Midge Ure was then 21 years old, and in the future he became an important figure of New Wave music, as frontman of Ultravox, then called Tiger Lily and led by Dennis Leigh, later known as John Foxx and a successful electronic musician, who he replaced in 1979.
Its staccato introduction was reminiscent of the metallic guitar notes that kicked off the track "Some of Them" from Systems of Romance, Foxx's last album with former band Ultravox.
They were initially influenced by 1970's artrock and postpunk acts like David Bowie, Joy Division, Magazine and Ultravox but adopted a more sophisticated synthpop and new romantic style on their most successful albums Uppdrag i Gèneve and En plats i solen.
Ultravox |
Wickens' design career paralleled his musical career in the 1980s, when he was in partnership with Peter Saville, and designed dozens of LP covers for Peter Gabriel, New Order, Joy Division, Ultravox and others.
He is not to be confused, although in many listings often is, with the similarly named, former drummer with the British glam rock outfit, Hello, whose brother is Ultravox's Chris Cross.
Ultravox used one for the solo on Love's Great Adventure, and it is used for the bass on Stevie Wonder's Skeletons, Jean-Michel Jarre's Revolutions Overture, Seaweed (British musician) of Ozric Tentacles used one in his rig and perhaps most notably on Do They Know It's Christmas.
The album was Foxx's first work with a producer since his final Ultravox album, Systems of Romance, in 1978; The Golden Section was co-produced by Zeus B. Held, well known in the Krautrock scene of the 1970s.
One of the first Austin punk bands to tour nationally, The Skunks played CBGB's in August 1979 and Max's Kansas City in 1980 and opened for such national and international acts as The Ramones, The Police, Gang Of Four, Ultravox, The Clash, John Cale, The Cramps and many others.
Billy Currie (born 1950), British musician and songwriter, keyboard player with Ultravox