375 Hello Ultravox - Sleepwalk

Chart  entered :  5  July  1980

Chart  peak : 29

Number  of  hits : 17

With  Two-Tone  running  out  of  steam  it  was  now  the  time  of  the  synth  and  one  or  two  hitherto  neglected  acts  started  getting  some  attention.

Ultravox  grew  out  of  a  glam  band  called  Tiger  Lily.  At  the  Royal  College  of  Art  in  1974, Lancastrian  mature-ish student  Dennis  Leigh  ( born  1948 )   put  up  an  ad  for  starting  a  band. The  immediate  respondents  were  bassist  Chris  Allen  ( born  1952 )   a  fellow  student  and  brother  of  Jeff  Allen  who  was  in  Hello  and  a  guitarist  Stevie  Shears. Shortly  afterwards  they  recruited  Canadian  drummer  Warren  Cann   ( born  1950 )   who  had   recently  lost  out  to  Dinky  Diamond  for  a  place  in  Sparks.  The  line  up  was  then  completed  with  the  addition  of  Huddersfield-born  violinist   Billy  Currie  ( born  1950 )  who  was  also  pretty  handy  on  keyboards.

Tiger  Lily  dressed  like  the  New York  Dolls  and  sounded  like  Roxy  Music. They  released  one  single  in  1975 , an  arch  cover  of  Fats  Waller's  "Ain't  Misbehavin"  which  was  later  used  in  a  porn  film  of  the  same  name. Dennis  finds  the  exact  halfway  point  between  Ferry  and  Eno  in  his  vocal  and  Billy's  viola  dominates  the  sound.

As  punk  took  off,  the  group  went  through  a  number  of  name  changes  before  settling  on  Ultravox ! in  1976  , the  exclamation  mark  signifying  their  appreciation  of  German  group  Neu ! By  this  time  they  were  already  signed  to  Island  and  working  on  their  debut  LP  with  both  Eno  and  a  young  Steve  Lillywhite  producing.

The  first  Ultravox !  single  was  "Dangerous  Rhythm"  in  February  1977  which  sounds  at  least  a  year  ahead  of  its  time. With  Chris  putting  down  a  great  reggae  bass  line  you  wonder  if  a  certain  Mr  McManus  was  listening  to  this  hymn  to  erotic  anticipation  credited  to  all  five  members.

The  debut  album  "Ultravox!"  followed  shortly  afterwards. It  can  be  fairly  divided  into  two  halves ,  those  songs  solely  credited  to  Dennis   which  are  spiky,  of- their-time   New  York  Dolls-influenced  shock  rockers  and  the  ones  where  Billy  at  least  has  an  input  which  are  more  melodic  and  interesting  like  the  vastly-pretentious  Bowie-esque  epic  "I  Want  To  Be  A  Machine"  where  his  violin  runs  riot  and  stand-out  track  "The  Wild, The  Beautiful  and  the  Damned " . It  was  a  commercial  failure.

The  band  responded  by  becoming  more  punk  rock  on  the  next  single  "Young  Savage" in  May  1977 , a  rather  sneery  observation  on  youthful  hedonism  with  a  bawling  chorus. Its  saving  graces  are Warren's  hectic  drumming  and  a  great  punk  riff  from  Shears.

The  next  album  "Ha-Ha-Ha"  ( made  with  Lillywhite  alone  )  and  lead  single "ROckwrok" ( sic )  were  released  on  the  same  day  in  October  1977. The  latter  sounds  like  The  Pistols  covering  Virginia  Plain   with  added  obscenities  ; quite  why  Island  let  a  band  they  were  trying  to  break  put  out  a  single  with  a  line  in  the  chorus  that  runs  "Fuck  like  a  dog, bite  like  a  shark"  I  don't  know.  The  album  has  always  been  regarded  as  their  most  difficult  and  there  are  few  concessions  to  melody anywhere. Side  One  is  pretty  much  pure  punk  with  Dennis  trying  his  best  to  sound  like  John  Lydon  and  the  agitated  "Fear  In  The  Western  World"  is  an  untypical  political  rant. Side  Two  feels  more  like  Billy's  side  with  more  keyboards  and  violin  ( "While  I'm  Still  Alive"  sounds  like  Curved  Air  with  a  male  singer )  and  a  calmer  approach  culminating  in  the  drum  machine  and  sax-based  "Hiroshima  Mon  Amour". Rather  optimistically  the  first  10,000 copies  came  with  a  free  single  "Quirks", a  throwaway  bass-heavy  number  seemingly  about  rent  boys.

