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He said: "I lied to the papers about at the time: the Secessionists and Gustav Klimt, whatever. Midge Ure later said that he made up the inspiration when asked what the song was about. The second track, New Europeans, sounded very Foxx-like, it had to be said, as did the song itself, as Ure finally appeared, hitting the ground running.At the time, it was said that the song was inspired by the 1948 film The Third Man, which is based around the Austrian capital of Vienna. The LP itself began, bravely, with the instrumental, Astradyne, delaying critical judgement by possibly unhappy, Foxx-biased, Ultravox fans. Just look at the four band members (including Chris Cross, Billy Currie and Warren Cann) on the back cover of this LP to see a visual representation of that from their clothes and make-up. It is Ure’s most hardcore, new wave release. Very ‘arty’ we thought.īut, of course, this album is more than the hit single, Vienna. A naked light bulb, hanging from a wire, swung backwards and forwards over his head as he sang Vienna. Ure sat in the middle of an empty stage, in a simple, skeletal wooden chair. You could see that, visually, in the Liverpool concert that I attended. Nevertheless, before Ure took Ultravox too far into corporate nirvana, he retained a sense of the minimal with this first LP outing of the new style band. These new fans were probably less interested in social change and more interested in the type of synths and ‘new’ electronic sounds that the band were using. Ultravox left the punk-soiled ethic of decay and renewal but became more attractive to future new wave fans of a type. Gone was the anarchic need for revolution to be replaced with a change in emphasis. Others pointed a more caustic finger and called it ‘bland pop’ that was now corporately acceptable (the band owed a lot of money to their record label upon Ure’s arrival, they needed big sales and lots of cash…and quick). Ure and his music was honest but, said some, rather cautious. Some fans saw the Ure era as a complete sell-out, of course. Some might say ‘safe’ or acceptably fashionable.

The Ure-invested, approachable presentation also made the band more affable to many new fans. With Ure as the front man, what the band lacked in terms of its ‘bleak future’ image, its cutting edge and stark, twisted fashions, they made up with a more beat-heavy, technological sound, a visit to Synth City it seemed, which was of great interest to kids from urban centres who had just discovered Kraftwerk. Commercial station, Radio City DJ, Phil Easton, noted for his heavy metal output but sometimes wont to play off-genre music too was playing the future single, Vienna, many months before it ever hit the charts and a friend of mine later had this very album on rotation as soon as it was released, so myself and two friends were audibly prepared for the concert which was, it has to be said, a wonderful experience. When Midge Ure’s incarnation of the band was due to appear in my home town of Liverpool (the Liverpool Empire, actually) I was overjoyed. Foxx filled the band with an experimental air, a hint of danger, a refined intellectualism and even an ‘otherness’ that was akin to Bowie. This was new wave but with a distinct, cutting edge. The stark sleeve art adorning numerous, obscure Foxx-lead Ultravox import vinyl 12” singles priced in music papers at very silly money indeed told me everything I needed to know. I do remember, at school, being affected by him and the band image he forged. I never did manage to see the Ultravox lead by John Foxx.