Does anyone know if John has had any chart success (singles or albums) outside of the UK?

Pretty sure there was a small amount in some countrys, but it will take a while to get facts and figures.

Please don't invest time on this. It was just out of curiosity, bearing in mind the number of non-UK fans John seems to have.

I suspect we should look particularly to our Italian friends for this information...?

No problem Mike. Maryann and I researched it about three weeks ago, but never bothered to save the data. So its just a case of going back for a re-run. If we remember where it was.

I wondered the same recently. I would have thought perhaps in Germany or Italy there may have been something. Not sure about France.

Well I live in Italy where he did have moderate success in the early 80s although 'chart success' is a fairly loose term over here. I did notice that special Italian 7" of A New Kind of Man, which was apparently used as a TV theme, so I imagine there was quite a bit of 'interest' around his work if not commercial success. His work with Antonioni may also be proof of that.

Perhaps Luca could tell us more...? Come in Luca!

Yes Italian, American, and German are the main ones. Sadly the sales were very little, even in these top three.

Having said that, there must have been some 'chart action' in Japan too, im thinking in terms of all these jap imports and the 'Burning Car' picture record.

...but just on the subject of Italy, there's an excellent review of Metamatic here . .obviously not meant to be understood by all but just to point out that it gets the 'coveted' milestone' label and all the attention it deserves!!!
http://www.ondarock.it/pietremiliari/foxx_metamatic.htm

Yes indeed. Foxx did some dates in Japan on the Golden Section tour 83 and must have had commercial reasons for doing so?

Hi there.

Definitely, as Mark pointed out, John had some kind of commercial success in Italy, although AFAIR he never entered the charts.

For reasons unknown, "Metamatic" was never released in Italy and therefore had limited availability as an import-only record, with the strange exception of "A New Kind of Man" that was used as the ending music for the "Sapphire & Steel" TV series and later released as a single.

"The Garden" and "The Golden Section" were published in Italy and during 1982/83 John enjoyed (!) his maximum exposure on Italian media: he was interviewed several times for music magazines, made at least one TV appearance, had his videos (notably "Dancing Like a Gun" and "Underpass") broadcast a few times.

I remember a rave review of "The Garden" where the reviewer praised John's return to a more organic sound after the "stark and ice-cold Metamatic"...

The collaboration with Antonioni didn't bear much fruit in commercial terms since the movie "Identificazione di una donna" wasn't very successful, to put it mildly.

In December 1983 John gave 4 concerts all over Italy (BTW I went to the Milan gig and managed to sneak backstage and meet him and Robin Simon ;-) and he was very well received, with venues almost full and audiences who knew his work both with Ultravox and as a solo artist.

Unfortunately "In mysterious ways" again wasn't published in Italy and John (almost) disappeared from the Italian music scene.

BTW I recently discovered that an Italian artist (Faust'O) released in 1980 a song titled "Hotel Plaza" that, although musically different, is a blatant rip-off of our beloved "Plaza".

Comments welcome: Faust\'O - Hotel Plaza

Ciao,
Luca

Hi all. It's a shame but seems John didn't chart anywhere outside the UK. I've searched a lot in the recent years but lokks like he was a cult, but no star to any measure... I have actually been very sure that he managed to chart in Germany and Japan, but no, he didn't.

Though I've once seen a bizarre chart (?) list of Belgium charts (entry dates but no chart positions or weeks on chart), and "Europe after the rain" has been present. E-mailed the guy who ran that site but recieved no reply, so the question remains unsolved...

I still think he may of charted in the US very early on, but im sure there was nothing over there from '82 onwards.....

I've always thought that outside the UK - and I imagine the US - 'charts' don't really have such a big influence and are not such an important factor in achieving success or fame at least in Continental Europe. It's more about radio play and TV appearances, or at least it was in the 80s and best part of the 90s; I think John was more drawn to Italy for example more out of love for the country, the art and the people as opposed to 'chart' or any kind of commercial success.
Mind you he did have an artist's 'tiff' last year when he called off his gigs becuase they were advertising as 'A night with Ultravox' LOL .. such a touchy subject eh?!

There are so many different charts these days that it is really all meaningless. And radio is not the medium it used to be here either (except for college radio stations that have always been cutting edge).
Heavy video play is what does it these days unfortunately.

Looking for it now, K.

Right .. it's the same in Europe too these days .. video killed the radio star eh?

....and so called "reality" shows have killed the videos ..

I miss the age of the music video.

I discovered so many artists through seeing the song videos on various shows. Now, unless you have cable where you can watch rap music videos all day long, you rarely see music videos on terrestrial telly. It's a shame.

But perhaps it is a trend which has largely now gone out of fashion - a bit like the single.

It's no longer profitable for artists like John to release singles, sadly.

Some artists like Numan, slowed down on producing videos for singles years ago. Artists who are never played on tv tend to put their videos as bonus tracks on cd singles, but for those who dont release singles either, theres no place to show their videos so even less point to make them. The net is sometimes the one way.

Yeah, that's it. I guess it's a shame.

I was wondering to myself recently, with the rise of websites like YouTube and the ability to stream high-quality film online, maybe there's a new era for the music video on the internet...

I have a 15 year old daughter and now she's into various cable video channels and if she doesn't like one song then she'll switch to another channel.
Makes me realise in my youth, just how important Top Of The Pops was. It was the only way on "normal" TV to see groups mime or show their latest video. (I think she thinks, I come from the dark ages LOL)

Peter

I think by watching a channel of non-stop music videos, you're less likely to see something you like. or rather you're more likely to miss something!

