the FixX: Unjustly Maligned or Reasonably Dismissed? Are We Ourselves?

Gotta weigh in as a fan of the Fixx. Guilty pleasure? Sure.

As far as S/D, the live album React makes for a decent greatest hits.

(What's also amusing is to run an archive search and try to count the number of times that Alex has invoked the name of The Fixx here on ILM...)

I heard "Red Skies" last night and it made me way nostalgic, but I'm not even sure for when.

I saw them live in 1984 on a bill that included the Thompson Twins, Berlin, and The Police. I dug the songs and the sounds the guitarist and the keyboard player were getting but they never really gelled together. I don't dislike them, but they're alright in a non-committal "oh yeah, those guys" way.

Berlin stole the show that night anyway.

kind of drunk and poking around on youtube, and i must say i really enjoyed a fixx nostalgia trip after stumbling over Less Cities, More Moving People. Great song, and that eerie little background loop is begging for someone to sample it. Also enjoyed Red Skies - always a definitive "80s song" for me.

I bought the CD of Shuttered Room not long ago. Alas, many of the non-hits are boring, but I believe "Cameras In Paris" was pretty good.

I shall have to dig the likes of "Stand Or Fall"/"Red Skies" up on You Tube as well.

Fave Fixx non-singles: "Lose Face," "Privilege" and "Sunshine In The Shade" (actually, there was a video for that one).

I wanted to say I thought the song "The Fool" was good as well. Drat, none of those songs you name are on this album, Alex. :(

I used to have Reach The Beach about 6 billion years ago, but other than that...I'm at a loss. What was that song where the video has the dogs in the hallway? I was nuts about that one at the time, but it doesn't have the same impact now.

Believe it or not I happen to be playing Killing Joke at the moment.

The vid with the dogs is "One Thing Leads to Another".

Play Killing Joke at all times.

RED SKIES AT NIGHT!!!!

Saw them at the winchester up in Akron. They were absolutely amazing, and they played all their hits. Had no idea they put on such a great show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swzK7Q8teSM

I went to college in New Orleans, and used to substitute "Red Beans and Rice" for "Red Skies at Night" in my head whenever I'd hear that tune.

I saw them open for Flock of Seagulls way back when. That was a pretty good show, come to think!

I saw them at The Felt Forum with General Public opening. And Pee Wee Herman and MTV's Martha Quinn were co-masters of ceremony. I cannot think of a more "80's" evening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DQNHbz94s0

Don't forget Cy Curnin does the vocals for the song at the end of Better Off Dead, where the main characters somehow manage to drive their car onto the field of a baseball stadium to make out. The kid on the bike is coming to kick them out, however, as the camera pulls away.

Also, one could do worse than having their life summed up on Wikipedia thusly:

Cy Curnin can often be found on stage with a glass of wine in his right hand and an egg shaker in the left.

This band was really good. They still play "One Thing Leads to Another" on classic rock radio, so I imagine some people are inspired to dig them out.

Cy Curnin. He wasn't just the president, he was a client, right?

They played "The Sign of Fire" at my local CVS this morning!!!!

The Fixx are one of my wife's favorite bands of the '80s! I really need to listen to one of their albums someday.

Great singles band, there's a best-of that has everything you need. "Saved By Zero" still has this colossal sound I love.

"Shuttered Room" sounds compelling to me, I remember when my brother and I were kids and we really wanted that so bad but we were broke. How I managed not to buy it all these years is beyond me.

Great singles band, there's a best-of that has everything you need. "Saved By Zero" still has this colossal sound I love.

I should've specified - "Ultimate Collection" is the one you want, without any of those substitutes Paul just referenced.

I started working my way through their greatest hits record on Spotify just now. Man, this band wrote good songs!

"Outside" is a fantastic deep cut. The guitar outro is perfect.

They’re fucking great through Phantoms and I like half of walkabout as well

Their synergy with Hine was extraordinary, I just love the sound world they brewed up together

i need a disco edit of "one thing leads to another" on a permanent loop, this is the world i want to live in

yeah it's a good question why this band never got the credit they deserved, they are looked on as 80's also rans somewhere below the Thompson Twins maybe equal to Flock of Seagulls. But some of their songs are just incredibly strong, well produced too.

(Rupert Hine produced all the early albums...he of Rush fame)

stand or FAAA-LLLLLL

I saw The Fixx live in Lexington at an Octoberfest about 10 years ago. It was the classic lineup and they sounded good, in that it captured what made those records work. Don’t think they were using any tapes or fill in stuff either.

they are looked on as 80's also rans somewhere below the Thompson Twins maybe equal to Flock of Seagulls.

Jamie West-Oram has a bunch of guitar player fanboys that I didn't expect to encounter when I was looking up how he got those super crystalline tones (rack fx obvs). The Rupert Hine connection mentioned above makes total sense, because Lifeson really started to sound that way too.

random anecdote —and my reason for opening this revive——

i was shopping at this one sam ash for a while and there was a well known guy that sold guitars there. typical longterm guitar store salesman: very amiable, very knowledgeable, very good guitarist. i bought some stuff from him a few times and was in that store a lot. he recommended the fixx to me, i heard him flawlessly play "saved by zero" once while noodling, and i overheard him talking about seeing them live numerous times.

i've always just known "red skies", "one thing leads to another", and "saved by zero" and they're really great songs. especially "saved by zero." one of those definitive 80s classics that i surely hope will never go away. there's not much on the internet jukebox right now unfortunately, but there is a king biscuit flower hour from 1982???

(hell yeah i'm gonna check it out!)

Phantoms is fantastic. I Will is a big favorite of that.

