The education was a preparation to become an orchestral player, learning viola with piano as his second instrument and also studying composition and harmony.

At this time Currie was excited to discover composers like Béla Bartók, Arnold Schoenberg, Arthur Honegger and Edgar Varese.

In the early 1970s he was a member of the experimental art group The Ritual Theatre, which included four classically trained musicians and four dancers.

In 1974, Currie left Ritual Theatre to join the glam rock band Tiger Lily on viola and keyboard.

During soundchecks for the tour Currie, with Gary Numan band musicians Chris Payne and Cedric Sharpley began to develop a song of their own called "Toot City".

Currie had also joined the studio-based band Visage, fronted by Steve Strange, that also included Midge Ure.

Visage drummer Rusty Egan encouraged Currie to ask Ure to join the defunct Ultravox as lead singer/guitarist.

In 1988, Currie put out an instrumental solo album Transportation, released on the IRS NoSpeak record label.

Many of the synthesisers for which Currie was famous, apart from the often-volatile OSCar and Minimoog, were abandoned for this tour, replaced with Korg Wavestations and T-series keyboards.

In 2009 and 2010, the "classic" Ultravox line-up from the 1980s (Currie, Ure, Chris Cross, and Warren Cann) reformed for two successful tours – their first together in over twenty years.

Other synths used by Ultravox included the Moog MiniMoog, Yamaha GS1 (the pad sound on "Lament") and Emulator II sampler.