Showing posts with label Ultravox!. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ultravox!. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 14, 2025

John Foxx - A Kind Of Wave (1985)

Dennis Leigh, known professionally as John Foxx, was born on 26 September 1948 in Chorley, Lancashire, and attended Harris College of Art in Preston and then the Royal College of Art in London. During his youth in the 1960's he embraced the lifestyles of a mod and a hippy, while he formed his first band Woolly Fish in 1967 in Preston, although he later experimented with tape recorders and synthesisers whilst at the Royal College of Art. Prior to 1973, he was singing and playing a 12-string guitar and occasionally supported Stack Waddy in Manchester, moving to London in order to escape what he saw as a lack of musical stimulus. In April 1974, Leigh formed a band that would eventually be called Tiger Lily, composed of bassist Chris Allen and guitarist Stevie Shears, with Canadian drummer Warren Cann joining shortly afterwards. The band played their first gig at the Marquee Club in August 1974, after which Billy Currie was recruited as violinist a few months later. Tiger Lily released a single in 1975 on Gull Records, the A-side of which was a cover of the Fats Waller track 'Ain't Misbehavin'', while the flip was the group's own song 'Monkey Jive'. Tiger Lily played a few gigs in London pubs between 1974 and 1975, before changing their name to Ultravox!, having played briefly as Fire Of London, The Zips and The Damned. 
The group now fused punk, glam, electronic, reggae and new wave music, and it was at this time that Leigh adopted his stage name of John Foxx, while Chris Allen, who had briefly gone by the name Chris St. John, changed his name again, to Chris Cross. Once the band signed to Island Records, they released three albums during 1977–1978, with their eponymous debut being produced by Steve Lillywhite and the band, with assistance from Brian Eno. It was followed by their second album 'Ha! Ha! Ha!' in October 1977, which included the single 'ROckWrok', while for their third record they abandoned the exclamation mark in their name. 'Systems Of Romance' was co-produced by the legendary Conny Plank, and it featured new guitarist Robin Simon, who had replaced the recently departed Stevie Shears. At the end of 1978 Ultravox were dropped by their record label, following which the band undertook a self-financed tour of the United States in February, during which they performed three new songs, 'Touch And Go', 'He's A Liquid', 'Radio Beach'. At the end of the tour Foxx left the band to return to solo work, and he was replaced by Midge Ure, after which the revitalised Ultravox went on to have a very successful career. 
Foxx, meanwhile, signed to Virgin Records, and achieved two top 40 entries on the UK Singles Chart with his first solo singles, 'Underpass' 'No-One Driving', while their parent album 'Metamatic' was released on 17 January 1980, and peaked at No. 18 in the UK Albums Chart. One of the album's songs, 'Metal Beat', takes its name from a CR-78 drum machine sound used on the record, and Virgin used the name for their Metal Beat Records imprint, which was used for all Foxx releases on their label. The non-album single 'Burning Car' followed in July 1980, and was another top 40 hit in the UK, and Foxx then worked on dozens of tracks for two projected albums, with one of these tracks, 'My Face', being released on a flexi-disc given away with Smash Hits magazine in October 1980. His next album was 'The Garden', which was released in September 1981 and reached No. 24 in the UK Albums Chart. Musically it was a departure from the stark electropop of 'Metamatic', to a sound resembling his previous band's 'Systems Of Romance', and it even featured the song of the same name, which had been written during the sessions for Ultravox's third album, but which was never recorded. The lead single 'Europe After The Rain' became Foxx's fourth and last top 40 hit on the UK Singles Chart, during a five-week chart run in August/September 1981. 
In 1982, Foxx set up his own recording studio, designed by Andy Munro, also called The Garden, which was housed in an artists' collective in Shoreditch, East London. In 1983 he provided some music for the soundtrack to Michelangelo Antonioni's film 'Identification Of A Woman', and in September that year he relased his third solo record 'The Golden Section'. Foxx described it as a development of 'The Garden', and a "roots check" of his earliest musical influences, including The Beatles and English psychedelic music. In 1985 he released 'In Mysterious Ways', which was less of a commercial succes than his previous records, as it was not considered a significant advance on the sound of his previous work. After 'In Mysterious Ways', Foxx temporarily left his career in pop music, selling his recording studio and returning to his earlier career as a graphic artist, working under his real name of Dennis Leigh. In the early 1990's he began to find inspiration in the underground house and acid music scenes in Detroit and London, and with Nation 12 he released two 12-inch singles, 'Remember' in 1990, and 'Electrofear' the following year. The first was a collaboration with Tim Simenon, best known for his Bomb the Bass project, and he also worked with LFO, and made the music video for their eponymous debut single. 
On 24 March 1997, Foxx made a return to the music scene with the simultaneous release of two albums, 'Shifting City' and 'Cathedral Oceans', both on Metamatic Records, and 'Shifting City' was Foxx's first collaboration with Manchester musician Louis Gordon, with whom he formed a long-time partnership. On 11 October 1997, Foxx played his first public gig since 1983 at The Astoria, London, and a limited-edition of 1,000 numbered copies of a twelve-track CD entitled 'Subterranean Omnidelic Exotour' was available for purchase by ticketholders. Foxx and Gordon continued to work together, and in September 2001 they released a second album 'The Pleasures Of Electricity', followed two years later by 'Crash And Burn'. In late 2006 the pair released three collaborative albums: October saw 'Live From A Room (As Big As A City)', which was a 'live' studio album from the 2003 tour, the studio album 'From Trash' appeared in November, and a further album, 'Sideways', from the same sessions a few weeks later during the accompanying mini-tour. Foxx has continued to record and release music, and his latest album, 'Wherever You Are' appeared this year, but for fans like me, his classic period was before that first hiatus, from 1979 to 1985, and so this post collects all of his non-album singles and b-sides, plus a few out-takes, from those years.  



