The Fixx -

The Fixx are an English modern rock band that released five studio albums between 1982 and 1991. On their early releases, they carried the sonic innovations of producer Rupert Hine to a wider transatlantic audience.

The debut Fixx album, Shuttered Room, spawned the early MTV staples “Stand or Fall” and “Red Skies.” Their 1983 second album, Reach the Beach, housed the US hits “One Thing Leads to Another” and “Saved By Zero,” both evergreens of the Second British Invasion.

The Fixx gained further stateside ground with the 1984–86 albums Phantoms and Walkabout and the singles “Are We Ourselves?” and “Secret Separation.” In 1991, they scored their final US hit with “How Much Is Enough?” from their fifth album, Ink.

Members: Cy Curnin (vocals, piano), Rupert Greenall (keyboards), Jamie West-Oram (guitar), Charles Barret (bass, 1981-82), Adam Woods (drums, percussion), Alfie Agius (bass, 1982-84), Dan K. Brown (bass, 1984-98, 2008-present)

Background

The Fixx evolved from The Portraits, a New Wave band formed in 1979 London by singer Cy Curnin and drummer Adam Woods, both drama students at Wimbledon College. Through an ad for musicians, they found keyboardist Rupert Greenall, guitarist Tony McGrail, and bassist Russell Mckenzie.

The Portraits

On October 26, 1979, The Portraits released their first single: “Little Women,” a mid-tempo rock song backed with “Easy,” both Curnin originals. Ariola pressed the single on red vinyl with the band’s sad/happy nabla mascot on the sleeve and labels.

In March 1980, Ariola issued the second Portraits single: “Hazards In the Home,” a McGrail original backed with Curnin’s “Never Let Go.” Both songs have uptempo new wave arrangements akin to Fischer-Z. The sleeve reused the split-face nabla in gray surround.

Later in 1980, Mckenzie and McGrail cleared way for bassist Charlie Barrett and guitarist Jamie West-Oram, the latter from the backing band of (ex-Winkies) Phillip Rambow.The new lineup renamed itself The Fix.

The Fix

In February 1981, The Fix debuted with the frenzied, suspenseful “Lost Plane,” issued on on small-press 101 Records with the rare b-side “I’ve Been Here Before.“

On “Lost Plane,” they began their partnership with Rupert Hine, a sixteen-year industry vet who recorded two albums circa 1976/77 with Quantum Jump, which scored a belated 1979 hit with “The Lone Ranger.” Since 1977, he branched into production for a range of acts, namely Cafe Jacques (a Scottish soul/rock trio), Anthony Phillips (the original Genesis guitarist), Saga (a Canadian melodic-rock band), and symphonic/jazz-rock legends Camel. Hine recently resumed his performing career with Immunity, his first solo album in eight years.

“Lost Plane” and another early number (“The Strain”) appeared on different volumes of 101’s various artists series along with tracks by fellow newcomers the Thompson Twins, Comsat Angels, and Modern Man. Three live Fix numbers (“Acrobat,” “Soho Alley,” “Eye for Design”) appeared on the 101 release Live Letters alongside tracks by Huang Chung, Endgames, and Fay Ray.

Amid this newfound exposure, MCA signed The Fix in late 1981. Weary of the possible drug connotations associated with the word “fix,” the label wanted them to change their name. The band respelled their name with an extra x, thus appeasing label executives.

In February 1982, The Fixx released their second single: “Some People” backed with “I Found You,” both group-written songs produced by Hine. In April, MCA issued the third Fixx single: “Stand or Fall” backed with “The Stain.”

Shuttered Room

The Fixx released their debut album, Shuttered Room, on May 14, 1982, on MCA. The album features ten group-composed songs with lyrics by Cy Curnin.

Shuttered Room contains the three pre-released a-sides (“Lost Planes,” “Some People,” “Stand or Fall”), their fourth single (“Red Skies”), and the popular deep cuts “Cameras In Paris” and “I Live.”

