100-483: Shifting City is an album by John Foxx and Louis Gordon , released in 1997 (although some sources cite 1995 as the release year). Released simultaneously with Foxx's ambient album Cathedral Oceans , Shifting City was Foxx's first album release since In Mysterious Ways (1985). Stylistically Shifting City marked a return to the electronic sound of Foxx's 1980 solo album Metamatic , although it also shows an influence of 1960s The Beatles -style psychedelia ,
200-590: A hippy , while he formed his first band Woolly Fish in 1967 in Preston. He experimented with tape recorders and synthesisers whilst at the Royal College of Art. Prior to 1973, he was singing and playing a 12-string guitar and occasionally supported Stack Waddy in Manchester, from which he later moved to London in order to escape what he saw as a lack of musical stimulus. In April 1974, Foxx formed
300-577: A Losing Game " and Bob Marley's passport application form. The exhibition contained 800 prints showcasing the work for Island of the photographers Adrian Boot, Jean-Paul Goude , Anton Corbijn , Gered Mankowitz , Keith Morris and Brian Cooke, and the London exhibition also featured live performances at the Vinyl Factory Gallery by DJ Shadow and PJ Harvey . Following its 50th anniversary in 2009, Island Records entered its sixth decade on
400-621: A Question & Answer session. There was also a major exhibition at the Vinyl Factory Gallery in Soho, held in an open space beneath the record shop Phonica. The exhibition featured a display of treasured musical artifacts, including the Trabant car from the sleeve of U2 's Achtung Baby , Nick Drake 's guitar, the dress worn by Amy Winehouse at the 2008 Grammy Awards, the handwritten lyric sheet for Winehouse's song " Love Is
500-532: A ballot. 2016 proved a particularly successful year for the label in the UK: over a seven-week period between April and June, four separate Island acts spent at least one week at number one. The albums concerned were PJ Harvey 's The Hope Six Demolition Project , Drake 's Views (which spent two weeks at number one), Ariana Grande 's Dangerous Woman and Catfish & The Bottlemen's The Ride . PJ Harvey 's eighth studio album, 2011's Let England Shake ,
600-680: A band that would eventually be called Tiger Lily , composed of bassist Chris Allen and guitarist Stevie Shears , with Canadian drummer Warren Cann joining shortly afterwards in May 1974. The band played their first gig at the Marquee Club in August 1974, after which Billy Currie was recruited as violinist in October 1974. Tiger Lily released a single in 1975 on Gull Records, the A-side of which
700-551: A big screen for the first time with Foxx playing a mix of live and recorded accompaniment from the album. This 'film' was shown again at Fulham Palace in July 2007, and in a slightly revised format at the ICA and as part of the 21st International Film Festival, in Leeds during November that year. In September 2007, a remastered edition of Metamatic was released as a two-CD pack containing
800-475: A further collaborative EP in 2008 entitled Never Been Here Before . A remix of Dislocated was issued on Foxx's 2010 compilation Metatronic , while Never Been Here Before appears on the 2013 compilation Metadelic . Hulkkonen played as supporting act to the first John Foxx And The Maths concert at The Roundhouse in 2010 and also joined Foxx and the band onstage to perform " Underpass ". A new EP entitled European Splendour issued as John Foxx + Jori Hulkkonen
900-660: A major label in England with artists including Roxy Music , King Crimson , Sparks , Traffic , the Wailers , Cat Stevens , Steve Winwood and many others. (In the US, many of their releases were licensed to A&M prior to signing up distribution deals with Capitol and later Atlantic , and also independent distribution.) For Toots and the Maytals , the group that introduced the term " reggae " in song with their 1968 single " Do
1000-486: A new piano work entitled Electricity and Ghosts with accompanying films made by himself and Karborn . In 2015, Foxx contributed to the soundtrack of the feature-length film Blue Velvet Revisited , with Cult With No Name and Tuxedomoon , which consists of footage shot during the making of David Lynch 's film Blue Velvet . In December 2009, the Metamatic website announced the new musical project John Foxx and
1100-583: A period of around thirty years by Foxx in his travels across Britain and Europe. In November 2020 Foxx published The Quiet Man , a collection of short stories. In the run up to the John Foxx and the Maths Interplay tour in October 2011, Artrocker ran a series of articles on Foxx, including a filmed interview taken at The Garden studios in London. Special features during the "John Foxx Week" also contained quotes and comments about his work from
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#17327940690341200-566: A private screening. His official website described these as having the "filmic, atmospheric approach" of the Metamatic -era instrumental B-sides "Glimmer", "Film One" and "Mr No". On 18 November 2006, Foxx gave a performance of the work at the Duke of York's cinema in Brighton , where Tiny Colour Movies was premiered as part of the city's Film Festival. Edited versions of the movies were shown on
1300-498: A second album The Pleasures of Electricity , in September 2001. Two years later they toured again, to promote the album Crash and Burn , released in September 2003 on Foxx's own Metamatic Records. Three collaborative albums with Louis Gordon were released in late 2006: Live From a Room (As Big as a City) , a 'live' studio album from the 2003 tour (released in association with an interview CD entitled "The Hidden Man") in October;
