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Fischer-Z | |
|---|---|
 Fischer-Z at Wacken Open Air 2018 | |
| Background information | |
| Origin | Uxbridge, England |
| Genres | Rock, new wave |
| Years active | 1976– |
| Past members | John Watts Steve Skolnik David Graham Steve Liddle |
Fischer-Z is a British rock group and main creative project of singer, guitarist and poet John Watts. It is considered one of the most popular New Wave bands from the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1982 Watts temporarily dissolved Fischer-Z and started a solo career under his own name. John Watts has gone on to release both solo and Fischer-Z projects. The original line-up consisted of Watts (vocals, guitar), Skolnik (keyboards), David Graham (bass) and Steve Liddle (drums).
The band's name is pronounced "fɪʃə zɛd" (fisher zed), a pun on "fish's head" with the "h" dropped, as is usual in many British regional accents. The pun also relies on leaving the "r" unpronounced as in common British non-rhotic accents.
Fischer-Z found success across Europe and sold more than two million albums. Joint recordings were made with Peter Gabriel, Steve Cropper and Dexys Midnight Runners. Fischer-Z performed alongside James Brown in East Berlin and toured with The Police and Dire Straits. They also toured the US and Canada and were on the bill with Bob Marley on his last festival tour of Europe. John Watts has released 20 albums and played around 3,000 concerts so far.
History[edit]
While studying clinical psychology and working in psychiatric clinics, John Watts formed Fischer-Z with Stephen Skolnik in 1977. The first performances took place in English punk clubs and the first Fischer-Z album, ‘Word Salad’, was released in 1979 on United Artist Records, in parallel with The Buzzcocks and The Stranglers. The band broke through thanks to John Peel playing their first single ‘Remember Russia’ multiple times and championing the band. Thanks to this, Fischer-Z appeared on The Old Grey Whistle Test and following the European success of their second single ‘The Worker’, they appeared on Top of the Pops in 1979. With his second album, ‘Going Deaf For a Living’, Watts cemented Fischer-Z's ability to capture global political themes against the backdrop of ‘quirky’ pop music. The hit single ‘So Long’ was released in 1980 on the newly founded TV channel MTV. 1981 brought the release of Fischer-Z’s third and most commercially successful album “Red Skies Over Paradise’, which featured the singles, ‘Marliese’ and ‘Berlin’. Due to the success of these albums, Fischer-Z played over 200 shows between 1980 and 1981 across the UK, Europe, the US and Canada. Watts dissolved the original Fischer-Z line up in the summer of 1981, believing that the band had moved too far from their original punk ideals.
Fischer-Z's first hit single was "The Worker" from the album Word Salad. In an interview in Record Mirror in 1981, Watts put the single's success down to the remix of the song from the album version, which put the emphasis on the keyboards rather than his guitar.
Skolnik departed after their second album Going Deaf for a Living, leaving Watts to take over keyboards.[1]
Watts' lyrics draw heavily on his experiences of studying clinical psychology and as a mental health care worker. Several songs on their third album Red Skies Over Paradise in 1981, such as "Berlin" and "Red Skies Over Paradise" were about the Cold War and the song "Cruise Missiles" was about the nuclear arms race and the mutual threat of the superpowers with nuclear war. Fischer-Z were more popular in mainland Europe than their native UK, especially in Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Portugal (two top 10 hits and a No. 3 album). Fischer-Z were also successful in Australia, where they achieved two Top 20 hits with "So Long" from the album Going Deaf for a Living and "The Perfect Day" from Reveal.[2]
After the album Red Skies over Paradise Watts dissolved the band in mid-1981, deciding his art could not evolve within a band context.
Watts released his solo debut One More Twist in 1982 followed by The Iceberg Model in 1983. Also during 1982 David Graham teamed up with guitarist Mike Francis in The Yes Men only to part company early the following year. In 1984 John Watts formed the band The Cry with Mike Been, David Graham and Theo Thunder, this album placed an emphasis on crucial groove elements and was produced by Jimmy Douglass. In 1988 Watts released the Reveal album under the name Fischer-Z, a new band with the same name in which he was the only original member, although Skolnik made a minor contribution to one track. The second album in this Fischer-Z period, Fish's Head included the "Say No" single with a politically charged black & white Nick Brandt music video which was banned by their record label on the grounds of it potentially "endangering the lives of their employees worldwide".[citation needed] In this period Watts performed to 167,000 people at a Peace Festival in East Berlin along with James Brown and he was interviewed about Thatcherism on German national news.
There was a 2004 reunion of the original band for one short show which featured on the Garden Party DVD which was released along with the Fischer-Z Highlights 1979-2004 25th anniversary compilation album.
