|
Producer
Rupert Hine helped shape the band’s
sound on their first LP, Shuttered Room,
in 1982. While
success in their homeland was minimal, airplay
on then-fledgling American cable network
MTV of their videos for singles “Stand
Or Fall,” “Red Skies”
and “Some People” set the wheels
in motion for Stateside success. Arguably
the band’s masterpiece, their 1983
album Reach The Beach was a Platinum smash
in the US, led by first single “Saved
By Zero. ” However, it was single
#2, the energetic “One Thing Leads
To Another,” that made The Fixx household
names that summer. The song is an enduring
classic of the New Wave era, as it still
gets regular airplay on radio and video
networks, and is also featured on countless
‘80s compilations. Third single “The
Sign Of Fire” continued their American
invasion as it climbed the charts while
the band opened for superstars The Police
in arenas across the country.
The band never quite matched the sales success
of that album, but artistically, they continued
to move in interesting directions, creating
compelling music that still holds up as
the best of its era. Their 1984 album Phantoms
features the hit “Are We Ourselves?”
while their 1986 long player Walkabout contains
“Secret Separation,” one of
the band’s finest singles. Although
the band took a few years off in the mid-‘90s,
they are still together today, playing incredible
live shows and continuing to create music,
most recently on the 2003 album Want That
Life.
And so it is in 2004, well over 20 years
since that fine first single, that a group
of musicians from today decided to finally
pay tribute to a band that truly defined
not only New Wave music, but quality rock
music that actually rises above any superfluous
category created by the rock critic cognoscenti.
A tribute album should serve a few purposes,
most importantly as a show of respect to
those who influenced the participants. It
should also drive the listener to explore
other music by the bands featured, while
hopefully motivating all to go back and
review the original works that inspired
the tribute in the first place.
|
