Pat Fish – The Last Of The Gentleman Adventurers

It’s with a very heavy heart that we report that our friend and confidante Pat Fish, The Jazz Butcher, has departed this mortal coil. Following the great response to his typically eclectic and ridiculously titled collection ‘Dr Cholmondley Repents’ CD set, we were in discussion just last week about a vinyl redux of the project, refining a track listing that best reflected his tongue-in-cheek humour, toying with puns for a title, while he joked about his successful battle with cancer and how he’d spent his time during lockdown.

“Ah, the plague has been a bloody lifesaver for me,” he confided, “Online gigs have put me back in touch with my overseas fanbase and have proved extremely lucrative. Besides, I don’t like going out anyway”

Too true. His Northampton terraced house was his castle, the hub of his creative blur. This was a man who was not content to deliver us from evil; he doffed a cap to his influences, turned us onto classic literary prose and name checked TV heroes and film legends with abandon.

Creation impresario Alan McGee famously said: “The Jazz Butcher is one of the most brilliant incisive pop writers that Britain has produced since the glory days of Ray Davies and Pete Townshend.”

He will be missed.