1400-594: A selection of tracks from the new album and Foxx's past works were played. A cover version of the Pink Floyd track " Have a Cigar " was recorded for a tribute CD issued by Mojo magazine with their October 2011 issue. It was announced shortly afterwards that the version on the CD was not the completed version, and a free download of the finished version was offered via the Mojo website. A nine-date UK tour by John Foxx and
1500-540: A significant breakthrough was Yorkshire singer John Newman , who topped the UK charts with his first solo single, " Love Me Again ", and his debut album Tribute . In May 2018, incumbent president David Massey left Island to join Sony Music Entertainment 's relaunch of Arista Records . Darcus Beese , OBE took on the role of president upon Massey's departure. To make the transition, Beese relocated from
1600-517: A special edition 12-inch vinyl. The disc features two new remixes. The sleeve features new artwork created by Jonathan Barnbrook who has designed the covers of all the John Foxx and the Maths releases. In 2000, a Porcupine Tree release called Lightbulb Sun was issued with cover art by Foxx. In December 2007, Foxx exhibited some of his photographic works in an exhibition called Cinemascope at
1700-416: A strong commitment to Toots and the Maytals, saying: "I've known Toots longer than anybody – much longer than Bob (Bob Marley). Toots is one of the purest human beings I've met in my life, pure almost to a fault." Despite the initial establishment work that Blackwell completed almost single-handedly, Island struggled as a business in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Bob Marley 's 1981 death was detrimental to
1800-608: A style which Foxx had already experimented with on 1983's The Golden Section . A 2 CD special edition was released in October 2009, including three previously unreleased bonus tracks. Disc Two of this special re-issue contains the previously released “The Omnidelic Exotour” material, recorded live by Foxx and Gordon at A Certain Ratio 's Warehouse in Ancoats, Manchester and at Metamatic Studio in 1997. CD1 CD2 John Foxx John Foxx (born Dennis Leigh ; 26 September 1948)
1900-548: A tide of optimism. The years that followed saw fresh success for a number of established acts, including PJ Harvey , Keane , Paul Weller and Bombay Bicycle Club and an exciting wave of new signings. In its largest live production since its 2009 anniversary, the label also staged a concert by The Weeknd and Jack Garratt on Osea Island , a small island in Essex , as part of a bespoke one-day festival for 400 guests, including label staff, media and 200 fans who obtained tickets via
2000-583: A variety of different musicians and film-makers, including The Orb , Vincent Gallo , members of Ladytron and Duran Duran , director Alex Proyas, and Awaydays creator Kevin Sampson. The corresponding printed version Artrocker (Issue 115) also featured Foxx and Gary Numan together in an in-depth interview. The magazine contains further tributes by Philip Oakey of the Human League and Jim Kerr of Simple Minds . Island Records Island Records
2100-613: A vibrant new wave of folkish, countrified rock, their debut album, Sigh No More , sold two million, reaching number two in Britain and America. It also won best British album at the BRIT Awards in February 2011. The follow-up, Babel , did even better in 2012, becoming the UK's fastest-selling album of that year, going to number one in Britain and the US and winning album of the year at the 2013 Grammy Awards . Island also secured
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#17327940690342200-517: A walk undertaken by the artists along the Suffolk coastline in 2005, from Felixstowe container port to the Anglo-Saxon burial ground at Sutton Hoo . The work integrates new compositions by John Foxx and other digital musicians Baron Mordant, Dolly Dolly, Ekoplekz, Farmers of Vega, Gazelle Twin , Pete Wiseman, Raime and Skjolbrot. As part of the event presentation, on 7 March, Foxx premièred
2300-472: Is a Jamaican 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 , another label recently acquired by PolyGram, were both at the time the largest independent record labels in history, with Island having exerted a major influence on
2400-506: Is a fluid, sometimes dangerous, always exhilarating union of systems and beliefs and the best way of allowing the world to progress is to mix up and place in glorious conflict these various systems and beliefs. In 1983, the film production company formed a partnership with Shep Gordon 's Alive Enterprises to form Island Alive and had success with Kiss of the Spider Woman , Koyaanisqatsi , and Stop Making Sense . The partnership
2500-540: 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 solo career in 1980 with the album Metamatic . Primarily associated with electronic synthesizer music , he has also pursued a parallel career in graphic design and education. Andy Kellman of AllMusic described Foxx as an influential cult figure whose "detached, jolting vocal style inspired mainstream and underground artists across
2600-694: The Arden Shakespeare series. Foxx began to find inspiration in the underground house and acid music scenes in Detroit and London. With Nation 12 in the early 1990s, Foxx released two 12-inch singles , "Remember" and "Electrofear". The first was a collaboration with Tim Simenon , best known for his Bomb the Bass project. The group also wrote the music for the Bitmap Brothers computer games Speedball 2 (1990) and Gods (1991, " Into
