{"id":769,"date":"2019-04-25T02:05:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T02:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=769"},"modified":"2026-06-25T02:07:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T02:07:55","slug":"the-outfield-the-fixx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=769","title":{"rendered":"The Outfield, The Fixx"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

June 1986, Six Flags Atlantis, Hollywood, Fla.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I did a review a few years back for the latest Outfield album and your response \u2014 \u201cThere\u2019s a recent Outfield album\u201d \u2014 is the correct one. I didn\u2019t like it at all, and was summarily pummeled for the review by fans of the Australian band. I wrote, in part \u201cit\u2019s one thing to sound like the 1980s when it is the 1980s, but quite another when it\u2019s 2011.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in 1985, when I was entering my senior year of high school, The Outfield made an album I liked quite a bit (and it wasn\u2019t just me). Play Deep<\/em>, the debut release from the Aussie trio, was 38 minutes of pop perfection, boasting several hits including \u201cYour Love,\u201d a song still found in rotation today. It was part of the senior year soundtrack (along with Unforgettable Fire<\/em>, Fables of the Reconstruction<\/em> and Head on the Door<\/em>) for which seeing the band live was at a premium.<\/p>\n

Six Flags Atlantis was one of those huge water parks which popped up everywhere in the 1980s \u2014 the big slides, the tidal wave pool, the hot tubs. During the summertime a ticket to the park got you in for a late afternoon concert on certain Saturdays. It was the summer before the start of college, and for many of us a great place to have a graduation party.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, The Fixx is one of those bands I\u2019ve seen live four times, and on this day would mark my second Fixx show (I will get to the first one at a later date). I can\u2019t be sure if they were the opener or the headliner \u2014 it would make sense they were headliners because they were more accomplished at that point \u2014 but I\u2019m almost certain The Outfield, on the tail of their triple-platinum album, took the top honors.<\/p>\n

Phantoms<\/em> was The Fixx\u2019s 1986 release, including the single \u201cSecret Separation,\u201d a great song none of knew at the time. But two of the band\u2019s earlier songs stood out during the show, the monster hit \u201cOne Thing Leads to Another\u201d (which Cy Curnin said during a solo show a few years back is the song that pays his mortgage), and \u201cRed Skies\u201d. Why \u201cRed Skies\u201d? Because the sun was setting on a hot, muggy day, and the song and falling sun came as a nice relief.<\/p>\n

This is why I\u2019m sure The Outfield was last, because it was nighttime when the band played. Their stage presence wasn\u2019t nearly as pronounced as The Fixx, and that\u2019s understandable. Curnin understands the stage while Outfield singer Tony Lewis was just getting used to it, but if you have great songs, it doesn\u2019t matter what you do on stage (I don\u2019t ever think I\u2019ve seen Robert Smith do more than walk slowly from one side to the other). \u201cSay It Isn\u2019t So,\u201d \u201cI Don\u2019t Need Her,\u201d \u201cEverytime You Cry,\u201d \u201cAll the Love,\u201d \u201cTalk to Me,\u201d \u201cYour Love\u201d \u2014 they played all the songs because that\u2019s all they had.<\/p>\n

And amid the crowd of wet bodies in bathing suits, where distraction was at a premium, Lewis\u2019 voice rose above the din. Ideally a water park is not the best place for a show \u2014 there\u2019s a portion of people who have no desire to see or hear live music \u2014 but The Outfield was game, and would win the crowd over by the set\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

\u00ad\u00adIt was, like that time in my life, a bit unorganized, uncertain and a little carefree. It was fun, which is what live music is meant to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 1986, Six Flags Atlantis, Hollywood, Fla. I did a review a few years back for the latest Outfield album and your response \u2014 \u201cThere\u2019s a recent Outfield album\u201d \u2014 is the correct one. I didn\u2019t like it at all, and was summarily pummeled for the review by fans of the Australian band. I wrote, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[72,74,73],"class_list":["post-769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-outfield","tag-play-deep","tag-the-fixx"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":771,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions\/771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}