After  the  tour  to  promote  the  album  (  which  it  failed  to  do  ) early  in  1978  changes  were  made. The  exclamation  mark  was  dropped  and  so  was  Shears  whose  style  was  felt  to  be  limiting  the  band. He  was  replaced  by  Robin  Simon  ( born  1956 )  who  had  previously  been  in  a  band  with  Billy  in  Halifax. The  band  put  out  a  live  EP  "Retro"  recorded  at  various  places  featuring  "The  Man  Who  Dies  Every  Day", "Young  Savage", "The  Wild, The  Beautiful  and  the  Damned"  and  "My  Sex"  in  February  1978. Some  of  the  band  now  changed  to  a  stage  name; Dennis  became  "John  Foxx"  and  Chris  became  "Chris  Cross".

With  their  next  single  "Slow  Motion"  in  August  they  made  a  decisive  break  with  punk  as  the  track  has  a  much  slower  beat, romantic  lyrics  and   Billy's  synthesiser  textures  fighting  it  out  with  Robin's  churning  guitar  to  be  the  dominant  instrument. It was  a  moderate  hit  on  reissue  in  the  wake  of  "Vienna" in  1981 , the  only  one  of  their  hits  to  feature  John  ( as  we'll  call  him  now  )  and  Robin.

The  band  produced  it  themselves  then  went  over  to  Cologne  to  record  their  third  album  "Systems  of  Romance"  with  Kraftwerk  producer  Conny  Plank. Released  in  August  1978  it's  the  bridge  to  their  later  work. Abandoning  his  previous  idea  of  "living  without  emotions"  John  started  writing  more  straightforward  romantic  lyrics  and  allowing  Billy  more  influence  on  the  sound. Along  with  the  electronics  there's  more  melody  to  be  heard  on  songs  like  "Maximum  Acceleration"  and  "Dislocation".  However  stripped  of  the  punk  snarl,  John's  voice  sounds  brittle  and  inflexible  and  is  exposed  as  a  limiting  factor  as  the  band  struggled  for  commercial  success. You  can  hear  it  on  the  next  single  "Quiet  Men"  an  electro-dance  number  where  the  robotic  lead  vocal  is  put  to  shame  by  the  sudden  warmth  of  the  instrumental  break.

As  the  band  prepared  for  an  American  tour  at  the  start  of  1979  they  received  the  news  that  Island  had  dropped  them.  At  the  end  of  the  tour  in  March  John  announced  that  he  was  quitting  the  band  for  a  solo  career. The  breach  was  solidified  the  following  year  when  he  used  some  new  material  they'd  been  developing  on   his  first  solo  album  Metamatic   without  giving  the  others  any  credit  and  seems  to  have  gone  unhealed  to  this  day. Robin  preferred  to  stay  in  the  States  as  the  other  three  returned  to  the  UK.

The  future  of  the  group  seemed  uncertain  to  say  the  least  but  things  began  to  turn  their  way. First  Gary  Numan  gave  them  fulsome  credit  as  an  influence  in  his  early  press  interviews  and  invited  Billy  to  join  his  band  for  a  forthcoming  tour. Billy  also  played  some  violin  on  his  next  LP  The  Pleasure  Principle. He  was  also  drafted  in  by  Rusty  Egan  and  Midge  Ure  ( born  1953 ) for  their  Visage  project, making  music  for  Rusty  to play  at  his  Bowie  nights  at  Billy's  night  club  which  gave  birth  to  the  New  Romantic  movement. Warren  meanwhile  worked  with  The  Buggles  and  appeared  on  Top  of  the  Pops  with  them  doing  Video  Killed  The  Radio  Star.