24 April 2014 John Watts Fischer-Z started a four-day tour of the Netherlands in De Vorstin in Hilversum, which continued into Germany.[3] This tour was the lead-up to the release of the album This Is My Universe.[4]
Discography[edit]
Singles[edit]
| Year | Single | Peak positions | Album | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK [5] |
AUS [2] |
BEL (FLA) [6] |
GER [7] |
NED [8] | |||
| 1978 | "Wax Dolls" | — | — | — | — | — | Word Salad |
| 1979 | "Remember Russia" | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "The Worker" | 53 | — | 23 | — | 26 | ||
| "First Impressions (Pretty Paracetamol)" | — | — | — | — | — | Word Salad (US edition) | |
| 1980 | "So Long" | 72 | 15 | 14 | — | 12 | Going Deaf for a Living |
| "Crazy Girl" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Room Service" | — | — | — | — | 41 | ||
| "Limbo" | — | — | — | — | |||
| 1981 | "Marliese" | — | — | 21 | 37 | 5 | Red Skies over Paradise |
| "'Cutters Lullaby" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Berlin" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "El Escritor" (Spanish release of 'The Writer') | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1988 | "The Perfect Day" | 91 | 12 | — | — | — | Reveal |
| "Big Drum" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1989 | "Say No" | — | 168 | — | — | — | Fish's Head |
| "Masquerade" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1990 | "Sausages and Tears" (credited to John Watts and Fischer Z) | — | — | — | — | — | single only |
| 1992 | "Destination Paradise" | — | — | — | — | — | Destination Paradise |
| "Will You Be There?" | — | — | — | 95 | — | ||
| 1993 | "Tightrope" | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "Caruso" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "The Peaches & Cream" | — | — | — | — | — | Kamikaze Shirt | |
| "Human Beings" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 1994 | "Marlon" | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "You Never Cross the Same River Twice (Turn Back the Clock)" | — | — | — | — | — | Stream | |
| 1995 | "Need Protection" | — | — | — | — | — | |
| "Red Skies over Paradise" (1995 recording) | — | — | — | — | — | The Best | |
| 2002 | "Jukebox" | — | — | — | — | — | Ether |
| "Delight" | — | — | — | — | — | Ether (German pressing only) | |
| 2004 | "Back to Berlin" | — | — | — | — | — | Highlights 1979 to 2004 |
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released. | |||||||
Albums[edit]
Fischer-Z:
- Word Salad (1979) – UK #66,[5] NED #21[9]
- Going Deaf for a Living (1980) – AUS #52,[2] NED #6[9]
- Red Skies over Paradise (1981) – AUS #70,[2] GER #6,[7] NED #2[9]
- Reveal (1987) – AUS #93,[2] GER #49[7]
- Fish's Head (1989) – GER #56[7]
- Destination Paradise (1992) – GER #93[7]
- Kamikaze Shirt (1993)
- Stream (1995) – GER #80[7]
- Ether (2002)
- John Watts - Fischer-Z 2011 (2011)
- This Is My Universe (2016)
- Building Bridges (2017)
John Watts discography (includes work outside Fischer-Z):
- One More Twist (1982)
- The Iceberg Model (1983)
- Quick Quick Slow (1984) (Released under the moniker: "The Cry")
- Thirteen Stories High (1997) (Released under the moniker: "J.M. Watts")
- Bigbeatpoetry (1999) (Released under the moniker: "Watts")
- Spiritual Headcase (2000) (Released under the moniker: "Watts")
- Ether Music & Film (2002)
- Real Life Is Good Enough (2005)
- It Has To Be (2006)
- Morethanmusic & Films (2009)
Compilation albums[edit]
- Fischer-Z Going Red For A Salad (1990)
- The Worker (1997)
- The Perfect Album (1999)
- Fischer-Z The Garden Party DVD (2004)
- Fischer-Z Highlights 1979-2004 (2004)
References[edit]
- ^ Larkin, Colin (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Seventies Music. London: Virgin Books. p. 155. ISBN 0-7535-0154-6.
- ^ a b c d e Australian chart peaks:
- Top 100 (Kent Music Report) peaks to 12 June 1988: Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives: Australian Chart Book. p. 112. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. N.B. The Kent Report chart was licensed by ARIA between mid-1983 and 12 June 1988.
- Top 50 (ARIA) peaks from 13 June 1988: "australian-charts.com > Fischer-Z in Australian Charts". Hung Medien. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- Reveal (ARIA) peak: "Response from ARIA re: chart inquiry, received 13 September 2016". Imgur.com. Retrieved 13 September 2016.
- "Say No" (ARIA) peak: "Response from ARIA re: chart inquiry, received 5 June 2015". Imgur.com. Archived from the original on 5 June 2015. Retrieved 2016-09-02.
- Top 100 (ARIA) peaks from January 1990 to December 2010: Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (pdf ed.). Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 103.
- ^ http://fischer-z.com/live
- ^ http://fischer-z.com/
- ^ a b "Official Charts > Fischer-Z". The Official UK Charts Company. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- ^ "Ultratop Vlaanderen > Zoeken naar: Fischer-Z" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f German chart peaks:
- "Marliese": "Offizielle Deutsche Charts > Fischer-Z – Marliese (single)" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- "Will You Be There?": "Offizielle Deutsche Charts > Fischer-Z – Will You Be There? (single)" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- Red Skies over Paradise: "Offizielle Deutsche Charts > Fischer-Z – Red Skies over Paradise (album)" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- Reveal: "Offizielle Deutsche Charts > Fischer-Z – Reveal (album)" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- Fish's Head: "Offizielle Deutsche Charts > Fischer-Z – Fish's Head (album)" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- Destination Paradise: "Offizielle Deutsche Charts > Fischer-Z – Destination Paradise (album)" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- Stream: "Offizielle Deutsche Charts > Fischer-Z – Stream (album)" (in German). GfK Entertainment. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- ^ "dutchcharts.nl > Zoeken naar: Fischer-Z" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 29 October 2015.
- ^ a b c "dutchcharts.nl > Zoeken naar: Fischer-Z (album)" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 2 September 2016.
- Official John Watts biography http://johnwatts.co.uk/MtM/Biography.php