It's not often that an artist gets to do a Bowie by consciously carving their personal epitaph into the grooves of their final LP. The Highest in the Land is that rarity of an album, and it could not have been made by a more brilliantly poetic and fearlessly sarcastic writer than Pat Fish, also known as The Jazz Butcher.

In loving memory.

Four CD box set gathering A-sides, the would-be hits along with B-sides, tangential 12-inch tracks (the C-sides), and an excellent session for Los Angeles radio station KCRW from 1989.

Includes over a dozen indie chart hits including ‘Southern Mark Smith’, ‘Girl Go’, ‘The Human Jungle’, ‘16 Years’ plus a host of truly eclectic Butcher tunes from his early Glass recordings through his time at Creation.

Featuring ‘Bath Of Bacon’, ‘A Scandal In Bohemia’, ‘Sex And Travel’ and ‘Distressed Gentlefolk’.

The Jazz Butcher’s Brave New Waves session was recorded on June 5th, 1988 in CBC Studio 13 in Montreal. The recording is taken from CBC Archives reels and remastered at Grey Market Mastering in Montreal, by Harris Newman.

Crowd-funded in under 12 hours, recorded on 2" tape, lush and warm..

50 Years Of Northampton Music

We finally asked Pat if he wanted to record one and he said he wouldn’t do a Christmas song, but he would record something … and oh did he do something special for us. He came round and recorded a beautiful version of Afterhours

This release by the German newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" combines a book and a CD.

Two song demo.

"You're not a band. You're a crack team of international restaurant critics" - Curtis E. Johnson

Two song demo.

Six song demo.

Glass-era compilation.

Well, I'm back from America. We had a good old time of it, and by the end of the tour we had worked 5 songs off the new record into our live set. The title of the new waxing, incidentally, is Rotten Soul.

This was a limited edition CD made available to help fund the JBC tour across the US.

Along with the CD you got an autographed photo and tickets to the JBC show of your choice.

Although it is a "home made" CDR, it was officially released by the JBC and would be pre-paid for pick-up at the show.

This inaugural disk is decidedly un-Butcheresque, with a keyboard-heavy attack of quasi-techno rhythms. Pat was known to dabble in reverb and noise, but the results were moody, melancholy textures, quite unlike the flash of This is Sumo.

Millions of years ago, dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Today the Galileo Space Probe orbits mighty planet Jupiter. The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy first appeared in June 1982 in the back room of the Black Lion in Northampton. They finally drank the bar dry in a small town in in Mallorca on the 20th August 1996

Unlike the Creation "This Is Sumo" release, Pat sings lead on all tracks.

"Audio Aquatic" was an early working name for Sumosonic. Most tracks from this tape are the same as the later "Sumosonic Demo Cassette".

Glass Records era compilation.

The single features: Come, Friendly Spacemen, Monks Of Kung Fu, and Come, Friendly Spacemen (version)

There is a limited-edition vinyl 12er single in the clubs, featuring the long version of Come, Friendly Spacemen alongside re-mixed by Tom Withers of drum n bass combo Override and Johnny Octopus of Octopus Records. The "Sushi" mix is a full on, dark-hearted progressive house tune with an evil bass; the "Jackson Hole" Mix is an insane collision between stadium pop and drum & bass which has to be heard to be believed. The 12er will also feature Monks Of Kung Fu. Any DJ is urged to get in touch with Creation to get a copy.

Tribute To Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers Volume 2

The Creation Records Promotion Sampler, Distribution Sony Music

At a time when there would appear to be no need for it, here they come again. That Purveyor of some of the most heavenly and enduring pop non-hits you're ever likely to hear has regrouped his gang of aging sociopaths and built himself, in the barns and sheds of Northamptonshire, a band.

1994 live line-up stumbled through a series of tunes and such under Butcher's direction, aided and abetted by a number of the usual suspects; Alex Lee on guitar, Alex Green on saxes, that sort of thing.