When  Egan  realised  that  Billy  intended  to  persevere  with  Ultravox  he  suggested  that  Midge  join  the  group  as  a  replacement  for  both  John  and  Simon  when  he returned  from  a  tour  in  the  US  with  Thin  Lizzy. The  diminutive  Glaswegian  had  had  a  frustrating  career  thus  far. Coming  down  to  London  in  the  mid-seventies  after  starting  out in  covers  bands  in  his  native  city  he was  approached  by  Malcolm  McLaren  to  join  the  nascent  Sex  Pistols  but  turned  him down. Instead  he  stuck  with  his  Scottish  pals  in  the  group  Slik  who  were  teamed  up  with  the  writing  team  Martin  and  Coulter. They  hit  quick  paydirt  with  "Forever  And  Ever"  reaching  number  one  in  1976, a  bizarre  song  which  could  easily  be  Ultravox  in  the  slow  doomy  verses   before  they  turn  into  the  Bay  City  Rollers  for  the  chorus.  When  the  over-cooked  follow-up   and  all-too-aptly  titled  "Requiem"  baffled  the  teenies  and  failed  to  make  the  Top  20  the  band's  goose  was  cooked.

The  follow -up single  "The  Kid's  A  Punk " ( not  actually  referencing  what  was  going  on  in  London )  was  featured  on Top  of  the  Pops  but  even  that  couldn't  propel  it  into  the  charts  which  is  slightly  surprising  because,  despite  the  corny  teen  rebel  lyrics,  it's  a  decent  pop  tune. I  guess  they  just  had  the  wrong  sound  at  the  wrong  time. They  tried  once  more  with  the  instantly  forgettable  "Don't  Take  Your  Love  Away"  at  the  end  of  the  year.

Failure  breeds  discord  and  having  decided  he  now  did  want  to  be  a  punk  after  all  Midge  persuaded  the  band  to ditch  Martin  and  Coulter  and  re-brand  themselves  as  P.V.C.2 . They  released  one  single  under  that  name  an  EP  with  "Put  You  In  The  Picture"  which  sounds  like  a  Stranglers  tribute  band. When  that  didn't  work  he  jumped  ship  for  Glen  Matlock's  Rich  Kids ( see  the  Goodbye  Sex  Pistols  post )  while  the  rest  of  the  band  returned  to  Scotland  and  became  The  Zones.

When  Midge  had  finished  covering  for  mislaid  guitarists  in  Thin  Lizzy  he  joined  his  new  bandmates  for  another  US  tour  playing  songs  from  "Systems  of  Romance"  until  the  new  line up  had  enough  songs  of  their  own. Since  then  they haven't  touched  any  Foxx-era  material. They  then  went  to  RAK  Studios  to  record  their  new  album  although  their  new  deal  was  actually  with  Chrysalis.

"Sleepwalk"  was  the  first  single  from  the  new  line  up. At  this  point  in  time  Warren  was  the  band's  principal  lyricist  and  the  song  concerns  his  unusual  sleep  patterns  affectionately  recalled  in  Midge's  autobiography  ; apparently  he  was  having  a  kip  just  before  they  went  on  at  Live  Aid. The  song  couldn't  be  less  drowsy,  the  frantic  bass  line  is  sequenced  on  a  Minimoog  synthesiser  with  Warren  trying  to  keep  up  on  live  drums. Midge's  heroic  vocals   and  Billy's  choral  keyboards  conjure  up  the  right  air  of  melodrama  and  Billy  proves  that  he  can  replicate  guitar  solos  on  his  ARP  machine  in  the  instrumental  break. There  isn't  much  of  a  chorus  which  is  probably  what  stopped  it  getting  higher  in  the  charts  but  it's  still  a  great  record.