Yes and it dont help when video producers tell artists how to look on their videos. Sometimes you see so many videos that look the same on one channel (even those all trying to look 'different') that even good music can pass you by. You have to keep your ears open, and not focus on the videos so much, i find.

Thanks for all the responses on this thread. Really interesting ....

A horrible green jacket comes to mind.

I've done a bit of research myself and have not managed to find any evidence of chart success outside the UK

I'm sure everyone's already aware of John's UK chart positions, but for the record this is what I have found:

Singles

Underpass #31 (1980)
No-One Driving #32 (1980)
Burning Car #35 (1980)
Miles Away #51 (1980)
Europe (After The Rain) #40 (1981)
Endlessly #66 (1983)
Your Dress #61 (1983)
Stars On Fire #89 (1985)

Albums

Metamatic #18 (1980)
The Garden #24 (1981)
The Golden Section #27 (1983)
In Mysterious Ways #85 (1985)

Cheers,
Mike

Thanks for that - i was quite surprised as i thought Underp, Driving and Europe had all gone higher.

Thanks for that information. Interesting stuff.

I think those positions, particularly the singles from Metamatic and The Garden are fair.

Since none of those tracks were particularly commercial sounding if you like, those positions are quite respectable, given that the top 20 was full of bands like Soft Cell, OMD, Adam and the Ants, Duran Duran and Spandex Ballet etc, by that time.

Unfortunately that does seem to be the case. I have been unsuccessful in my research of the American charts to date.

Yes but as I said at the start to Mike, you did find some info by accident at the time but we never bbokmarked any of it. :rolleyes: I think it was when albums or singles had been released in the US etc, but with no real referrence to chart positions or the lack of.

True. Not bookmarking has been my downfall while using the internet.
I wish I could remember where we found the info.

Miles Away and Europe could've done better also on the back of the Ultravox (Vienna) success. Miles was very Numan / Ultravox sounding - Europe was commercial in my opinion and in the summer of 81 was completely in line with what was coming out then 'sound' wise.

Just a thought on music videos. There's this, of course: http://www.spectralresponse.co.uk/

Hope you don't mind, Sarah?



mongrel

Found this on chart positions, although doesn't specify dates: http://www.everyhit.co.uk/

Interesting website there.

I also see an album called "Metamatix" got to number 18 in 1980...

I did use 'everyhit' to get the top 40 single & album information.

I had more difficulty tracking down information about the singles that charted but did not make the top 40. After a bit of searching I came across the following site that covers all John's singles:

http://www.tracklicensing.com/home

Getting information about 'In Mysterious Ways' proved to be the most difficult. Eventually got the chart position from the following:

http://www.answers.com/topic/john-foxx?cat=technology

Cheers,
Mike.

When I researched once there were results that included pictures of a fairly overweight John Fox wearing just a vest while trying to lift weights. :rolleyes:

He had a few albums out in the US etc, and is known for hes comedy songs and lack of dress sense.

I know who you are talking about.

He tours with Jeff Foxworthy :rolleyes:

Im glad you know who I was talking about, otherwise I would have thought it was a strange dream. I can still remember hes album cover and its 'artwork'. :rolleyes:

Opposite ends of the spectrum, really.
John Fox does 'redneck' humor

Yes but so does Jeff Foxworthy, right.

Neither 'quite' seem to have Mr Leigh's style though. In fact their 'Miles Away'.

Being a late-comer to John's music is was not until 2006 that I first heard Miles Away (courtesy of Modern Art). It sounded so familiar I just assumed it was a big hit that I had somehow forgotten about. It wasn't until a few months later that I realised that it had not even made the UK top 40. Fast-forward to last weekend and I happened to play Miles Away in the presence of my wife. About an hour later she was humming the tune during lunch. She said she hadn't realised it was a John Foxx track. When I told her that it was never a UK hit and in all probability she had never heard the track before she looked at me blankly.

How this record failed to push John into pop mainstream is beyond me. It's just so catchy.

I have come across another source of chart information: -

http://www.chartstats.com

If you locate the John Foxx page you get the data nicely presented: -

http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=3248

That's an interesting site. If its accurate, then Metamatic (or Metamatix, as they call it) charted the best - at 5 weeks and reaching the highest up the chart.

Now this may be taking the 'chart' theme a step too far, but hey, it made the top 10 ......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxQ9gXi9Mvg

Oh my flipping heck!!!!!!!!!

"John Foxx is hot.."

Sad thing is, I probably danced like that to this tune at Uni 'discos' around that time..

As much as I am laughing at that video, I am SO grateful that video was not at any of the venues I danced in during those days. I know I was doing it exactly like them. OMG! Just like going into timewarp - so funny.

This reminds me of the Rum Runner a club that I used to go to in Birmingham around the same time.

One of the only references that I can find on utube is this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC6yEmAs2Us&NR=1

Look at the audience. My old friend Nigel Taylor is playng in the band as well!

Having seen that famous scooter ad (Honda Tact) on Europe After the Rain's Japanese sleeve jacket, I was convinced that there must have been a chart position at some point. I did search but can't find anything yet.
My good wife pointed out that many people who enjoy music (as opposed to "Japanese pop" watch US and UK charts more than domestic charts and base their choices around those songs. It isn't enough to nudge the hugely commercial J-Pop industry out of the charts, but enough to warrant a pressing run and sales in Japan. There is so much choice of music here, and so many bands are actively playing, but only those backed by record companies (and TV stations) can really ever make a living out of music.
One of the biggest and long running bands is SMAP. 4 guys who have been together longer than I have been here (15 years). They have a great program every Monday night which I really enjoy watching, until they start singing...... great guys, and very entertaining, but....!
Anyway, will do more digging to see if Ican actually find some "real" charts.