Epic 80's flashback! Looks like the original band too. Oh man!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHYIGy1dyd8



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCM4_5uB1ww



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAofFHPRZTE



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOiZP8FS5Ww

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"Saved By Zero" is part of our past (goofy story, song is actually about the Cold War?). We've enjoyed the Molly Ringwald's fantastic cover of it, as well as "One Thing Leads to Another". Now we'll get to hear the real thing!

3 upcoming Ringwalds shows (JUN 24/SEP 8/DEC 30), 4 if we do the Catfish Festival (JUN 23).

Also, a Fleetwood Mac tribute band called Rumours coming to the Varsity, need to check that out.

I have seen the Fixx at least a dozen times in my life. I think their really good songs are the ones that never got any radio air play. I think you are going to really enjoy their show. Great ticket prices.

Thanks, LB4LB. Always nice to get a SimHQ endorsement. The videos above are the only Fixx songs I know, and I didn't know "Stand or Fall" until someone posted it on these boards. As you can tell, the songs are butchered to hell to make the videos shorter.

The typical setlist last year looked something like this...

Red Skies
How Much Is Enough?
Driven Out
Chase the Fire
Are We Ourselves?
Beautiful Friction
All Is Fair
Shaman
One Thing Leads to Another
Built for the Future
The Fool
Stand or Fall
Deeper and Deeper
Saved by Zero

Encore:
Do What You Can (Peace on Earth)
Happy Christmas (War Is Over) - (John Lennon & The Plastic Ono Band cover)
Secret Separation


I'll check out those other songs as well as one of their 'Hits' compilation, for example...
https://www.amazon.com/Fixx-Thing-Leads-Another-Greatest/dp/B000002PIY

I wouldn't enjoy a concert nearly as much if I didn't know most of the songs, so I'll remedy that now.

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The advantages to a general admission standing (no seating) concert is usually price and location to stage. We have our favorite spot at the Varsity Theater, front of stage and to the right (always seems to be where the lead guitarist plays). Plus, you can wait out a ticket purchase until the last day without worrying about getting a bad seat. You only risk a sellout (hasn't happened to me yet) or have to pay a couple of bucks extra ($30.00 vs. $25.00) if you wait until the day of the show.

And of course, with standing only, there's constant physical contact that's inevitable in a crowded dimly lit concert setting (we stand in what I call our "concert pose"). Not quite dancing, more like swaying but with subtle grinding (unavoidable), if you know what I mean.

The disadvantages are that you have to show up early if you want to claim your spot. We usually get there 45 min. before showtime (in this care there'll probably be a starter band). At Molly Ringwalds they play good 80's before the show (songs the Ringwalds don't play [e.g. "The Kid Is Hot Tonight"]), sometimes even showing a video on the stage curtain while you wait. A good time for relaxing conversation, but the evening ends up being a very long time on your feet (lots of walking just getting to the venue). What's bad, in my case, is that I have my best 3-shot buzz going during pre-show, having already lost a little once the show starts, especially when the band starts late. That's the price I pay for being responsible.

The biggest disadvantage is that you're not only making contact with the little woman you're wrapping your arms around, you're also occasionally bumping into the people around you if the crowd is heavy. Fortunately, among our demographics and age group, people almost always behave at these shows (even with the drinking). BTW, that's how I can tell if I'm acting my age, by looking around at all the other old farts in attendance.

It'll be interesting to see who goes to a Fixx concert these days. I already know what to expect for Rumours (Fleetwood Mac tribute), probably the same as with the Pink Floyd tributes we do.

My educated guess would be white non-hispanic people over the age of 35. Basically the same demographic that was at the Rush concert I went to a couple years ago.

You're probably right.

I've noticed that when the Molly Ringwalds play the Varsity (just a few feet from the main gates of LSU), the crowd is typically younger than when they play L'auberge Casino (about 4 miles south of LSU). It makes sense (more college students) but the distances aren't *that* far apart (still in the LSU area) yet the difference in demographics is noticeable.

I've also noticed (unless it's my imagination) that they tend to do more of a Classic Rock show at the Casino, with more New Wave/Pop at the Varsity. Which reminds me, I'm going to forfeit my first Ringwalds show in BR since Dec. 2015 with the Fleetwood Mac thing (back-to-back concerts would be too much, money and energy). To be 20 again, dammit (and with a little spending money this time)!