A1. “Some People” (3:01)
A2. “Stand or Fall” (4:00)
A3. “Cameras In Paris” (3:52)
A4. “Shuttered Room” (2:47)
A5. “The Fool” (5:21)

B1. “Lost Planes” (3:23)
B2. “I Live” (4:53)
B3. “Sinking Island” (3:16)
B4. “Time In a Glass” (3:32)
B5. “Red Skies at Night” (4:20)

Sessions occurred in the winter of 1981/82 at Farmyard Studios, a converted 19th-century estate in Little Chalfont near Amersham. Rupert Hine ran Farmyard with his erstwhile Quantum Jump bandmate, drummer Trevor Morais (ex-Peddlers), a Merseyside legend who replaced Ringo Starr in Rory Storm & The Hurricanes. Hine produced Shuttered Room in sequence with albums by Saga (Worlds Apart), Chris De Burgh (The Getaway, his US breakthrough), and Rupert’s own Waving Not Drowning, the musician/soundman’s fourth solo album.

Shuttered Room was engineered by Hine’s right-hand man, Stephen W. Tayler, a Seventies jazz-rock soundman (Isotope, Nova, Soft Machine, Pierre Moerlen’s Gong) with credits on recent titles by Aviator, Charlie, City Boy, Department S, Judie Tzuke, Models, The Passage, and Peter Gabriel.

Immunity photographer Chris Parker designed the Shuttered Room cover, which shows a clenched female hand in the dark of an egress-lit basement (front) and a group-shot of The Fixx around a wooden table in matching black formal attire (back).

In late June, MCA lifted “Red Skies” as the fourth Shuttered Room single, backed with “Is It By Instinct,” a non-album session outtake.

B. “Is It By Instinct” (4:10)

The “Red Skies” video takes place against flashing neon back-lights on a dark soundstage, where a suited, shady-eyed Curnin sways and gesticulates among his blazer-clad bandmates. MCA issued the single as an edited 7″ (3:30) and a full-length 12″ backed with an extended dance mix of “Sinking Island” (4:35).

In August, MCA issued Shuttered Room in the US and lifted “Stand or Fall” as the first stateside single. The video opens on a winter day with a jungle pan to an English countryside manor, where a plaintive Curnin (white sweater) watches the rain through mullion windows and recollects times on the battlefield with his bandmates. He recalls an ailing white horse that he rose for a victory march.

“Stand or Fall” received ample rotation on the US cable music channel MTV, then entering its second year of broadcast. In January 1983, MCA issued “Red Skies” as the second US Fixx single. The “Red Skies” video became another early MTV staple. The Fixx also made a video for “Some People” that intercuts dark soundstage footage with scenes of the members ramp-sliding and sword fighting. The video uses key period techniques such as slow motion, saturation, and shadowed silhouetting.

The US version of Shuttered Room shuffles the tracklist and substitutes “Sinking Island” and “Time In a Glass” with the second and third Fixx b-sides, “I Found You” and “The Strain.”

B. “I Found You” (3:38)
B. “The Strain” (3:33)

Soon after the album’s release, Charlie Barrett cleared for bassist Alfie Agius, who played on the 1980/81 second albums by Interview (Snakes and Lovers) and the Teardrop Explodes (Wilder). Agius played on the Shuttered Room tour and early followup sessions.

Reach the Beach

The Fixx released their second album, Reach the Beach, on May 13, 1983, on MCA. The album placed them in the vanguard of the Second British Invasion with two major transatlantic hits: “One Thing Leads to Another” and “Saved By Zero.”

Reach the Beach coincided with Alfie Agius’ brief tenure and the introduction of Fixx mainstay Dan K. Brown, a prior Isotope bassist. Agius (listed as Algies) plays bass on the two hits and the deep-cut “Liner.” Brown plays on the album’s third single, “The Sign of Fire.” Despite this, Agius received co-writing credits on all ten songs.

