They were Ultravox! back then . The boys kept the name and John Foxx the "!" >>> John Foxx! .aMUSEd wrote:They went downhill for me when Ure got on board anyway. Their stuff with John Foxx was awesome.
Two different bands.aMUSEd wrote:They went downhill for me when Ure got on board anyway. Their stuff with John Foxx was awesome.
I don't know, the first two with Midge Ure weren't that bad. After that though it was more downmountain than downhill.aMUSEd wrote:They went downhill for me when Ure got on board anyway. Their stuff with John Foxx was awesome.
I'm upto my 6 the gig already with more this year!
Mr. Ure IS a bloody good guitarist, indeed. However, Foxx-era Ultravox was VERY different from Urevox. As someone said, it was a totally different New Wave influcenced pretty uncommercial group without future, strictly speaking. Mr. Foxx may have had a decent streak of albums, but he had never enjoyed a commercial success (even though Europe After The Rain was a smallish hit all over Europe back... long ago). Actually, his singing voice never won me over. Too much nervous sheep there, but that's my taste. Pardon me if someone's raging (in Eden) right now.Manc Chris wrote:Just back from seeing the reformation gig at the Manc Apollo. Me and a synth buff mate were expecting to see some nice old kit on stage, but instead were faced with f*****g Apple Macs and VSTi's. Even the FOH console was running bloody Pro tools!
To top it all the only real keyboard onstage was Billy Currie's piano. His main workhorse for the night. So, Mini Moog? J8? Pro 5? No. A bloody Yamaha CP piano, with quite the worst sound I have ever heard. 'Vienna' was ruined with its' honky tonk jangly tone.
Midge is a bloody great guitar player though.
To me, Foxx-era Ultravox! was not the Ultravox I was into as a teenager. Though I own all the albums and have given a good listening-to to all of them, I cannot recall any of the Foxxvox songs. No catchy melodies. No hits. Again, my taste.
I suppose that's the key - it's all about when you got to know them and your tastes. For me I was already well into electronica before Ultravox (!) even formed so I latched onto them straight away. I really loved their stripped down, dark and industrial approach to electronic music and songs like "My Sex" are still the classics in my eyes - it has a kind of fragile crystalline beauty to it. The lack of "hits" to me was a positive, they had the guts to explore and create their own musical and creative vision rather than concern themselves with success in terms of "hits". When they started bringing out stuff like "Vienna" it was a total shock, sorry but I thought it was dreadful - so over produced and OTT I thought at first it was an ironic joke (reminded me of the sort of thing Roxy Music were parodying in their "Song for Europe").Monsieur_X wrote: To me, Foxx-era Ultravox! was not the Ultravox I was into as a teenager. Though I own all the albums and have given a good listening-to to all of them, I cannot recall any of the Foxxvox songs. No catchy melodies. No hits. Again, my taste.
Yeah I suppose in retrospect it does have some similar touches - that heartbeat drumbeat for example and some of the atmosphere. At the time I liked the album as a whole - it wasn't one of the best tracks for me but I didn't dislike it wither. I always tended to go for the more experimental and introverted side of electronica though rather than the electropop - never really took to Numan for example (except, ironically for Soft Cell/Marc Almond who everyone sees as poppy but were really pushing out the envelope in terms of material)standalone wrote:aMUSEd , you were horrified by "Vienna" but , did you like "Just for a moment" before ?
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