Billy Currie (born William Lee Currie on April 1, 1950 in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England) is a musician and composer, best known as the keyboard player with the band Ultravox, who achieved commercial success in the early 1980s.

With Ultravox and subsequent work, Currie was noted for his use of analogue synthesizers, particular his trademark soloing sound, which typically consisted of soaring fluid lines on an ARP Odyssey, making use of oscillator sync, later re-created with the Oxford Synthesizer Company "OSCar" synth. Currie's original instrument whilst at music college was the viola, and he frequently added solo violin or viola to the arrangments of songs he played on, a relatively unusual choice in pop music.

He has continued to work on solo projects.

One such solo project was the 1988 album Transportation, released on the IRS NoSpeak label. Steve Howe played guitar on some of the tracks.

Worked with:

• Barry Edwards' "The Ritual Theatre"
• Ultravox (1974–1986, 1991–1992)
• Visage (1979-1980)
• Gary Numan (1979)
• Phil Lynott
• Steve Howe

1950 births | Living people