Tribute To Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers Volume 2

There's a clean, simple sound to a lot of this that Condition Blue detractors might appreciate. I'm ten years older now than when I made Bath, and right now, after all that morbid stuff, it only really feels like about three. There's rockin' shit and there's a big ballad or two and some weird little pop songs and a nice family sing-along about penguins. I hope you like it.

For loonie completists only, for sure, though, if you listen through the muck, you'll see that we did our bit.

French Various Artists Compilation.

Pat Fish: instruments & machines

One of the better Creation-era compilations. Canadian release.

For all the pain and crap from which this record was made, the actual sessions were a gigantic and wonderful party. This was warmly received by The Outside World, less popular among those who counted themselves JBC afficionados. This IS the sound of me having fun, and getting me to do that in those dark days of mid-1991 was no small job.

So you've got a CD player, have you? I've got a headache and an abiding dislike of expensive food crews in dumb baseball hats. I've been in Edward's Closet and he wasnt't in. "That JBC", they mutter at the bus-stop, "turned left at the light a Long Time Ago".

Karel's two brothers, Otto and Emil, arrived in Vienna, having taken advantage of the new freedoms introduced by the enlightened government of Vaclav Havel, and Karel obtained in a second hand store and ancient sequential circuits drum machine and a primitive sampler. The Black Eg was born.

Pat Fish, Richard Formby, Sumishta Brahm

Demo tracks from the August 1991 Pat Fish and Cole Coonce collaboration. Written at the Nitronic Research Wind Tunnels, Los Angeles, California.

If things seemed weird back in February 1989, when we made this baby, the Weird were going shopping on bikes. In a farmhouse in the dead of winter, in personal circumstances too bizarre and complex to relate, we set about making our "commercial suicide" album. For the first time, I felt, we had made an album that really sounded like us. This record does have personality. One of my favourites, this.

Double A sided single for the Australian market.

Early 1989 was, indeed a strange and desperate time after all that triumphalist Tory looting that had been going on. We listened to a lot of hip-hop and soul music at the time, and I think that we considered ourselves sufficiently HARD to take the whole fucker on in an l.p. Possibly with a more "clued-in" producer and a bit more self-discipline we could have come up with something like what we were looking for.

We trust that you will get off on it.

Having ended up on Creation Records, which I took as a bit of a validation, I was keen to get as far away from all those "w" words that had followed my group around. The sessions were chaotic and funny. What disappoints me is that it came out sounding so SMOOTH and tidy. But I like Fishcotheque; I wish there more records as good as it.

Thanks for the money. We'll be spending it on weapons and drugs. The first thing that you have to understand about this disc is that it is not an L.P.: it is a single and a radio session nailed together for your amusement.

B/W Blame

This very rare cassette was compiled by Mark Webber and released on his bedroom-based label. The sleeve features artwork by Natty Brooker of Spacemen 3 (who are featured on the cassette) and Spiritualized. The drawing is also titled Oozing Through the Ozone Layer.

Source: Pulp Wiki

Acoustically and lively delivered cover tunes. Essential.

We were deeply confused young men when we made this record. Max, Jones and I had all been drinking dangerously for over a year now. Generally, we had it down in concert. In just about every other department, however, we were coming to bits, individually and collectively, and to me this record actually shows the morbid state of things at the time.

The Jazz Butcher and his group are not in the business of belonging; they are too old and too obstreperous to conform to some attention-seeking image or commercially viable formula. Rather, they bring their not inconsiderable talents to bear on whatever happens to be in the way at the time. The results can only be described as essential.

This record is all about love. Don't let the psychic molestation syndrome get to you. This is our loudest record to date, which is something to do with the elephants.

Ever wondered what Max and I get up to away from the glamour of the modern stage? No, probably not, but let me tell you that there is nothing we like better that to get our teeth into those Big Questions.

Ever wondered what Max and I get up to away from the glamour of the modern stage? No, probably not, but let me tell you that there is nothing we like better that to get our teeth into those Big Questions.

B/W Southern Mark Smith

B/W Still In The Kitchen

Having exhausted the initial stick of JB songs, I was obliged for the first time to write about my life as it was at the time. I think that now we had started to learn about actually creating recordings rather than just recording the sound of a bunch of pals fooling around. This one I'd actually defend at length if I had to.

