Ultravox - The Collection POLL (Midge Ure/Chrysalis era 1980-1984)

With regard to the change in the band's sound between the Foxx and Midge eras, the exasperating thing is that it was so opportunistic. Regardless of who was mostly responsible for the music, Ure joined Ultravox on the back of his stint in Visage and at a time when Gary Numan was at the height of his popularity. Numan had acknowledged the influence of Foxx-era Ultravox on his first two albums, both of which were a mix of guitar and synths. But by the time of The Pleasure Principle, which was all but guitar-free, Ultravox were on hiatus. And then, hey presto! they re-emerged with a synth-heavy sound.

Added to this, when Foxx himself re-emerged as a solo artist with Metamatic he was also foregrounding the synth to the exclusion of the guitar. It was as if the whole lot of them decided to abandon the guitar at the same time, following the lead set by Numan.

(xp) Oh I don't know, "Requiem" is quite an interesting song.

But there's guitar all over the Vienna album! It never stopped being a component of the Ultravox sound, and they'd done guitar-free tracks in the Foxx years like 'Dislocation' (in fact, I'd go as far as saying the Vienna album was musically a continuation of the sound they'd explored on Systems of Romance, not to mention that OMD and The Human League were already around or at least formed by the time Foxx came out with Metamatic, and OMD and The Human League certainly weren't taking their cues from Numan!

I'd say that given that it was John Foxx that left Ultravox, the remaining members of the band were free to choose whether to carry on or not without him, and they chose to carry on.

By which I mean, surely it was the right of the remaining band members to carry on without Foxx?

the other thing that happened round about the time of midge signing up was that the whole new romantic scene blew up and i think that a lot of post foxx stuff was their take on that rather than them necessarily copping moves off numan. you could argue that hiroshima mon amour was a precursor to duran duran etc and obv midge was in visage so thinking about them in that context kind of makes sense. certainly there's a shift from ballardian black humour to grandiose songs about the crumbling of old world europe etc. god knows they surely weren't anyone's idea of smash hits new-rom pin-ups though

Yeah, they definitely weren't what I'd call "pin-ups". I think Steve Strange was more the "visual" side of Visage, whereas Billy Currie, Midge, Rusty Egan and the members of Magazine/The Banshees that were on the record were responsible for the musical side of it. It's highly plausible that some "Visage-ness" would have seeped into the work of the Midge-era line-up on a musical level, but the Midge-era line-up didn't really slot comfortably in with the New Romantics in a visual sense.

I mean, none of 'em looked like Steve Strange or fucking Boy George, y'know!?

actually listening to this stuff

it isn't as bad as i feared

The Voice is actually kinda ace

actually

If you like 'The Voice', you'll pretty much like the whole of Rage In Eden. They worked with Conny Plank for that one again, as on Systems of Romance and Vienna, and it was pretty much the only time they wrote material in the studio.

In fact, they worked with decent producers both throughout the Foxx years and the Midge years: Brian Eno, Steve Lillywhite, Conny Plank, George Martin/Geoff Emerick...

quite like Hymn too

I think the versions of 'The Voice' and 'Hymn' are edited down on The Collection, both of those songs run for nearly 6 minutes on the albums.

I'll agree about Midge Ure being a horrible singer now. Some of his vocals on the last Ultravox album (Brilliant) make me wince.

They definitely made some bad vocal decisions on that album, but reunion video footage suggests that he has retained most of his range.

I'd go as far as saying the Vienna album was musically a continuation of the sound they'd explored on Systems of Romance

Yup (and side 2 of Ha! Ha! Ha!). I definitely don't think they hopped on the synth train after Numan hit it big - SOR was the album that made Numan want to explore that sound. (It's too bad "Slow Motion" wasn't a massive hit so this era of Ultravox would have gotten its due for really jump-starting the synthpop era.) In addition, the US tour with Foxx ended in March 1979 - by November they were back touring with Midge. Vienna wasn't released until July 1980, but most of it was written months before.

As for John Foxx abandoning the guitar as mentioned upthread, Ultravox was already inching toward the Metamatic sound with "Dislocation," "Just For A Moment," "Quiet Men," and "Cross Fade" -- not to mention that "Touch & Go" and "He's A Liquid" were played during 1978/79 Ultravox shows. (I know "Quiet Men" has guitar, but I think of it as more of a synth song and it was an image/theme that Foxx kept revisiting.)

god knows they surely weren't anyone's idea of smash hits new-rom pin-ups though

I had an Ultravox pic from Smash Hits on my wall. I thought post-stache Midge was very handsome.

The first two Midge-era LPs are pretty great. "Passing Strangers" is my pick for this poll. "Sleepwalk," "New Europeans," "All Stood Still," "The Voice," "The Thin Wall," "We Stand Alone," etc. etc. Top stuff.

Quartet is kinda weak - "Reap The Wild Wind" is corny, but sneaks by with that grand, glacial synth part. I really prefer to not listen to "Hymn," but "The Song (We Go)" is a great closer, and I dig "Serenade," "Mine For Life," and "Visions in Blue." Lament is mostly good. U-vox is painfully stinky despite Conny Plank producing.

