I Love 1980 - 18

Ultravox - Sleepwalk

Currently suffering from too many late summer nights so not much time and energy to dedicate to blogging or even the I Love 1980 series. However thought I'd try and get this one in before I forget about it or collapse completely from fatigue, or even go on holiday.

Up until this time Ultravox were a defunct post-punk outfit formed by John Foxx and art student friends Currie / Cross / Cann with little or no commercial success despite three albums and a string of singles on Island. Their last LP Systems of Romance (1978) gained much critical claim and inspired would be electro-rockers such as Gary Numan and others to do interesting things with new fangled synthesisers and drum machines which weren't Tangerine Dream or strictly Kraftwerk, but
in 1979 it all went completely sour for Foxx-Vox as they undertook a US tour which ultimately led to Foxx leaving the band to its own devices. While he went on to experiment and produce minimal electronic music (Metamatic tracks He's a Liquid and Touch and Go were performed by the band on the US tour), the others soldiered on and later recruited Rich Kid Midge Ure as singer/ guitarist/songwriter and went on to even bigger things.

Sleepwalk was the new formation's debut single which actually struggled a bit in the lower reaches of the chart for a few weeks before finally breaking it in late summer with a cracking performance on the re-vamped Top of the Pops (jaw duly dropped once more..) allowing it to scrape into the Top 30. Not an overwhelming chart debut but this was butch synth music that pushed Foxx and even Numan aside and made it OK to like electro-music even if you didn't wear eye make-up. The 'look' was an important part of the new Ultravox though with sharp clothes and Midge's trademark pencil 'tache (missing from the single sleeve pic triva fans..) which became fairly popular as the New Romantic fashions took form.
Sleepwalk comes crashing in with Cann's drums driving a stomping synth beat as we all sing along with Midge (Duuuh duuhhh. Sleep -Walk!), with Billy Currie screeching along on his thing in the bridge. The Blitz kids went wild and Ultravox were given a second chance and the rest is history.

Sleepwalk chart stats: here
read: Smash Hits feature on the old & new Ultravox
Listen: Ultravox - Sleepwalk


album: Vienna
Although the follow up single Passing Strangers fared worse than Sleepwalk, it was the flagship album Vienna, already released when Sleepwalk hit the charts (usually in those days the single
preceded the parent-album by a few weeks), that led the way for Ure-Vox with it's crisp Konny Plank production, smart design and stomping electro tunes hitting the right balance between
scratchy rock guitars (possibly pioneered by Robin Simon in Foxx-Vox?), rock-steady drumming by Warren Cann, all awash with the new electronic sounds which were to become so commonplace just a few months later. The iconic title track became their biggest hit in early 81 as the New Romantics took hold although the album is truly all-killer-no-filler stuff and even manages to get away with a 7 minute instrumental opening track in the magical Astradyne.

Vienna chart stats here
Buy Vienna here
Listen: Ultravox - New Europeans




Ultravox circa 1980 : "It's Ok Midge - you can come out now, John Foxx has gone.."