I Love 1980 - 7

John Foxx - No-One Driving, double 7"

Can't remember quite what convinced me to decide to cycle some 15 miles to get this double 7" single from the nearest decent record shop (think I got it from Boots' in the end), but I did and never regretted it. Underpass had already scarred my memory (see I Love 1980 - 1) and although I'd still failed to get the Metamatic album even as a tape copy (was I the only
one in town that liked John Foxx?) I just had to get this single I'd probaly heard on the radio... with the three extra tracks to boot...as seen in NME.
And it must have been one of the first times that I loved the pic sleeve (still quite rare at the time) and artwork as much as the music. The monochrome images of an enigmatic man in a grey suit, which remain with Foxx to this day, were so incredibly stylish, part Bowie, part Gary Numan but just so unmistakeably and uniquely Foxx. And the music was no disappointment. Even though it only just scraped into the Top 40 No One Driving was a prototype for the catchy and danceable synth-pop which was just around the corner. It even had a sing along chorus, although the lyrics were still mysterious and tell some kind of story which was so open to interpretation (JG Ballard inspired, it turned out).

..but then to the 'B sides'. Glimmer, a memserising instrumental using synths only that takes you off into a dream only to return to (another) earth with This City which was strong enough to stand as a single itself, again with some kind of dystopian story being told ("All the kisses taste of dust here, but it's too late to change my mind..") and a great sing-along-a-Foxxy chorus (this city, this city oooohhh!), and then back again to another electro-instrumental Mr No with it's sci-fi clicks, whirrs and drones letting your imagination run wild and letting you make up your own film to this mini-electro soundtrack before coming to a grinding halt. Then start again...

Totally brilliant. Never beaten. I love the No One Driving double 7"

get the original version of No One Driving on Metamatic together with the other tracks, and the single version on Modern Art.