Simple Minds will embark next week on an extensive U.K. tour in support of the band’s forthcoming ‘Celebrate — The Greatest Hits+’ best-0f collection but fans in that country will get another chance to see the band come November, when Jim Kerr and Co. play four arena dates with special guest Ultravox.

Billing itself as “North America’s premier ’80s tour,” the semi-annual Regeneration Tour returns this August for an undisclosed number of U.S. concerts featuring Erasure frontman Andy Bell, The Human League, Howard Jones and Information Society — but not, as tour promoters originally had hoped, the reunited Ultravox.

Ultravox frontman and solo artist Midge Ure will be the subject of a new 2CD, 32-track best-of dubbed ‘The Works’ this spring as he puts the finishing touches on a new live album that was recorded in Chicago earlier this year during his rare North American solo tour.

Midge Ure today announced a rare North American solo tour that’s set to take place this coming January — featuring, “so far,” 12 dates confirmed across the U.S. and a single Canadian concert —that he says “is to pave the way for the possibility of bringing Ultravox over later in the year.”

The reunited ’80s-era lineup of Ultravox — featuring Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann — next week will release its reunion album ‘Brilliant,’ and, for the next 24 hours, is giving fans a sneak peak via a Facebook stream of five of the record’s tracks.

The reunited ’80s-era lineup of Ultravox — featuring Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann — today announced a 13-date U.K. tour this September and October in support of the band’s forthcoming comeback album, ‘Brilliant’ — the first new album from that lineup in nearly three decades.

The ’80s-era lineup of Ultravox — Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann — last month announced plans to release ‘Brilliant,’ their first new studio album together in 28 years, and today debuted the first music from that project, lead single and title track ‘Brilliant,’ on British radio.

The ’80s-era lineup of Ultravox — Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann — last week announced plans to release ‘Brilliant,’ their first new studio album together in 28 years, and now are offering fans the first taste of the project via a two-and-a-half-minute behind-the-scenes video of the band in the studio.

The classic ’80s-era lineup of Ultravox — Midge Ure, Billy Currie, Chris Cross and Warren Cann, who reunited onstage in 2009 for the first time since Live Aid — this spring will follow up their comeback tours with the 12-track Brilliant, their first new studio album together in 28 years, EMI Records announced today.

Steve Strange, frontman of ‘Fade to Grey’ hitmakers Visage and founder of the New Romantic hub The Blitz in London, is gearing up for a busy 2012, with a debut album due next month from electronic dance project Detroit Starzz and plans for a fourth Visage album — that group’s first in 28 years — to be released in May.

Rewind Scotland — The ’80s Festival will return for a second year this July, featuring 24 acts spread over two days — including sets by Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Bronski Beat’s Jimmy Sommerville, Squeeze, Midge Ure, Lightning Seeds, Marc Almond, ABC and Roland Gift of Fine Young Cannibals.

Heaven 17 will perform its 1983 album ‘The Luxury Gap’ in its entirety for the first time this fall in London when the band stages a two-day festival with its experimental spinoff B.E.F. — an event that will feature Erasure’s Andy Bell, Midge Ure, Scritti Politti’s Green Gartside and Boy George.

This week’s new CDs include reissues from Morrissey (‘Bona Drag’), Midge Ure (‘The Gift,’ ‘Answers to Nothing’) and Madness (‘Mad Not Mad’), plus a live disc from Blondie (‘Blondie at the BBC’), a new compilation of hits and covers from Ministry (‘Every Day is Halloween’) and collections from a-ha (’25: The Very Best Of’), The Undertones (‘Teenage Kicks: The Very Best Of’) and Stiff Records (‘Born Stiff’).