CELEBRATING WITH FISCHER-Z
Passionate, political, driven. And above all: an artist. John Watts is Fischer-Z. A musical concept and creative vehicle that has gone through many incarnations over the years. In 2026, Watts celebrates half a century of music on stage with Fischer-Z. The 50th Anniversary Tour features a best-of set with highlights from the band’s rich catalogue, complemented by more recent material.
2026 will be a landmark year for Fischer-Z. Fifty years ago, the band was founded by singer, guitarist and poet John Watts in the English town of Sandhurst. Under his leadership, Fischer-Z became an integral part of the new wave and post-punk scene in the late 1970s and early 1980s. With classics such as “The Worker”, “So Long”, “Marliese”, “Red Skies Over Paradise” and “Room Service”, the band has left a lasting mark on several generations of music lovers. Fischer-Z enjoyed success all across Europe, selling more than two million albums. They recorded with artists like Peter Gabriel, Steve Cropper and Dexys Midnight Runners, performed alongside James Brown in East Berlin, toured with The Police and Dire Straits, accompanied Bob Marley on his final European festival tour, and played extensively throughout the USA and Canada. In 1982, Watts disbanded Fischer-Z to pursue a solo career, before reviving the name with a new line-up in 1987. To date, John Watts has released 26 albums and played around 4,000 concerts with his band or as a solo artist. New material continues to appear regularly; most recently, Triptych was released in May 2024. The current Fischer-Z studio album marks a return to familiar sounds and themes with renewed freshness and offers an impressive retrospective of John Watts’ life and career to date. As an artist who continually reinvents himself, Watts has observed that much of his work over the past 50 years revolves around the same driving themes that remain just as relevant today as they were back then: love, power, people – and how they interact. On the European dates of the 50th Anniversary Tour, Watts and his fellow musicians will present a best-of set packed with classics from the extensive Fischer-Z discography.
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58,85 €