2700-695: The Metamatic performances in 2007, was released on Metamatic Records on 28 April 2008. Foxx presented three different pieces of his solo work in the space of one week in June 2008. This began with a showing of Tiny Colour Movies at the Caixaforum in Barcelona on 14 June 2008, followed by a performance of Cathedral Oceans III inside the Great Hall at Durham Castle, England on 18 June. He then travelled to Italy and presented an extract from The Quiet Man at
2800-728: The Palm Pictures company and run a chain of boutique hotels in Miami, US and the Caribbean, including the very exclusive Goldeneye , once the Jamaican home of James Bond creator Ian Fleming . Then in May 1998, all of PolyGram and its associated labels were purchased by Seagram which announced its plan to integrate PolyGram with UMG to produce an estimated cost savings, within a couple of years, of between US$ 275 million and $ 300 million annually. Seagram further explained that
2900-574: The SoundCloud site. The competition was won by Dave Poeme Electronique. The release of the album was preceded by a remix of "Shatterproof" on YouTube. Another live event featuring John Foxx and the Maths was held in April 2011. Back to the Phuture was billed as a special electronic music event, featuring live sets from Foxx, Gary Numan , Mirrors and Motor, plus a DJ set by Daniel Miller . Again,
3000-472: The Spencer Davis Group to the label (at that time, many Island releases were being distributed by Philips / Fontana ). The group became very popular and Island started their own independent series to spotlight UK rock talent. They signed artists such as John Martyn , Fairport Convention , Free , and greatly influenced the growing FM radio market. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, they were
3100-518: The ZTT label under the Island banner and Blackwell was known to approve excessive spending by the label. Morley recalls in a 2009 book about Island Records: I eventually grew to appreciate how Chris Blackwell, and therefore Island Records, was not about one thing, or one style, or one system, or one way of doing things ... [I began] reflecting how the world functions and reinvents itself precisely because it
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3200-690: The 14th Festival Internazionale di Poesia in Genoa . In December 2010, Foxx participated in the recording of John Cage 's 4'33" as part of the Cage Against the Machine collective. In March 2013, Foxx took part in the On Vanishing Land project, a work by British sound artists and theorists Mark Fisher and Justin Barton. Described as a magisterial audio-essay On Vanishing Land evokes
3300-593: The Coconuts , Grace Jones , Steel Pulse , Keane , Tom Tom Club , Toots & The Maytals , The Mighty Diamonds , Yusuf Islam/ Cat Stevens , Bombay Bicycle Club , Baaba Maal and U2 . Another Island 50 tribute event was held over four nights at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, with Marianne Faithfull , Grace Jones and Sly & Robbie all appearing, and Chris Blackwell holding
3400-615: The Coningsby Gallery in west London. The images were part of three collections, "Grey Suit Music", "Tiny Colour Movies" and "Cathedral Oceans". His design work was the subject of an article in the UK monthly Creative review in September 2010. Between July and August 2016 an exhibition entitled "Europe After the Rain" was held at the University of South Australia featuring images made from photographs and found objects gathered over
3500-648: The Island-signed Mike Posner having held the number one spot with " I Took a Pill in Ibiza " for four consecutive weeks before being replaced by "One Dance", Island held the top spot in the UK singles chart for 19 consecutive weeks between March and August 2016. To crown a record-breaking year, Drake was named the world's best-selling recording artist of 2016 by international music industry organisation IFPI in February 2017. Canadian singer and songwriter The Weeknd also cemented his position as one of
3600-582: The Maths was announced in July 2011, plus live performances in Poland and Belgium. A second album, The Shape of Things , was also announced prior to the tour and was initially only available for purchase at tour venues. In January 2013, it was announced that John Foxx and the Maths would be the support act for Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark 's English Electric spring tour. The 13-date tour ran from 30 March to 14 April 2013. The only headline live show for 2013
3700-592: The Maths, the name given to the work written and produced by John Foxx and Benge . Benge had already broken the news on his own blog in November calling The Maths "a new album project". An initial download-only single, "Destination" / "September Town", was released in December 2009 by Townsend Records and later via iTunes . The duo continued to work in Benge's studio throughout 2010 and some new tracks were previewed at
3800-444: The Maytals band. First it was Toots and the Maytals, three guys: Toots , Raleigh, and Jerry. ... And then they were signed to Island Records, Chris Blackwell. And we were their recording band. One day we were summoned to Chris' house. And he says, "Alright gentleman, I think it's time. This Toots and the Maytals looks like it's going to be a big thing". By this time he had already signed Bob (Marley). So in his camp, Island Records, there
3900-465: The Mercury label in the mid-2000s and signed with Mercury for the UK and Interscope Records for the US. However, successful artists such as Tricky and PJ Harvey were impressed by the label and signed on as artists. Tricky explained: "I knew I could get freedom. I knew I could do what I wanted to do.", while Harvey later stated: I came to work with them, sort of fully formed—the way that I looked,
