There were not too many people dropping the name of Ultravox in 1979, but Gary Numan was certainly one of them, and that’s how I first became aware of the group at the age of 12. Always refreshingly candid about his influences, Numan readily acknowledged the debt the two Tubeway Army albums owed to John Foxx’s terminally unfashionable synth-punk unit. Since I was both a fanatical Numan fan and a fervent Smash Hits reader, Ultravox didn’t escape my notice for long, even though they were actually dormant at the time.

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