Yeah Nathan, I read that John formerly worked as a nurse in a psychiatric ward in the early days and that's where he got a lot of the material for his songs.
Also probably why his writing is somewhat dark and depressing.

As you say, Guru, Fischer-Z were always more popular in Germany and Holland for some reason, as is John Watts today.
He comes across as a very smart but cynical man.

I have all those albums as well, Guru.
After hearing So Long on the radio I was so impressed that I went out and bought all the Fischer-Z albums at the time of their release, as well as picking up their first album with the wonderful Pretty Paracetamol on it.
They are still amongst my favourite albums even now.

Yes, like you, can't believe this band weren't far more popular in the UK.
Perhaps a bit too confronting and edgy for the mainstream and they did highlight some pretty dark and depressing subjects,(the threat of nuclear war, suicide, etc),in their songs.
Also, John Watt's high piercing voice in the early days was definitely an acquired taste.

They may have had more of a (live?) following in Germany, but they didn't do any better on the charts there. Just looked it up and their only charting album listed is 'Stream' from 1995, peaking at just #80. No singles chart entries are listed.

They had some chart success in the Netherlands though (title/date of chart entry/peak/weeks):

Titel Binnenkomst Piek Weken
The Worker 15/09/1979 26 7
So Long 31/05/1980 12 9
Room Service / Limbo 04/10/1980 41 1
Marliese 28/03/1981 5 9
One Voice (John Watts) 27/03/1982 41 3

Albums

Titel Binnenkomst Piek Weken
Word Salad 15/09/1979 21 7
Going Deaf For A Living 17/05/1980 6 18
Red Skies Over Paradise 04/04/1981 2 17
One More Twist (John Watts) 20/03/1982 11 10
The Iceberg Model (John Watts) 26/02/1983 17 7



And Belgium:

Singles - Ultratop
Titel Binnenkomst Piek Weken
The Worker 06/10/1979 23 2
So Long 14/06/1980 14 8
Marliese 02/05/1981 21 4


From what I can see, 'Perfect Day' wasn't a hit anywhere but Australia.