4000-595: The PolyGram UK Group for £180 million; he explained in 2009: "It had gotten too big and too corporate for me and I couldn't really handle it." Following the sale, Island was no longer an independent company, but Blackwell was given a position on PolyGram's board and stayed on as CEO of PolyGram's new Island Entertainment division for ten years. PolyGram immediately began reissuing much of the Island back catalogue on compact disc and expanded Island's reach through its global manufacturing and distribution network, but
4100-504: The Reggay ", Chris Blackwell was the one who decided on the line-up of the group before introducing them to an international audience. Blackwell had signed Bob Marley , and now Toots and the Maytals. In November 2016, Jackie Jackson described the formation of the group in a radio interview for Kool 97 FM Jamaica. Accompanied by Paul Douglas and Radcliffe "Dougie" Bryan in studio, Jackson explained: We're all original members of Toots and
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4200-868: The RetroFuture exhibition hosted by ArtHertz. On the opening night, Foxx performed a piano piece accompanying a reading from his unpublished novel The Quiet Man in front of an audience for the first time. In 2005, Foxx appeared on stage at the Brighton Pavilion with Harold Budd and Bill Nelson as part of a concert to celebrate the work of the retiring pianist, which led to the announcement in October that year that Foxx would be involved in collaborations with Jah Wobble , Robin Guthrie , Steve Jansen and Nelson. In June 2006, Foxx released an instrumental solo album, Tiny Colour Movies , consisting of 15 instrumental tracks inspired by short art films he saw at
4300-596: The Short Circuit electronic music festival at The Roundhouse in London on 5 June 2010. A new album entitled Interplay was announced in January 2011 and released on 21 March. The album gained critical acclaim; The Quietus called it "one of the finest electronic records you'll hear in 2011", and launched a remix competition to coincide with the release of the album. Stems of the album track "Shatterproof" were made available for download, remixing and re-uploading via
4400-474: The UK. In 1994, Island sold the distribution licenses for most of Manga's releases to Siren Entertainment, an independent entertainment company in Australia. Those rights were then given to Madman Entertainment in 1999 when Siren became solely an acquisitions company. The recording roster of Island Records, both past and present, has been and continues to be diverse. The label continues to champion new music,
4500-636: The United Kingdom to Island's offices at Universal Music Group 's New York City building. Beginning in 2024, Island began operating under the Republic Records branding. On 23 July 2020, Universal Music Group and its local subsidiary MCA Music launched Island Records Philippines , the first Southeast Asian branch of the 61-year old label. The Philippines branch is led by former Sony Music Philippines and Sindikato Management executive Enzo Valdez. Island World Communications, under
4600-521: The Wonderful "). He also worked with LFO and made the music video for their eponymous debut single. Around this time, Foxx also taught on the Graphic Arts and Design degree course at Leeds Metropolitan University . On 24 March 1997, Foxx made a return to the music scene with the simultaneous release of two albums, Shifting City and Cathedral Oceans on Metamatic Records . Shifting City
4700-763: The Youngest English-Albanian Dua Lipa ), his first single for Island, in November 2016. Signed to Island via a licensing deal with independent label PMR, Disclosure were formed by two brothers from Reigate in Surrey , Guy and Howard Lawrence. The duo discovered the joys of nineties house , techno and two-step garage while studying music production at college, and went on to enjoy success with their two Island albums Settle (2013) and Caracal (2015), making extensive use of an array of guest vocalists including Sam Smith , Jamie Woon , Eliza Doolittle , Lorde and Gregory Porter . One of
4800-493: The acquisition would unite a significant international presence with a thriving domestic business, as more than three-quarters of PolyGram's sales were outside the US. In December 1998 and the first three months of 1999, UMG placed three divisions under the management of the Island brand: one in the UK, one in the US, and one in Germany. In each territory, these companies were merged under umbrella groups: However, in 2001, UMG
4900-517: The acts who guested on Settle was AlunaGeorge , a boy-girl duo from London (singer Aluna Francis and musician and producer George Reid), who released their debut album, Body Music , on Island in 2013. Like Disclosure, Jessie Ware signed to Island through a link with independent label PMR . A soulful singer-songwriter from Brixton, Ware was nominated for the 2012 Mercury Music Prize with her smooth debut album, Devotion , and enjoyed further success with 2014's Tough Love . Another Island act to enjoy
5000-585: The album did gain the band exposure to a wider audience, including the United States. During the recording of Systems of Romance , a song of the same name was written, but the band had no time to record it. It was later included on Foxx's second solo album The Garden . At Systems of Romance gigs, Foxx began to perform with the band three future solo songs, "He's a Liquid" and "Touch and Go" (later included on Metamatic , Foxx's first solo album) and "Walk Away" (included on The Garden ). The latter song
