Patrick Huntrods (1957-2021) *63

known as Pat Fish, was an English musician best known for his work as a member of the band The Jazz Butcher. (The name "Jazz Butcher" has been applied ambiguously both to Fish and the whole band.) Fish was born in London, England but moved early in his life to Northampton; there he attended Great Houghton Preparatory School and later Uppingham; he later read Lit. Hum. at Merton College, Oxford, graduating in 1980. From the evidence of an interview given in 1989, it would seem that he found academic life at Oxford uninspiring, and that he was soon drawn to making music. His bands in the early period included one known as Nightshift, and the Institution, which featured Max Eider (Peter Millson) on guitar, Rolo McGinty (later of The Woodentops), and Jonathan Stephenson. The Sonic Tonix became The Tonix, who released a single, "Strangers / Talk to Me" on the Cherry Red label (STEG 002) in 1981.

The persona of the "Jazz Butcher" was devised soon after, and Fish's first gig under this guise was in Oxford on 20 February 1982. The band included Alice Thompson, later keyboardist in The Woodentops, and later still a novelist, and Owen Jones, who was to become the Jazz Butcher's drummer for much of the 1980s. Max Eider, a crucial element in the early Butcher sound, joined for a gig in June of that year.

In 1985, Fish took on production duties on the recording of the Black Mischief EP for fellow Northampton musicians, The Love Ambassadeux.