ROckwrok

"ROckwrok"
Song
B-side	"Hiroshima Mon Amour" (Alternate Version)

ROckwrok was the 1977 single by the New Wave and then like-punk band Ultravox!, released on October 14 1977 by Island Records. This was the last single released during the Ha! Ha! Ha! album era, and also was the last featuring Stevie Shears as guitarist. Shears was one of the main musicians behind the punk sound in the post-debut album singles and the album Ha! Ha! Ha!, but shortly afterwards was sacked by the other bandmates in early 1978, later forming short-lived bands with Ice, Gloria Mundi bass guitarist, and Jason Guy, his future bandmate in Faith Global in the later in the early to mid-1980s, until joining Cowboys International by 1980.

The A-side ROckwrok had a punk sound derived by Warren Cann's drums and Stevie Shears' guitar along hard John Foxx vocals. It was performed until the early 1979 US tour, when John Foxx decided go solo.

The B-side was a demo of "Hiroshima Mon Amour" (named after the famous french movie), written by John Foxx and Billy Currie. It was more punkier than the album version, also derived mainly by Cann and Shears styles. A third version of the song was performed in the Old Grey Whistle Test the next year, with Robin Simon as guitarist in replacement of Shears, more quieter than the ROckwrok single version but maintaining the rock style, sounding also rather than the synthpop oriented version of "Ha! Ha! Ha!".

This single, like all the "Ha! Ha! Ha!" material (album and singles) weren't saled well, being another failure for the band. The next album, Systems of Romance and its era singles were another plan for the commercial prosperity of the band, but failed, although influenced many then fledging synthpop artists, like Gary Numan.

Personnel

• John Foxx: vocals
• Chris Cross: bass, vocals
• Stevie Shears: guitar
• Warren Cann: drums, vocals
• Billy Currie: keyboards, synthetizer