Who else here appreciates Alfie Agius?

[IMMusicRulz]

There's a very good chance that if you grew up in the Eighties, you were pretty familiar with the New Wave bands The Fixx and The Teardrop Explodes. The bassist in both of those bands was a young guy, Alfie Agius.

From what I have read he largely played a fretless bass. Not much is mentioned on here about his bass playing, but I'd like to think he played a fretless Fender Precision bass or a fretless Ibanez bass, sort of like the one that Sting played.
The amps were probably Ampeg, Fender or Demeter amps, but your guess is as good as mine.




However, the video for World Shut Your Mouth also shows Alfie playing a Spector bass.



If anyone has info that would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

 

[PhR75]

Alfie plays also on "Liner" and "Reach The Beach" (latter uncredited) on The Fixx's "Reach The Beach" album in addition to the tracks you posted but I don't here any fretless bass there.
He wasn't a member of The Fixx very long but a King Biscuit live recording from 1982 is available where he plays. No fretless there either, sounds more like a Jazz Bass.

It doesn't look like Alfie playing on that Julian Cope clip you posted. But here he is with The Teardrop Explodes:

 

[PhR75]

About his playing: that bass line on "One Thing Leads To Another" is a classic, love his aggressive playing and tone. Rupert Hine told in an interview that Alfie was let go because of the personal differences, not because of his playing.

 

[Williethedummy]

Alfie basically vanished. He is one of my favorites.

 

[SunByrne]

Big Fixx fan here, know the guys a little. They're still touring and actually released a new album recently called Every Five Seconds, which you should definitely check out.

The only member of the band who's ever changed has been the bassist. The original Fixx bassist, Charlie Barrett, left after the first album and Alfie was brought in to work with the band for the Reach the Beach sessions. He didn't click with the rest of the guys (apparently failed the "hang" test) and Dan K Brown was brought in to finish the album.

Dan became the full-time bassist and did some really great work with the band, his work on the Phantoms album is particularly great. Dan plays a fair amount of fretless, see his interview with fretlessBass.com. Dan left around 1994 and a couple other guys took the role for a while (Chris Tait, Gary Tibbs who you might recognize from brief stints with Adam and the Ants and Roxy Music), but Dan came back around 2008 and is still holding down the low end for them.

Anyway, yes, Alfie's work on Reach the Beach is great stuff.

 

[Williethedummy]

Oh hell yeah!

 

[FunkHead]

 

[JimK]

The redux of "Red Skies"-
That is Dan K...correct? Cape and all.

 

[JimK]

Big Fixx fan here, know the guys a little. They're still touring and actually released a new album recently called Every Five Seconds, which you should definitely check out.

The only member of the band who's ever changed has been the bassist. The original Fixx bassist, Charlie Barrett, left after the first album and Alfie was brought in to work with the band for the Reach the Beach sessions. He didn't click with the rest of the guys (apparently failed the "hang" test) and Dan K Brown was brought in to finish the album.

Dan became the full-time bassist and did some really great work with the band, his work on the Phantoms album is particularly great. Dan plays a fair amount of fretless, see his interview with fretlessBass.com. Dan left around 1994 and a couple other guys took the role for a while (Chris Tait, Gary Tibbs who you might recognize from brief stints with Adam and the Ants and Roxy Music), but Dan came back around 2008 and is still holding down the low end for them.

Anyway, yes, Alfie's work on Reach the Beach is great stuff.

So, the Reach The Beach LP doesn't have "Going Overboard"... cd from 2003 has it as a Bonus track. Assuming that's Alfie?

 

[PhR75]

So, the Reach The Beach LP doesn't have "Going Overboard"... cd from 2003 has it as a Bonus track. Assuming that's Alfie?

Could be. It was originally a b-side of "Saved By Zero" single.

Here's the radio live gig that features Alfie on bass:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nNWznlHjF3-u5QgyedJ5gKDQY1fg9h-ac

 

[SunByrne]

So, the Reach The Beach LP doesn't have "Going Overboard"... cd from 2003 has it as a Bonus track. Assuming that's Alfie?