5100-451: The band signed to Island Records , they released three albums during 1977–1978. The debut Ultravox! single, "Dangerous Rhythm", backed with "My Sex", was released on 4 February 1977. Their first album (the self-titled Ultravox! ) was released three weeks later on 25 February 1977, produced by Steve Lillywhite and the band, with assistance from Brian Eno . It was followed by their second album Ha! Ha! Ha! in October 1977, which included
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#17327940690345200-564: The big successes of Island's sixth decade. Having topped the charts with their five million-selling debut album Hopes and Fears in 2004, they went on to secure five consecutive number-one albums in the UK (a feat bettered only by The Beatles ), with subsequent releases Under the Iron Sea (2006), Perfect Symmetry (2008), Night Train (2010) and Strangeland (2012) all topping the charts. Paul Weller 's relationship with Island dates back to his fourth solo album, 1997's Heavy Soul , and its 2000 follow-up Heliocentric . He returned to
5300-409: The decades". Leigh was born in Chorley , Lancashire , England. His father was a coal miner and pugilist , his mother a millworker. He was raised Catholic and educated at St Mary's Primary and St Augustine Secondary schools. Next he attended Harris College of Art in Preston and then the Royal College of Art in London. During his youth in the 1960s he embraced the lifestyles of a mod and
5400-421: The development of the electropop genre. In March 2010, Berlin producer Mark Reeder remixed the track "Underpass" (Reeder Sinister Subway Mix) for John Foxx's CD/DVD retrospective compilation Metatronic . Reeder not only remixed his versions from the original master tapes in stereo for the CD, but he also made 5.1 mixes of his own remixes and Foxx's original 1980s version. The track was re-issued in May 2013 as
5500-422: The entire Metamatic album, during which Foxx and Louis Gordon were accompanied on stage by Steve D'Agostino. Later in the evening, the DVD of Cathedral Oceans was shown in one of the ICA cinema studios. In October, Foxx and Gordon toured the UK with Metamatic , culminating in a show at Cargo in London. The year ended with two shows at the Luminaire in London. A live album titled A New Kind of Man , culled from
5600-432: The first BBC Music Awards in 2014 and were crowned British Breakthrough Act at the BRIT Awards in 2016 (an award voted for by Radio 1 listeners). Their second album, 2016's The Ride , was a UK number one. Island was also responsible for securing major British breakthroughs for two of the 21st century's biggest international superstars in Drake and The Weeknd . The success of Toronto hip-hop artist Drake came after
5700-412: The label had worked patiently to build his profile over a number of years, culminating in the success of his fourth album Views and its attendant singles in 2016. " One Dance ", Drake's first number one single in the UK, had 1.95 million sales to become Britain's biggest-selling single of 2016. The single's 15-week run at number one equalled the mark for the second longest in UK chart history. With
5800-429: The label in 2008 and began an outstanding trilogy of releases that contained some of his strongest solo work 22 Dreams (2008), the Mercury Music Prize -nominated Wake Up The Nation (2010) and Sonik Kicks (2012). North London quartet Bombay Bicycle Club also released four albums on Island, with each one signalling a change of direction: the indie-rock of 2009's I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose paved
5900-522: The label was relatively unfocused in the 1990s. Between 1992 and 1995, Island had a sub-label called the Island Red Label , which focused on independent artists. Blackwell eventually ended his association with the company in 1997, as the corporate life hindered the independent ethos of his personal life. "I never really had a job until I sold Island to PolyGram in 1989. It had gotten too corporate," he commented afterwards. After Blackwell left, PolyGram closed Island's film business. Blackwell left to found
6000-411: The label's creative core. These festivities centred around a week-long run of shows at Shepherd's Bush Empire and Bush Hall in London. The concerts featured performances tracing the label's history from its reggae and jazz roots to the modern era. Among the artists who appeared were Sly & Robbie , Ernest Ranglin , Paul Weller , The Compass Point All Stars, The I Threes , Aswad , Kid Creole &
6100-477: The label, especially after its having engineered Marley's international breakthrough only a few years earlier, while Irish rock band U2 , which had signed to Island in March 1980, was growing in popularity, but had not yet reached the international superstar status that was to come. In 1981, Blackwell also used the label to finance a new film production and distribution company, producing the film Countryman . In 1982, Paul Morley and producer Trevor Horn started
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#17327940690346200-426: The leadership of Blackwell and Andy Frain, created Manga Entertainment Ltd, the anime and live action Japanese film division of Island in 1991. In that year, Laurence Guinness, the Senior VP at Island World Communications bought the distribution license for Akira from ICA Projects in London, and the distribution of what was the label's first release is considered a crucial milestone in the establishment of anime in