A1. “One Thing Leads to Another” (3:18)
A2. “The Sign of Fire” (3:51)
A3. “Running” (4:26)
A4. “Saved By Zero” (3:41)
A5. “Opinions” (4:49)

B1. “Reach the Beach” (4:00)
B2. “Changing” (3:25)
B3. “Liner” (3:39)
B4. “Privilege” (4:16)
B5. “Outside” (5:25)

Sessions occurred at Farmyard Studios with producer Rupert Hine and engineer Stephen W. Tayler. The two worked on Reach the Beach in sequence with 1983 Farmyard recordings by the Little Heroes, Saga (Heads or Tails), The Waterboys, and Hine’s fifth solo album, The Wildest Wish to Fly.

Reach the Beach features a white-framed cover illustration by George Underwood, a childhood friends of David Bowie.

The Fixx first plugged Reach the Beach with “Saved by Zero,” released as a May single with “Going Overboard,” a non-album track credited to the core quartet.

B. “Going Overboard”

In the “Saved by Zero” video, Curnin portrays an artist in a gray, sunken city loft, where he struggles for inspiration amid customer visits and childhood flashbacks. He confides in his bandmates over toppled wine bottles and deals with a troubled subject who plunges herself through the sky roof. As he strains for ideas, demons reach out through his canvass. The director, Brian Grant, also shot iconic videos for Duran Duran (“Hungry Like the Wolf”), Peter Gabriel (“Shock the Monkey”), XTC (“Senses Working Overtime”), and Olivia Newton-John (“Physical”).

In mid-August, The Fixx lifted “One Thing Leads to Another” as the second single (b/w “Opinions”). Hine’s lyricist, Jeannette Obstoj, directed the song’s video, which opens with a pan-down on Adam Woods, who plays a lab tech at a microscope. The action takes place in a long round tunnel where Curnin lip syncs and gesticulates in his trademark daytime formal wear (black blazer/slacks, open-neck shirt) and alternate casual garb (blue sleeveless top, yellow pants). In one instance, he straddles a ladder in a gray sharkskin suit. Cy’s bandmates appear intermittently throughout the clip. Due to the distance and lighting intensity, West-Oram (at 1:33) assumes an ET-like silhouette.

In November, MCA lifted “The Sign of Fire” as a third US single, backed with a live version of “One Thing Leads to Another.”

“Saved by Zero” reached No. 20 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 9 on the Mainstream Rock Chart (a more crucial metric for FM evergreen status). “One Thing Leads to Another” reached No. 4 on the Hot 100 and No. 1 in Canada. Reach the Beach peaked at No. 8 on the Canadian Albums chart and the US Billboard 200.

Phantoms

The Fixx released their third album, Phantoms, in August 1984 on MCA.

Phantoms features twelve group-written originals, including “Wish,” “Phantom Living,” “Lost in Battle Overseas,” and the singles “I Will,” “Sunshine in the Shade,” “Less Cities, More Moving People,” and “Are We Ourselves?” Cy Curnin wrote all the lyrics apart from “Woman On a Train,” penned by Rupert Hine lyricist Jeanette Obstöj.

The album established the long-term quintet lineup with bassist Dan K. Brown, who joined for the tour behind Reach the Beach.

A1. “Lose Face” (3:03)
A2. “Less Cities, More Moving People” (3:53)
A3. “Sunshine In the Shade” (2:26)
A4. “Woman On a Train” (3:56)
A5. “Wish” (4:08)
A6. “Lost In Battle Overseas” (4:10)

B1. “Question” (3:26)
B2. “In Suspense” (3:45)
B3. “Facing the Wind” (3:20)
B4. “Are We Ourselves?” (2:27)
B5. “I Will” (3:54)
B6. “Phantom Living” (3:50)

Sessions occurred in the spring of 1984 at Farmyard, where Hine and engineer Stephen W. Tayler oversaw Phantoms in sequence with albums by newcomer Howard Jones and repeat-clients The Waterboys and Chris De Burgh (Man On the Line).

