So long that we all got impatient with waiting and dipped into the many cases of wine we’d laid on for refreshment after the shoot. Can’t remember where, but I do remember that it took the crew a long time to set up the lights to prepare for filming. The embassy party scene was in some house we’d rented in town. 'It may come as a surprise to know that approximately half of it was shot on locations in central London, mainly at Covent Garden and also in the old Kilburn Gaumont Theatre in North London (now a Bingo hall). It was Ultravox's second video, after ' Passing Strangers' (also with Mulcahy), and cost £6000–£7000, footed by the band after Chrysalis refused to fund it. The music video, directed by Russell Mulcahy, is particularly evocative of The Third Man. Midge Ure is said to have been influenced by The Walker Brothers' 1978 single 'The Electrician'. The song takes its inspiration from the 1948 film The Third Man, which is based around the Austrian capital Vienna. Other sounds include a solid synth bass line played on a Oberheim, an Elka string synthesiser and a Roland CR-78 drum machine The song is regarded as a staple of the synthpop genre that was popularised in the early 1980s. Unusually for its genre, two of its most distinctive sounds are those of conventional instruments - the dramatic grand piano in the verses and chorus, and the viola solo in the middle of the song. Ure said of the track: 'We wanted to take the song and make it incredibly pompous in the middle, leaving it very sparse before and after, but finishing with a typically over-the top classical ending.'

It was awarded an honorary number one by the OCC. To date, it remains Ultravox's signature song, being their most commercially successful release and is often played live by Midge Urein solo performances, as well as being voted Britain's favourite single to ever peak at number two in the charts in a 2012 poll run by BBC Radio 2 and the Official Charts Company. It also won 'Single of the Year' at the 1981 Brit Awards. 'Vienna' was kept off the UK #1 slot by John Lennon's ' Woman' for a week, and then by Joe Dolce's novelty hit, ' Shaddap You Face', for a further 3 weeks, although 'Vienna' did sell more copies than either of these records and ranked as the 5th best selling UK single for 1981. The single was released on Chrysalis Records on 15 January 1981, and is notable for spending 4 consecutive weeks at #2 in the UK singles chart without ever getting to #1. It was the third single and the title track from the band's fourth album. ' Vienna' is a song by the British New Wave band Ultravox.

Ultravox vienna live