Metamatic Forums John Foxx John Foxx 30th Anniversary Foxx

I'm waiting for the 5.1 surround mix. I did a surround version of TCM (using software and info gleaned from this this site) and it sounded pretty good.

I can see it now. 30 years time. John's still performing. I take my grandkids to his concert. The younger one says "Who's the old codger with the zimmer frame?". [/QB][/QUOTE]

Wow - the same "frame" as mine???

Metamatic in a Cinemascope-style box set with prints, extra discs of recently found archive recordings/sessions etc and all the videos / TOTP performances on a DVD?

I don't care how many versions I have already (rough count; six) I'd be first in the queue!

cant belive its 30 years ago today that i first heard john foxx ! it was 11th jan 1980. i was a huge numan fan at the time and had obviously heard of john foxx but never really sought out ultravox (too wrapped in numan to care much about any other bands!). within a few minutes i was to find out what i had missed! i think it was 'round table' that played underpass, it was certainly an early evening show on radio one. can remember like it was 5 minutes ago the thoughts in my head as i listened to the first of john's songs that would forever shape my life....
i can't imagine how my world would have been without this wonderful invasion , and would like to thank john with all my heart for the priceless gift he has given us all over the years . may his generosity continue for many more . thanks john xx

I know that with the benefit of hindsight the release of "Underpass" may seem a pivotal moment to most of us, but are we not looking back on its impact through rose-tinted spectacles?

My first glimpse of John was his performing "Underpass" on Top Of The Pops and while I was quite impressed, the impression I got was he seemed like someone who'd seen Gary Numan's success and jumped on the bandwagon.

Of course, had I heard of Ultravox I would have known that it was Numan who was the copycat and John the originator, but at the time the mood in the music press was that John was one of many who'd seen Numan doing "Are Friends Electric" and though "Hmm, I could do that."

(To this day, my brother - a mad keen Numan fan - maintains that John only decided to return to making music after seeing Numan's success and had it not happened, he would have left the music business altogether after leaving Ultravox).

The other thing is that Underpass wasn't really a big hit, peaking just outside the top 30, despite heavy promotion from both TOTP and Radio 1.

Yes, it now turns up regularly on "Electric 80s" compilations, providing John with a nice royalty every now and then, but was it really as seminal or significant a release as many on here would claim?

Good point Herbert; I often think I didn't take too kindly to Metamatic as when it came on the scene I still had 'The Pleasure Principle' ringing in my ears and I had no idea who this John Foxx guy was, or even his 'former band' Ultravox! In fact for many many years I just 'made do' with a tape copy of Metamatic off a friend's older brother without bothering with the original. And just as I remember vividly TOTP moments like Are Friends Electric / Messages (OMD) / Rock n Roll (Human League) / New Life I cannot for the life of me remember Underpass and it was quite a revelation for me after seeing in on youtube after all those years that it did actually go on!
My fandom really started with No-One Driving and the My Face flexi - I joined the fanclub and got a signed photo back!

That said, Underpass and Metamatic are such landmarks now. Perhaps the fact that they were 'underrated' at the time gives them more "meaning" now - (similar with a lot of those early electonic albums such as Travelogue and Systems of Romance which didn't get the recognition at the time but now we realise how important they were...)
:rolleyes:

Have to confess that I hadn't heard anything by Ultravox prior to the release of Underpass, apart from a vague recollection of seeing the mysterious cover of SOR on display in a shop. I think that I would have felt at the time that Underpass was a notch up from Are Friends Electric, but were I to say now that where Friends' was a benchmark in achievement, Underpass was almost a milestone, I just couldn't, that would be grossly unfair to Gary, I'd rather view them both as equally matched stablemates in that early 'electro race'

I recall a music press interview with John at the time where the interviewer said something along the lines of: 'Numan had found the middleground, and created a bridge that Foxx could now just saunter over' - into what I would assume would have been John having as big a success and mainstream career as Gary's, well, we all know who remained the household name as the first Synth star

Confusing thread this one. I can also seem to recall the music press (not Smash Hits by the way - ) panning Numan, which led many of the topics in his songwriting, and an early retirement (for which I'm incredibly grateful, as I saw that tour - the best show I've ever seen I think). So, I can't connect to the comnments suggesting that John Foxx was a Numan clone - the inference is that the press approved of Numan (or at least accepted him as some kind of "standard"), which we know they didn't. Also, chart success has (thankfully) never been an indicator of the inspirational value of any individual, but just the commercial value. It is hard to imagine anyone producing something so way out (an album using ONLY synthesizers??) with the expectation it would top the charts.

@Herbert. Rose tinted specs? Possibly, but I can still recall the excitement I felt all those years ago a young kid when I heard Underpass, Burning Car, and then the whole Metamatic album. The only other time I felt so moved before that (or since actually) was when I heard Quiet Men.

I don't think it is a landmark moment for everyone, but it is for me.

Today's the day then...

Happy 30th Birthday ...

Happy Anniversary Metamatic!!

May my specs beforever tinted