Fischer-Z -Red Skies Over Paradise

Red Skies Over Paradise will forever carry the distinction of being the first album recommended to me while a member of RYM. Not by the database itself but by another user. Not only did I get a recommendation but I found a burned copy winging its way to me through the post. A really kind gesture which I hope I’ve been trying to repay with copious amounts of alcohol ever since! Of course I found out afterwards that it was all part of a murky conspiracy to get Fischer-Z recognised as the finest band to come out of the eighties and John Watt heralded as the greatest songwriter who ever lived but, hey, I’m happy to do my bit for the cause. As long as there’s some hefty financial recompense flying my way – I’m presuming the cheque is in the post Nick?

I liked the album so much I ended up buying my own copy but I still don’t subscribe to anything other than Red Skies Over Paradise being an effective and enjoyable album. Maybe I had to have fallen in love with the album on its release and have lived with it for nearly thirty years.

The problem for me is the politics. In 1980 the siting of cruise missiles at Greenham Common was a political timebomb. The establishment of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp ensured the story was rarely out of the news for years to come and footage of women being dragged kicking and screaming from off the fences was an almost daily event until the last of the missiles left the site in 1991. I’ve no doubt in 1981 Fischer-Z’s “Cruise Missiles” was considered cutting edge but, so many years after the fact, it’s like listening to a lifeless history lesson. And that isn’t really down to the song but rather the fact that I didn’t hear it at the time of its greatest relevance. The same criticism can be leveled at “Multinationals Bite”. Maybe railing against the powers of large conglomerates sounded fresh in 1981 but now it just seems naive and obvious. Equally fusty and bordering on the sexist is “Bathroom Scenario” with its regret that the modern world, with its relaxed attitudes and dilution of social mores, is taking the mystery out of life.

Maybe that’s being overly critical because there is plenty to enjoy on Red Skies Over Paradise. The stomping “Berlin”, the rousing “Marliese”, “Song And Dance Brigade” whose underlying rhythm invariably brings to mind The Jam’s “Eton Rifles”, “Battalions Of Strangers” about the nightmare of war after the guns have been silenced and “Wristcutter’s Lullaby” with its story of the shame of a failed suicide.

Red Skies Over Paradise must have sounded more effective and relevant on it release in 1981 but there is an innate power and charm about John Watt’s songwriting that ensures a modicum of that impact remains. Fischer-Z aren’t a band I intend looking into any further but this is an album I’ll continue to come back to and, for that alone, thanks Nick.

01. Berlin (4:37)
02. Marliese (3:53)
03. Red Skies Over Paradise (4:37)
04. In England (2:45)
05. You’ll Never Find Brian Here (2:12)
06. Battalions Of Strangers (5:08)
07. Song And Dance Brigade (3:06)
08. The Writer (3:24)
09. Bathroom Scenario (3:51)
10. Wristcutter’s Lullaby (2:50)
11. Cruise Missiles (4:20)
12. Luton To Lisbon (1:57)
13. Multinationals Bite (3:36)