When I think of ‘80s bands, I often view them in the same way one might see a restaurant. They are all offering the same thing, but with different atmospheres. Sonically and thematically the differences are just big enough to offer variety, although it all may have sounded the same to the uninitiated listening from a today’s perspective (much like my impression that all ’50s rock sounded the same). After all, many bands were using the same technology with only their imaginations separating them as variations on a theme.
In realm of new wave, that often meant that the same overarching themes governed Reagan-Thatcher era music. In addition to timeless issues of youth, nuclear war and the treat of mutual annihilation added kick to a potent cocktail of angst. Few bands managed to convey this anxiety with as much rhythmic swagger as the London England based band The Fixx.
Unlike many English new wave bands who may have had their start well before the music video age, The Fixx was born right into the dawn of MTV. As a result, the band’s Rupert Hine produced debut album Shuttered Room made a big splash in both the UK and United States. The Fixx’s music videos offered a sharp contrast to the concert footage of legacy rock bands that once passed for music videos on the fledgling network. They were arguably bigger in The States than in their home of England where MTV boosted “Stand of Fall” and “Red Skies” to pop music status.
The Fixx seemed to skip college radio and go straight to the mainstream rock charts in part due to the icy charisma of its lead vocalist Cy Curnin. The underground did play a part in building up The Fixx between singles, but it was not as crucial to their success as it was for many of their peers. Interestingly, the U.S. and U.K. versions had different song listings (with some early copies spelling The Fix with one x).
Part of The Fixx’s charm was Curnin himself whose dramatic and somewhat stiff stage gestures made for interesting (if not awkwardly amusing) visuals. This translated well to the music video format of which The Fixx became early stars. Underneath the button-down minimal style and choppy arrangements was a dark undercurrent that gave The Fixx a unique allure – sorta like Interpol would decades later.
Much of that allure was in the form of white funk. The combination of Jamie West-Oram on guitar and Charlie Barrett on bass meant that The Fixx’s had a strong punchy rhythm section. That’s one of the band’s most enduring qualities. The funky side of The Fixx is most apparent on “Cameras in Paris”, and would become more apparent as the decade progressed.
For it’s debut, it would be the spooky or foreboding horror of war and conflict that would drive it’s two hit singles. “Red Skies” and “Stand of Fall” are more conventional sounding for the era in that they could have been inspired by U2 or Simple Minds with their guitar driven melodies. The Fixx used synthisers, but their public perception was more of a guitar band – hence their accent onto the Billboard mainstream rock chart. Other more conventional and straight forward rock tracks “Lost Planes” were vaguely recalls Led Zeppelin.
Things would only look up for The Fixx, as they inched ever closer to becoming mainstream – much like Ultravox (Midge Ure) and INXS would by the end of the decade.
Favorite Tracks:
Red Skies
Cameras in Paris
Stand or Fall
Beatopolis 