Ultravox’s ‘Systems of Romance’ turns 48 on 8 September
Island Records released Ultravox’s “Systems of Romance” on 8 September 1978, recorded with Conny Plank in Cologne. The ten-track album turns 48 this year.
Ultravox, the British new wave and electronic band, released “Systems of Romance” on 8 September 1978 through Island Records. The album turns 48 this year. It was the group’s third studio album, the first credited without the exclamation mark the band had carried since its debut, and the last to feature original singer and lyricist John Foxx.
The band recorded it at Conny’s Studio near Cologne, West Germany, with Conny Plank and Dave Hutchins co-producing alongside Ultravox. Guitarist Stevie Shears was dismissed in early March 1978 and replaced by Robin Simon, whose only Ultravox album this is. The line-up was completed by Chris Cross on bass, synthesizer and vocals, Billy Currie on keyboards and violin, and Warren Cann on drums, rhythm machine and vocals. Electronics carried more of the record than on either of the two previous albums: synthesizer bass replaced conventional bass on several tracks, “Quiet Men” used a Roland TR-77 rhythm box in place of drums, and “Dislocation” and “Just for a Moment” dropped acoustic and synthetic drums entirely in favour of treated ARP Odyssey sounds. Cann later described the opening track to interviewer Jonas Warstad as the point where the two halves of the band’s sound met: “it perfectly represented our amalgamation of rock and synthesizer, many of the ideas and aspirations we had for our music gelled in that song”.
The ten-track album runs “Slow Motion”, “I Can’t Stay Long”, “Someone Else’s Clothes”, “Blue Light”, “Some of Them”, “Quiet Men”, “Dislocation”, “Maximum Acceleration”, “When You Walk Through Me” and “Just for a Moment”. Island issued “Slow Motion” as a single on 11 August 1978 and “Quiet Men” on 20 October 1978, book-ending the album. The band had already played early versions of both at the Reading Festival on 27 August 1978. Neither single nor the album entered the UK charts. Sales figures differ by source: the 2006 reissue sleeve notes give over 20,000 copies, while Wikipedia’s Ultravox entry cites initial sales of over 25,000.
Foxx has explained the title as a borrowing from Plank’s working method and his interest in systems music. “I liked the idea of intangible emotional elements running through mathematical frameworks,” he said. “It seemed a perfect encapsulation of the spirit of the music I was attempting to get to at that moment.” No song of that name appears on the album; Foxx recorded one for his 1981 solo album “The Garden”.
British reviews split. In Sounds on 2 September 1978, John Gill rated the album four out of five and wrote: “Whatever anyone says, Ultravox (sans ‘!’) have always been that important step ahead of fashion… Personally I don’t think it’s their best (album) but the deftly alienating production and the tricky use of electronics make it an important enough development in the career of a band that always aims for the unusual”.
Island dropped Ultravox on 31 December 1978. The band financed a US tour itself in early 1979, and at its end in March Foxx announced he would leave to work solo, handing the remaining members the band name. He had decided as early as the first Systems of Romance rehearsals, he told Vice in 2013. Simon stayed on in the United States. Currie was recruited that same year by Gary Numan, who has named the 1970s Ultravox as the most important influence on his music, first for a Tubeway Army appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test and then to play on Gary Numan’s ‘The Pleasure Principle’ and its tour. Cross, Currie and Cann later recruited Midge Ure, who wrote in his 2004 autobiography that he “loved that album”, and whose reconstituted line-up played Systems material live with Ure singing Foxx’s lyrics.
About Ultravox
Ultravox formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily, on the initiative of Royal College of Art student Dennis Leigh, who later took the name John Foxx. Chris Allen, later Chris Cross, played bass and Stevie Shears guitar; Warren Cann joined on drums in May 1974 and Billy Currie on violin that October. The group released one single as Tiger Lily in 1975 and went through several further names before signing to Island Records in 1976 and settling on Ultravox! in October that year, the exclamation mark a reference to Neu!, another Conny Plank production. Island released the debut “Ultravox!” in February 1977, co-produced by Steve Lillywhite and Brian Eno, and “Ha! Ha! Ha!” later the same year. Neither charted. The closing track of the second album, “Hiroshima Mon Amour”, used a Roland TR-77 drum machine and pointed towards the direction the band took next.
“Systems of Romance” moved that balance towards electronics, working with Conny Plank, who had produced Kraftwerk‘s first four albums. After Island dropped the band and Foxx left in 1979, Foxx recorded the electronic solo album “Metamatic” (1980) and then “The Garden” (1981), which revisited the Systems-era material with Robin Simon on guitar; Side-Line covered the complete ‘Cathedral Oceans’ vinyl boxset drawn from his later work in 2016.
Cross, Currie and Cann continued with Midge Ure on vocals, guitar and keyboards, signing to Chrysalis Records. “Vienna”, released in July 1980 and again produced by Plank, reached number 3 in the UK on the back of its title single, which peaked at number 2 in early 1981. Ultravox’s ‘Rage in Eden’ followed in 1981, recorded once more at Plank’s studio, then “Quartet” (1982) with George Martin producing, “Lament” (1984) and “U-Vox” (1986). Cann was dismissed before the U-Vox sessions, and the band split after that album’s tour in 1987. Currie reformed Ultravox with new singers for “Revelation” (1993) and “Ingenuity” (1994) before dissolving it again in 1996. Cann, Cross, Currie and Ure reunited in 2008, toured from 2009 and released the studio album “Brilliant” on 28 May 2012; their last show was at London’s O2 Arena on 30 November 2013. Chris Cross died on 25 March 2024, aged 71, as Side-Line reported in Ultravox musician Chris Cross dies aged 71. Chrysalis issued “The Collection (Deluxe Edition)” in December 2025, and Richard Evans published a band biography discussed in Richard Evans on Ultravox. Forty-eight years on, “Systems of Romance” remains the record where the Foxx line-up put its synthesizers at the centre, months before the band that made it came apart.
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