The Jazz Butcher
The Jazz Butcher Releases Fishcotheque
Details
[album cover] [sleeve photo] [sleeve photo]
Media: Album
Label: Creation Records, Relativity
Catalogue: CRECD027, 88561-8223-2
Released: 1988
Recorded: Alaska, Waterloo
A-Side
Next Move Sideways
Out Of Touch
Get It Wrong
Living In A Village
Swell
B-Side
Looking For Lot 49
The Best Way
Chickentown
Susie
Keeping The Curtains Closed

Credits

Credits
Pat Fish - Songs, Vocals, Instruments
Kizzy O'Callaghan - Guitars, Vocals
Alex Green - Saxophones
Greenwood Goulding - Bass Guitar
Dave Morgan - Drums
Erol Suleyman - Bass on Lot 49
Blair MacDonald - Drums on Lot 49
Laurence O'Keefe - Bass on Swell
Sonic Boom - Feedback on Susie
The Perfect Disaster - Backing Vocals on The Best Way
Iain O'Higgins - engineer - producer
Pat Fish - producer
Mitch Jenkins - photography
Thanks
Samples courtesy of Unit Csawza, Northampton and Frank Bruno Family Favourites, Springfield, Mass. Sandwiches by `The Pantry' Waterloo Road, London. SE1, Liquors by `The Wellington Tavern', Waterloo Road, London. SE1, Thanks to: Mark, Dee, Phil, Eleanor, Robin, Barbara, Jaz, Dan, Sonic, Gilles, A Riot of Colour for X11 string, Jeff, all at Creation Records, and especially to Frank from Hamburg, for taking me out one crucial Wednesday night.
The Butcher Says..
Having ended up on Creation Records, which I took as a bit of a validation, I was keen to get as far away from all those "w" words that had followed my group around, and to make it as clear as I could that this was a rock & roll thing, not some "eccentricity". I had my shades and I had my fringed suede jacket and I had the Weather Prophets rhythm section.

In the last flickering days before Marriage and Acid House would change the world Kizzy and I hung out in his dealer's flat in Islington and WALKED to the studio in Waterloo everyday. The sessions were chaotic and funny. At one stage Kizzy arrived 56 hours late for a mix, having been held by the Police under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

David has this down right as a sort of self-justificatory thing. What disappoints me is that it came out sounding so SMOOTH and tidy. I'd hoped it would be more harsh and mad. I guess perhaps it's the saxes, which, I recall, enraged some reviewers. Sonic Boom does good things on Susie (that's 4 of them big ballads at least, now), that was more the idea. Still, not to slag O'Higgins, who began a lengthy association with the JBC on this recording.

This sold rather well, which was pleasing, and seems widely liked. I can't fuck with that, but I had hoped that it would be more a "change of direction" than it was. But I like Fishcotheque; I wish there more records as good as it. Source: Pat Letter: 1993-08-30

Reviews

Hatchet, George Washington University Scanning the globe for discs (Washington DC, USA), Thu, Mar 3rd 1988

The Defender, Saint Michael's College The Jazz Butcher's latest has the right idea, wrong sound (Winooski, Vermont, USA), Wed, Mar 16th 1988

Record Mirror The Jazz Butcher (UK), 1989
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  • Fish n Chips
    haystackhunter[at]-remove-hotmail.com - WGH, Vancouver
    5Dec2014 9:44 PM (8 years 301 days ago)
    visited London for the first time last November, and made sure to make a pilgrimage to Fishcotheque (the restaurant). Had a great meal there, and tried to recreate the album cover (the exact same metal barrier is in front), but we were looking the wrong way!!!
  • Living In A Village
    plasticsoul2001[at]-remove-hotmail.com - Plasticsoul - Los Anhaleees
    16Jun2006 6:37 AM (17 years 111 days ago)
    Whenever you find yourself stuck in a blue funk I defy you to listen to Living In A Village and not crack a smile and tap one or more toes. Play it at Mom's funeral and see!
  • Fish
    mark.batchelor[at]-remove-cwc.ac.uk - London
    11Oct2004 12:30 PM (18 years 359 days ago)
    I remember buying this LP in 89 with a recent Bowie LP. Can't remember the Bowie one now.
    Next move sideways is still one of my alltime fav's (now I sound like a Radio 1 DJ).
  • Get It Wrong
    john[at]-remove-thehibbs.com - Suisun City, CA - USA
    15Aug2002 4:02 PM (21 years 51 days ago)
    Get It Wrong is one of the finest love songs ever written