A new album of old Fischer-Z songs

I've not bought any music for quite a while but I was quick to get this.

John Watts has re-recorded the most famous songs from Word Salad, Going Deaf for a Living and Red Skies Over Paradise in a contemporary way.

The admirable reason for doing this is to raise money for the War Child charity, which helps children suffering in war zones. People like me made pledges to buy Fischer-Z memorabilia using PledgeMusic.

These are fantastic songs that I have loved for thirty years and it's a real treat to hear them in new recordings with a richer more engrossing sound.

This is John's choice of songs and they are all singalongtastic and while it is disappointing that Remember Russia is missing the sheer joy of hearing new versions of classics like Berlin, So Long and Battalions of Strangers more than makes up for this. Battalions of Strangers is now my ring-tone.

And there is a cute bonus too with the addition of Dark Crowds of Englishmen. This is an unreleased song from the 80’s that John wrote and recorded as a Fischer-Z tribute to the coal miners who were battling with Margaret Thatcher at the time.

Things do not get much better than an undiscovered anti-Thatcher song by Fischer-Z!

Morethanmusic with John Watts

John Watts is probably still best known in the UK as the front-man with Fischer-z who had several popular albums and singles between 1979-81. I was lucky enough to see them live in '79 and have been a fan ever since.

After Fischer-z, John's solo career has continued but mostly in Western Europe (NL, BE and DE). His UK appearances have been rare and the London appearances even rarer. The last time I saw John was in late 2007.

So when I heard about the UK launch of his latest album, Morethanmusic, it was an easy decision to get a ticket.

There were some logistical problems to overcome. It was on a working day when I would normally wear a suit and tie to the office but I could lapse in to smart casual if the evening demanded it. But I also had an event at the Slovak Embassy earlier that evening which suggested a better suit than usual as well as a late arrival to the gig.

In the end the dress code dispute resolved itself in favour of a good suite and clarification of the start time of John's set meant that I could attend both events that evening without too much hassle.

I got to the Borderline with about fifteen minutes to spare before John took the stage for a short solo set.

I didn't take notes for this but my recollection, and the copy of the much-amended set-list that I got, suggest that he played about half a dozen songs from across his career.

Most of these I knew and I was singing along to things like What a Time and Face to Remember.

And that is the essence of John Watts, songs that you want to sing along to.

John was then joined on stage by his band, a fairly typical combination of keyboards, bass and drums, to play the Morethanmusic album.

The songs were still very much John Watts, we would all have been disappointed if that were not the case, and the addition of the band made the sound rockier and bouncier. It reminded me a little of the way that Neil Young has acoustic and electric sections within his performances. The same songs with the same feel but with a different delivery.

For the encore we were thrown back joyfully to the Fischer-z era with a small selection of songs that included Pretty Paracetamol, Red Skies over Paradise and In England. All rumbustious crowd-pleasing stuff. Who could possibly stop themselves from singing along to the chorus of Red Skies (Down in their bunkers, under the sea, Men pressing buttons, don't care about me)?

As long as John Watts writes music like that then I'll keep buying it.

Hopefully the next album will be updated versions of Fischer-Z songs which fans can commission by buying exclusive items which will also help a kids' charity. You know this is a good idea.

Real life is good enough - thanks to John Watts

I have been a big fan of the music of John Watts / Fischer-z since I saw them play a student union event at Weymouth Pavilion in 1979.

I have bought all the albums (vinyl then CD) which has been bit of a challenge at times as John is now based in Europe and not all of his stuff has been issued here.

But I had not been able to see him live because he plays so few UK gigs and the one or two there have been in recent years have proved impossible for me to get to.

So it was with immense joy that I managed to see John play at The Fly in London this week.

This was a solo acoustic set (as most of his work now is) that consisted almost entirely of songs from 95's Real Life is Good Enough.

Any fans wanting to hear old songs like The Worker or Remember Russia (early singles and still favourites of mine) would have been disappointed but all the fans that I spoke to there were, like me, very very happy with the set he played. Bizarrely, John did finish with an old song, Fischer-z's very first single, Wax Dolls.

As if the music itself was not enough, I also had the opportunity to have a few words with John (which may lead to more things later) during which he said that the album he was most proud of was Thirteen Stories High (recorded as J M Watts) from 97, so I am off to give that a few more plays.