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John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh; 26 September 1948) [ 1][ 2] is an English singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer. He was the original lead singer of the new wave band Ultravox, before leaving to embark on a solo career in 1980 with the album Metamatic.
Jul 28, 2020 · In a career spanning over 45 years, time and again John Foxx has invented, reinvented and repurposed himself across many frontiers including punk, electronica, ambient and acid house as well as many musics unique to his own design.
Aug 31, 2017 · Born Dennis Leigh in 1948, John Foxx has been at the forefront of the synth movement since the early days of Ultravox! Truly ahead of their time, Ultravox! recorded three records that pushed the boundaries of punk’s aggression, marrying conventional rock instrumentation with primitive synthesizers and esoteric German influences.
- A Tumble of Ideas
- Glimpse Into The Future
- Radical Movement
- New Possibilities
- The Lava Still Flows
But that’s getting ahead of the story. The band that would become Ultravox! began to coalesce in 1973, when Leigh, soon to be Foxx, a student at the Royal College of Art, went looking for musical collaborators and recruited Chris Cross (bass, real name Chris Allen), Stevie Shears (guitar), Warren Cann (drums) and multi-instrumentalist Billy Currie....
The cover of Ultravox!shows the quintet standing in front of a grimy wall, below a neon sign of the band’s name. At first glance, it’s a simple image of the cityscapes through which the band were moving. Yet while Ultravox!is the most straight-ahead rock’n’roll album the band ever made, less obviously it’s also an image that reflects Foxx’s interes...
Ultravox!was unleashed on a world where punk was about to break big. Foxx loved punk’s energy but understood early on that its three-chord aesthetic would become limiting. “You know, since art school, I’d been fascinated by the way all so-called radical movements evolve and decay,” he says. “They start with a great idea, then inevitably erect rigid...
It was also the jumping-off point for the band’s third album, Systems Of Romance. “The table was cleared and we found ourselves in a place that no-one else occupied,” says Foxx. “At that point, we’d consciously got rid of all the rock clichés, and any blues and rock Americanisms, and devised a new territory, mainly concerned with Europe.” Reflectin...
The Foxx-fronted Ultravox didn’t go out with a whimper, though. In early 1979, they embarked on their first US tour. “We bought the cheapest tickets we could, crammed our equipment in the luggage hold as ‘excess baggage’, and rented a station wagon to drive ourselves from gig to gig, remembers Cann. “You really couldn’t have done it on any more of ...
- Classic Pop
John Foxx's official site. Discography, information on upcoming releases and concerts.
This book, Electricity And Ghosts: The Visual Art Of John Foxx is a coffee table book which brings together art pieces alongside his sleeve designs. He has had some help from graphic designer Jonathan Barnbrook (who also contributes a well-written essay about Foxx) and has produced another work of art.
Jun 13, 2023 · Electronic music pioneer John Foxx has made a 50-year career out of continually changing his sound from glam and proto-punk to new wave/synth-pop, quasi-rave, psych, ambient and beyond. “That was always the plan,” he says.