As for the official website ignoring the Foxx era, I think there might be lingering resentment about how that era of the band ended - going through a final tour knowing the vocalist was leaving at the end (and then not receiving writing credits on his first solo album), being dropped by their label after releasing three albums with minimal success... I can understand just wanting to ignore it - though they did perform some of that material live when Midge first joined.

But by the time of The Pleasure Principle, which was all but guitar-free, Ultravox were on hiatus. And then, hey presto! they re-emerged with a synth-heavy sound.

Worth noting that Billy Currie was part of Numan's band in 1979 when Ultravox was on hiatus. Think he appears on The Pleasure Principle too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryiGc1efry0

Yeah, that's correct, both 'Touch and Go' and 'He's A Liquid' were performed live by the band prior to Foxx leaving and were destined for the next Ultravox LP. In fact, 'Mr X' from Vienna has musical similarities to 'Touch and Go' (which I'm sure Warren Cann touches on in that interview I posted in the Foxx-era thread). And yeah, Billy Currie did play on The Pleasure Principle and tour with Numan in '79.

Quartet is kinda weak - "Reap The Wild Wind" is corny, but sneaks by with that grand, glacial synth part. I really prefer to not listen to "Hymn," but "The Song (We Go)" is a great closer, and I dig "Serenade," "Mine For Life," and "Visions in Blue." Lament is mostly good. U-vox is painfully stinky despite Conny Plank producing.

I'm not overly fond of 'Serenade', but I like 'Reap The Wild Wind', 'Hymn', 'Mine For Life', 'Visions In Blue', 'Cut and Run' and especially 'When The Scream Subsides' quite a great deal. 'We Came To Dance' and 'The Song (We Go)' don't do much for me either, really.

While the Warren Cann interview I posted in the Foxx-era thread doesn't touch on the time they made Quartet with George Martin, I did manage to find some quotes from other interviews regarding working with him...

First up, Warren:

One of the most pleasurable meetings of my life was spending time with George Martin. He was eminently knowledgeable and truly charming, a gentleman I always privately thought of as "Sir George," long before that was made reality by a subsequent honours list. Our choice of working with George was another example of a great idea - certainly to us - which backfired and was totally misinterpreted by everyone else, or so it seemed. We wanted to work with George Martin; the man who produced the making of what is considered one of, if not The, greatest albums of all time… Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. But we got slammed for working with "Mr. Mainstream." We'd lost it and had "sold out." Hey! This was the guy whose work on that pioneering record has been assimilated by every band on the planet. Of whom it's been said, "… the man who put on record the band who changed the world."

The press just didn't get it!

When we approached him we were well aware that he'd been working with more, shall we say, conservative acts. We made it clear we weren't wallflowers in the studio… if we needed to bring in fifty washing machines, fill them full of rocks, mic them up, and turn them all to spin-cycle - then we'd do it. We were very up front about it. We were game for anything. During the recording of "Quartet," I often sat there thinking, "Wow! Pinch me! I'm working with George Martin and Geoff Emerick, producer and engineer of Sgt. Pepper!!"

It didn't turn out quite as we'd imagined. Perhaps George was tired or perhaps we were suffering from our own misconceptions, but it was a rather sedate experience and not the liberating sonic voyage we were expecting. However, I wouldn't trade that adventure for anything. By the way, it says "produced by George Martin" because that was in the contract as a condition of working with him. A concession we were happy to make.

and then Midge...

"George Martin is obviously a brilliant man, he was great to work with as well but in a very different way. He made a much more polished record, at times maybe too polished. Ultravox had a bit of an edge to it and I think that the Quartet album was a very sort of chic record, designer music, you know. I don't know if it was quite the right thing to do."

never heard/saw this before (gotta be some Duran Duran influence in the video idea):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPwmoLl60nc

this poll exactly coincides with my finally getting around to buying Quartet and Lament on LP. similarly Dance and I, Assassin. AND Adolescent Sex plus Obscure Alternatives. ILM repping hard for them helped. gap-filling is a pleasure with such great groups!

might even pick up Sparkle In The Rain and Speaking In Tongues on LP someday soon too.

Not a bad of albums there, Paul! :D

*set of albums, rather.

Gotta say, I still dig Midge with the Rich Kids. It's not all gold but the best bits like "Ghosts Of Princes In Towers" are terrific.

x-post yeah lots of b-albums with occasional a-moments! takes the pressure off zee masterpieces.

Looks like someone's uploaded the Monument film, from around the time they were making/touring Quartet. First time I've heard George Martin talk about his work with Ultravox, even if he doesn't say an awful lot. Peter Saville also features.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GxNgAOKHUE

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Aw, poor The Voice and One Small Day! And how wrong I was about DWTIM Eyes.

Thanks, Turrican, for running this and the Foxx era one, which has prompted some 'further listening', as the Midge era reissues might call it.

Wonder what would win a non-singles poll, or what album tracks would rank highest in a ballot poll. White China (live version)? We Stand Alone?

Insane that five people voted for "Dancing..." and no one voted for "One Small Day."

I was going to vote for 'One Small Day' but ended up going for 'The Thin Wall' at the last moment, I'm really surprised nobody else voted for it though. Likewise 'The Voice', I thought that would be up there as well!

thought I voted for "One Small Day" - maybe I voted "Passing Strangers" instead? or forgot to check if I had actually voted - I did vote for "Slow Motion" on the other thread.

Oh, my sentimental friend