The last time I saw them was a few years back at a local city summer festival setting. Lots of middle aged suburbanites (like me) sitting in lawn chairs. I was a big fan of them my whole life and knew every song. It was funny, once the wine kicked in and they started playing their hits, the crowd started to really have a good time. Check out their albums Reach the Beach, Phantoms, Shuttered Room, Walk About, and Calm Animals. Those were my favorites.

Tonight I'm going to start a new thread for tribute and cover bands, including last night's 'Fleetwood Mac' show (some weirdness with this one), also to clean up this thread a little. Any future shows (e.g. upcoming trio of Van Halen, Guns N' Roses and Aerosmith...July 7th) will be included in the single tribute/cover bands thread.

Getting serious with The Fixx now (this Friday evening - 8/18) and taking a good listen to their songs to find the ones I like, but it's difficult as some of their albums have no digital releases on Amazon (or iTunes, from what I'm reading, but I don't buy from iTunes anyway) and this is a real bummer. I already have the originals of the four songs I posted above, and I'm about to purchase a Greatest Hits which includes a live version of one of them...

20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best Of The Fixx (Remastered)

This may have to do as I'm just not *that* big a fan of The Fixx, mainly going to hear "Saved By Zero", which upon listening to the lyrics, doesn't seem to be about the Cold War as I once thought or read...

"Saved by Zero" would become one of The Fixx's most popular songs and a concert staple. It has been described as having "acutely captured the paranoia of the Cold War in fearful lyrics."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saved_by_Zero

I don't get the CW reference but that's ok, I love the song, always have, and it'll be our highlight of the evening.

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EDIT: Cross referencing the Greatest Hits with the sample setlist I posted above, I'm satisfied that we'll know at least half of the songs being played, maybe more as I dig a little deeper.

2nd: EDIT: More choices...

One Thing Leads To Another: Greatest Hits

Bah, the only difference in the two "Best Of..." vs. "Greatest Hits" compilations above is that the first one includes "How Much is Enough" and the second one "A Letter To Both Sides", otherwise they seem to be identical. Going to read reviews and decide.

LB4LB, help me out. What are *your* personal favorites that I'm missing on that first Hits (maybe list half a dozen songs)?

I could do this with Rush, just start with "Chronicles" and add...

Reading the comments on the "Red Skies" video...

"RED SKIES AT NIGHT is caused by an upper atmospheric detonation of a nuclear charge, which would certainly cause the ionosphere to glow red. Take it from a guy who lived when this came out, I can assure you it was about nuclear war, as many of the 80's tunes were. In the 70's elementary schools we trained frequently for bombing, using the duck and cover under our desks. I remember a bunch of churches were marked as fallout shelters, with supplies in the basement. The 80's got better, but it was still cold war time. We were conditioned the USSR could/would bomb us at any time. We feared them and they probably feared us. I finally realize the people of the USSR just want the same things as us. They have families, lives and jobs too. Maybe things were on the verge back then, but the world is much more connected now. I always wanted to ask a Russian if they we brought up the same way, with fear of nuclear war, but I have never met one. A secondary meaning is an allusion to the "Red Soviets" ( think of flag of USSR).

This song, much like Men at Work's "It's A Mistake" is based on never knowing who will push the launch button or launch missiles by mistake and prompt the two super powers at the time to annihilate each other.

"Normally, 'red skies' at night' a reference to weather predictions. 'Red skies at night, sailors delight, red skies at morning, sailors take warning." However, this is not the context of this song."

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Alright, I'm getting excited about this concert now! Also, having just listened through the "Best of..." including an excellent live version of "Stand or Fall" (although I'm keeping the originals on my playlist). These guys really were about the Cold War and nuclear holocaust, I like it!

Some time back I made an 80's Cold War thread which was deleted with a server crash or something. I might have to do another one soon. Someone posted a video by The Fixx (I think) on it but I don't remember the song, just that it wasn't one I'd heard before. If anyone remembers another Cold War song by The Fixx, please post it. Thanks.

Sorry Mark, didn't see you earlier post. Here are some of my favs. Mostly not their hits.







[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIhwH41msew[/video





I could go on and on. Have fun.

No problem, LB4LB. I start typing and I get carried away, questions getting lost in the mix. Thanks, and I'll check those out (already know the first one really well now).

