The Jazz Butcher

by Jason AnkenyThe Jazz Butcher was the vehicle of prolific singer/songwriter Pat Fish, an archetypal British eccentric whose sharp observational wit and melodic gifts navigated the group through over a decade of constant line-up shifts, stylistic mutations and even a series of name changes which found the band performing variously — and apparently randomly — under such titles as the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy and the Jazz Butcher & His Sikkorskis From Hell. Fish was born Patrick Huntrods in London in 1957, and raised primarily in Northampton. He first began performing while studying philosophy at Oxford in the late 1970s, fronting the short-lived Nightshift; a subsequent band dubbed the Institution later joined forces with their rivals the Sonic Tonix, establishing the nucleus of players who later formed the core of the Jazz Butcher sphere.Fish first concocted his Butcher persona in 1982, quickly enlisting his Oxford mates to join him in a band of the same name; even from the outset, the groups roster changed seemingly on a daily basis, although Fish found an early mainstay in guitarist Max Eider. The Jazz Butchers eclectic 1982 debut A Bath in Bacon — including early skewed pop gems such as Love Zombie and Sex Engine Thing — was essentially a Fish solo record, but by 1984s folky A Scandal in Bohemia the roster had stabilized to include ex-Bauhaus bassist David J. Following The Gift of Music, a 1984 compilation of single sides, the Jazz Butcher resurfaced the following year with Sex and Travel, a marvelously odd set ranging in sound from punk (Red Pets) to cabaret (Holiday).After David J left the band to join Love and Rockets, the remaining quartet — Fish, Eider, bassist Felix Ray and drummer Mr. O.P. Jones — rechristened themselves the Jazz Butcher and His Sikkorskis from Hell and recorded the 1985 live set Hamburg, followed the next year by an EP, Hard. Leaving the rhythm section behind, Fish and Eider then recorded 1986s Conspiracy EP, credited to the Jazz Butcher vs. Max Eider and foreshadowing the subsequent shift to the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy aegis for Distressed Gentlefolk. Eider soon exited to mount a solo career, leaving Fish to team with guitarist Kizzy OCallaghan for 1988s Fishcoteque, their first release for the Creation label.By the time of 1989s Big Planet Scarey Planet, the line-up also included the superb bassist Laurence OKeefe, saxophonist Alex Green and drummer Paul Mulreany; 1990s Cult of the Basement was recorded with the same roster, but the usual disruptions soon left Fish essentially to his own devices for 1991s Condition Blue and 1993s Waiting for the Love Bus. Upon reuniting with David J, who produced 1995s low-key Illuminate, Fish decided to lay the Jazz Butcher name to rest, and performed a farewell performance in London at the end of the year. He subsequently signed on to play drums with the Stranger Tractors, but in 1999 reunited with Eider for a Jazz Butcher Conspiracy tour of the U.S. The live Glorious and Idiotic appeared the following year and Rotten Soul was issued in fall 2000.