Fischer-Z
For those of us who can remember, English new wave group Fischer-Z scored a number 15 hit on the Australian music chart in 1980 with their song So Long.
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Led by the group’s creative force, vocalist and guitarist John Watts, they scored another hit seven years later with The Perfect Day which reached #12 on the Australian chart.
Though that was the last we heard of the group locally, elsewhere the group continued to release new material and tour, with Watts also releasing solo outings as well.
This year Fischer-Z clocks up 50 years since it played its first ever show.
And to celebrate, the group is finally heading to Australia in November and December for its first ever Australian shows.
“I’ve always wanted to go there, but by the time people set things up, I’d usually done something else and moved on to that,” Watts told Musical Musings via a Zoom interview.
“I’ve done some 25 albums and also done films and plays and other things.
“My immediate contemporaries, like The Cure and Simple Minds, they’ve stayed with a flow of what they’ve done.
“But I’m much less music business than they are.
“It is an art thing for me.”
Watts entered pop music after studying to be a clinical psychologist in the 1970s, and working within that human behaviour field later, helped him navigate the excesses of the music business.
“As I’d been working with heroin addicts, psychopaths, and God knows what else, I wanted to remain untouched by all of that,” he said.
“So, I never smoked, and, I never did drugs.
“I was always so manic, too.
“People assumed I was on speed all the time like all the punks were, but I was on the same level as them without any drugs at all.”
With 50 years in the business, Watts has experienced the highs and low of the music industry, with lots of lessons learned along the way.
“One of the things I learned is that there’s an equal number of talented people in every generation,” he said.
“And that you’ve got to have a drive to be a creative artist as you can’t expect it to come to you.
“You have to just keep going.
“And I’ve also learned that music is always exciting,” he said.
As an artist, Watts isn’t one to live off nostalgia.
Rather, he savours the present moment and continually looks forward to the future.
“When it comes to a live context, it’s got to be a reinterpretation of the older material because it must be contemporary,” he said.
“It’s like I don’t expect the audience to wear the same trousers they wore in 1980.
“I hate the cynicism of people who say, ‘Oh, it’s all not like it was in the ’70s.
“Of course it’s not.
“I mean, buildings are not like they were in the ’70s and ’80s.”
For more on the band, check out: https://fischer-z.com/
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Musical Landmarks #1 - Abbey Road Studios, London
Abbey Road Studios in London is one of the world’s most iconic recording studios.
Made famous due to its association with The Beatles who recorded a vast majority of their music there, it’s also had an array of other iconic music artists come through its doors during its existence; from Pink Floyd and Queen to Oasis and Lady Gaga, to name but a few.
Originally a nine-bedroom Georgian townhouse built in 1831, it began operating as a recording studio in 1931 under the name of EMI Studios before it changed its name to Abbey Road Studios in 1976.
The facility houses three main recording spaces (Studio One, Two and Three) and several mixing and mastering spaces.
In 2015, adjacent to the studio complex, the Abbey Road Shop officially opened, where fans can purchase official merchandise such as t-shirts, vinyl records, books, stationery, souvenirs and more.
Located in the affluent and leafy suburb of St John’s Wood in West London, it’s become a must visit destination for music lovers the world over.
Each day, its famous zebra crossing at the front of the studio sees a constant flow of fans recreating the now iconic Beatles Abbey Road album cover, in between the busy traffic.
I’ve visited the studio several times over the years, and on any given day, it’s always a hive of activity, both inside and out.
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Fun fact
English born Kate Bush holds several world records.
These include being the first female artist in pop history to have written every track on a million-selling debut album with 1978s The Kick Inside.
She was also the first woman artist to top the charts in England.
And Bush’s 1980 album, Never for Ever was also the first album by a British female solo artist to top the UK Albums Chart, as well as being the first album by any female solo artist to enter the chart at No.1.