» Listings for July 2024

1. 2023/4 Albums Thing 389 - Ultravox! “Ha!-Ha!-Ha!”

   Posted on 9:20am Wednesday 31st Jul 2024

   Ultravox! 2nd album leaned more toward the Punk sound of the time. It opens with the pounding single “ROckwrok”, all thumping drums and scratchy guitars, very of the time. Second song “The Frozen Ones” begins in a much more sedate fashion but fairly soon is back to the sound of thumping drums and scratchy guitars, and on that style goes through third track “Fear In The Western World” while final track on side one, “Distant Smile”,  lulls you into feeling all has changed with a long dreamy/jazzy intro it finally goes crashing into that Punk rush again. It’s not at all what we’d expect of Ultravox! They were more sophisticated than this, Glam-ier, this (side) is full on Punk thrash.

   All song writing credits are for “Ultravox!” so maybe Side 1 was one songwriting team and Side 2 another because Side 2 could well be a different band ! It begins with a song I’m sure I remember they continued playing when Midge Ure joined the band, “The Man Who Dies Every Day”. It’s much more laid back but in a robotic, Kraftwerk/Roxy style, scratchy, jerky guitars and a moaning synthesizer running throughout, much more like where they were headed on the evidence of their debut album. “Artificial Life” and “While I’m Still Alive” lean heavily on the Roxy influences.

   The album comes to a close on “Hiroshima Mon Amor” and it’s utterly beautiful. It’s very much in the style of previous albums “My Sex”, a slow, broody torch song full of electronic percussion, sequenced burbling synths, long keyboard washes, a saxophone (so asthmatic it could be Bowie himself) and recorders. There’s more than a hint of Scott Walker about it and Japan we’re likely big fans of its style and sound.

   The two sides of “Ha!-Ha!-Ha!” could be by different bands. Side 1 is a twitchy Punk rush, Side 2 points toward where they were heading with their next album. This lineup of Ultravox had one more album in them, and what an album it is.

   Hiroshima Mon Amor - https://youtu.be/552OyLE-ies?si=DL5bvbqwQQlrH9XA

2. 2023/4 Albums Thing 388 - Ultravox! “Ultravox!”

   Posted on 9:00am Saturday 27th Jul 2024

   For those of you settling in for a good read about the Midge Ure fronted, 80’s synth-pop chart botherers, yer in the wrong place (we will however go as far as the first Midge Ure Ultravox album, “Vienna”). The Ultravox! we will be concerning ourselves with for the next 3 records will be the real deal, the group originally fronted by John Foxx. 

   Ultravox! (the ! was a tip of the hat to Krautrockers Neu!) were formed as far back as 1974 under the name Tiger Lily. After releasing one single (a cover of Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” which later turned up in a soft porn movie) for Gull Records they went through a number of name changes before being signed by Island Records on the strength of their live show. The band wasn’t the only thing that changed names, singer Dennis Leigh became John Foxx and bassist Chris Allen became Chris Cross. 

   Ultravox! were very much influenced by Roxy Music, Bowie, Kraftwerk and Krautrock, you can hear those influences plainly on this album, which was co-produced by Brian Eno, who would very shortly go off to work with Bowie on “Low”. I always think of Ultravox as part of the early Punk thing but also an electronic/synth band but this album is not really in that mould. Opening song “Satday Night In the City Of The Dead” owes as much to the 60’s British R&B/Freakbeat boom as it does to Mr Moog with its slashing guitars and wailing harmonica. The last song on side one “I Want To Be A Machine” promises electronica in its title but is in fact steered by guitars and violin. 

   One of my favourite songs on this album is the haunting slow burner “My Sex”, but not this version of it. In early 1978 Ultravox! released a live EP, “Retro Live”, made up of live takes of non-album single “Young Savage”, next album, “Ha!-Ha!-Ha!”, track “The Man Who Dies Every Day” and from this album “I Want To Be A Machine” and an absolutely stunning recording of “My Sex” from a gig at Huddersfield Polytechnic (oh the glamour !) which is well worth a listen (https://youtu.be/M8HwBCDMy6w?si=AArIm82-n0Fku9Ow). It’s not until we reach “My Sex”, the last track on the album, that the keyboards push themselves to the forefront, even then it’s mostly piano rather than synthesizer that takes the lead until the refrain between verses when the synth steps forward.

