Patrik Fitzgerald ‎– "Gifts And Telegrams" (Red Flame ‎– RF8) 1983 + "Peel Session 10th April 1979"

Nothing to do with the Astronauts,but their “Pranksters in Revolt” EP reminded me of this minimal electronic urban folk classic.

There are few artist's work who I would say I was a giggling “Fan” of;maybe PiL mark 1, Joy Division, Beefheart,.....Danny and the Dressmakers (?), and ….....funnily enough, Patrik Fitzgerald. The troubled troubadour of squatland himself, who finds himself listed among such venerable luminaries as......er......Danny and the Dressmakers!?

Why Fitzgerald isn't mentioned in the same breath as rediscovered folky genii as Bill Fay, Judee Sill, and Nick Drake I will never understand. Maybe because he didn't die an early death,or be championed by some boring pop star,who knows?

His disastrous career can be summed up in his song “All the Years of Trying(mp3)” from his souped up major label début “Grubby Stories”.(He was dropped when no-one bought it)

“Gifts and Telegrams” however,is the opposite of “Grubby Stories”,there are no new wave illuminatti backing him up, just a few cheap bontempi organs and a crap drum machine. Gone also is the trademark battered solo acoustic guitar, but, most importantly, the negative pessimistic lyrics remain. This belated second album,released three years after the Polydor debaclé on indie label, Red Flame; couldn't sound more different to his previous recorded output. A Career resurrection this would never be. A minimal, bitter, downer of an LP, that would probably lose whoever bought the first album, if they remembered him at all, and further alienate the remainder of the “public”.

As a poet,(he was hyped as a”Punk” poet in his early days) he is an uber-realist ,concentrating on the taboo's of the human condition, the hopelessness, pointlessness of existence.

A cover of Jacque Brel's “My Death” fits in nicely with his perspective. But, unlike Brel, life's high's are edited out of his own songs. This is really a version of Patrik's “hero”, David Bowie('s) solo spot on the Ziggy Stardust tour. Almost replicating Bowie's version exactly, which is a low point on this ,otherwise, great LP.

In the file I have included PF's Peel session from April 10th 1979, which is in the very same style as this recording. So he was developing this style for three years before “Gifts and Telegrams” finally surfaced to universal intransigence.

Patrik has had a increase in profile in recent years,apparently he's big in Norway,where a small label assembled big names acts to record a Fitzgerald covers album, including Jello Biafra amongst others. Also I was amused recently to observe a demonstration outside the Boomtown Rats gig at the Roundhouse,where Patrik was supporting said awful group, urging Patrik NOT to play in apartheid Israel!? As much as I agree that Israel should be Isolated from the civilised world, there must be other richer,higher profile,targets to harass. A Racist Zionist's money is as good as anybody's when you're broke.(Mmmmm,but then again.....?......ahh, just leave him alone will ya!?)

Tracklist:

A1 One Little Soldier

A2 Exist

A3 Personal Loss

A4 Travel Through Dark Though Scented Country

A5 Grey Echoes

A6 World Is Getting Better

B1 Solve

B2 My Death

B3 Work

B4 Gifts And Telegrams

B5 Punch

B6 Island Of Lost Souls

Peel session 10th April 1979:

1. Suicidal Wreck
2. Improve Myself 
3. Tonight
4. All The Splattered Children
5. Dance Music/Late Night

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