Track listing 

Disc I - 1979-1980
01 Young Love (unreleased single 1979)
02 Like A Miracle (unreleased single 1980)
03 Film One (b-side of 'Underpass' 1980)
04 Glimmer (b-side of 'No-One Driving' 1980)
05 This City (b-side of 'No-One Driving' 1980)
06 Mr. No (b-side of 'No-One Driving' 1980)
07 Burning Car (single 1980)
08 20th Century (b-side of 'Burning Car')
09 To Be With You (out-take 1980)
10 Cinemascope (out-take 1980)

Disc II - 1980-1981
01 My Face (free flexi-disc with 'Smash Hits' magazine 1980)
02 Miles Away (single 1980)
03 A Long Time (b-side of 'Miles Away')
04 This Jungle (b-side of 'Europe After The Rain' 1981)
05 Swimmer I (b-side of 'Dancing Like A Gun' 1981) 
06 Swimmer II (b-side of 'Dancing Like A Gun' 1981) 
07 Swimmer III (previously unreleased 1981)
08 Swimmer IV (previously unreleased 1981)
09 Fog (out-take 1981)

Disc III - 1983-1985
01 Dance With Me (b-side of 'Endlessly' 1983)
02 A Kind Of Wave (b-side of 'Endlessly' 1983)
03 A Woman On A Stairway (b-side of 'Your Dress' 1983) 
04 The Lifting Sky (b-side of 'Your Dress' 1983) 
05 Annexe (b-side of 'Your Dress' 1983) 
06 Wings And A Wind (b-side of 'Like A Miracle' 1983)
07 City Of Light (b-side of 'Stars On Fire' 1985)
08 Lumen De Lumine (b-side of 'Stars On Fire' 1985)
09 Stairway (b-side of 'Enter The Angel' 1985)

Sunday, December 27, 2020

Ultravox! - Young Savages (1978)