Subjective, but I really enjoy their last few albums, too. It’s nice that some 80s bands still produce quality records, and don’t just mine the nostalgia tours.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHAvQH57RiY

Their songs lack force or personality; it makes sense that they backed up Tina Turner on a couple of Private Dancer tunes. But their lack of force didn't hurt'em -- for about four years their bright hooks translated to radio too. "Secret Separation" is my jam, though it's fucking meaningless.q

I was thinking The Fixx might have toured with Rush in the 80s, as the first time I saw Rush live (being driven by a friends mom to the show), we were mildly disappointed as Marillion was opening act on our leg of the tour. This tour was for Grace Under Pressure.

In looking for that info, I did find the Fixx was the Police’s opening act on the Syncronicity tour. I bet there was a bunch of painters hats and parachute pants in those crowds.

“one thing leads to another” lacks force or personality?? alfred my guy are you sure you cribbed the right blog draft for that post??

Yeah, it's a catchy nothing -- it made sense it came out the same year as "Owner of a Lonely Heart."

ahhh go soak your head

Just did!

I could have/should have seen the Police/Fixx tour, since it came to my hometown, but my parents had booked us a week at the Delaware shore THAT WEEK. Lots of my friends went, I was so mad. (the big draw for me was the Police, but I would have been happy to see the Fixx too.)

The Fixx occupied kind of an odd place — when I first started listening to college radio in the early 80s, they were one of the few bands that were present both there and on mainstream rock radio.

xpost Tracer this morning:

"But when the wrong word
Goes in the right ear
I know that Alfred's been lying to me!"

I dig the “reach the beach” instrumental… awesome drums and chorusey guitar. Mostly this music makes me want to roll up the sleeves of my sportscoat

They aren't already?

I dig the “reach the beach” instrumental… awesome drums and chorusey guitar

yes, that one's a bit of a balearic classic iirc, and i'm guessing it's the reason why 'one thing leads to another' goes for a little bit more than a lot of their other records (it's on the b-side of that)? really like the vocal version too though

wait…. they released an album last year! And it’s…. pretty good??!

I mean maybe not a GREAT album but far far better than it has any right to be.. “Neverending” and “Cold” and the uh fairly on-the-nose “A Life Survived” particularly good imo

So you guys got me to listen to the first two records today, which I'm gonna do right now…

1. Are the obvious antecedents Bowie and Roxy? Is there anything else evident? I'm interested to see if I notice anyone else… Cy Curnin for sure thought he was the kinda person who wasn't about to talk about how much he likes gals in song, which distinguishes him from Ferry and in fact Jran Jran, who I suddenly remember that he so strongly disliked that in RS in '84, he sneered that the wave that engulfs the audience in the 3rd minute of the "reflex" video represents the amount of cum those guys spurted in a year…

2. They do seem to be the kind of act that were more than eager and very much equipped to transition from the new wave English marketplace to an AOR circuit working the heartland that in 1983 anyone could anticipate but that barring U2 never did…like, they could open for Rush and Rupert Hine could produce them alongside Rush and Saga… Flock of Seagulls maybe could want that also, but not Depeche Mode or the Cure…

3. Watch him bound out onto the stage in Denver, jerking around in the manner one does when one has just ingested several snoutfuls of Showbiz sherbert…the song they start with here, "the Sign of Fire" is I believe the fifth best known Fixx tune… anyone else remember it as such?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLXm44Frsuk

They're playing here in NYC this coming Saturday, and I'm considering going. I don't know a single soul who'd want to come along, so I'm probably going solo.

I would go if I was there. Been preparing a massive "processed guitar sounds of the 1980s" thread and am curious as to what West-Oram sounds like now.

You're suffering a secret separation?

A fact I've kinda been quietly amazed by for a long while is that almost the entire five-person lineup has been the same since 1980 -- the only official change has been on bass, when the original one left in 1982, another fellow was briefly involved during the Reach the Beach sessions, then Dan K. Brown joined to finish out those sessions and then became part of the band. (Later he also left for a stretch from 1994 to 2008 but was never officially replaced before his return -- ex-Roxy Music/Vibrators/etc guy Gary Tibbs did a stint for a while, while Dennis Bovell contributed some work in the 1990s -- and so if you want to stretch it you could say that the lineup hasn't changed in four decades.) Regardless, the other four still being there all this time and Brown long back in the fold? Pretty remarkable! Not something I would have ever guessed before learning.

So yeah, I'd go. Hell if they're playing here I might go.

Never heard any of Cy's solo albums. Wikipedia shows five and two EPs. Appreciate the bands that stay together while the frontman does solo work.

Every 80s band I have seen in the past few years has been excellent, so yeah I bought tickets. They're playing in a historic theater here in St. Charles.

I'm totally into the whole Rupert Hine / stylish British Art Butt rock thing right now (Yes / Genesis...even the Power Station) anyway. I would love too see Elvis Telecom's thread!

I'd go just to see if the bassist still rocks the wide-brimmed hat.

I know him, and he does

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6HrjoH7y0A

Yes, they were very stylish. He also wore glittery shoes. Curnin in a long coat and hat. They were very good especially for the price. Quite like Jamie Oram-West.

The show was in a nice Prohibition-era theater with a speakeasy. Cy Curnin comes off as an earnest and enthusiastic college drama teacher. Not for the jaded, but having spent too much time in academia, I enjoyed it.

They're playing here in NYC this coming Saturday, and I'm considering going. I don't know a single soul who'd want to come along, so I'm probably going solo.

Yeah, if you've never seen them at all it's worth it. They give a solid performance and the setlist will include most of the things you want to hear.

I don't need to see them like every year, but I'm very glad that I finally caught them for the first time in '22.