Ultravox - The Island Years POLL (John Foxx/Island era 1976-1979)

"Slow Motion" all the way - one of the best songs of the new wave era - should have been a big hit.

I love the three Foxx-era albums. They're all quite different from each other. First LP has that art rock Bowie/Roxy feel. Second is half punk rock and half screechy new wave. Third is icy cold synths...inching towards pop.

Underrated.

I still haven't decided what to vote for yet, but 'Slow Motion' is definitely a Foxx-era standout for me and I agree, it really should have been a big hit. Perhaps if they hadn't carried on with Midge and they'd reissued it after Numan hit it big with 'Are 'Friends' Electric?', it would have been the hit it should have been, but perhaps it was just a little too ahead.

Yeah, ended up voting for 'Slow Motion'.

One thing that never seems to mentioned about this incarnation of Ultravox is that those early albums pretty much kick-started Steve Lillywhite's production career!

Geoff: How did you first get into producing -- did you start as an engineer?

Steve: Well, I started as a tea-boy, really. I worked my way up from assistant engineer to engineer, and I suppose my first break in production was that if no one had the studio booked on weekends, you could take your own projects in and do your own thing. So we all had our own little projects, and one of my projects was what was to become Ultravox -- with John Foxx as lead singer, although they were called Tiger Lily at the time.

So I did these demos with them, and they thought they were really good, and they signed a deal with Island. Now the band wanted me to carry on working with them on their first album, but Island said they'd need a name producer, because obviously I hadn't really done anything before. Surprisingly enough, the third production credit on the album was Brian Eno!

The credit on the sleeve was "Produced by Brian Eno, Ultravox and Steve Lillywhite." But Eno wasn't there all the time -- I was there most of the time. Then I was offered a job by Island -- I was still staff engineer at Phonogram Studios at the time. I dropped everything and went to work for Island for four years during which time I worked with various people.

Did you do the other two Island Ultravox albums as well?

I did the second one, which was Ha! Ha! Ha!, and then they went with Conny Plank to do Systems of Romance, which was a really good record. And that was when John Foxx split and they were dropped from Island and were picked up by Chrysalis.

So I'm working for Island as a mixture between A&R, producing and engineering. I was working with Johnny Thunders on a solo album of his, and while we were in the studio Siouxsie and the Banshees' manager came down, liked what he heard and asked me to do their first single, which I did. It was "Hong Kong Garden," which is one of their biggest hits still.

That's what really started it off. Then after the Banshees came a lot of other punk bands -- some of which were successful: the Members, XTC, early Psychedelic Furs -- Penetration I did an album with. There seemed to be a lot happening around that time...

and he even mentioned Ultravox! as being one of his 16 "career-defining" records in an interview/article in 2011...

“I was a young tape operator at a studio. Basically, a tape op is the guy who presses the buttons and things like that. In those days, you could get promoted from tape op to engineer, and one way to do that was to bring in bands on weekends to engineer on your own. If the studio boss saw you could handle things, chances were good you’d get promoted.

“So I brought in this band called Tiger Lily - they would change their name to Ultravox - and we did some demos which landed them a deal with Island Records. As luck would have it, they told the label they wanted me to produce their album.

"It wound up being a three-way production between me, the band and Brian Eno. The label said the band needed a name guy, and because they loved Roxy Music, they chose Brian. This would be my first time working with him.

“The great thing about Brian is, he comes in, does his thing and leaves - whereas I’m there all the time and micro-manage. It was a good learning experience. The album was critically acclaimed, but it didn’t have that all-important hit single. This was during the early days of punk, when attitude was everything. Ultravox came from punk, but they were more art-rock.”

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

Genuinely surprised at the tracks that didn't get a vote here!

I voted for Young Savage in the end, but had Ultravox! on in the car this morning and damn it I think I should have voted for The Wild, the Beautiful and The Damned.