I’m not sure. “Going Overboard” (great track, BTW) was recorded as part of the Reach sessions but Alfie and the band parted ways during those sessions, so it’s just a question of whether it was recorded early or late in the work, and I don’t know.

 

[PhR75]

I’m not sure. “Going Overboard” (great track, BTW) was recorded as part of the Reach sessions but Alfie and the band parted ways during those sessions, so it’s just a question of whether it was recorded early or late in the work, and I don’t know.

I also noticed he doesn't have a writing credit on it:
Invalid Link Removed

Which maybe doesn't mean anything but he did get a writing credit for every track on "Reach The Beach" album.
I wonder why his playing credit was missing for the title track 'though.

 

[SunByrne]

What's really weird there is that Agius got a writing credit for "Sign of Fire" but isn't the one who actually played on that track.

 

[PhR75]

What's really weird there is that Agius got a writing credit for "Sign of Fire" but isn't the one who actually played on that track.

There's also songs with no bass guitar on the album and Alfie got a writing credit for those too. Maybe they had a deal that the writing credits were shared equally between the members? And maybe Alfie participated to the writing sessions and pre-production.
Dan K. Brown played on "Sign Of Fire" as a session bassist and later joined the band.
In that light it's odd that his picture is missing from the back cover of "Phantoms" even though he was a member at that point as far as I know.

 

[SeeM]

There's a very good chance that if you grew up in the Eighties, you were pretty familiar with the New Wave bands The Fixx and The Teardrop Explodes. The bassist in both of those bands was a young guy, Alfie Agius.

From what I have read he largely played a fretless bass. Not much is mentioned on here about his bass playing, but I'd like to think he played a fretless Fender Precision bass or a fretless Ibanez bass, sort of like the one that Sting played.
The amps were probably Ampeg, Fender or Demeter amps, but your guess is as good as mine.




However, the video for World Shut Your Mouth also shows Alfie playing a Spector bass.



If anyone has info that would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

I’ve just joined this site so a late reply on this one..

I played bass in the support band on The Fixx’s Oct/Nov 1982 UK tour. First night was a disaster - we were hours late getting to Wolverhampton Polytechnic but the tour manager was cool about it and let us set up as long as we went straight on. I plugged my amp in (an old HH bass machine combo) and it disappeared in a puff of smoke! Not great..
Only option was to ask if I could use Alfie’s, who had just joined The Fixx. He was very understanding and kindly let me use his Ampeg SVT 8x10 rig.. Thanks for that Alfie, always remembered it!!
I think he played a blue active Precision bass (fairly new at that time) for all of that tour.
Happy days

 

[3rdpath]

Jumping in a bit late here. Alfie is a fantastic bassist who created some iconic bass lines. I told him a couple of years ago that there were tutorials on youtube of his bass lines and he was quite surprised. He really had no idea how iconic his bass lines were ( though he was well-aware of how intrinsic they were to the FIXX hits they created). His main basses were vintage 60s Fenders, a red Jazz and a blue P bass ( if I remember correctly )-both with matching painted headstocks. Having tracked a few songs with him and helped him mix some of his early solo music, I'll add that he has an uncanny technique of making his fretted basses sound fretless.

Edit: That is not Alfie in the Julian Cope " Shut your mouth" video though that is him in the live Teardrop Explodes video playing the Fender jazz bass.

 

[Alfie Agius]

Thank you all for those comments. Truly appreciated.

Fender 66 Jazz Bass Lake placid blue was the bass I mostly used.

 

[SteveTX]

The redux of "Red Skies"-
That is Dan K...correct? Cape and all.

You are correct, that is Dan K. Brown in the 1987 video for 'Red Skies'. MCA Records insisted they re-record the single and film a new video to go along with it. I read somewhere that the band was not thrilled with re-recording the song in 1987, but went along with it, in hopes that it meant in exchange for MCA's willingness to promote their new material, which the label wasn't too interested in. Soon after this, the band left MCA and signed with RCA Records.

Here's a video for the original version in 1982 featuring Alfie on bass:

 

[PhR75]

Here's a video for the original version in 1982 featuring Alfie on bass:

Looks more like Charlie Barrett on bass.

 

[SteveTX]

Looks more like Charlie Barrett on bass.

Thanks PhR75, I stand corrected.