Visage – Fade To Grey

I always had a stong feeling that this song might've been the inspiration for Kent's "Kärleken väntar". (And why didn't Kent become huge in English?) Also Radiohead's "Fade out" sounds very similar — even in of the lyrics.

AndyPandy2000 is spot on. The sound quality here far exceeds the 7" single because of, as he says, the wider groove. My copy sounds absolutely superb. Very transparent sound with brilliant bass and very high treble. There were a lot of Super Sound Singles released in with the 7" versions on but as the name suggested, these sounded far better than the smaller discs. Some of these are really worth getting hold of, Blondie's The Tide is High sounds awesome.

What the hell is going on with the sales history?

This may not be easy to find in "Mint" condition but that does not explain the insanity of:

£400 NM/M
€100 M/NM

Both copies sold on the same day in July 2020.

No reason in either description for these prices. Were they personally autographed by Steve (with baggies of H left in the sleeve)?

Sorry, bad joke but what the hell?!?

I'm loved the original since it came out when I was still at school but love the Bassheads '93 dub - easily the best of the post 80s remixes in my opinion

The A-side of the 7" single is just an LP version without its opening bleeping electronic effects. The B-side is a straight LP track. Contents of the original 12" single are the same as on 7" - quite a common thing at the time.

The first extended version was on the second German 12", released after the song's chart success in Spring 1981, - not very imaginative, simply restarting the song with "needle-slip" effect about halfway (interesting to note that 10 years later the same trick was applied to Wolfsheim's classic first single "Sparrows and the Nightingales" for their extended version; maybe just a coincidence, maybe not). This version can be found on the German maxi CD-single "Fade to Grey", released in 1988.

The real 12" remix was first released on the US EP "Visage" in Summer 1981, done by the US producer John Luongo. It's also on the first Visage compilation, "Fade To Grey (The Singles Collection)" released in 1983, and its German CD release from 1991.

There are a couple of versions of that mix - one can be found on Old Gold CD-single of Visage 12" mixes from the first album, released in 1992. It's duration is 6:22, 20 sec shorter than the original 12" (why did they do that is a mystery to me). A bigger edit can be found on the UK compilation "Real Eighties (Hits Plus Extended Mixes)" released in 2005 - it lasts for 5:36, being more than a minute shorter. Just for completists, but interesting anyway.

Could it be "Fade To Grey" has been inspired by Human League's "Being Boiled" a bit? The main chorus sound very similar in both songs.

The most brilliant electronic piece of all times, blah blah blah... Can't say anything new about this truely amazing song.

However,
if you just after an extend version of this song - you won't find it here. You have to look for the one which is 6:44 mintues long (see below).

This is this poor exuse for a 12" "version" (if you can call it a 12" version at all). The song simly repeat itself twice. There's only one cut just before the chorus repeats to fade out, straight to the first verse, and goes again till the ends. that's it. What's the point of releasing a 12" if it doesn't contain a 12" version? I could never understood that.

Later, Visage did release an awsome extended remix for this song, on a remix EP, which also released in one of their hits collection. But that remix had never been released as a stand alone 12". Pitty.