"ROckWrok" is a single by the
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...
band
Ultravox!
Ultravox (earlier styled as Ultravox!) were a British new wave band, formed in London in April 1974 as Tiger Lily. Between 1980 and 1986, they scored seven Top Ten albums and seventeen Top 40 singles in the UK, the most successful of which was ...
, released on 7 October 1977 by
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in 1959 by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in Jamaica, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, anoth ...
. It was the last British non-free single (the next, "
Quirks", came free along initial copies of the album) released from the ''
Ha! Ha! Ha!
''Ha!-Ha!-Ha!'' is the second album by British pop group Ultravox, at that time known as "Ultravox!", with an exclamation mark, as a nod to Neu!. Although the group would later achieve fame and commercial success with lead singer Midge Ure th ...
'' album and featuring
Stevie Shears
Stevie Shears (born 1954/1955) is an English musician known for playing in the rock bands Tiger Lily and Ultravox! (later Ultravox), as well as being part of the bands Faith Global and Cowboys International.
Biography Tiger Lily and Ultravox ...
as guitarist. The next non-free single was ''
Frozen Ones
"Frozen Ones" is a single by the band Ultravox!. It was only released in West Germany.
It features two songs which appear on the band's second album ''Ha!-Ha!-Ha!
''Ha!-Ha!-Ha!'' is the second album by British pop group Ultravox, at that ...
'', released only in Germany shortly afterwards.
"ROckWrok" features a punk sound derived from Warren Cann's drums and Stevie Shears' guitar alongside
John Foxx
John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh; 26 September 1948) is an English singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer. He was the original lead singer of the new wave band Ultravox, before leaving to embark on a ...
's hard vocals. It was regularly performed live until Ultravox's U.S. and Canadian tour in 1979, when Foxx decided to go solo. The song was performed live by
Massive Attack
Massive Attack are an English trip hop collective formed in 1988 in Bristol by Robert "3D" Del Naja, Adrian "Tricky" Thaws, Andrew "Mushroom" Vowles and Grant "Daddy G" Marshall.
The debut Massive Attack album ''Blue Lines'' was release ...
on their 2019 tour. They had previously sampled "ROckWrok" for their 1998 song ''
Inertia Creeps
"Inertia Creeps" is a song by English electronic music band Massive Attack, released on 19 October 1998. It was the fourth and final single released off their third album, ''Mezzanine'' (1998). It is the least commercially successful of the four ...
''.
The B-side is an early version or demo,
ULTRAVOX - THE STORY Pt 2, WARREN CANN INTERVIEWED BY JONAS WÅRSTAD: 14 Oct 1977 - Third single 'ROckwrok/Hiroshima mon amour (early version)'
/ref> or alternate version of "Hiroshima Mon Amour" (named after the famous French movie), written by John Foxx and Billy Currie. It has a punkier sound than the album version of the song. A third version of the song was performed live on the Old Grey Whistle Test
''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''Whistle Test'' or ''OGWT'') is a British television music show. The show was devised by BBC producer Rowan Ayers, commissioned by David Attenborough and aired on BBC Two, BBC2 from 1971 ...
the next year, with Robin Simon
Robin Simon (born 12 July 1956) is a British guitarist who was a member of Ultravox, Magazine and Visage.
Biography
Early career
Robin Simon played guitar in a number of local Halifax based bands in the early to mid-1970s. The bands include ...
replacing Shears as guitarist; it was quieter than the "ROckWrok" single version but maintained the rock style, also differing from the synthpop oriented version on ''Ha!-Ha!-Ha!''.
This single, like all the ''Ha!-Ha!-Ha!''-era releases, didn't perform well in the charts.
Track listing
7" version
# "ROckWrok" – 3:33
# "Hiroshima Mon Amour" – 4:54
Personnel
* John Foxx
John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh; 26 September 1948) is an English singer, musician, artist, photographer, graphic designer, writer, teacher and lecturer. He was the original lead singer of the new wave band Ultravox, before leaving to embark on a ...
: vocals
* Chris Cross
Chris Cross (born Christopher Thomas Allen, 14 July 1952, Tottenham, London) is an English musician, best known as the bass guitarist in the new wave band Ultravox.
Biography
Early years
Cross went to Belmont Secondary Modern School, ...
: bass, vocals
* Stevie Shears
Stevie Shears (born 1954/1955) is an English musician known for playing in the rock bands Tiger Lily and Ultravox! (later Ultravox), as well as being part of the bands Faith Global and Cowboys International.
Biography Tiger Lily and Ultravox ...
: guitar
* Warren Cann
Warren Reginald Cann (born 20 May 1950 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) is a Canadian drummer, drum machine programmer and songwriter, best known as a founding member of the British new wave band Ultravox, for which he was one of the ma ...
: drums, vocals
* : keyboards, synthesizer, violin
References
1977 singles
Ultravox songs
Songs written by John Foxx
1977 songs
Island Records singles
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