Venue: Freo.Social
Available dates and ticket links:
Please note this event has been cancelled. If you purchased tickets, please see email for further information.
Fischer-Z will embark on their first ever Australian tour in November and December 2026, joining the band’s worldwide 50th anniversary celebrations.
While Fischer-Z have never previously toured Australia, their music has enjoyed genuine chart success here. Fischer-Z’s breakthrough global hit “So Long” (1980) peaked at #15 on the Kent Music Report (pre-ARIA era) and earned the band significant national airplay. Coupled with the charting success of the later single “The Perfect Day” (1987 - #12 on the ARIA Charts), these achievements gave Fischer-Z a strong foothold with Australian audiences and laid the foundations for a loyal fan base. Australia continues to rank as Fischer-Z’s fourth biggest market for Spotify streaming.
Fischer-Z’s story is steeped in the unconventional. John Watts first entered the pop music world in the 1970s, after studying clinical psychology — working in an experimental psychiatric facility that didn’t use drugs or restraints. “I’d be doing a shift there from 8–4pm then get in a van to do a gig in Derby,” John Watts recalls. “I’d literally dealt with raging psychos all day, so I wasn’t afraid of the punk crowds. You go out and play in Wolverhampton ... some snotty little 17- year-olds who threaten to put a cigarette out on your leg and you think, ‘Well, come on then!’”
In 1976, Watts teamed up with synth player Steve Skolnik at Brunel University to form Fischer-Z. Their reputation for political songwriting, and frenetic energy earned them a recording deal with United Artists in 1978, putting them in the company of peers like The Stranglers and Buzzcocks.
Their debut album Word Salad (1979) made waves in the burgeoning post-punk world. Fischer-Z’s biggest global chart...
Source: Ticketmaster.