6300-428: The local Jamaican sound systems proved to be overwhelmingly successful. The label was based at a now demolished basement in Kilburn , London Borough of Brent , in a property that was used by Sonny Roberts 's Planetone label and whose landlord was Lee Gopthal who would later create Trojan Records . The vast majority of the artists who had signed to Blackwell's fledgling label while he was in Jamaica agreed to allow
6400-513: The mid-1980s, achieved some success marketing alternative hip hop and dance-pop music with artists such as Eric B. and Rakim and the Stereo MCs . Mango ( Chaka Demus and Pliers ) was another Island dance-oriented subsidiary, while it was singer Robert Palmer who achieved worldwide success with the rock song " Addicted to Love " in 1986. African musicians such as King Sunny Adé and Angélique Kidjo were also championed by Blackwell. In July 1989, Blackwell sold Island Records and Island Music to
6500-420: The musical entrepreneur to release their music in the UK. While in England, Blackwell travelled throughout the city carrying his stock with him and sold to record stores in the city. He did not provide any copies to radio stations, as they would not play any of the Island music; the music was also not reviewed by the press. Meanwhile, Goodall left to start the Doctor Bird record label in 1965. Blackwell signed
6600-466: The opening act for The Who for about two weeks. In 1969, Island Records acquired a deconsecrated 17th century church building at 8-10 Basing Street, in the Ladbroke Grove area of Notting Hill in West London . The building was refurbished to create the Island Studios recording studio, while also serving as the new location for Island Records' offices. The first Toots and the Maytals album released and distributed by Chris Blackwell's Island Records
6700-427: The original album, plus most of the associated B-sides and extra tracks from the period, including two 'new' songs re-assembled from original music recorded at the time. In the same month, a showcase of Foxx's work was held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, where he performed another version of Tiny Colour Movies and hosted a question-and-answer session. This was followed by the first live performance of
6800-415: The progressive music scene in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. Island Records operates four international divisions: Island US, Island UK, Island Australia, and Island France (known as Vertigo France until 2014). Current key people include Island US president Darcus Beese , and MD Jon Turner. Partially due to its significant legacy, Island remains one of UMG's pre-eminent record labels. Island Records
6900-401: The release of the second volume of Cathedral Oceans as well as another ambient record, the double CD Translucence and Drift Music with Harold Budd. In 2004, from September through October, a collection of Cathedral Oceans images was exhibited at BCB Art, Hudson, New York , and in the following year Cathedral Oceans III was released. A second surround sound DVD of Cathedral Oceans
7000-443: The same time, Leigh adopted his stage name of John Foxx: Foxx is much more intelligent than I am, better looking, better lit. A kind of naively perfected entity. He's just like a recording, where you can make several performances until you get it right – or make a composite of several successful sections, then discard the rest. Chris Allen, who had briefly gone by the name Chris St. John, changed his name again, to Chris Cross. Once
7100-433: The same year. After In Mysterious Ways , Foxx temporarily left his career in pop music. He sold his recording studio and returned to his earlier career as a graphic artist, working under his real name of Dennis Leigh. Examples of this work include the book covers of Salman Rushdie 's The Moor's Last Sigh , Jeanette Winterson 's Sexing the Cherry , Anthony Burgess 's A Dead Man in Deptford , and several books in
7200-471: The signing of English indie rock band Florence and the Machine whose debut studio album Lungs (2009) sold four million copies, and spent over 12 months on the UK Albums Chart before being crowned British Album Of The Year at the 2010 BRIT Awards ceremony. Lungs was followed by the studio albums Ceremonials (2011), and How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (2015). Keane were another of
7300-467: The single " ROckWrok ", although both were commercial failures. For their third album, Systems of Romance , Ultravox abandoned the exclamation mark in their name. Also missing was their first guitarist, Stevie Shears, who was replaced by Robin Simon , from Neo . The album was co-produced by Conny Plank . Two singles were released from the album, " Slow Motion " and " Quiet Men ". Sales were modest, but
7400-510: The sleeve. One of the album's songs, "Metal Beat", takes its name from a CR-78 drum machine sound used on the record. Virgin released the album under the imprint name Metal Beat Records, which was used for Foxx releases throughout his contract with them. The non-album single " Burning Car " followed in July 1980. Spending seven weeks on the UK charts, it reached its peak position at no. 35 in August. Foxx then worked on dozens of tracks for two projected albums, and one of these tracks, "My Face",
7500-481: The soundtrack to Michelangelo Antonioni 's film Identification of a Woman ( Identificazione di una donna ). In September that year, his third solo LP The Golden Section was released ( UK No. 27). A development of The Garden , Foxx described the album as a "roots check" of his earliest musical influences, including The Beatles and English psychedelic music . It was followed by a tour, his first live performances since Ultravox. The album In Mysterious Ways
