John Watts (musician)

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John Watts 2018
John Watts
John Watts (2008)
John Watts (2010)
Vocal rehearsal John Watts (2010)

John Malcolm Watts (born December 27, 1954 in Harrow ) is a British singer , guitarist and poet . Since the late 1970s Watts gained international fame as a singer, guitarist and founder, mastermind of the Fischer-Z group . After he broke up the group, Watts began a solo career in 1982. In 1987 he reactivated the name Fischer-Z. However, apart from John Watts, no other founding member of Fischer-Z belongs to these formations.

John Watts enjoyed success across Europe and sold more than two million albums. Peter Gabriel , Steve Cropper and Dexys Midnight Runners were involved in the recording. Fischer-Z performed alongside James Brown in East Berlin and toured with The Police and Dire Straits . They accompanied Bob Marley on his last festival tour through Europe and toured the USA and Canada. In the past few years, Watts has built a reputation as a multimedia artist. His career as Fischer-Z includes 19 albums and 3,000 concerts to date.

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John Watts founded Fischer-Z when he was still studying clinical psychology and working in psychiatric clinics. The first appearances took place in clubs. The first Fischer-Z album, Word Salad , was released on United Artists Records in 1979 , alongside The Buzzcocks and The Stranglers . This was followed by several appearances on The Old Gray Whistle Test and a first appearance on Top of the Pops with the single The Worker, which was successful in Europe . The second album, Going Deaf For a Living , cemented Watts' ability to convey global political issues in narrative songs against the backdrop of "quirky" pop music . The single So Long was released in 1980 on the newly founded TV station MTV .

Fischer-Z's success in Europe was cemented with Red Skies Over Paradise (1981). Berlin , Marliese , Battalions of Strangers , Cruise Missiles and the title song were described as classics of the era and sales exceeded the 1 million mark. Watts broke up the original Fischer-Z line-up in the summer of 1981, believing the band had strayed too far from their original punk ideals. Watts' first solo albums, One More Twist (1982) and The Iceberg Model (1983), spawned the single One Voice and the song The Iceberg Model . He briefly formed a band called The Cry and released the pop / dance album Quick Quick Slow in 1984 , which was produced by Jimmy Douglass. In the 1980s Watts was heavily influenced by political events, particularly Margaret Thatcher's dealings with the unions in Great Britain. His 1985 song Dark Crowds of Englishmen is about the British miners' strike in 1984/1985 and the disappearance of the proletariat.

Watts re-founded Fischer-Z in 1987 with a different line-up and celebrated success with the singles The Perfect Day (1988) and Say No (1989) from the albums Reveal (1988) and Fish's Head (1989). The 1991 album Destination Paradise was recorded in Peter Gabriel's Real World Studios . The song Further From Love and the title song focus on the suffering of civilians during wartime. The next two Fischer-Z albums, Kamikaze Shirt (1993) and Stream (1995), continued to combine a political perspective with songs based on Watts' observations and real life experiences.

He resumed his solo career in 1997 with Thirteen Stories High . For his next album, Bigbeatpoetry (1999), he combined poetry, prose and lyrics with a DJ and beats. An era of multimedia projects began with "Ether Music & Film" (2002), an international project. For this purpose, Watts traveled all over Europe and to New York , which was shaped by the events of September 11, 2001 . Some of the songs were created spontaneously with street musicians or in short-term sessions. Minimal equipment was used: a high quality microphone and a laptop. The entire project was filmed and released as an album and DVD.

Real Life Is Good Enough (2005) was a guitar and drum album recorded with Sam Walker . The contextual album It Has To Be , which followed in 2006, consisted of melodies inspired by Watt's contact with strangers in ten different European countries. He wrote a song for each of them. The album included poems and short stories by Watts. Morethanmusic (2010) album included the single Head On , which was inspired by Watts' experience of watching a seven-year-old child watch the live execution of Saddam Hussein on the phone. Watts made one film for each title on Morethan Music.

The album This is My Universe , which was released in 2015, contains the title Martha Thargill , in which Watts rethinks the miners' strike after 30 years.

Discography

John Watts recorded his most commercially successful albums as a singer and songwriter under the name Fischer-Z. In addition to solo projects, he continues to record songs under the name Fischer-Z. Below are all of the albums he has released under the name Fischer-Z and as a solo artist:

  • Fischer-Z: Word Salad 1979
  • Fischer-Z: Going Deaf For A Living 1980
  • Fischer-Z: Red Skies Over Paradise 1981
  • John Watts: One More Twist 1982
  • John Watts: The Iceberg Model 1983
  • The Cry: Quick Quick Slow 1984
  • Fischer-Z: Reveal 1987
  • Fischer-Z: Fish's Head 1989
  • Fischer-Z: Destination Paradise 1992
  • Fischer-Z: Kamikaze Shirt 1993
  • Fischer-Z: Stream 1995
  • JM Watts: Thirteen Stories High 1997
  • Watts: Bigbeatpoetry 1999
  • Watts: Spiritual Headcase 2000/2001
  • Fischer-Z: Ether 2002
  • Fischer-Z - John Watts: Ether - Beep Start 2002
  • John Watts: Ether - Music & Film 2003
  • Fischer-Z: Highlights 1979 to 2004
  • Fischer-Z: The Garden Party DVD 2004
  • John Watts: Real Life Is Good Enough 2005
  • John Watts: It Has To Be 2007
  • John Watts: Morethanmusic & Films 2009
  • John Watts: Fischer-Z 2011
  • John Watts: Realistic Man - live solo recordings 2012
  • John Watts - Fischer-Z: Live at Rockpalast 1982 DVD / CD 2012
  • Fischer-Z: This Is My Universe 2016
  • John [James] Watts & The Cry: Live from London DVD / DLC 2016
  • Fischer-Z: Building Bridges 2017
  • Fischer-Z: Swimming in Thunderstorms 2019

literature

Web links

Commons : John Watts  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files