“Jim Skafish and his group win considerable success (altho they don’t get an encore) thanks to a very theatrical show in which the ugly spectacle of Jim and his sexy partner are the principle trumps.”
- The Police, XTC, Skafish at Werchter / France - Telemoustique / Translated version - August 6, 1980
“SURPRISINGLY, NO-ONE was frisked for concealed beer cans on entering Camden’s favourite toilet. Surprising because Skafish must’ve seen enough brands of airborne British beer to become a world authority....
...If you believe his lyrics, Skafish’s life has been hell, and tonight is no exception. Just a few bars into “Joan Fan Club” and the dance floor looks like a scene from Dawn Of The Zombies. Utter bemusement. Hairs prickle the backs of necks. How can they tolerate this weird stick insect freaking out on their favourite stage? Skafish picks up a telephone and tells Joan she’s a fat pig. The receiver is replaced when the song ends. Silence, Skafish smiles disarmingly down at the clique of skinheads who are laughing behind their beer.
Barbie Goodrich looks cute and dolly in her pink frilly mini but frowns worriedly through the sweet swing of “Guardian Angel.” Soon Jim’s splattered with a token slop of lager. A defiant suedehead lights a fag and tosses the match at the twitching travesty. Five minutes later three culprits are dragged out by the neck
A couple of reckless tourists discover they can dance to the music, as long as they don’t look at him.... Zappa fans would love Skafish - the complexities are there, so’s the parody. If Tube Fee Waybill was up there clowning around, he’d be laughed with, not at. Theses theatrics seem more uncomfortable.
The only attractive aspect of Jim Skafish is his voice, which is powerful and melodic with a stunning vibrato shown off best in the mock doo-wop ‘ Romantic Lessons’. Only no-one listens ‘cause he’s Quasimoding it about incoherently, falling over his feet, stabbing his prehensile arms in the air, frugging and twisting his features into knots.
He thrashes on a guitar during “Beefcake touch” and wanders aimlessly with a can opener in “Love Switch,” applying it suggestively to selected parts of his anatomy. Every song on the album is played consummately; every song bar “Disgracing The Family Name” is received with icy indifference.
Skafish likes to regress. Barbie plays his mother and shrieks “We’re going to a psychiatrist!”, guitarist Ken Bronowski plays father and cries “We’re going to the Chicago Cubs Baseball game!” Jimmy doesn’t want to go. At the end he whines “Dear Daddy, now that you’re dead, do you think it’ time we were friends?”
Then he brings an incense burner on stage for‘ Sign Of The Cross’ throwing a phial of holy water over the audience. Degradation, damnation and death. He belongs in the London Dungeon.
A final roll of those deep socketed eyes and the show’s over. A few courageous punters applaud; the claps echo resoundingly. Only the rigorous efforts of the DJ persuade the zombies they want more. When Skafish returns they know they didn’t. He’s dressed in nothing but baby’s bonnet, baby blue T-shirt and white underpants, almost at half mast. Sucking his thumb, Jim gabbles into the mike like a crazed cattle auctioneer: “Throw the baby in the water, it’s ugly it’s ugly throw the baby in the water.” The punters giggle nervously, never before having to cope with such self-mockery. Skafish crawls off stage on all fours and they can’t get out quick enough....
...I found the whole kaboodle riveting... Skafish is not for the squeamish.”
- Betty Page - “Not just a load of old cods - Skafish / Music Machine” - Sounds - August 9, 1980
“AT Skafish’s first British concert six weeks ago, supporting Police at Milton Keynes, the audience drove the band from stage with a barrage of missiles including full beer cans.
Last night Skafish at The Venue proved just what a treat Milton Keynes was denied.
Chicago-based Jim Skafish (pronounced Skayfish) and his backing band delivered a rock showcase of frenzy and fun which never pandered to gimmickry.
But the occasional mawkishness of his lyrics is more than evenly tempered with clever harmonies, tight musicianship, and good old rock and roll.
The balance was even clear in the stage show, with the self-obsessed Skafish dancing like an automaton while the pin-up slide guitarist Barbie Goodrich danced like a slinky dervish
The crux of Skafish’s teenage problem seems to have been his face, with an abnormally long nose which has earned him the title Ugliest Man in Rock.
But last night he was looking good.”
