Stand Or Fall: The Fixx album-by-album thread

For my first foray into creating an album-by-album thread, I'm going with a group of Londoners who found their greatest success in the US. The core of the band met up in 1974 as The Woods Band; various members came along and they evolved into Portraits, releasing two 7" singles. By 1981, The Fix were regulars at the 101 Club in South London, even appearing on a club compilation album. Their first single, as The Fix, was "Lost Planes."

They eventually signed with MCA and were talked into adding an extra "x" in their name, to avoid any sort of drug connotation. The band felt it didn't make much difference, so they went with it.

Shuttered Room is their first album, released in 1982, and features the classic tracks "Stand Or Fall" and "Red Skies."

There are variations in US and UK track listings, as well as subsequent CD reissues. US LP:

1. I Found You
2. Some People (3rd single and video)
3. Stand Or Fall (1st single and video)
4. The Strain
5. Red Skies (2nd single and video; video has a unique live in-studio recording)
6. Lost Planes
7. Cameras In Paris
8. I Live
9. Shuttered Room
10. The Fool

Tracks from other issues:
Sinking Island
Time In A Glass


personnel:

Cy Curnin - vocals
Adam Woods - drums, percussion
Jamie West-Oram - guitars
Rupert Greenall - keyboards
Charlie Barrett - bass

 

I like this one very much & the two "hits" are classics. My CD has an extended mix of "Stand or Fall" as a bonus track.

 

Oh, all the PPG Wave synth sounds, those were the days.

 

This is probably my favorite album by them. It was the video for Stand or Fall on MTV that introduced me to the band. Very 80s cold war era video!

 

I didn't buy the album back in the day but wished I had. Always likes The Fixx.

 

Ah, yes, I forgot to include the album jpeg; thanks for that...

 

Red skies at night
Wo oh oh oh oh

Great song.

 

Non-album B-side to the 1981 Lost Planes single I've Been Here Before.

 

Love me some FIXX. Shuttered Room is one of their best!!!

 

"Stand Or Fall" is my favorite song by The Fixx.

 

What a great album. Always underrated and thought of as an alternative Duran Duran hmmm.

Shuttered room & Reach The Beach are both great albums. Pity they became too American and less British new wave in subsequent albums

 

"Cameras in Paris" is probably my favorite of any deeper album track (from any Fixx album, not just the first one).

 

I always thought of them as a thinking man's Duran Duran.

 

Now we move on to their breakthrough Reach The Beach album from 1983. Personally, it's my favorite from the band and I consider it my all-time favorite album as well! (Despite the fact that they are my #2 fave band, behind Simple Minds).

This is the album where it all came together; not a single dud in the bunch, and they really perfected their "rock band with a new wave edge" sound. The guitar on album closer "Outside" is incredible.

1. One Thing Leads To Another (2nd single, and their biggest hit)
2. The Sign Of Fire (3rd single)
3. Running
4. Saved By Zero (1st single)
5. Opinions
6. Reach The Beach
7. Changing
8. Liner
9. Privilege
10. Outside

The 2003 remaster includes the following bonus cuts:
11. Saved By Zero (12" mix, different lyrics)
12. One Thing Leads To Another (12" mix)
13. Deeper And Deeper (long version) - short version released on the Streets Of Fire soundtrack in 1984. The label wanted this song to be the first singe from follow-up album Phantoms, but the band disagreed, so it was relegated to the b-side of "Are We Ourselves?" that same year. The band felt this song was "made to order" since it was for a soundtrack; it got significant traction at AOR radio, but since the band wouldn't allow a single release, it stopped dead there.
14. Going Overboard - released as the b-side to "Saved By Zero." It was originally intended to be included on side 2 of the album, and can be found listed on the original master tape box, but the band cut it from the LP at the last minute. They have since come to regret this decision - Adam Woods says so in his liner notes for the Ultimate Collection released by Hip-O in 1999, and Rupert Greenall himself told me once "We were so stupid to cut that song from the album!"

Band lineup remained the same with the exception of bass duties. Charlie Barrett left (they remain friends and have used his UK studios for recording in subsequent years) and was briefly replaced by Alfie Agius. Tensions ensued, as did a lawsuit, and he left, with the amazing Dan K. Brown (who would go on to be a permanent member, for a while at least) filling in at the end.