   Ultravox! came to be seen as primarily a synth band, mainly because of the Midge years, but this album is far more guitar driven than they would become, in fact Billy Currie’s violin plays as big a part on this album as any electronic keyboard. It’s Roxy/Bowie influences are worn proudly, with a nod to the New Wave that was happening at the time, look at the cover image, yes it’s a little bit Punk but it’s equally Glam in its makeup. We have here a collection of great songs delivered by a band that could see what was going on around them but were, in reality, far ahead of some of their contemporaries musically.

   The Wild, The Beautiful And The Damned - https://youtu.be/CFLDo5fT9WI?si=WGIxWOIsC7qdjTD8

3. 2023/4 Albums Thing 387 - UB40 “Signing Off”

   Posted on 9:15am Friday 26th Jul 2024

   More reggae from Birmingham but this not quite in the same division (musically) as Steel Pulse. That’s not to say I don’t like UB40, it just depends which UB40 you’re asking me to like. The band that made “Signing Off” and “Present Arms” I’m all good with. The glorified tribute band that made “Labour Of Love” and it’s endless half-arsed sequels and then split into a million different lineups after, basically, an argument over money, well you can keep them.

   The Campbell brothers who fronted UB40 had serious socialist roots, they being the sons of Ian Campbell the Scottish Folk singer and political activist who had relocated from Aberdeen to Birmingham as a teenager. The band formed around a bunch of school friends with a shared love of reggae. So to see them eventually fall apart, splitting into numerous different UB40’s, in footballers cliche terms, it was disappointing Ron.

   But while they were in this first incarnation they burned brightly. I only ever saw them once, at the NEC Arena 27th December 1980, on a bill that also featured Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Rockpile, Madness, The Selecter, Squeeze and John Cooper Clarke. Elvis Costello was due to be the headliner but as UB40 had just that month had a top 10 single (“The Earth Dies Screaming”) and this was their hometown, Elvis wasn’t stupid, he conceded the headline spot to the returning heroes. It was special, there wasn’t a person in the room that night that wasn’t right behind them. 

   “Signing Off” had artwork that mimicked a government UB40 benefit card (from whence they got their name) and was packed full of politics and ire, oh for the days when the groups that populated the charts actually had something to say rather than just product to sell !

   Here are songs of how African Americans suffered at the hands of a racist justice system and how the legacy of Martin Luther King had been lost (“Tyler” and “King”). “Burden Of Shame” covered the stigma of British Imperialism, “Food For Thought” bought attention to the famines in Africa, a full 5 years before Band Aid/Live Aid. “King” and “Food for Thought” were released as UB40’s debut double A side single. Could you imagine a new band doing that now ? And it charted, it reached number bloody 4 in the charts, a song about an assassinated civil rights leader coupled with one about famine in Africa. I’m not sure who had more balls, the band or the record buying public back then !

   The album was originally accompanied by a bonus 12” single that contained a cover of Billie Holliday’s legendary song protesting the lynching of Black Americans in the deep South, “Strange Fruit” (“Southern trees bear a strange fruit. Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees”) and also “Madame Medusa” a scathing take down of Margaret Thatcher with lyrics every bit as potent as those in “Strange Fruit” (“Round her vacant features, Gilded serpents dance, Her tree of evil knowledge, Sprouts a special branch“).

   “Signing Off” is a great record but it’s one I’d never really thought I needed to own again after letting go of my original copy years ago. But this copy came through the shop, the records are in great shape but a previous owner (thank you Debbie Goldie) had actually filled in their details on the UB40 form the cover represents and I didn’t think it fair to sell it on with someone’s personal details on the cover. So never fear Debbie, your National Insurance number is safe with me !

   “Signing Off” was recorded in former Steve Gibbons Band drummer Bob Lamb’s ground floor flat on Cambridge Road in Moseley on an 8-track machine powered by a single 50p piece they kept feeding through the electricity meter after kicking off the lock ! And you try to tell the young people of today that ...

   Madame Medusa - https://youtu.be/P-hBBJZIxFY?si=phCZ4m0tPSTBabHE