If you mention Ultravox to most people they'll probably start singing 'Oh, Vienna', but there's another group of people, like me, who will say 'they were never the same after John Foxx left'. Ultravox! (with the exclamation mark) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 on the initiative of vocalist and songwriter Dennis Leigh, and was originally known as Tiger Lily. An initial line-up comprised Leigh plus Chris St. John (Chris Allen) on bass, and Stevie Shears on guitar, with drummer Warren Cann and violinist Billy Currie joining in May and October 1974 respectively. The group released one single in 1975, which was a cover of the Fats Domino classic 'Ain't Misbehavin'', and then went through a series of name changes including The Zips, Fire of London, London Soundtrack, and for a short while The Damned, before they realised that the name was already taken. They signed to Island Records in 1976, although they had still not decided on a name, and it wasn't until they'd almost finished recording their debut album that they settled on Ultravox! At the same time, Leigh chose John Foxx and Allen chose Chris Cross as their respective stage names, and in February 1977 Island released their eponymous debut album 'Ultravox!'. Musically, it was heavily influenced by Roxy Music, the New York Dolls, David Bowie and Kraftwerk, and the album was co-produced by Steve Lillywhite and Brian Eno, but unfortuantely it's sales were disappointing (although I bought it), and neither the album nor the associated 'Dangerous Rhythm' single managed to enter the UK charts. They returned later in 1977 with the punkier follow-up 'Ha!-Ha!-Ha!', but sales were once again poor for both the album and its lead single 'ROckWrok'. Although Ha!-Ha!-Ha! was dominated by guitars and electric violin, the final track, 'Hiroshima Mon Amour', was a prototypical synthpop song, and this was a taste of things to come for their third album 'Systems Of Romance'. 
In early March 1978, Stevie Shears, whose style of guitar playing was considered a limiting factor, was sacked and replaced by Robin Simon, and it was also at this time that the band dropped the exclamation mark from their name. 'Systems Of Romance' was recorded with famed German producer Conny Plank, and was markedly different from their earlier work, bringing synthesisers to the forefront of the group's sound, but despite praise from some critics, the album was a commercial failure, and the band were dropped by their record label at the end of 1978. Ultravox undertook a self-financed US tour in early 1979, but split up after the final gig near San Francisco, with Foxx announcing his intention of embarking on a solo career. He subsequently signed to Virgin Records and released his excellent debut solo album 'Metamatic' in January 1980, while the rest of the band made their way back to Britain and played with artists like Gary Numan, Zaine Griff and Eddie And The Hot Rods singer Barry Masters. With the band seemingly over, Ultravox were then revitalised by Midge Ure, who joined the band as vocalist, guitarist and keyboardist, filling both John Foxx's and Robin Simon's roles in one go, and Ultravox's next album, 'Vienna', showed a major change of direction, gave them chart success, and is the end of the story for this post. I want to celebrate the band that I loved in the late 70's, and so this collection includes both sides of the Tiger Lily single, some extremely rare recordings from a German TV show, two songs from the free 7" single which came with 'Ha!-Ha!-Ha!', a non-album single and b-side, and their complete 1977 John Peel session. For those who only know the band from their Midge Ure period then I hope this album shows how they got to that stage by producing some inventive and challenging music between 1975 and 1978. 

UPDATE - thanks to cgm for reminding me of the great electric version of 'Hiroshima Mon Amour' which graced the b-side of the 'RockWrok' 7" single, and which has now been added to complete this album. 



Track listing

01 Ain't Misbehavin' (Tiger Lily single 1975)
02 Monkey Jive (b-side of 'Ain't Misbehavin'')
03 TV Orphans (from RockPop TV show, Germany 1977) 
04 I Won't Play Your Game (from RockPop TV show, Germany 1977) 
05 I Came Back Here To Meet You (from RockPop TV show, Germany 1977) 
06 My Sex (John Peel session 1977)
07 Artificial Life (John Peel session 1977)
08 Young Savage (John Peel session 1977)
09 The Man Who Dies Every Day (John Peel session 1977)
10 Modern Love (from free 7" single with 'Ha!-Ha!-Ha!' 1977)
11 Quirks (from free 7" single with 'Ha!-Ha!-Ha!' 1977)
12 Cross Fade (b-side of 'Quiet Men' 1978)
13 Hiroshima Mon Amour (alternate version - b-side of 'RockWrok' 1978)
14 Young Savage (single 1977)