The Jazz Butcher, also known as The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy and The Jazz Butcher And His Sikkorskis From Hell, are a British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 musical group founded by Pat Fish

Pat Fish

Pat Fish is an English musician best known for his work as a member of the band The Jazz Butcher. -Early career:...

.

History

The band was formed in Oxford

Oxford

The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

 in 1982 by Pat Fish, who had previously been a member of Wow Federation while at University in the city, with Max Eider. Début album in Bath of Bacon was released by Glass Records

Glass Records

Glass Records was a British independent record label which operated from 1981 to 1989, if GLASS 001 and GLASS 002 were issued in 1979 and 1980 respectively.Glass was one of the circuit of key London-based indie labels of the 1980s...

 in 1983. Second album A Scandal in Bohemia featured guest appearances from David J

David J

David John Haskins , better known as David J, is a British alternative rock musician. He was the bassist for the gothic rock band Bauhaus and Love and Rockets....

 and Kevin Haskins

Kevin Haskins

Kevin Haskins also known as Kevin Michael Dompe is a drummer best known from the British rock group Bauhaus. He was also a member of Tones on Tail and Love and Rockets...

 of Bauhaus

Bauhaus (band)

Bauhaus was an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy , Daniel Ash , Kevin Haskins and David J . The band was originally Bauhaus 1919 before they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation...

. Fish signed to Creation Records

Creation Records

Creation Records was a British independent record label headed by Alan McGee. Along with Dick Green and Joe Foster, McGee founded Creation in 1983. The label lasted until its demise in 1999. The name came from the 1960s band The Creation , whom McGee greatly admired. McGee, Green and Foster were...

 in 1988, releasing eight albums on the label up to 1995's Illuminate.

Lyrical themes

Their oeuvre is blackly humorous with such topics as Thomas Pynchon

Thomas Pynchon

Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...

's The Crying of Lot 49

The Crying of Lot 49

The Crying of Lot 49 is a novel by Thomas Pynchon, first published in 1966. The shortest of Pynchon's novels, it is about a woman, Oedipa Maas, possibly unearthing the centuries-old conflict between two mail distribution companies, Thurn und Taxis and the Trystero...

, an unrequited crush on Shirley Maclaine

Shirley MacLaine

Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...

, and an ode to SF writer Harlan Ellison

Harlan Ellison

Harlan Jay Ellison is an American writer. His principal genre is speculative fiction.His published works include over 1,700 short stories, novellas, screenplays, teleplays, essays, a wide range of criticism covering literature, film, television, and print media...

. The song "Sister Death" is not about the comic book character

Death (DC Comics)

Death is a fictional character from the DC comic book series, The Sandman . The character first appeared in The Sandman vol. 2, #8 , and was created by Neil Gaiman and Mike Dringenberg....

, but was inspired by the last words of Saint Francis of Assisi, "Welcome, Sister Death".

Albums

• In Bath of Bacon (1983), Glass
• A Scandal in Bohemia (1984), Glass
• Sex and Travel (1985), Glass - UK Indie #25
• Distressed Gentlefolk (1986), Glass - UK Indie #15
• Fishcotheque (1988), Creation
• Big Planet, Scary Planet (1989), Creation
• Cult Of The Basement (1990), Creation
• Black Eg (1991), Creation (under the name Black Eg)
• Condition Blue (1991), Creation
• Waiting for the Love Bus (1993), Creation
• Illuminate (1995), Creation
• Rotten Soul (2000), Vinyl Japan

Singles

• "Southern Mark Smith" (1983), Glass
• "Marnie" (1984), Glass
• "Roadrunner" (1984), Glass - UK Indie #50
• "Zombie Love" (1984)
• "Affection" (1984)
• "Real Men" (1985), Glass - UK Indie #34
• "The Human Jungle" (1985), Glass - UK Indie #27
• "Christmas with the Pygmies" (1985)
• "Leaving It Up to You" (1985)
• "Hard" (1986), Glass - UK Indie #24
• "Angels" (1986), Glass
• "Peter Lorre" (1986)
• "Spooky" (1988), Creation - UK Indie #19
• "New Invention" (1989), Creation
• "We Love You" (1990), Creation
• "She's a Yo-Yo" (1991), Skyclad
• "Shirley Maclaine" (1991)
• "Sweetwater" (1993)
• "Vodka Girls" (1994)
• "Sixteen Years" (1995), Creation

EPs

• Conspiracy (1986), Glass - UK Indie #42
• May I (1987)
• Girl Go (1990), Creation

Live

• Hamburg (1985), Rebel
• Western Family (1993), Creation
• Glorious and Idiotic (2000), ROIR
  ROIR
  ROIR , or Reach Out International Records, is a New York City-based record label founded in 1979 by Neil Cooper.ROIR was founded the same year that the Sony Walkman launched, and initially, the label exclusively distributed its releases in cassette format...
  
  

Compilations

• Gift of Music (1985), Glass
• Bloody Nonsense (1986), Big Time
• Big Questions (Gift of Music, Vol. 2) (1987), Glass
• Edward's Closet (1991), Creation
• Unconditional (1992)
• Draining the Glass (1996), Nectar
• !Excellent! The Violent Years (1997)
• Cake City (2001), Vinyl Japan
• The Jazz Butcher's Free Lunch (2003)