7600-428: The studio album From Trash in November and a further album from the same sessions a few weeks later during the accompanying mini-tour. This two-CD package, entitled Sideways , included ten original tracks plus two extended versions of songs on From Trash . The second disc contained an extensive interview with Foxx describing the making of From Trash which was available only at concerts on the 2006 tour. The "live in
7700-470: The studio" recordings originally distributed in limited edition during the 1998 Subterranean Omnidelic Exotour were later made available through the double-CD issue "The Golden Section Tour + The Omnidelic Exotour" (2002) and the double CD re-issue of "Shifting City" in 2009. The album Retro Future (2007) is a live-on-stage performance recorded on the Exotour, on 10 January 1998 at Shrewsbury Music Hall. It
7800-747: The time. The lead single " Europe After the Rain " became Foxx's fourth and last top 40 hit on the UK Singles Chart during a five-week chart run in August/September 1981. In 1982, Foxx set up his own recording studio, designed by Andy Munro, also called The Garden, housed in an artists' collective in Shoreditch, East London, in a former warehouse also occupied by sculptors, painters and film makers. He produced some demo recordings for Virginia Astley's first album From Gardens Where We Feel Secure . In 1983, Foxx provided some music for
7900-529: The way for 2010's folkier Flaws , the modern rock of 2011's A Different Kind Of Fix and the broad-based invention of 2014's So Long, See You Tomorrow . Having built a loyal live following, Catfish & The Bottlemen signed to Island in 2014. After reaching platinum sales status in the UK with their Top Ten debut album, The Balcony , the Welsh rock band won the BBC Introducing Award at
8000-453: The way that I sounded: that was already there. And I felt, like, that they just supported where that was going to go. The label celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009. In 2009, Island Records marked the 50th anniversary of its foundation in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell with a series of live concerts and an exhibition under the Island 50 banner. The events were a celebration of the street-cool, independent outlook and striking visual imagery at
8100-466: The world's leading recording artists, with the 2016 success of his third album Starboy . Its success was the culmination of a strategy that had seen Island build his UK profile over a four-year period that dated from his 2013 studio album Kiss Land . Island's commitment to further nurturing the careers of global superstars was reiterated in June 2016 with the signing of Sean Paul . The Jamaican singer, rapper and songwriter released " No Lie " (featuring
8200-573: Was Funky Kingston . The Maytals had recently added a full-time backing band that included drummer Paul Douglas and bassist Jackie Jackson, and Chris Blackwell joined the group in the studio as a co-producer for the album. Music critic Lester Bangs described the album in Stereo Review as "perfection, the most exciting and diversified set of reggae tunes by a single artist yet released." As Blackwell says, "The Maytals were unlike anything else ... sensational, raw and dynamic." Blackwell had
8300-528: Was Foxx's first collaboration with Manchester musician Louis Gordon . On 11 October 1997, Foxx played his first public gig since 1983 at The Astoria, London. A limited-edition twelve-track CD (1,000 numbered copies only) entitled Subterranean Omnidelic Exotour was available for purchase by ticketholders. Foxx and Gordon continued to work together, performing live on the Subterranean Omnnidelic Exotour in 1997 and 1998 and releasing
8400-560: Was Toots and the Maytals], the late Bob Marley; we were talking about reggae is going international now. We kept on meeting and he (Blackwell) decided that the backing band that back all of the songs, the recording band, should be the Maytals band. So everything came under Toots and the Maytals. So we became Maytals also. And then we hit the road in 1975 ... we were the opening act for the Eagles , Linda Ronstadt , and Jackson Browne . We were
8500-536: Was a cover of the Fats Waller track " Ain't Misbehavin' ". It was commissioned for (but not subsequently used in) a movie of the same name. The B-side was the group's own song "Monkey Jive". Tiger Lily played a few gigs in London pubs between 1974 and 1975. After several changes of name, including Fire of London, The Zips and The Damned, the band became Ultravox! in October 1976. The group's style fused punk , glam, electronic , reggae and new wave music . At
8600-405: Was dissolved in 1985. In August 1987, the company was not able to pay US$ 5 million that it owed to U2 in royalties for The Joshua Tree album, as it had diverted the funds to finance several unsuccessful films. U2 responded by negotiating a deal whereby they received a stake in the label that was estimated to be around 10 per cent. The label's 4th & Broadway division, operating since
8700-642: Was founded in Jamaica on 4 July 1959 by Chris Blackwell , Graeme Goodall and Leslie Kong , and financed by Stanley Borden from RKO . Its name was inspired by the Harry Belafonte song " Island in the Sun ". Blackwell explained in 2009: "I loved music so much, I just wanted to get into it, or be as close to it as I could." Blackwell's first album was Lance Hayward at the Half Moon Hotel , which
