Description
The self-titled, sole album by the British art rock/new wave band Writz was released on Electric Records in September 1979, manufactured and distributed in the UK by PYE Records. The album was recorded by John Burns at Trident Studios in London, England; with David Rees producing. Mixed by Burns and Rees at Trident Studios, except tracks A1 and A4 mixed by Keith Bessey and Rees at DJM Studios in London. Arranged by the band. All tracks written by band members Steve Fairnie and Steve Rowles.
Writz are Steve Fairnie and Bev Sage on vocals, Steve Rowles on guitar and vocals, Jules Hardwick on guitar and guitar synthesizer, Nick Battle on bass, and Arry Axell on drums.
By the time their second LP arrived, Fish Co had become Writz, a high-energy new wave art band, who achieved critical acclaim, sold out venues like Camden’s Music Machine with ease, recorded one classic LP, appeared in a Dennis Potter TV play and were a positive, and amazingly visual, counter to the three chord punk of the day.
Steve Fairnie and his band Fish Co. had been touring as an overtly Christian rock band for several years, but after having released their second and final album in 1978 the band decided to “go secular”. Fish Co transform themselves into Writz at the end of 1978 – a mainstream rock band. This move caused a great deal of righteous head-shaking among Fish Co’s less adventurous followers. Steve Fairnie was interviewed in the second-ever issue of Ship of Fools magazine in January 1979. The magazine at that time was part of the UK’s evangelical Christian culture, which forms the theological background to the interview.
In 1979 Writz signed to Electric Records as part of deal which included opportunity to work with producers Lol Creme and Kevin Godley of 10CC fame. “Night Nurse”, the band’s first of two singles, was released at the end of June 1979. A video was recorded for Irish TV at the RTE Studios in Dublin. Only two singles were released as Writz: “Night Nurse”, which almost charted, and the 12-inch of which was pressed on transparent green vinyl and came with a fetching white face mask. In France they released a version of “Movies”.
Writz’s self-titled and sole album was released on Electric Records in September 1979 between the RPM series and the RPM Special. This year Writz played over 180 gigs, filling key London venues like Dingwalls, the Marquee and Camden Town’s legendary Music Machine. December 1979 Electric Records went bankrupt, Writz went bankrupt and the band folded. Writz was headlining Saturday Night at the Greenbelt festival in 1980, very powerful and frightening.
Early in the new year they changed their name to Famous Names, and in June 1980 the re-branded band now featuring Les Cargo on bass, signed a new record deal with Trident Records. The band went into Trident Studios in London and recorded “Holiday Romance” (b/w “Talk It Out”), their only single as Famous Names. An album, Venetian Blind was all but completed in March 1981 before management issues caused the band to fold (Trident went bankrupt). The album remains unreleased, though some tracks strayed onto compilations.
Boy, what a difference a year makes! The foursome formerly known as Fish Co. (Steve Fairnie, Bev Sage, Steve Rowles, Jules Hardwick) pick up a couple additional members (Arry Azell and After The Fire’s Nick Battle) and charge full-steam ahead into outrageous driving disco/new wave/rock – a land occupied by the likes of Missing Persons, ‘Pop Muzik’, Buggles, ‘Funky Town’, Sparks and that whole early MTV scene. Bev Sage in particular seems to have gone completely over the edge with her insane loopy yelps. Fairnie’s not far behind either with his Fuehrer-through-a-loudspeaker rants on «Muscle Culture» (“I have a vision! A television!”). I don’t know whether titles like «Night Nurse», «Luxury», «Private Lives», «Swinging With The Reptiles», «Robberoni» and «TV Times» exactly qualify as “Jesus music” – perhaps more accurately it’s Christian artist providing satirical commentary on the glamorous life, the entertainment industry and modern society in general. And having a whole heck of a lot of fun while doing it, too. Such moments were not unheard of in their Fish Co. days – in fact there’s a revamped version of «Super Heroes» from Fish Co.’s Beneath The Laughter. All songs written by Fairnie and Rowles. This album was also released in Israel in 1981 as Famous Names’ The Writz Album. [Ken Scott, The Archivist, 4th Edition]
The self-titled debut album from the British mainstream band that had previously had a ministry band incarnation as Fish Co, Writz were fronted by Steve Fairnie, Steve Rowles and Bev Sage, and performed the infectiously catchy songs of Fairnie and Sage to fine effect. As a post-punk outfit, they incorporated a huge amount of glamour and their performances were always interesting and creative. (check out YouTube for rare footage of the band and see what I mean!). This is definitely art school new wave and on the evidence of these recordings from 1979, the band deserved to be huge. Standouts include the funky observation of the bright London media set on «Swinging With The Reptiles» and what should have been a hit single, «Night Nurse». The band knew how to have a bit of fun and yet makes some serious points. The anti-fascist satire «Muscle Culture» is a mighty closer whilst more upbeat songs like «Super Heroes», «Luxury» and «Private Lives» are never the new wave fluff they appear to be at first sight. With a sound that was both contemporary and futuristic, the album has weathered the intervening 30 years pretty well. Worth hunting around on the internet to get your copy! [Mike Rimmer, Cross Rhythms, August 2010]
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Night Nurse” – 3:00
A2. “Luxury” – 3:20
A3. “Swinging With The Reptiles” – 3:50
A4. “Drive Away” – 3:30
A5. “Movies” – 3:04
Side Two
B1. “Robberoni” – 3:47
B2. “Private Lives” – 3:50
B3. “TV Times” – 5:07
B4. “Super Heroes” – 3:59
B5. “Muscle Culture” – 6:06
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and 12-inch vinyl LP by Electric Records. The album was re-issued in Israel by Hed-Arzi/Arton Records in 1981, this time under the new band name, Famous Names, featuring new cover artwork.
