John Foxx

John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh; 26 September 1948) is an English singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer.

During his youth in the 1960s he embraced the lifestyle of a mod and a hippy.

His first band called Woolly Fish formed circa 1967 whilst at art college in Preston.

He experimented with tape recorders and synthesisers whilst at the Royal College of Art.

Prior to 1973 he was singing and playing a 12-string guitar and occasionally supported Stack Waddy in Manchester, from which he later moved to London in order to escape what he saw as a lack of musical stimulus.

In 1973, Foxx formed a band that would eventually be called Tiger Lily, composed of bassist Chris Allen and guitarist Stevie Shears, with Canadian drummer Warren Cann joining shortly afterwards, in early 1974.

The band played their first gig at the Marquee club in August 1974, after which Billy Currie was recruited as violinist.

Tiger Lily played a few gigs in London pubs between 1974 and 1975.

Tiger Lily released a single in 1975 on Gull Records, the A-side of which was a cover of the Fats Waller track "Ain't Misbehavin'".

It was commissioned for (but not subsequently used in) a movie of the same name.

The B-side was the group's own song – "Monkey Jive".

After several name-changes, including Fire of London, The Zips and The Damned, the band became Ultravox!, in July 1976.

The group's style fused punk, glam, electronic, reggae and new wave music.

At the same time, Leigh adopted his stage name of John Foxx:

"Foxx is much more intelligent than I am, better looking, better lit. A kind of naively perfected entity. He's just like a recording, where you can make several performances until you get it right - or make a composite of several successful sections, then discard the rest."

Chris Allen, who had briefly gone by the name Chris St. John, changed his name again, to Chris Cross.

Once the band signed to Island Records, they released three albums during 1977–1978.

The first Ultravox!

single, "Dangerous Rhythm", backed with "My Sex", was released on 19 January 1977.

Their first album (the self-titled Ultravox!) was released shortly afterwards, produced by Steve Lillywhite and the band, with assistance from Brian Eno.

It was followed by their second album Ha!-Ha!-Ha!, which included the single "ROckWrok", although both were commercial failures.

For their third album, Systems of Romance, Ultravox abandoned the exclamation mark in their name.

Also missing was their first guitarist, Stevie Shears, who was replaced by Robin Simon, from Neo.

The album was co-produced by Conny Plank.

Two singles were released from the album, "Slow Motion" and "Quiet Men".

Sales were modest, but the album did gain the band exposure to a wider audience, including the United States.

During the recording of Systems of Romance, a song of the same name was written, but the band had no time to record it.

It was later included on Foxx's second solo album The Garden.

At Systems of Romance gigs, Foxx began to perform with the band three future solo songs, "He's a Liquid" and "Touch and Go" (later included on Metamatic, Foxx's first solo album) and "Walk Away" (included on The Garden album).

Ultravox was dropped by their record label at the beginning of 1979.

The band undertook a self-financed tour of the United States in February, during which they performed three new songs, "Touch and Go" and "He's a Liquid", which Foxx later recorded for Metamatic, and "Radio Beach".

Foxx left the band at the end of the tour, and returned to solo work.

He was the original lead singer of the new wave band Ultravox, before leaving to embark on a solo career in 1980 with the album Metamatic.

Primarily associated with electronic synthesizer music, he has also pursued a parallel career in graphic design and education.

Andy Kellman of AllMusic described Foxx as an influential cult figure whose "detached, jolting vocal style inspired mainstream and underground artists across the decades."

Leigh was born in Chorley, Lancashire, England.

His father was a coal miner and pugilist, his mother a millworker.

He attended St Mary's Primary and St Augustine's Secondary schools.

Next he attended Harris College of Art in Preston and then the Royal College of Art in London.

The latter song was not performed again by Foxx until 1983.