8800-530: Was held on 7 June at the Brighton Concorde. The live-in-the-studio album, Rhapsody , was issued to coincide with these live performances. An announcement of Foxx's official Facebook account in May 2019 stated that John Foxx and the Maths were back in the studio working on a new album, this time with Robin Simon on guitar. A short video clip of Foxx and Simon in Benge's studio was also posted on Benge's official account. The resulting album, Howl ,
8900-465: Was issued in October 1985, which spent one week at No. 85 in the UK chart. Musically it was not considered a significant advance on the sound of his three previous releases, nor was it a commercial success although the album's lyrics are far more romantic than any of his previous albums. Foxx later said that at the time he felt divorced from any contemporary musical influences. However, he did produce, co-write and play on Pressure Points , by Anne Clark ,
9000-432: Was merged with French company Vivendi S.A. to create Vivendi Universal S.A.; but the music company remains under the name Universal Music Group (UMG). In the US, Island became a predominantly pop/rock label, as their urban artists were assigned to either Def Jam or Def Soul, a new Island/Def Jam R&B imprint. Following the takeover of Island by UMG, flagship band U2 were dissatisfied after chief Jason Iley moved to
9100-406: Was not performed again by Foxx until 1983. Ultravox were dropped by their record label at the very end of 1978. The band undertook a self-financed tour of the United States in February, during which they performed three new songs, "Touch and Go" and "He's a Liquid", which Foxx later recorded for Metamatic , and "Radio Beach". Foxx left the band at the end of the tour, and returned to solo work. He
9200-504: Was one of the key records of Island's sixth decade. Made in a cliff-top church in Dorset , it won the 2011 Mercury Music Prize , making Harvey the only artist to land the prestigious award twice (she had prevailed ten years previously with Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea ). Mumford & Sons , who grew out of a series of jam sessions in London in 2007, signed a licensing deal with Island in 2009. Heralded as standard bearers for
9300-539: Was only interested in building long-term careers at that stage in time, rather than short-term projects. Suzette Newman has been a close colleague of Chris Blackwell's since working together in the early days of Island Records, and while there she ran the Mango world music label. Suzette Newman and Chris Salewicz were the editors for the book The Story of Island Records: Keep On Running . Blackwell relocated to England in May 1962 to garner greater levels of attention after
9400-406: Was recorded in late 1959. Tom Hayes, the label's sales manager between 1965 and 1967, referred to the early period of the label in the UK as "organized chaos". The 1964 hit, " My Boy Lollipop ", sung by Jamaican singer Millie Small (1947–2020), was the label's first success in the UK and led to a world tour that also involved Blackwell. Blackwell explained in a 50th anniversary documentary that he
9500-569: Was released for Foxx's 2007 Metamatic tour, and was originally limited to 1000 pressings. Foxx has performed and recorded with a variety of artists and musicians since returning to the music scene in the mid-nineties, most notably with Louis Gordon but also with Harold Budd , Jori Hulkkonen , Robin Guthrie (formerly of Cocteau Twins ), Ruben Garcia and The Belbury Circle . In April 2005, Foxx guested on Finnish DJ Jori Hulkkonen 's album Dualizm , where he provided vocals for "Dislocated" which Hulkkonen had written for him. Foxx and Hulkkonen issued
9600-548: Was released in August 2013 on the Sugarcane Recordings label. The first volume of Cathedral Oceans was released at the same time as Foxx's comeback collaboration with Louis Gordon and the Shifting City album. In stark contrast to the latter, Cathedral Oceans is a more ethereal, ambient work combined with Foxx's own artwork of overgrown natural settings superimposed onto faces of statues. 2003 also saw
9700-494: Was released in July 2020, and reached No. 80 in the UK Albums Chart in early August 2020, becoming the first John Foxx and the Maths album to chart in the UK, and Foxx's first charting album in the UK since 1985. Over the years John Foxx's first solo single "Underpass", originally released in 1980, has come to be considered a milestone in the development of popular electronic music, and has gained recognition as iconic in
9800-581: Was released in March 2007. This contained his artwork made into a film intended as a "slowly moving, hallucinogenic, digital stained glass window, intended to be projected as big as possible onto architecture and in public places." The work was premiered in November 2006 at the Leeds International Film Festival . In July 2007, Foxx exhibited some of his Cathedral Oceans artwork as large format digital prints at Fulham Palace as part of
9900-435: Was released on a flexi-disc given away with Smash Hits in October 1980. Foxx's next album was The Garden , released in September 1981. It reached No. 24 in the UK Albums Chart. Musically it was a departure from the stark electropop of Metamatic to a sound resembling Ultravox Systems of Romance . The Garden ' s starting point was "Systems of Romance", written by Foxx for the earlier album but not released at
10000-526: Was replaced by Midge Ure . After signing to Virgin Records , Foxx achieved two top 40 entries on the UK Singles Chart with his first solo singles, " Underpass " (No. 31) and " No-One Driving " (No. 32). Its parent album Metamatic was released on 17 January 1980, and peaked at No. 18 in the UK Albums Chart . Foxx played most of the synthesisers and "rhythm machines", as they were listed on
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