RPM Show Christmas Special, BBC1 West, 12 Dec 1979 10:15pm.
1. Night Nurse / 2. Luxury / 3. Movies.
Three Writz performances were featured on the RPM Show Christmas Special, broadcast just before Christmas 1979 on BBC West. This programme, introduced by Andy Batten Foster was a showcase for local bands in the Bristol region and was recorded at the BBC Bristol studios on Whiteladies Road, Clifton. Writz were based in London at this time, but they had strong Bristolian origins. This special was a compilation culled from the earlier series transmitted over the summer. Writz, being visually exciting, earned three appearances.
Their self titled debut LP came out in September 79 between the RPM series and the RPM Special. Only two singles were released as Writz: Night Nurse, which almost charted, and the 12″ of which was pressed on transparent green vinyl and came with a fetching white face mask. In France they released a version of Movies. Early in the new year they changed their name to Famous Names, and in June 1980 they went into Trident Studios in London and recorded Holiday Romance / Talk It Out, their only single as Famous Names. An album, Venetian Blind was all but completed before management issues caused the band to fold. The album remains unreleased, though some tracks strayed onto compilations.
TrueTunes, April 7, 2022. Randy Layton (Alternative Records) and poet/theologian Steve Scott join us at the Jukebox to revisit a tragically overlooked 70s and 80s era synth pop entourage known alternately as Writz, The Famous Names, or The Technos. That group’s founder, the late Steve Fairnie, had a major impact despite his relative obscurity.
– Moving onto Writz, you had a stunning stage show, great songs and a strong image. Why, oh, why didn’t Writz crack it? What, with hindsight, had you got wrong?
It was an extraordinary time. The move to Writz was pretty rapid and by the end of ’78 we are a full-on touring band, with Nick Battle and Steve (Arry) Axell both fully committed. By then Pete (now Willie) Williams, Ken (Squad) Watts and Johnny Roden were pretty much full time as crew (by the way – these guys all went on to achieve personal success in the music business). Great memories, great friends, great times. Bev and Fairnie were just terrific up front, Every gig, I’d be singing my heart out, workhorsing all the main lyrics but few people noticed because Fairnie was always doing something outrageous with a rubber chicken or a fake TV screen, or having his temperature taken by Bev in a nurse’s uniform!
In ’79 Dave Rees (then Manager) secured us a contract with Electric Records and we recorded the Writz album. We played over 180 gigs that year and toured throughout the UK and in Europe, we could fill key London venues like Dingwalls, the Marquee or the Music Machine every three months. There were the six of us in the band plus a three-man crew, a manager, a record co, an agent, a lawyer, an accountant, and a publicist. Being on stage was the easy bit. I believe we were one of the most entertaining touring bands of the time, but we couldn’t capture it on record, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme got the closest with ‘Night Nurse’.
Why didn’t we make it on record? Mmm… perhaps a bit of bad luck here and there with record companies, and maybe we were better ‘performance artists’ than ‘recording artists’. At times there was too much going on, we had the kitchen sink in every track, but I’m not sure that was the problem. I think the Writz album is the clue. Listening now it sounds like a decent live band trying to record their live (and very visual) act onto record. With a first class Hons. degree in hindsight, they are very different disciplines. Some of the arrangements are too long for record, they worked well with the visuals on stage but were overkill when recorded. One or two of the best visual tracks on stage became the most sterile on record.
Less important, but still significant is the question, how much did we live up to the phrase ‘recording artist’? In pure musical terms – to be honest – only Jules truly measured up, he was outstanding, Les, Arry and the rest of us were good enough, but not in Jules’ league (if you think of the success of the Blockheads, Ian Dury was only commercially successful when he set his stall out against an extraordinary musical backcloth). We could still very easily have ‘got lucky’, I know less talented bands than us that did and more talented bands that did not. For the record, I was certainly the worst instrumentalist, but I drove the van and knew how to do the VAT!
– Was the Greenbelt/Christian legacy too much of a burden?
No, not at all. Although I think if we had made it, the rock and roll press would not have built us up for long before they began to try to knock us down again. If they looked hard enough, I’m sure there would have been the odd ‘kiss and tell’ story to dig up. People like Nick Beggs from Kajagoogoo and other Christians who ‘came out’ at that time, had the luxury of having been ‘converted’ from something to something. Ours was a pretty raw and disjointed evolution/maturation, I certainly had made my mistakes. Through it all, I believe we were genuine, we were just trying to figure it all out ourselves, that just meant that our lives were a little wacky at times.
– Could Venetian Blind have been the hit album that the Writz LP wasn’t? Was it more of the same? Was it better?
I don’t know, maybe, but it was like the ‘growing up’ album that didn’t have the ‘critical acclaim’ album before it so I’m not sure it made sense. It was never really finished and we will never know. We were so broke by then that it was getting very difficult to sustain.
[Excerpt from an interview with band member Steve Rolwes, 2016, fairnie.net]
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