Biography

Replaced Gary Moore in the band Thin Lizzy for a 1979-1980 tour and album.

One of the driving forces behind "Band Aid"

Guitarist and lead singer of 1980s pop group Ultravox.

was a member of the short-lived new wave band 'Visage' who are best remembered for the 1980 hit 'Fade to Grey'.

Along with Thin Lizzy vocalist Phil Lynott, helped compose the song 'Yellow Pearl' in 1981 which became the theme for the Top of the Pops (1964) for the next several years.

It's always a pleasure to hear "Do They Know It's Christmas?" for a couple of reasons. Every time it's played money goes to the fund, and it also brings back memories of the time. More the good ones than the bad. It's a song which still kind of stands up today. It's become a modern hymn.

I've managed to work with most of my heroes over the years but one of the standouts was collaborating with Kate Bush on the song "Sister and Brother" from my "Answers to Nothing" album. Pure genius.

[on his influences] Very linear really, starting with Hank Marvin (Hank B. Marvin) and the haunting atmospheres he created on those great Shadows (The Shadows) records. Then I discovered Peter Green, Eric Clapton through the British blues boom, and eventually Mick Ronson and Brian May. I think Mick Ronson was hugely underrated as a guitarist. He could express more in one or two notes than all the 'whizz-kid' guitarists from any era ever could.

[on Live Aid (1985)] I'd seen Queen a couple of times but I didn't expect this incredibly finely honed performance.

[on Freddie Mercury] As an aspiring musician who came of age in the Seventies and Eighties, I've always admired Freddie's huge talent and his ability to break new ground, and I'd defy any musician of my generation - and probably since - who's not been influenced by what Freddie did because it was just so radical and different and everything he did was infused with melody.