Superbawestside1980
ZEITGEIST, PATRIK FITZGERALD BAND, BROADCAST @ THE LONDON FILM CO-OP, LONDON, U.K. 1980
HUMAN 7, early 80s
ZEITGEIST UK post punk wave 7" 45 TOUCH~YELLOW FIDGETS on Human 7, not much info on the band other than this excerpt from Tony Fletcher, who later iussued a couple 45s by the band on JAMMING Records, " In the early/peak days of Jamming! the fanzine, I regularly answered the door bell down in West Dulwich, and later in Crystal Palace, to find on the doorstep aspiring groups eager to drop off their newly pressed 7” singles and demos along with a plea for some publicity. One of the bands that rang the Fox Hill buzzer was Zeitgeist, newly moved up to London from Cornwall and in proud possession of a home-made cassette. They were likeable people, so I wrote about them. They had a particularly old-fashioned funk built into their angular post-punk stance and, especially amidst the many po-faced politicos of the era, were more than capable of getting your party started. The fact that they had two vocalists – Jaf and Zaz – certainly didn’t harm matters, and their breathless vocal interaction led to more than one comparison with The B-52’s. They were funny, too, something that wasn’t too common in indie music at the time, and they could just about play their instruments: though guitarist Corin Arnold was the group’s resident intellectual (and Zaz’s brother), bassist Gary and drummer Harry were like the Blues Brothers of the post-punk, their love of classic soul never getting in the way of a good punch-line.
PATRIK FITZGERALD BAND: His early songs were generally short, sarcastic efforts, recorded with just an acoustic guitar and occasional studio effects, with lyrics containing a large amount of social comment. Fitzgerald was soon regarded as an original of his genre, somewhere between a punk-poet and an urban folksinger, and was lauded in some circles as "the new Bob Dylan". After starting out as a busker, he approached David Bowie's original manager, Ken Pitt, requesting his services; Pitt declined but an audition was set up with Noel Gay in 1975 who also turned Fitzgerald down.
In 1976 Fitzgerald auditioned, alongside Mick Jones and Tony James for the band London SS, again without success. After a spell acting in a communal theatre group, he drifted towards the developing Punk scene. He was a regular customer at the Small Wonder record shop in London, and when Small Wonder launched a record label Fitzgerald was one of the first to submit a demo - and got a deal, with the new label releasing his first three EPs, the first being Safety-Pin Stuck in My Heart, still his best-known work, and one which he subtitles "a love song for punk music". Patrik became a regular performer at London Punk gigs, and supported The Jam on their national tour.[3]
ZEITGEIST, PATRIK FITZGERALD BAND, BROADCAST @ THE LONDON FILM CO-OP, LONDON, U.K. 1980
HUMAN 7, early 80s
ZEITGEIST UK post punk wave 7" 45 TOUCH~YELLOW FIDGETS on Human 7, not much info on the band other than this excerpt from Tony Fletcher, who later iussued a couple 45s by the band on JAMMING Records, " In the early/peak days of Jamming! the fanzine, I regularly answered the door bell down in West Dulwich, and later in Crystal Palace, to find on the doorstep aspiring groups eager to drop off their newly pressed 7” singles and demos along with a plea for some publicity. One of the bands that rang the Fox Hill buzzer was Zeitgeist, newly moved up to London from Cornwall and in proud possession of a home-made cassette. They were likeable people, so I wrote about them. They had a particularly old-fashioned funk built into their angular post-punk stance and, especially amidst the many po-faced politicos of the era, were more than capable of getting your party started. The fact that they had two vocalists – Jaf and Zaz – certainly didn’t harm matters, and their breathless vocal interaction led to more than one comparison with The B-52’s. They were funny, too, something that wasn’t too common in indie music at the time, and they could just about play their instruments: though guitarist Corin Arnold was the group’s resident intellectual (and Zaz’s brother), bassist Gary and drummer Harry were like the Blues Brothers of the post-punk, their love of classic soul never getting in the way of a good punch-line.
PATRIK FITZGERALD BAND: His early songs were generally short, sarcastic efforts, recorded with just an acoustic guitar and occasional studio effects, with lyrics containing a large amount of social comment. Fitzgerald was soon regarded as an original of his genre, somewhere between a punk-poet and an urban folksinger, and was lauded in some circles as "the new Bob Dylan". After starting out as a busker, he approached David Bowie's original manager, Ken Pitt, requesting his services; Pitt declined but an audition was set up with Noel Gay in 1975 who also turned Fitzgerald down.
In 1976 Fitzgerald auditioned, alongside Mick Jones and Tony James for the band London SS, again without success. After a spell acting in a communal theatre group, he drifted towards the developing Punk scene. He was a regular customer at the Small Wonder record shop in London, and when Small Wonder launched a record label Fitzgerald was one of the first to submit a demo - and got a deal, with the new label releasing his first three EPs, the first being Safety-Pin Stuck in My Heart, still his best-known work, and one which he subtitles "a love song for punk music". Patrik became a regular performer at London Punk gigs, and supported The Jam on their national tour.[3]