Classix Nouveaux

Emerging among England’s earliest new romantic outfits, Classix Nouveaux stood apart from the largely electronic textures of Japan and Ultravox through their heavier emphasis on guitars, even as a shared taste for striking fashion and keyboard-driven grooves quickly placed them within the same movement. The quartet formed in 1979 around Sal Solo on vocals, Mik Sweeney on bass, BP Hurding on drums, and Jak Airport on guitar, rising from the punk underground as a direct continuation of the controversial X-Ray Spex. Once banshee wailer Poly Styrene left X-Ray Spex, the remaining members auditioned candidates for a new singer; Solo secured approval from several of Styrene’s former colleagues, and the revamped lineup debuted at the Music Machine in August 1979. Airport departed before the first single was recorded, and Gary Steadman took his place on guitar. In 1981 the group issued “Guilty,” their most well-known track, which reached the Swedish Top 20 while its video gained rotation on MTV. The following year “Is It a Dream” climbed to number 13 on the U.K. charts. Although successful tours followed in Yugoslavia, Finland, and Poland, none of the band’s three albums lifted them beyond cult status in Britain or America. The lineup dissolved in 1985, after which Solo began recording Christian music.