This album was also produced by Rupert Hine, who would go on to use Jamie and Cy for Tina Turner's "Better Be Good To Me" (see the video!)

 

Well...this thread seems to have died on the vine. Since I love the band so much, I'm going to give it one last chance at survival by moving on to the next album, but if the responses die off, then I will simply let the thread go and possibly come up with one for a different band!

Next up is their 1984 album Phantoms. While it's my #2 favorite from them, many fans put this one in top position and for good reason. They continued with their winning streak of quality songwriting and continued to have hits, although none as big as "One Thing..." The album was certified gold, but certifications are for total units shipped. Since the last album was so big, expectations were high for this one and retailers stocked up...but about half of the shipments ended up coming back to MCA (I used to work for them and saw the saddening numbers in their computer system).

This is the album that started tensions between the band and MCA. As mentioned above, "Deeper And Deeper" was featured on the 1984 soundtrack for Streets Of Fire. Radio loved it, but the band didn't want it released as a single. I can't help but think their fortunes would have changed had they allowed the song to be promoted properly and included as part of this album.

The band wanted "Less Cities, More Moving People" to be the first single, but MCA pushed for "Are We Ourselves," which eventually reached #15 on the charts. "Sunshine In The Shade" was the second single, but only reached #69. "Less Cities...." was finally released in early 1985 but did not chart. Videos were created for all 3 of these singles and all are excellent.

1. Lose Face
2. Less Cities, More Moving People
3. Sunshine In The Shade
4. Woman On A Train
5. Wish
6. Lost In Battle Overseas
7. Question
8. In Suspense
9. Facing The Wind
10. Are We Ourselves
11. I Will
12. Phantom Living

The 2001 reissue from One Way was a spectacular failure as the audio channels were reversed, and because (since they were part of the same company) they included liner notes from the All Music Guide, which basically trashes the album. At least they included a few bonus cuts:
13. Less Cities, More Moving People (extended)
14. Sunshine In The Shade (live)
15. I Will (extended)

Cy Curnin - vocals
Jamie West-Oram - guitar
Rupert Greenall - keyboards
Adam Woods - drums
Dan K. Brown - bass

 

These are all fine albums. I'm still amazed that they never really caught on in their home country.

 

I love the two 'lesser-charting' singles...

2. Less Cities, More Moving People
3. Sunshine In The Shade

 

When Shuttered Room and Reach the beach were originally released on CD for the first time did they have that awful MCA logo compact disc compact price on them or was that added later for later pressings?

 

Another B-Side to the US "Red Skies" 45 (MCA-52167) is "Is It By Instinct".

The US CD "Walkabout" (MCAD-5705) has a hidden track "Peace on Earth (Do What You Can)".

The CD "Missing Links" (FUEL 2000) has even more (mostly) unreleased songs .

 

That was added for later pressings. MCA reissued a bunch of CDs at a midline price in the '80s, and gave all of them that same standardized packaging. The original Phantoms CD did not have that packaging...it didn't even have a barcode on the back of the jewel case! This was common back then as more attention was paid to the packaging of the longboxes at the time. When the conversion from longboxes to jewel cases occurred in 1992, a handful of CDs never had their packaging reconfigured to reflect this. Hence, the React CD has blank spines, and Jimmy Buffet's greatest hits CD has a logo on a simple yellow background, instead of the picture of him in a hammock on the beach that was on the LP, cassette, and CD longbox.

 

The King Biscuit release is interesting as it was recorded between Shuttered Room and Reach The Beach so One Thing Leads To Another was unreleased, at least in America, at the time of the recording. This live recording along with the Denver video show the band really had chops on stage.

 

I really liked the remaster of Reach The Beach. I specifically got it for the extended version of "One Thing..." as I love that song to death, but I found the whole album great and it didn't come across as too hot to my ears. Needless to say, I'm sure Steve's mastering (minus the bonus tracks) is the holy grail. For whatever reason, I overlooked the Fixx in my youth and instead obsessed over albums like Into The Gap, Thriller, Big Bam Boom and Purple Rain.

 

Reach The Beach and Phantoms are both great records. My two fav Fixx albums.

Jamie West-Oram is a very talented, unique guitarist and, IMO, underrated.

 

I too love the King Biscuit date - one of my favorite Fixx releases actually.