Shuttered Room History

This is a little blurb that was sent to Glen Gafter (maintainer of the retired Fixx FTP site) some time back about the origins of the Shuttered Room album. Pretty wild, eh?

The FIXX album was never intended for release in the United States. MCA Records was not geared at the time to handle such a release. The FIXX was considered too radical a record for the U.S. audience. Plus the fact that MCA had no idea how to promote it anyway. I wanted to release the record in the Spring of 82, but the higher-ups at MCA put a stop on it.

A compromise was made in the late Summer of 92. If I change 2 tracks, to make it have a more commercial appeal, they would allow me to release the album. During this time period I recieved a copy of the "Stand Or Fall" video. I knew the first time I saw it that it was right for that NEW network MTV.

During this same time period I was told, by the International Department, that MCA was going to drop the band due to low sales in Europe. I pressed on hoping that, even if MCA did drop the band, we could get our foot in the door at the new music stations. You see, I had signed a new music band from New York called the Catholic Girls and I needed to build some credibility at these stations if I ever wanted to get airplay.

I attended the New Music Seminar in September of 92 armed with the Stand Or Fall video and test pressing of the new album. The National Album Promotion guy that went along with me hated the product and could not relate to the new music movement. He was a Lynyrd Skynyrd type of guy, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, to make a long story short, the "Stand Or Fall" video became an instant hit at the convention with MTV taking my only copy back to the station for imediate programming.

As they say, The rest is history.

That's why the tracks were changed. It might interest you to know that everyone else at MCA took credit for the albums success and I got the shaft. Hell, I did'nt even get a thank you from the band.

My name appears on the US album as the Album Coordinater.

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