Phantoms‘ sessions ran concurrent with those for Private Dancer, the 1984 comeback album by American soul-rock legend Tina Turner. Hine produced two Private Dancer cuts: “Better Be Good to Me” and “I Might Have Been Queen,” the latter co-written by Jamie West-Oram with Hine and Obstöj. West-Oram performed on both cuts along with Curnin, who played the subject in Tina’s video to “Better Be Good to Me,” a song co-authored by Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn (of the Seventies hitmaking Chinn–Chapp partnership behind Sweet, Mud, and Smokie) with songwriter Holly Knight, who first recorded the song in 1981 with her AOR band Spider.

Phantoms sports the second Fixx cover illustration by George Underwood, whose piece depicts a medium-relief subject etch across a tiled surface.

The Fixx greeted Phantoms with “Are We Ourselves?” (b/w “Question”). In the video, The Fixx run through a field in black and white jumpsuits and perform on a clear-cut patch near a satellite ground control. Cy sings into a Motorola KR999, an early-model cordless phone. As night looms, the war-painted members sing head-to-head under blue lights.

In August, MCA lifted “Less Cities, More Moving People” as the second UK single, backed with the non-album “Deeper and Deeper,” the band’s submission to the Streets of Fire soundtrack.

B. “Deeper and Deeper”

The “Less Cities” video takes place near Tower 42 in London. In the guise of different blue- and white-collar professions, The Fixx observe the inner-city Arab influx. Later scenes depict the members as aging gray-hairs.

In November, “Sunshine in the Shade” became the second US single (b/w “Question”). In the video, The Fixx perform after dark in a valley, where overhead blue and yellow lights illuminate unique clothing articles on Curnin (orange sleeve-rolled jacket) and West-Oram (orange tiger-print shirt). In a daytime dream sequence, Cy bedevils an Eve-like woman under an apple tree.

In February 1985, MCA lifted “I Will” as the third UK Phantoms single (b/w “Question”).

“Are We Ourselves?” reached No. 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the Top Rock Tracks chart. Phantoms reached No. 18 in Canada and No. 19 on the Billboard 200.

In 1985, Curnin and Hine dueted on “With One Look (The Wildest Dream),” a single from the soundtrack to Better Off Dead, an American teen comedy starring John Cusack. In the video, the two appear head-by-head on successive TV screens in the rooms of assorted characters.

Walkabout

The Fixx released their fourth album, Walkabout, in May 1986 on MCA.

Walkabout contains ten group-written originals, including “Camphor,” “Read Between the Lines,” and “Sense the Adventure.”

Cy Curnin penned all the lyrics apart from “Chase the Fire” (worded by Adam Woods) and the album’s lead single, “Secret Separation,” the second Fixx song with lyrics by Rupert Hine-associate Jeanette Obstoj.

Lisa Dalbello appears as a backing vocalist on “Built for the Future,” the second Walkabout single.

A1. “Secret Separation” (3:51)
A2. “Built for the Future” (4:07)
A3. “Treasure It” (4:38)
A4. “Chase the Fire” (4:27)
A5. “Can’t Finish” (4:09)

B1. “Walkabout” (4:35)
B2. “One Look Up” (4:15)
B3. “Read Between the Lines” (3:59)
B4. “Sense the Adventure” (3:42)
B5. “Camphor” (3:53)

Sessions occurred in November 1985 at Farmyard, where Hine produced Walkabout in sequence with debuts by Eight Seconds, Martin Ansell, Thinkman (Rupert’s latest modern-rock vehicle), and former Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof.

The Fixx plugged Walkabout with “Secret Separation,” a June 1986 single (b/w “Sense the Adventure”). The video takes place in a vaulted warehouse with a bald, bespectacled control man. The band perform on assorted levels amid hanging industrial parts. Curnin, Greenall, and West-Oram sport quiffed hair, tench coats, and boots. In August, “Built for the Future” became the second US single (b/w “Camphor”).

“Secret Separation” reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the US Album Rock Tracks chart. Walkabout reached No. 30 on the Billboard 200. The Fixx played US support slots for the Moody Blues on their comeback tour behind The Other Side of Life.