Artist Profile
Ultravox was a British post punk/new wave band formed 1973 in London by Dennis Leigh aka John Foxx (vocals), Billy Currie (keyboards, violin), Chris Allen aka Chris Cross (bass, synths, vocals), Stevie Shears (guitar) and Warren Cann (drums). Originally called Tiger Lily, the band changed it's name to Ultravox! and on the strength of their live act, were signed to Island Records in 1976. Musically, Ultravox! were heavily influenced by Roxy Music, the New York Dolls, David Bowie and Kraftwerk. Their debut album, getting the full backing of Chris Blackwell's Island label, was co-produced by Steve Lillywhite and Brian Eno (who next co-wrote and performed with Bowie on Low). Ultravox!'s sales were disappointing, and neither the album nor the associated single "Dangerous Rhythm" managed to enter the UK charts. Relations within the band were on an occasionally tenuous footing during this time as Foxx declared that he intended to live without emotions, a sentiment he wrote into the début album track "I Want to Be a Machine". In 1979 after releasing three excellent albums, John Foxx left to go solo and was replaced by Midge Ure from the Boy-Pop band Slik. The band went on to release a total of 11 studio albums, the final being Brilliant from 2012. Their first seven albums: Ultravox! (1977), Ha! Ha! Ha! (1977), Systems of Romance (1978), Vienna (1980), Rage in Eden (1981), Quartet (1982), and Lament (1984), are consistently excellent. Though their latter period albums fell away in comparison. Initially with John Foxx, they had a distinctive Punk/Artrock sound, whereas the Midge Ure sound was New Wave and much more commercially successful, as demonstrated by the worldwide hit single "Vienna" in 1980. Ironically Island had dropped the band from the label after Systems of Romance and their new label Chrysalis became the beneficiary of their newfound commercial success with Midge Ure out front. John Foxx subsequently signed to Virgin Records and released his album Metamatic in January 1980. By this time, Billy Currie had been recruited by the rising star Gary Numan in 1979 to do a performance at The Old Grey Whistle Test show with his band Tubeway Army. Numan had been a fan of Ultravox and Currie was also asked to play on Numan's début solo album, The Pleasure Principle, and its subsequent tour. Back when staring out, and still under the name Tiger Lily, the group released a single in 1975, "Ain't Misbehavin'", a cover of the Fats Waller song, which featured in a soft porn film. Later, the band went through a series of name changes including The Zips, Fire of London, London Soundtrack, and The Damned, using this last name for a few weeks before discovering that the Damned had already taken it.