ROckWrok

"ROckWrok"
Single by Ultravox!
from the album Ha!-Ha!-Ha!
A-side "ROckWrok"
B-side "Hiroshima Mon Amour" (alternate version)
Released 7 October 1977
Format 7" single
Recorded 1977
Genre Post-punk
Length 3:33
Label Island
Writer(s) John Foxx
Producer(s) Ultravox!
Ultravox! singles chronology
"Young Savage"
(1977)
"ROckWrok"
(1977)
"Quirks"
(1978)
Alternative cover
A rare German cover of the single

"ROckWrok" is a single by the post-punk band Ultravox!, released on 7 October 1977 by Island Records.[1] 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! album and featuring Stevie Shears as guitarist. The next non-free single was Frozen Ones, released only in Germany shortly afterwards.[2]

"ROckWrok" features a punk sound derived from Warren Cann's drums and Stevie Shears' guitar alongside John Foxx's hard vocals. It was regularly performed live until Ultravox's U.S. and Canadian tour in 1979,[3] when John Foxx decided to go solo.

The B-side is an early version or demo,[4] 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 next year, with Robin Simon 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

  1. "ROckWrok" – 3:33
  2. "Hiroshima Mon Amour" – 4:54

Personnel

References


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