The Jazz Butcher’s Pat Fish ‘has been unwell,’ friends raising money for his recuperation

Pat Fish via GoFundMe

Pat Fish, the founder and mainstay of cult U.K. indie-pop act The Jazz Butcher, is recovering from medical treatment for an undisclosed malady, leading friends to launch a crowdfunding campaign to help raise money to cover expenses during recuperation.

The GoFundMe campaign — launched late last week by former Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized bassist Will Carruthers — is more than halfway to its goal of £7,000 (about $8,800).

According to the message on the GoFundMe page, Fish has undergone treatment — the post doesn’t explicitly say, but suggests it’s cancer — and is now recuperating. The funds being raised are not actually to go toward Fish’s medical treatment, since he’s in the U.K. and that’s paid for by the government. Rather they’re to help as he recovers and is unable to work and perform.

Carruthers writes:

“Despite his recent brush with inconvenient unwellness, Pat  has, unsurprisingly, remained Fishily stoic throughout. Perhaps a little too stoic. He hardly told a soul about it all. But then, as he himself  said, ‘Sure, what else is there to do of a January and February but go to the radiology department anyway?’ I suppose at this point I should start reassuring some of you that Pat does seem to have seen off the reaper this time, and he has been responding well to treatment. He remains ‘Cautiously optimistic.’”

Fish formed The Jazz Butcher with Max Elder in 1982, and that name — sometimes expanded to The Jazz Butcher Conspiracy — has come to be synonymous both with the band and Fish himself. The Jazz Butcher has released more than a dozen albums, many on Creation Records, with the most recent release coming in 2012. The band also was the subject of a recent two-part reissue series.

To contribute to the “Pat Fish has been unwell” campaign, visit GoFundMe.com.

PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS

• Four more Jazz Butcher albums compiled in upcoming ‘The Violent Years’ box set
• The Jazz Butcher’s first 4 albums to be compiled in ‘The Wasted Years’ box set
• The Jazz Butcher recording ‘Last of the Gentleman Adventurers’ — first album in 12 years