John Foxx (GB)

About

Also known as: Dennis Leigh

Before Midge Ure ever stepped near a microphone, John Foxx was the voice of Ultravox, shaping the band's restless blend of punk, glam, electronic and new wave sounds across three albums from 1977 to 1978. Their third record, Systems of Romance, co produced with Conny Plank, pushed the sound somewhere altogether more cinematic, and several of the songs Foxx was already writing for himself quietly previewed where he was headed next. His 1980 solo debut Metamatic arrived on Virgin Records and hit No. 18 in the UK, with Foxx playing nearly all the synthesisers and rhythm machines himself. AllMusic's Andy Kellman called him an influential cult figure whose detached, jolting vocal style inspired artists across decades of mainstream and underground music. The follow up, The Garden, pulled back from Metamatic's stark electropop toward something lusher, and its single "Europe After the Rain" gave him a fourth UK top 40 hit. He also works as a graphic designer and photographer, running both careers in parallel rather than treating one as a side project.