Robert Simon (guitarist)
| Robin Simon | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Robin Simon |
| Born |
12 July 1956 Halifax, West Yorkshire, England |
| Genres | New wave, post-punk, synthpop |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Guitar, backing vocals, synths |
| Years active | 1970s–present |
| Associated acts | Ultravox, Visage, Magazine, John Foxx,Neo, Ajanta Music. |
"Robin" Simon (born 12 July 1956 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England) is a British guitarist who was a member of Ultravox, Magazine and Visage.
Robin Simon played guitar in an original local band in and around Halifax in the early to mid-1970s, including a line-up which featured future Ultravox member Billy Currie. He moved to London in 1975 and later joined the punk pop band Ians Radio (later called Neo) in 1976. Neo were one of the bands on the early London punk live scene. They featured on the Live at the Vortex album and later supported Ultravox several times at the Marquee club in London, before Simon was offered the guitarist position in Ultravox.
Simon joined Ultravox, replacing Stevie Shears, in 1977, bringing a more multi-dimensional sound to the band. He co-wrote the single, Slow Motion, from their 1978 third album,Systems of Romance, the original Ultravox line-ups only official hit.
In addition to playing all guitars on the album Systems of Romance, he co-produced it with the band, Conny Plank (of Kraftwerk fame) and Dave Hutchins. He also pioneered the use of synhesizers that were put through guitar effects pedals, prior to Gary Numan's echoing of the technique, notably on the track Quiet Men, a song which used a Big Muff fuzz through a car stereo speaker, with envelope follower on parts, to achieve a unique sound. He also pioneered the use of multi-effects for guitar on Systems of Romance, to create an early grunge type of sound using Electro Harmonix and MXR effect pedals, such as Big Muff fuzz,memory man delay echo, compressor, wah-wah and flanger, chorus, plus amp tremolo. These were sent through a Music Man amplifier and cab, then to tape. Some tracks were fed back from tape to be re-recorded through a vintage Fender Princeton amp, reamping in modern day terms. This was possibly the first use of a full compliment of multi-effects guitar sounds, as a guitarists integral sound, prior to recording, very much like modern day guitar pedalboards and multi effects units, as compared to the use of just one or even several pedals, used by earlier guitarists and if so usually for a specific application. A direct guitar into amp sound was the norm for most guitarist of the era compared to modern times. Two other songs on the album were however his vintage Les Paul custom or put through a single overdrive pedal into a vintage Fender Bassman amp and cab for a contrasting sound. The guitar sound on Slow Motion, the song he instigated and cowrote with the band, also featured a second delay, echo, added to the verse guitar riff at the mixing stage, as well as the shorter, memory man echo, of the initial guitar. The second echo is a timed, dotted quarter note repeat; achieved manually on the mixing desk fader for on and off of the effect, in modern times identified as a ducking delay effect. This was a use of a timed rhythmic guitar echo effect,combined with the first memory man echo, that has some similarity with the one later created and widely used by guitarist The Edge, of U2. Other effects such as deep chorus and ring modulation were added at mixdown to create occasional Synth-like guitar sounds.
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