After everything I've read about this band, I realize they still have quite a following. I should feel lucky that for only $25.00 I'm going to be standing front and center in a small venue to watch these guys play. So many times (as evident in my pics) I think to myself that if the guitarist drops the neck, he'll plonk my wife on top of her head. That's how close we are to the musicians (unless we choose to back off).

There's going to be a starter band that night, a local BR trio who sound pretty good IMO, and we'll make sure to arrive early enough to catch their show and grab our usual spot (which is never hard to do anyway). I'll take plenty of pics.

The last couple of times I seen the Fixx, the lead singer comes out with a top hat on with a full bottle of wine and a wine glass. The bottle is gone by about the fourth song, and then they really start to have fun.

Other songs which have grown on me...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP8Pe8tp2TQ



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6HzUdW0S90



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0EmyVNgCic

Going to live the 80's tonight while taking pics with a new iPhone (I know the 7 is an older model, but the phone is brand new).

Been watching recent live videos, I'm so freaking psyched!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xNyipxG96E



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObArkniQT6k

Built for the Future ia one of their greatest songs ! I envy you tonight. I have been jamming the Fixx all day.

Yeah, me too! I'm now playing them over my rinky-dink man cave Onkyo/Bose stereo (old and baseline stuff), the cave needed some dusting and vacuuming. Before that I had the movie "Back to the Future" on as background noise, I'm so full of 80's nostalgia right now that if I smile any wider, my face will crack!

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Dammit, I wasn't going to, but I'm going to tell my goofy "Saved By Zero" story (since it was erased with a server crash the first time I told it, and when I finally get around to redoing my Cold War music thread, I want to leave this silliness out of it)...

First a little background...

"Saved By Zero" came out in 1983 off of "Reach The Beach". I don't remember owning the 8-track (and maybe there wasn't one) but I must have had the album, because when I listened to it recently, I remembered almost all of the songs. Back then, of my small group of friends, I had by far [access to] the best stereo. Not the Pioneer Quadraphonic 8-track in my bedroom (lol) but in the living room, my parent's Akai receiver, Marantz turntable, Sanyo and Technics (the better one) tape decks with JBL speakers. It was my brother's older system that he had passed down, selling it to them really cheap. So my friends would bring LPs and I would make us both a good chrome or metal tape recording (I'd set my record levels to seldom hit 'redline' unlike much pre-recorded music today, loud recording != quality). That's the only thing I could think of, but I know I had the album at one time.

Anyway, I met my wife in HS the following year (of the album's release) and towards the end of our post-11th grade summer vacation, she invited me to go to Godchaux's with her (a local huge department store, sorta like Sears meets Montgomery Ward) to buy new school clothes (back-to-school Lee and Levi's went for $15.00, Chic for a few dollars more [her favorite]). She already had her drivers license and a steady part-time job, and pretty much her own car, a 70's Malibu Classic coupe (older brother had his own car, younger sister not old enough to drive yet and her mom was driving her grandparent's car [also their caretaker]). I noticed the tags on her jeans were size "0" and found it odd, what kind of size is that?! Lol. I knew *nothing* of women clothing sizes, how the 'size' was only a reference to three actual measurements (b/w/h), much like 256-color indexing (color 52 is not a color, it's a reference to the RBG values assigned to position 52 on the palette). Still, it made no sense to me to even *have* a 'nothing' size (which BTW was smaller than it is today), so of course I picked on her a little about it, how could I not? But it was all in good fun, and she took it that way.

And now for the *really* corny part, it gave that song a personal meaning to me, because I felt at the time that I had been saved (I needed her influence and a desire to impress her, otherwise my life would have likely turned out to be pretty crappy). To my sincere surprise, when the Molly Ringwalds played it at that first show Dec. 2015, she turned back and looked at me because she remembered the song meant something to me...holy crap! Built like a gazelle but the memory of an elephant! And now we're going to hear the real thing live, never thought that would happen!

Ok, I tried to make that story as painless as possible, honest.

This newer song (2012) has a very nice mellow groove to it...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2iV6AIjjn0

I always loved West-Orams guitar work. The guitar solo in "Outside" is short but awesome. Always turned to 11. My Fixx flashback is driving in my 1985 Toyota Celica GT with the sunroof down and Reach the Beach just jamming.