We were all disappointed at the way this came out. The concert was great, but logistics prevented us from making anything much more than a glorified bootleg. Still, live albums are best as souvenirs anyway, so I guess some people regard it fondly. Lots of entertaining photos to look at anyway...

This record collects together the various singles that have been issued in England to date under the much-abused name of the Jazz Butcher, to wit: me. I rather like having them all in one place like this - it makes for a nice, noisey muck-it-up sort of disc that is ideal for leisure time at home, on the beach, in you local club.... hell, ANYWHERE!!!

Real Men, the kind who never sit together on buses in case they get their medallions tangled.

The title comes from a rather noir little TV series from the early Sixties wherein the great Herbert Lom played the extremely sexy and not entirely unbrilliant Dr. Alexander Kordu, a psychiatrist with the handy ability to sort out even the most appalling cases within sixty minutes.

The Jazz Butcher contribution subsequently appeared as an additional track on The Gift of Music.
Source: Perfection As A Hipster 2000-10-10 (Tuesday, 10^th of October 2000 - 24 years 78 days ago)

The Albatross. A record, I feel, of its time. We were young(ish) and cocky and I think it shows. I still haven't learned to sing on this one, which bugs me too. Still, it was cheap and cheerful, and it helped us to meet an awful lot of people.

An attempt to force a meeting between the steaming tropical jungles of Bangladesh (where the tigers live) and the frozen stepps of Siberia (where the Siberian tigers live).

A lovely interpretation of the Jonathan Richman classic which was originally released in 1979 on the Back In Your Life LP by Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers.
Source: Perfection As A Hipster 2000-10-10 (Tuesday, 10^th of October 2000 - 24 years 78 days ago)

Originally issued with the magazine 'What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen' Issue 3. Publishing details, credits and brief biographies contained in the magazine. Assembled at Woodbine St. Recording Studios, Leamington Spa with thanks to John A. Rivers.

"Originally the song appeared on a compilation from 1983 called 'City of Silver, which came out on Plastic Head Records. It was an imaginary compilation of bands from Los Angeles, one of which was 'The Plymouth Fastbacks' who performed 'Red Russians Shot My Rocket Down'. Max and I (we were, in fact, 'The Plymouth Fastbacks') were sent a little sequenced bass loop. We simply climbed on back of that and wigged out; The song on 'Sex & Travel' is a remodelling with the whole band."
Source: Pat Fish - from "Miracles & Wonders" 2000-10-10 (Tuesday, 10^th of October 2000 - 24 years 78 days ago)

It's really just the sound of a few mates failing to take seriously the fact they they've got an l.p. to make. It seems VERY early eighties now, but you must remember that there was a LOT of crap for us to clear out of the way in those days.

Recorded in the summer of 1983 in a place called Wellingborough, a small town in the middle of England where even the children are scarey!

The Jazz Butcher cover version is unavailable elsewhere. Interestingly enough, the same must be said about the other contributions ... The Rag Dolls were an early and short-living band of Dave Kusworth (Jacobites), Missionary Boy features Nikki Sudden himself on vocals (and is therefore better than the version that appears on The Bible Belt LP with Lizard on vocals) while Sad Go Round was The Swell Maps (!) in disguise. Obviously essential, this highly sought after split single came with a fanzine.
Source: Perfection As A Hipster 2000-10-10 (Tuesday, 10^th of October 2000 - 24 years 78 days ago)

heavier mix compared to "Draining..." version. The backing vocals are persistent through the entire song unlike "Draining..." version
Source: MonkeeMan 2021-07-01 (Thursday, 1^st of July 2021 - 3 years 174 days ago)

It's not often that an artist gets to do a Bowie by consciously carving their personal epitaph into the grooves of their final LP. The Highest in the Land is that rarity of an album, and it could not have been made by a more brilliantly poetic and fearlessly sarcastic writer than Pat Fish, also known as The Jazz Butcher.

Crowd-funded in under 12 hours, recorded on 2" tape, lush and warm..

