ORIGINALLY FRONTED BY JOHN FOXX, ULTRAVOX WERE THE PURE DEFINITION OF A CULT CONCERN BEFORE A CHANGE IN PERSONNEL SPARKED BOTH A MAINSTREAM BREAKTHROUGH FOR THE BAND AND A WHOLE NEW MUSICAL MOVEMENT

JON O’BRIEN

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First coming together in 1974, vocalist John Foxx, guitarist Stevie Shears, bassist Chris Cross, violinist Billy Currie and drummer Warren Cann didn’t have the most auspicious of starts. Their first single, titled Ain’t Misbehavin’, was a Fats Waller cover that was commissioned, but embarrassingly then unused, by producers of a soft porn flick. And their attempts to rebrand themselves from Tiger Lily to The Damned were, unsurprisingly, thwarted by a then-unknown outfit fronted by Dave Vanian.

Even when they signed a deal with Island, renamed themselves Ultravox! – the exclamation mark a nod to krautrock pioneers Neu! – and duly bagged Brian Eno as co-producer, their fortunes failed to change. Indeed, the general response to the quintet’s self-titled 1977 debut was about as animated as its mannequinthemed cover art, with neither the album nor dub reggae-inspired single Dangerous Rhythm troubling any kind of major chart.

Admittedly, Ultravox!, also notable for being Steve Lillywhite’s first significant production credit, wasn’t the easiest sell. Inspired by the dystopian fiction of JG Ballard and William S. Burroughs, Foxx appeared to go out of his way to offend the London tourist board, poetically bemoaning about the loneliness, decay and all-round discontent of life in the capital across nine tracks, in his soon-to-be trademark sneer. “Tottenham Court Road litter skitters in the wind,” he bellows on deliberately misspelled opener Sat’day Night In The City Of The Dead, while “Delightfully unpleasant with the foxy adolescents,” is how he describes a certain demographic on Wide Boys. He even finds the time to take a potshot at London’s biggest musical export, The Rolling Stones, on the puntastic Life At Rainbow’s End (For All The Tax Exiles On Main Street).

THE ALBUM WAS IMPOSSIBLE TO PIGEONHOLE, LURCHING FROM POP TO NEW WAVE, GLAM ROCK AND PROTO-PUNK

The album’s sound was impossible to pigeonhole, too, lurching from the pop of the band’s youth (Slip Away) to new wave, glam rock, proto-punk and a haunting mood piece (My Sex) which essentially put the New Romantic wheels in motion. The latter’s use of synths has since been hailed as a watershed moment but, on its release, it largely confounded those who couldn’t grasp the concept of thinking outside the guitar-bassdrums (and violins) box. As Foxx would tell The Quietus: “Being ahead of your time is worse than being behind your time.”

Despite the general apathy that greeted the arrival of Ultravox!, this audacious statement of intent remains one of the most vital entries in the band’s back catalogue.

Continuing their prolific work rate, Ultravox’s third album in less than 18 months was one of many milestones. It was their first (and last) to feature Robin Simon of one-time support act Neo: founding member Shears had exited in early 1978. It was also their first since dropping the exclamation mark and the first of three records to feature the production talents of German studio wizard Conny Plank.