![]() ![]() Having failed to achieve any semblance of success outside of their small fanbase, Ultravox took a fresh approach with their third album, discarding the punk and glam influences in favour of a more streamlined, European electronic sound, achieved with the help of Kraftwerk producer Conny Plank. Like its predecessor, the album was a commercial failure on release, its brilliance and originality only realised in hindsight. Of the album’s highlights are chugging opener ROckWrok and Fear In The Western World, Distant Smile − with its gorgeous piano intro and The Man Who Dies Every Day, but the best is saved until last with the superbly sparse electro of Hiroshima Mon Amour, a teaser of where the band were heading. Perhaps sensing the end of punk was in sight, Ultravox!, again with Steve Lillywhite, jumped ship from being part of a dying trend by introducing different styles and influences including hypnotic, robotic beats and atmospheric peaceful waves to ferocious punky pop laden with distortion. Read more: John Foxx interview The Must-Have Albums Ha!-Ha!-Ha!, 1977īruised by the commercial failure of their debut album, Ultravox! quickly brushed themselves down (it was released just eight months later) and adopted a “what have we got to lose?” attitude which freed them to experiment more with their music, lacing their frantic punky rhythms with electronic flourishes and experimental sounds, with screaming guitars and distorted violins vying for precedence. However, any fans that the band lost due to the changes, they more than made up for, going on to score an incredible run of success, notching up 16 Top 40 singles and 10 Top 40 albums, becoming one of the defining acts of the decade.īy 1984, inter-band tensions jeopardised their future with Midge’s involvement in Band Aid and Live Aid and solo success proving to be its eventual finale, leaving behind a legacy encompassing both the art-rocker experimentalism of the Foxx era or Ure’s electro-imperialism which continues to excite and inspire fans over four decades later. The new line-up garnered a reputation as being po-faced poseurs by purists alarmed at the reinvented Ultravox’s live act which saw them immobile behind their synthesizers. With a new line-up and new vision in place, the 80s incarnation of Ultravox leaned heavily towards an electronic sound, something that brought them the commercial success that had previously eluded them, with fans seduced by the seminal synths and strings of their defining hit, Vienna. However their reputation as a formidable live act failed to translate into commercial success and the departure of John Foxx to pursue a solo career and being dropped by Island Records left Ultravox in a state of limbo at the end of the 1970s.įollowing a period in which remaining members had worked with acts they had been an inspiration for (Gary Numan), Ultravox reformed with new recruit, Billy Currie’s Visage bandmate Midge Ure taking over Foxx’s lead singer role. With lead singer/songwriter John Foxx at the helm, the band became known for their off-the-wall lyrics and their willingness to incorporate elements of glam, prog-rock and electronica into their music, assisted by producers such as Brian Eno, Steve Lillywhite and Conny Plank. ![]() From their origins as art-rock innovators with John Foxx to their seminal success as synth-pop saviours with Midge Ure, Ultravox may have changed their sound and their line-up but their ability to produce quality pop was continual… By M ark Lindoresīeginning life in 1973 as Tiger Lily, a glam rock band who wore their influences − Bowie, Roxy Music and the New York Dolls a little too literally, they released just one single, a cover of Fats Waller’s Ain’t Misbehavin’, before establishing a style of their own, scoring a deal with Island Records and deciding to call themselves Ultravox! ![]()
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