Well, I'm back from America. We had a good old time of it, and by the end of the tour we had worked 5 songs off the new record into our live set. The title of the new waxing, incidentally, is Rotten Soul.

This inaugural disk is decidedly un-Butcheresque, with a keyboard-heavy attack of quasi-techno rhythms. Pat was known to dabble in reverb and noise, but the results were moody, melancholy textures, quite unlike the flash of This is Sumo.

1994 live line-up stumbled through a series of tunes and such under Butcher's direction, aided and abetted by a number of the usual suspects; Alex Lee on guitar, Alex Green on saxes, that sort of thing.

There's a clean, simple sound to a lot of this that Condition Blue detractors might appreciate. I'm ten years older now than when I made Bath, and right now, after all that morbid stuff, it only really feels like about three. There's rockin' shit and there's a big ballad or two and some weird little pop songs and a nice family sing-along about penguins. I hope you like it.

For all the pain and crap from which this record was made, the actual sessions were a gigantic and wonderful party. This was warmly received by The Outside World, less popular among those who counted themselves JBC afficionados. This IS the sound of me having fun, and getting me to do that in those dark days of mid-1991 was no small job.

Karel's two brothers, Otto and Emil, arrived in Vienna, having taken advantage of the new freedoms introduced by the enlightened government of Vaclav Havel, and Karel obtained in a second hand store and ancient sequential circuits drum machine and a primitive sampler. The Black Eg was born.

If things seemed weird back in February 1989, when we made this baby, the Weird were going shopping on bikes. In a farmhouse in the dead of winter, in personal circumstances too bizarre and complex to relate, we set about making our "commercial suicide" album. For the first time, I felt, we had made an album that really sounded like us. This record does have personality. One of my favourites, this.

Early 1989 was, indeed a strange and desperate time after all that triumphalist Tory looting that had been going on. We listened to a lot of hip-hop and soul music at the time, and I think that we considered ourselves sufficiently HARD to take the whole fucker on in an l.p. Possibly with a more "clued-in" producer and a bit more self-discipline we could have come up with something like what we were looking for.

Having ended up on Creation Records, which I took as a bit of a validation, I was keen to get as far away from all those "w" words that had followed my group around. The sessions were chaotic and funny. What disappoints me is that it came out sounding so SMOOTH and tidy. But I like Fishcotheque; I wish there more records as good as it.

We were deeply confused young men when we made this record. Max, Jones and I had all been drinking dangerously for over a year now. Generally, we had it down in concert. In just about every other department, however, we were coming to bits, individually and collectively, and to me this record actually shows the morbid state of things at the time.

Ever wondered what Max and I get up to away from the glamour of the modern stage? No, probably not, but let me tell you that there is nothing we like better that to get our teeth into those Big Questions.

Having exhausted the initial stick of JB songs, I was obliged for the first time to write about my life as it was at the time. I think that now we had started to learn about actually creating recordings rather than just recording the sound of a bunch of pals fooling around. This one I'd actually defend at length if I had to.

The Albatross. A record, I feel, of its time. We were young(ish) and cocky and I think it shows. I still haven't learned to sing on this one, which bugs me too. Still, it was cheap and cheerful, and it helped us to meet an awful lot of people.

It's really just the sound of a few mates failing to take seriously the fact they they've got an l.p. to make. It seems VERY early eighties now, but you must remember that there was a LOT of crap for us to clear out of the way in those days.

Thanks for the money. We'll be spending it on weapons and drugs. The first thing that you have to understand about this disc is that it is not an L.P.: it is a single and a radio session nailed together for your amusement.

Acoustically and lively delivered cover tunes. Essential.

Ever wondered what Max and I get up to away from the glamour of the modern stage? No, probably not, but let me tell you that there is nothing we like better that to get our teeth into those Big Questions.

In loving memory.

