I was frozen to the TV with my tape recorder held up to the speakers. 10 years old and this was one of the first live shows from a punk band aired on Swedish television autumn 1977. I loved their two first LPs to death. Ahead of their time along with the likes of Devo. And as with Devo, Ultravox first LP was produced by the master mind Brian Eno. Ha! Ha! ha! their second one released the same year is even better. Punked up progg rock maybe. Electric violin and keyboard.
Sure this isn’t an obscure band but maybe too many people associate Ultravox with their later New Romantic period that I can’t stand. Listen to Frozen Ones and realize that this is the kind of music you don’t hear anymore. Punk Rock was so diverse once. What happened?
Midge Ure was at this time in PVC 2 who released the amazing Put You In The Picture 7inch which after he joined the Rich Kids covered it on their Ghost Of Princess In Towers LP. After Rich Kids he went on to Ultravox.
This is a german sleeve variation. Was it released elsewhere?
Country: UK
Year: 1977
Label: Island
Format: 7″
Songs:
Frozen Ones.mp3
Man Who Dies Everyday.mp3
Forgotten to tell you that this post is dedicated to Erich/Good Bad Music. He ADORES Ultravox. Hughs and kisses Erich!
Ultravox = ultrashit. Hahahaha
Ultravox = Killer. Conster Mock = ha ha ha.
Penople = The Flakes // Drummer, hhahaha
Conster Mock = Penople. ha ha ha ha.
I too liked the first Ultravox album and singles. Midge Ure thankfully had nothing to do with this incarnation of Ultravox the singer was John Foxx
Ultrasux
urbanidiot
p’enisople
This is a great post and I admire the diversity of this site. THANK YOU.
Peter does a great job – but diversity also comes from not liking and praising everything you got put in fron of your nose. I think Ultravox is awful and one of these bands, I was unlucky of hearing when I was 10 years old, mistaking it for Punk (it’s bad, boring Rock music).
what I don’t get is how people can get so personal over liking or not liking music. Reminds me of when we were yelling at Poppers and Wavers – at the age of 12.
Erich, I agree on most of it. Except that you don’t understand the genius of Ultravox. But about that we can not debate. You will never understand since you didn’t grew up with punk but with bad Heavy Metal :).
And ULTRAVOX is the reason for this defect in music socialisation!!!!! :-D
Hi! I agree with you, the 2 first Ultravox records are incredible. I want to be a machine is my favourite song of them. Great job!
Just so you know where Erich is coming from:”i too saw them oon telly ca. 77 – and it was GROSS!!!!!!!! ac/dc blew them miles and miles away!!!!!” <-- from a recent ICQ discussion.
AC/DC WERE WAY WAY WAY MORE PUNK THAN ULTRAVOX MULTIPLIED WITH THE ENEMY!
Ha ha ha take it easy little swizz cheesy taste in music.
But we shouldn’t forget that Exploited was the REAL first punk band. And then came Anti Pasti.
Ultrafags
Ultraschlock
HA HA HA HA URBAN!!!! Stop it :D. you’re soooooo funny!
Thanks dude. Coould you buy me the next drink?
no I caan’t.
at least the 2nd LP is a must vor every collection. Ha! Ha! Ha! is a true masterpiece of punkrock. And it’s not a matter of taste!
Ultravox Wroks! Love ’em. The first 3 LPs are great, and I like a lot of the solo John Foxx stuff as well. Metamatic is great techno pop. Great song writing. And these 2 songs are real gems. ‘Ha! Ha! Ha! is a true masterpiece’ I second that.
Ultravox during 1977-1979 rocked! During that time period they were much more cooler than some record comapny manufactured band like The Sex Pistols. Ultravox was into Neu! and Eno. AC/DC were a bunch of drunk idiots. I guess that’s why most punks have a soft spot for AC/DC because most people who call themselves “punks” are drunk idiots anyway. And by the way, the people who call themselves “punks” are definitely not punk.
Ultracocks fan boy meeting: Next Saturday at your local church, after service. No booze allowed!
Is there a single version of “Artificial Life”? I have a old Tape with a pretty rough version on it, but I don know if it’s because of the tape.
Ha Ha Ha Ultravox! Yeah, in the late 70’s they were cutting edge and they were PUNK, I headbanged so much to Rockwrok that at one point piece of my brain fell out of my nose, so I had to stop. I’ve never been the same since.
I notice here even The Sex Pistols get slagged off! Please!!! “I Wanna Be Me” – 1977, – what more can I say. “record comapny manufactured band like The Sex Pistols.” -ooops somebody doesn’t know their punk history – and I’m not going to start a lesson here. “AC/DC is better than Ultravox” Hmmmmmmm…. they were two completely different genres of music… they were not actually competing in any way or form. Unfortunately I think to really appreciate Ultravox for what they were, you have to be quite an old dude, because Ultravox sounded damned weird in 77/78 and HC wasn’t around, so their New Wave sounded punkier back then, and their electronic stuff sounded friekier. They were true pioneers. Unfortunately most “below 30’s” don’t really understand the concept (and incredible value) of musical pioneers, because there hasn’t been any for the last 20 years.
On the Ultravox band wagon came Tubeway Army – their first album was actually punk, and their second hit album was electronic, shame there was never a Tubeway Army electronic artpunk transition album – that would have really been something (in my humble opinion). Also check out Tuxedomoon’s first EP from 1978 “No Tears” – No Tears was their one and only punk track (and a jolly punk song, you cunt sir) two other tracks are ultravoxish electronic -the remaining is semi-classical.
I once saw Midge Ure live in the early 90’s – just doing ultra-average pop. He quickly terminated the gig by calling us (the crowd – about 200 people) a “bunch of drunken idiots”, he really spat his dummy & threw his teddybear, I can tell you. He left the stage in a huff, never to return. OK, we were a bunch of drunken idiots, but that’s besides the point!
You sir are a walking encyclopedia on Ultravox…now that is hardcore! Rockwrok is a fucking masterpiece…
Ultravox hahahaha. You pussies.
I like the later stuff best…the more hardcore stuff…like, Vienna!
Ultravox was unique – not strictly punk, or rock, or New Wave. They were too intelligent and talented as composers/players to have been pigeonholed into any easy category. They were unlike anything around at the time, though they were clearly influenced by Eno, Roxy Music, the Velvets, early Kraut synth-avant garde, and even some jazz, etc. But again, they didn’t fit into those nice little categories that unimaginative populist/collectivist fans, critics, promoters, & draconian record company A&R j-offs needed to grasp in order to function. It’s too bad there’s no room for tolerance of something even a little different musically unless it’s smash-dem-over-dere-heads crass or brusque. [That was the whole non-3-D-cover inside joke of Ha-Ha-Ha!: Okay – we can out-‘punk’, out-angst, out-vitriol, and even out-feedback ANYbody – which they still did with wit, style, and true musical diversity UNLIKE any of their other pretender/peers, many of whom could barely play their instruments, truth be told.] It was no surprise that U-Vox 2 and even Visage pretty quickly pandered to spoon feeding Euro-disco pop and made far more money off the mundane dancing dolt/top-40 crowd. Yay, what a whorish “victory.”
I was lucky enough to see Ultravox! on their first album tour at Wolverhampton Civic Hall and it was a fantastic experience. Poor Stevie shears got covered in phlegm by the local twats. Check out TV orphans on YouTube if you like their early stuff, Midge Ure should have stuck to power pop, too ‘Slik’ by far, tee hee