- Andrew Hogg - “Band is back with a bang– Skafish: The Venue” - Evening News - September 3, 1980
“IT can’t be much fun being Jim Skafish. A nose, a head, a crude hairstyle, an awkward gangling body. . .a freak. And, obscured by all of these, an exceptional rock talent, responsible for one of the albums of the year. Smirk now, but later you’ll see....
...Skafish are a rare experience, full of warmth, passion, fear and raw excitement. The band, with the exception of the truly delicious Barbie Goodrich are as nondescript as Skafish is wildly intriguing.… They’ve also got one of the best shitkicking drummers I’ve heard in years, who’s got an unrelenting driving style which pummels your senses into submission.
“Guardian Angel” follows, Skafish’s voice taking on its great Bobby Darin edge and has such a killer hook I’m surprised it’s not been culled as a 45.…
...The new material aired indicates fully that not only is Skafish not going to allow himself to be stupidly caught up in his own paranoia on the next album, but that the wealth of material is a definite development on their debut. “Beefcake Touch” has him performing Hendrix guitar contortions on a mikestand, and through the searing wall of metallic guitar you pick out an appealing disjointed melody.
While what could become the ultimate dance tune “The Everlasting Sign Of The Cross” is booted along by their heavy drum sound and a manic chorus which I’d give my mint copy of “My Generation” to see on TOTP. Ultimately Skafish’s songs will find the target-...
...Erase any false misconceptions based on the oddity of the man and take the songs at face value. If only he and Barbie could host the Generation Game - their album would look lovely on the shelf next to “Tom Jones Live in Las Vegas.”
- Billy Sloan - “Skafish / The Venue” - Record Mirror - September 20, 1980
“...Skafish, a thoroughly freakish singer / songwriter whose music deals almost totally with the anguished adolescence that the 23-year-old has undoubtedly suffered for being the ultimate social misfit. Jim Skafish sure looks the part: his gangly body and close-cropped hair squared off above the ears resembles Dr. Spock, while his enormous nose and spindly fingers give him an early vampire movie look.
But Skafish’s bizarre physical appearance is offset by his singing voice, which is clear, human, and oddly endearing, as is his show.…
...Not surprisingly, his songs are written from an outsider’s point of view, but never to the point of self pity. Rather, the lyrics are fine indeed and often give the rest of us a vivid picture of how the other half sees the world.
On stage, Skafish seems possessed by St. Vitus’s dance, frantically hopping around in a state of torment. Still, it’s all in good fun, so that instead of being put off, his listeners are concerned for him, even caring. He may look different at first, but he’s really just like us.
Skafish’s band plays hard and tight; all but the drummer sing, but one-time high school cheerleader Barbie Goodrich stands out. Her Minnie Mouse voice and bouncy energy fit Skafish’s delivery perfectly, and their vocal duet on “Work Song,” climaxed by singing alternate syllables rapidly back and forth through several verses was breathtaking. The set encored with “Gloria,” during which road manager Jimmy Sohns came out to sing lead vocal. Sohns sang lead vocal on the original 1966 classis with the Shadows of Knight....”
- Skafish’s Misfit R & R - Mad City Music Guide - November 7-21,1980
“Skafish (rhymes with crayfish) is a former classical-piano prodigy who leads one of the tightest bands around—no minor virtue, considering the deceptive complexity of most of his music. He also boasts the biggest nose in show business and, in his bad bowl haircut and modified jog togs, looks like he just limped in from a lunatic asylum. Fortunately, though, he’s dispensed with hermaphroditism as a hook, which proved all to the good. As backup vocalist Barbie Goodrich thrashed the air with a pair of cheerleader’s pompoms. Skafish lurched into the rousing “Joan Fan Club,” from his debut album on I.R.S. Records. Goodrich, in her tacky pink taffeta gown, provided a sexy balance to Skafish’s Nosenstein impersonation, and the crack band churned out a dazzling amalgam of frenetic pop, writhing heavy metal and some spectacular group-vocal pyrotechnics. The set’s highlights were “Work Song,” a touching, tumultuous rocker about the futility / nobility of blue-collar life, and the amazing “Disgracing The Family Name,” a thundering slice of autobiographical bile that sounds like a berserk merry-go-round cut loose from its linchpins. Both songs, like Skafish himself, deserve a much broader audience.”
- Kurt Loder - “The Stranglers and Skafish: beyond the fringe” - Rolling Stone - December 11, 1980