The single features: Come, Friendly Spacemen, Monks Of Kung Fu, and Come, Friendly Spacemen (version)

There is a limited-edition vinyl 12er single in the clubs, featuring the long version of Come, Friendly Spacemen alongside re-mixed by Tom Withers of drum n bass combo Override and Johnny Octopus of Octopus Records. The "Sushi" mix is a full on, dark-hearted progressive house tune with an evil bass; the "Jackson Hole" Mix is an insane collision between stadium pop and drum & bass which has to be heard to be believed. The 12er will also feature Monks Of Kung Fu. Any DJ is urged to get in touch with Creation to get a copy.

At a time when there would appear to be no need for it, here they come again. That Purveyor of some of the most heavenly and enduring pop non-hits you're ever likely to hear has regrouped his gang of aging sociopaths and built himself, in the barns and sheds of Northamptonshire, a band.

Double A sided single for the Australian market.

We trust that you will get off on it.

B/W Blame

This record is all about love. Don't let the psychic molestation syndrome get to you. This is our loudest record to date, which is something to do with the elephants.

B/W Southern Mark Smith

B/W Still In The Kitchen

Real Men, the kind who never sit together on buses in case they get their medallions tangled.

The title comes from a rather noir little TV series from the early Sixties wherein the great Herbert Lom played the extremely sexy and not entirely unbrilliant Dr. Alexander Kordu, a psychiatrist with the handy ability to sort out even the most appalling cases within sixty minutes.

An attempt to force a meeting between the steaming tropical jungles of Bangladesh (where the tigers live) and the frozen stepps of Siberia (where the Siberian tigers live).

Recorded in the summer of 1983 in a place called Wellingborough, a small town in the middle of England where even the children are scarey!

The Jazz Butcher’s Brave New Waves session was recorded on June 5th, 1988 in CBC Studio 13 in Montreal. The recording is taken from CBC Archives reels and remastered at Grey Market Mastering in Montreal, by Harris Newman.

For loonie completists only, for sure, though, if you listen through the muck, you'll see that we did our bit.

We were all disappointed at the way this came out. The concert was great, but logistics prevented us from making anything much more than a glorified bootleg. Still, live albums are best as souvenirs anyway, so I guess some people regard it fondly. Lots of entertaining photos to look at anyway...

Four CD box set gathering A-sides, the would-be hits along with B-sides, tangential 12-inch tracks (the C-sides), and an excellent session for Los Angeles radio station KCRW from 1989.

Includes over a dozen indie chart hits including ‘Southern Mark Smith’, ‘Girl Go’, ‘The Human Jungle’, ‘16 Years’ plus a host of truly eclectic Butcher tunes from his early Glass recordings through his time at Creation.

Featuring ‘Bath Of Bacon’, ‘A Scandal In Bohemia’, ‘Sex And Travel’ and ‘Distressed Gentlefolk’.

"You're not a band. You're a crack team of international restaurant critics" - Curtis E. Johnson

Glass-era compilation.

Millions of years ago, dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Today the Galileo Space Probe orbits mighty planet Jupiter. The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy first appeared in June 1982 in the back room of the Black Lion in Northampton. They finally drank the bar dry in a small town in in Mallorca on the 20th August 1996

Glass Records era compilation.

One of the better Creation-era compilations. Canadian release.

So you've got a CD player, have you? I've got a headache and an abiding dislike of expensive food crews in dumb baseball hats. I've been in Edward's Closet and he wasnt't in. "That JBC", they mutter at the bus-stop, "turned left at the light a Long Time Ago".

The Jazz Butcher and his group are not in the business of belonging; they are too old and too obstreperous to conform to some attention-seeking image or commercially viable formula. Rather, they bring their not inconsiderable talents to bear on whatever happens to be in the way at the time. The results can only be described as essential.

This record collects together the various singles that have been issued in England to date under the much-abused name of the Jazz Butcher, to wit: me. I rather like having them all in one place like this - it makes for a nice, noisey muck-it-up sort of disc that is ideal for leisure time at home, on the beach, in you local club.... hell, ANYWHERE!!!

Two song demo.

Two song demo.

Six song demo.

This inaugural disk is decidedly un-Butcheresque, with a keyboard-heavy attack of quasi-techno rhythms. Pat was known to dabble in reverb and noise, but the results were moody, melancholy textures, quite unlike the flash of This is Sumo.

