BBC4 : Summer-night Concert from Vienna

It meant nothing to me.

We walked in the cold air
Freezing breath on a window pane
Lying and waiting
A man in the dark in a picture frame
So mystic and soulful
A voice reaching out in a piercing cry
It stays with you until

The feeling has gone, only you and I
It means nothing to me

This means nothing to me
Oh, Vienna

Nearly 40 years on, the lyrics to that Ultravox effort haven't aged any better.

Meanwhile, this is perhaps Billy Joel's best song, coincidentally also called "Vienna".

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZdiXvDU4P0

Vienna is gorgeous, being the heart of the austro-hungarian empire certainly didn't hurt the architecture.

Great city to visit in winter in the cold and snow. You can sense the ghosts of Harry Lime and Gustav Klimt (and Midge Ure) lurking in the shadows of every alley.

In Vienna ve sit in a late-night cafe,
Straight connection, TEE.

The Cafe Hawelka in Dorotheergasse is the one Kraftwerk were referring to, if anyone visits and wants to get all central European and moody.

Vienna is certainly known for depression, even the Danube is Blue.

Don't know whether they still do it, but Rapid Vienna fans always used to start singing the Blue Danube when there was a bad miss by the opposition (it's a very wide river, goes the thinking).

I've been there more than a dozen times and never seen anything that could be described as an altercation far less a fight.

You can sense the ghosts of Harry Lime and Gustav Klimt (and Midge Ure) lurking in the shadows of every alley.

The Cafe Hawelka in Dorotheergasse is the one Kraftwerk were referring to, if anyone visits and wants to get all central European and moody.


Excellent.

That reminds me. Wasn’t it excruciatingly cringeworthy when Ultravox (and Ure in particular),working class lads from various UK dumps, were pretending to be Sophisticated Central European Intellectuals?  Incurable Romantics one and all, and doubtless Poet-Warriors in the Classical Sense for good measure. 

They had the clothes, the haircuts, the black and white videos and somehow kept straight faces throughout it all.  They surely travelled first-class in the very next carriage of the Trans-Europe Express to that permanently occupied by Hutter, Scheider, Bowie and Iggy.   

Yuk, I feel grubby just thinking back about it all…

Time for a cleansing hot bath I think. My SECOND hot bath of the day naturally, which I daresay is two more than most of the above oiks took in those far-off, misty water-coloured ‘mystic and soulful’ days of yore.

not quite in Vienna so slightly off topic but 'Grüner See' in Austria must be worth a visit, haven't been but it's a park that turns into a lake every spring, some good youtube videos of scuba divers taking advantage of the phenomonen.

I'd like to dip my toes in the Beautiful Blue Danube one day, and see it in all of its majesty, but I gather that the best place to do so is in neighbouring Hungary. Is this correct?

When I was 18 everybody went to benedorm or arenal or torramalinos in spain me and my friend went to Austria as we was abit slow .we were with all the nice pentioners .The rep was only young  and asked me and my friend if we would like to go on a night out with her she said she had some free tickets for a dance .she didn't say it was a ball .dumber and dumber said yes .We went to a big ball where they were all dancing in big gowns .we were out of place .we did not appreciate it we even complained about the salad having oil on it.we had only ever eaten plain English salad with salt on before .both of us pulled a face at the oily salad .
I said to one young girl that's a nice broach your wearing and she didn't even say thank you

I brought my mam a cuckoo clock from Austria .I also brought my gran one home but I lost the minute hand .my gran had it on the wall in a prominent place for years .I said gran arnt you bothered that you cannot tell the time with it .She said I've got my clock on the mantle piece to tell me the time .that cuckoo clock is lovely

Austria was beautiful and it was clean .two young children bowed to us when we got near them .I loved all the flower boxes in the windows .it was a very dear place though for holidaymakers

Diddy never fails to deliver from his rich seam of memoirs.

He surely deserves his own 'Alan Whicker' style travel show. We would learn so much from this great raconteur, with his wide and varied experience of adventure.

Long life Sir.

Yes I can even remember what songs I sang on the carryokee in Nellie deans  and the scotch
bar in Blackpool , that other sought after holiday destination .there was a crowd of girls in the scotch bar dressed in cowboy suits and when I sang rhinestone cowboy they all took to the dancefloor and one girl had a lassoo and tried to lasso me on stage
That's the nearest I've came to being a big star like Glenn cambell

Do wah Diddy attends line dancing and bingo night at the Rhinestone Country Music Club, Blackpool, circa 1968

Sorry. That should read "Schubert recital at the Konzerthalle, Vienna".