This was the one and only album from Writz but they have a long history of many albums from many different names. Writz was Bev Sage and Steve Fairnie, (Later to be the Techno Twins), Steve Rowles who was a member of Fish Co. with Steve Fairnie, along with Arry Axell, Jules Hardwick, and Nick Battle who did some work with After The Fire and Iva Twydell. Let’s further complicate things because Writz was actually called Famous Names for the purposes of their U.S. and Israeli audiences. Yes it’s a complicated story. Anyway they had a great B52’s, Devo sound and as near as I can tell were the only band doing this sound in this Genre. As I said they only had this album but even that’s a little complicated as they recorded an album using the name Famous Names but it never got released. I have that album and plan on releasing it later. It should be noted that they were supposed to play Greenbelt 79 but apparently for ego related issues they did not. Lucky for the fans because After The Fire played instead and had one of the best sets in the history of Greenbelt. Writz did however play Greenbelt 1980 using then name Famous Names.
Tracklist
1 – Night Nurse – 3:00
2 – Luxury – 3:20
3 – Swinging With The Reptiles – 3:50
4 – Drive Away – 3:30
5 – Super Heroes – 3:59
6 – Movies – 3:04
7 – Robberoni – 3:47
8 – Private Lives – 3:50
9 – TV Times – 5:07
10 – Muscle Culture – 6:06
Credits
Arranged By – Writz
Artwork, Design – Dobney Johnson Studios
Bass – Nick Battle
Drums – Arry Axell
Guitar Synthesizer, Guitar – Jules Hardwick
Photography – Paddy Eckersley
Producer – David Rees
Vocals – Bev Sage, Steve Fairnie
Vocals, Guitar – Steve Rowles
Written-By – Steve Fairnie, Steve Rowles
Companies, etc.
Recorded At – Trident Studios
Mixed At – Trident Studios
Mixed At – DJM Studios
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Noeland Productions Ltd.
Very catchy tunes and definitely a lot like B52s and Devo.
In 1991, Fairnie was told by Bev that he was going out for a Chinese meal to celebrate his birthday. So off they went, and he was actually looking forward to a good meal. What he didn’t know was that Bev had arranged a surprise for him. Instead of a nice restaurant, he was taken to a Bristol venue wherein not only was there no sign of any Chinese food, but he found several hundred guests, including myself, and that Bev had, for one night only, actually re-formed Writz who were now on stage, instruments in hand. Steve was led to the stage, handed a mic, and the band kicked into the first song. It was tremendous to see his face portray the emotions of confusion, elation and hunger simultaneously.
It might be interesting to note that Night Nurse is an early digital recording using the Sony Betamax PCM system. The master copy of that track is literally a Betamax tape which Bev has. There are several other versions of the song in existance, but I think they are analogue. There’s even an earlier Fish Co version:
https://soundcloud.com/technorefugee/sets/fish-co-beneath-the-laughter
I saw Writz live in Lyon (France) in 1980 (if I remember correctly).
It was one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen.
There were only about 200 of us in the audience, but the band created such a great atmosphere that it felt like there were over a thousand of us.