Unlike the Creation "This Is Sumo" release, Pat sings lead on all tracks.

"Audio Aquatic" was an early working name for Sumosonic. Most tracks from this tape are the same as the later "Sumosonic Demo Cassette".

The single features: Come, Friendly Spacemen, Monks Of Kung Fu, and Come, Friendly Spacemen (version)

There is a limited-edition vinyl 12er single in the clubs, featuring the long version of Come, Friendly Spacemen alongside re-mixed by Tom Withers of drum n bass combo Override and Johnny Octopus of Octopus Records. The "Sushi" mix is a full on, dark-hearted progressive house tune with an evil bass; the "Jackson Hole" Mix is an insane collision between stadium pop and drum & bass which has to be heard to be believed. The 12er will also feature Monks Of Kung Fu. Any DJ is urged to get in touch with Creation to get a copy.

Karel's two brothers, Otto and Emil, arrived in Vienna, having taken advantage of the new freedoms introduced by the enlightened government of Vaclav Havel, and Karel obtained in a second hand store and ancient sequential circuits drum machine and a primitive sampler. The Black Eg was born.

Pat Fish, Richard Formby, Sumishta Brahm

50 Years Of Northampton Music

We finally asked Pat if he wanted to record one and he said he wouldn’t do a Christmas song, but he would record something … and oh did he do something special for us. He came round and recorded a beautiful version of Afterhours

This release by the German newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung" combines a book and a CD.

Tribute To Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers Volume 2

The Creation Records Promotion Sampler, Distribution Sony Music

Tribute To Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers Volume 2

French Various Artists Compilation.

This very rare cassette was compiled by Mark Webber and released on his bedroom-based label. The sleeve features artwork by Natty Brooker of Spacemen 3 (who are featured on the cassette) and Spiritualized. The drawing is also titled Oozing Through the Ozone Layer.

Source: Pulp Wiki

The Jazz Butcher contribution subsequently appeared as an additional track on The Gift of Music.
Source: Perfection As A Hipster 2000-10-10 (Tuesday, 10^th of October 2000 - 24 years 78 days ago)

A lovely interpretation of the Jonathan Richman classic which was originally released in 1979 on the Back In Your Life LP by Jonathan Richman And The Modern Lovers.
Source: Perfection As A Hipster 2000-10-10 (Tuesday, 10^th of October 2000 - 24 years 78 days ago)

Originally issued with the magazine 'What A Nice Way To Turn Seventeen' Issue 3. Publishing details, credits and brief biographies contained in the magazine. Assembled at Woodbine St. Recording Studios, Leamington Spa with thanks to John A. Rivers.

"Originally the song appeared on a compilation from 1983 called 'City of Silver, which came out on Plastic Head Records. It was an imaginary compilation of bands from Los Angeles, one of which was 'The Plymouth Fastbacks' who performed 'Red Russians Shot My Rocket Down'. Max and I (we were, in fact, 'The Plymouth Fastbacks') were sent a little sequenced bass loop. We simply climbed on back of that and wigged out; The song on 'Sex & Travel' is a remodelling with the whole band."
Source: Pat Fish - from "Miracles & Wonders" 2000-10-10 (Tuesday, 10^th of October 2000 - 24 years 78 days ago)

The Jazz Butcher cover version is unavailable elsewhere. Interestingly enough, the same must be said about the other contributions ... The Rag Dolls were an early and short-living band of Dave Kusworth (Jacobites), Missionary Boy features Nikki Sudden himself on vocals (and is therefore better than the version that appears on The Bible Belt LP with Lizard on vocals) while Sad Go Round was The Swell Maps (!) in disguise. Obviously essential, this highly sought after split single came with a fanzine.
Source: Perfection As A Hipster 2000-10-10 (Tuesday, 10^th of October 2000 - 24 years 78 days ago)

heavier mix compared to "Draining..." version. The backing vocals are persistent through the entire song unlike "Draining..." version
Source: MonkeeMan 2021-07-01 (Thursday, 1^st of July 2021 - 3 years 174 days ago)