Chords for Gary Numan discusses John Foxx at The Maths' studio, London

[G] When did you first come across Ultravox?
_ [Eb] I got into synthesizers in my own [A] right.
Immediately went out and started looking [Cm] for other _ electronic type [G] things
and [Ab] found Systems [G] of Romance. _ _
_ _ Went to [E] see them.
I can't remember where.
[Ab] Marquee probably.
Normally the Marquee.
_ Loved it.
I don't know if I bought all their albums at the same time or just [Eb] Systems of Romance.
But it was _ _ a [Ab] really important record [Gm] for me.
It was light years ahead [Ab] of anything else I'd heard at that time.
[Abm] Mixing electronics and conventional [C] instrumentation. _
It became the [E] standard for me.
The standard to aim at.
[Cm] And I just thought it was [G] the most brilliant bit of music.
_ Years ahead.
[Ab] Years ahead of [Gm] its time.
And they seemed to have [Ab] been working on that kind of in [G] isolation.
There wasn't an electronic movement as such.
_ They were just out there on their own.
And I think Systems of Romance was their third album.
So they'd been doing it for a bit when I found them.
And [Bb] quite experienced at it by then.
And I went to see them.
And live it was even better.
_ John Fox looked great on the album cover.
And was even better to watch.
Really one of those [G] genuinely enigmatic sort of people.
And I remember I was sort of _ _ quite_
_ [N]
I thought he was brilliant and also intimidating at the same time.
One of those sort of [G] people that you wouldn't know what to say when you [Eb] met them.
Which I didn't.
_ [Gm] So it was _ great.
[B] Probably the most important band [G] of my life right up until_
I don't know.
Mid-90s.
The Depeche Mode thing came along.
_ And did you go back to other stuff like Young Savage?
Did you hear that stuff?
Hiroshima?
Yeah, yeah.
My Sex and all that.
Yeah, [Eb] well My Sex.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
I had everything.
I checked everything out.
I went to every gig they did in London.
I was at everything.
I'd seen them lots of times.
_ [A] This is all John Fox, Ultravox.
I never was really that bothered about the other one. _
But whenever [Eb] they played, I would go and see them.
_ It was my favourite band all through that period.
And to this day, I still think of that era, _ of all of us,
they were [Ab] by far the best.
Me, Human League, any of us.
I think Ultravox were head and shoulders above [G] all of us.
[Ab] Did you meet John Fox only after you got famous?
No, just after I got famous.
[Db] Somebody said something [Eb] in the music press,
a journalist said something nasty,
and John worded a letter which we [Abm] both signed.
I don't think I even [G] met him even then, actually.
[Abm]
I was just proud to be a part of it.
[Eb] _ [G] I've always been, I probably would be even now,
I would be slightly nervous about talking to John.
First of all, he's highly intellectual. _ _
And I still have that.
_ I've still got that.
I'm in the audience and I'm looking up at him.
And he is, he was, Ultravox were groundbreaking.
Ultravox genuinely did a lot of the things I get credit for.
_ _ _ [Gm] Not that I'm embarrassed about that or anything,
but he is _ _ genuinely highly creative and highly inventive. _ _
[G] And I've always felt like the young pretender still do, really.
You've said you felt [E] Ultravox didn't break through
because they didn't get the image right.
[A] _ _ [G] Yeah, I thought of that at the time.
And I think there's quite possibly a lot of truth in that.
_ _ That's what I felt at the time.
I remember seeing them, because they got our Grim Reapers for Test as [Eb] well.
And the way they looked and the stuff that they sang about,
it didn't work.
And John Fox was a very interesting-looking bloke
and he was a really, really good front man.
_ And I always felt that if they'd just been a little bit more _ thought put into presentation,
_ then it would have just struck [Ab] all those [Gm] chords that I did when I come along.
And so I thought then that that was the one thing that they didn't get right
and probably the one thing that stopped that [Ab] particular incarnation of Ultravox
[Eb] from doing far better than it did.
You know, quite possibly that's absolute rubbish.
I felt like that then, because to me it was the only thing that was missing.
It really was.
Everything else was perfect.
Music was great, you've got the great singer at the front,
looks really good, interesting, very unique voice,
that could genuinely sing.
It had everything.
It had everything you wanted,
except there was that visual thing that didn't quite work.
But were you also aware of _ _ _ the sort of art side [Gb] of John at that point?
No, [Am] not at all.
_ [Eb] No, none of that. _
[Gm] I just [G] bought the albums, liked the music, went to see them live,
_ and it kind of stopped there, really.
And then I carried on doing my own thing.
So I [A] didn't get [Eb] into them _ _
[Db] as an obsessed fan kind of way,
but I knew [G] _ [Ab]
their mums' names and where they lived,
[G] what their dogs were called, what their favourite colour was, none of that.
I didn't get into any of that, didn't stalk anybody.
[Ab] _ So no, it was quite a basic, I like the music,
_ and it sort of stopped there for [Am] me.
Is it true also that you went to a [G] party
where Billy had the 12-inch version [Db] of [Gm] Dislocation?
[Abm] Yeah, I think there might have been something to do with Rusty Egan as well.
There was some [A] get-together where he had a_
Yeah, _ [Gm] _ _
I can't remember why that was important, but I [Ab] remember [G] at the time.
It's one of those things where you suddenly feel [Abm] part of something
which is very, very exclusive, _ before.
And you always felt like you were on the outside,
and now here you are, and you're actually there.
And now there's just _ _ these things which are [Gm] just like,
almost like little magical _ things, you know?
And like _ magic [Ab] tokens of [Gm] some kind.
It just felt very cool to be a part of it.
_ [G] I can't remember anything more about what sort of party it was,
or [Eb] anything like that, but just to be in amongst _ proper bands
with [Abm] real records, and _ all of a sudden you're in a completely different league
[Gm] to playing in the open anchor, with no record deal.
_ [Ab] You're at a different level, and it just felt [N] exclusive and special. _