doubled diva

"Melvyn Bragg does Top Of The Pops"

John Foxx - Europe After The Rain (1981) (4.2Mb)

One of the great lost singles of the eighties. John Foxx was a founding member of Ultravox and recorded three albums with them between 1977 and 1979. Foxx left the band, they hired Midge Ure, recorded Vienna, and the rest is histrionics. Foxx, meanwhile, pursued his own vision - stark industrial sounds combined with urban imagery, with titles like Underpass, Burning Car and No-one's Driving. Think Gary Numan soundtracking a JG Ballard novel.

His second album, The Garden, reacted against this bleak futurism, with lush, almost pastoral arrangements. The song I've made available for download here [for a couple of days only] is the first single from this album, Europe After The Rain, named, perhaps, after the fantastical painting by Max Ernst. If you download this song, you will love it. If you love 80s electronic pop, you'll love it. If you like real melodies, you'll love it. If you like tinkling, slightly off-key pianos, grandiose arrangments, you'll love it.

Europe After The Rain should have been number one all of September 1981. Instead, a certain song called Tainted Love was, and Foxx's single made just one week at number 40 before disappearing into obscurity.

As did John Foxx. Seemingly. In fact, the chances are you probably own one or two of his works. Not his music, but his paintings. If you have a copy of Salman Rushdie's "The Moor's Last Sigh" or Jeanette Winterstone's "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit", or Neil Bartlett's "Ready To Catch Him Should He Fall", take a look at the cover design credit: "cover art by Dennis Leigh". Yup, that's Foxx's real name.