a longstanding interest.
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, by Dennis Leigh, an art student in London, thus forming Tiger Lily along with guitarist Stevie Shears, drummer Warren Cann joined shortly, and violinist/keyboardist Billy Currie 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. After playing gigs from 1974 to 1976, in the latter year the band chose to call themselves Ultravox! and signed to Island Records.
In 1979, after three commercially unsuccessful but influential albums – Ultravox! (1977), Ha!-Ha!-Ha! (1977) and Systems of Romance (1978) – and a tour through USA and Canada, original vocalist John Foxx and guitarist Robin Simon, who had replaced Stevie Shears a year before, left Ultravox, so Cross worked on another part-time “Purely for Fun” project with Pretenders’ guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, one of his favourite guitar players, Eddie and the Hot Rods’ vocalist Barrie Masters and The Rods drummer Steve Nicol.
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Cross died on March 25, 2024, at the age of 71.
Read the full bio here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Cross
Photo: From Ultravox’s website
Chris Cross Dead Aged 71: Ultravox Star Who Played and co-Wrote Classic Vienna Hit Has Died
